Labour Market Agreements for Persons with Disabilities (LMAPD)

General Information

Department

Human Resources Development Canada

Partners

Partners include all provinces.

Effective Date

April 1998

Expiry Date

Five-year bilateral agreements to March 2003.

Web Site

http://www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/hrib/sdd-dds/odi/content/eapd.shtml

Purpose

EAPD's objective is to provide funding for provincial programs and services that help working age adults with disabilities prepare for, find, and keep employment.

Under bilateral agreements, the Government of Canada contributes 50% of the eligible costs incurred by the provinces for programs/services funded under EAPD up to the amount of the maximum federal allocation identified in each bilateral agreement. Canada has allocated $193 million to this initiative.

Roles and Contributions

EAPD represents a fiscal transfer to provinces for programs and services that they provide to enhance the employability of people with disabilities. Provinces are responsible for the design and delivery of programming, while the federal government works with provinces to determine eligibility of programming for funding and on accountability issues, including joint planning and information sharing, reporting and evaluation.

The EAPD National Report describes the respective contributions of federal and provincial governments. http://www.socialunion.gc.ca/pwd_e.html

Agreements require provinces to recognize the financial contributions of Canada under the EAPD initiative in all informational materials prepared for the public that relate to the programs or services funded through the initiative.

There are a number of initiatives to clarify roles and contributions such as Disability WebLinks and In Unison 2000. Since 1996, when the First Ministers identified persons with disabilities as a collective priority for social policy renewal, there has been growing recognition that this is a shared responsibility, as indicated in the 1999 report by the disability community, "A National Strategy for Persons with Disabilities: The Community Definition". In addition, joint federal-provincial/territorial work is currently underway on a framework to guide a labour market strategy for persons with disabilities and to inform negotiations for a successor agreement to EAPD.

The public Website referenced above also reflects the roles of both levels of government.

Resources

Funding

Funding is based on equal contributions from the province and the Government of Canada. In each year of the five-year agreements, the Government of Canada contributes 50% of the costs incurred by provinces for eligible programs/services funded under EAPD up to the amount of the maximum federal allocation identified in each bilateral agreement. The maximum total federal input to the initiative is $193 million per year.

Tracking and Reporting

As outlined in the bilateral agreements, Canada provides monthly advances on account of the maximum federal contribution to the provinces for each year of the Agreement, based on financial projections received from the provinces. Provinces update these projections on July 15, October 15, December 15, and February 15 during each year of the Agreement. Within 365 calendar days after the end of each of the fiscal years of the Agreement, the province is to provide an annual statement of eligible expenditures for programs and services certified by the Provincial Auditor or a designated auditor acceptable to the parties.

Program descriptions, expenditures and limited indicators are reported in the EAPD National Report, which covers fiscal years 1999-2000 and 2000-2001.

Provinces are also to report to the public in their own provincial EAPD annual reports starting with fiscal year 1999-2000. (Quebec's first annual reporting year is 2000-01). To date, provincial annual reports on EAPD have been released by the provinces of Manitoba for the year 1999-2000 and New Brunswick for the years 1999-2000 and 2000-2001.

The EAPD National Report is available in hard copy (via the HRDC Enquiries Centre,140 Promenade du Portage, Phase IV, Level 0, Hull, QC K1A 0J9. Indicate catalogue number SDDP-030-05-02), alternate formats, and on the website: http://www.socialunion.gc.ca/pwd_e.html. Provinces may make their provincial annual reports available on their own provincial sites.

Measurement and Reporting

Outcomes

The Government of Canada has signed bilateral agreements with all provinces under which it provides funding for a range of provincial programs and services related to employment for people with disabilities. Other outputs include joint (federal/provincial) planning documents, annual reports, and evaluation reports. The key outcome commitment is to help people with disabilities prepare for, attain and retain employment.

Indicators

The four results indicators common to all bilateral agreements include:

1. Number of people actively participating in programs and services.
2. Number of people successfully completing programs and services.
3. Number of people employed as a result of a program participation.
4. Number of people sustained in employment in the case of vocational crisis.

It has been determined that provinces require additional time and resources to develop their data collection systems to be able to report on these indicators. The reporting of indicators in the EAPD National Report varies by province depending on their capacity to report. All provinces are committed to working towards more complete data collection.

Comparable Indicators

The Multilateral Framework on EAPD outlined the criteria to be used as the primary indicators and provinces negotiated which indicators would be included in their bilateral agreements. The 4 indicators common to all bilateral agreements are listed above.

Evaluation / Thrid Party Assessments

A federal/provincial evaluation group oversees the evaluation component of EAPD.

Evaluation activities for 2001-2002 included a Promising Practices Project involving nine EAPD funded programs; participating provinces were British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Promising Practices final report is to be released early August 2002. In addition, bilateral evaluation activities took place in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland.

The federal government held national consultations with the community of people with disabilities during the developmental stages of EAPD; provinces have consulted with people with disabilities during EAPD's implementation period; accountability to the public is accomplished via EAPD provincial annual reports, the EAPD National Report (http://www.socialunion.gc.ca/pwd_e.html), and evaluation reports.

Agreements require provinces to provide annual statements of provincial eligible expenditures for programs and services. These statements include the federal and provincial contributions for those expenditures and shall be certified by the Provincial Auditor or a designated auditor acceptable to both parties. EAPD was included in two of the Auditor General's Reports in 1999.

Shared Information and Best Practices

The bilateral agreements commit the provinces to sharing and making public their evaluation findings.

The final report on the Promising Practices evaluation project, where provinces identified and assessed a number of best practices over three years, will be released in fall 2002.

Public Reporting

Information on outputs is publicized via news releases, Internet Web-sites (http://www.socialunion.gc.ca/pwd_e.html, http://www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/sdd-dds/odi/content/eapd.shtml), provincial documentation and publications about EAPD funded programs and services (such as provincial annual reports and the National Report which was released in May 2002).

EAPD results are reported on in provincial annual reports and the EAPD National Report; evaluation outcomes will also be public documents.

Involving Canadians

Provisions for Citizens to Participate in Developing Social Priorities and Reviewing Outcomes

The federal government held national consultations with the community of people with disabilities during the developmental stages of EAPD. Provinces, often in conjunction with HRDC regional officials, have consulted with people with disabilities during EAPD's implementation period. A consultation on employability best practices for people with disabilities was held with stakeholders on June 25, 2002. A consultation with stakeholders on a comprehensive labour market strategy for persons with disabilities which could inform an EAPD successor agreement was held on June 26, 2002. Accountability to the public is achieved via provincial EAPD annual reports, the EAPD National Report, and evaluation reports.

Feedback Mechanisms to the Public

EAPD agreements require provinces to consider the views of stakeholders in the planning, management and operation of programs and services cost-shared under EAPD. Provinces report at federal/provincial meetings and in EAPD annual reports on their consultations with the community.

Service Commitments

Public Availability of Eligibility Criteria

Programs are provincially designed and developed, thus provinces are responsible for the eligibility criteria for their programs and for making them publicly available.

Existence and Availability of Service Commitments

Service commitments too are provincial obligations. It is also a provincial responsibility to publicly communicate service commitments.

Measurement and Public Reporting

These are provincial responsibilities.

Appeals and Complaints

Existence, Availability and Communication of Mechanisms

Agreements require provinces to ensure that people with disabilities have access to independent dispute resolution procedures for appeals with respect to eligibility for employability assistance under EAPD. This is a provincial operational responsibility.

Provinces are also obliged by their bilateral agreements to make people with disabilities aware of the dispute resolution mechanism.

Tracking and Public Reporting

This is a provincial operational responsibility.

Mobility

Existence of Measure

The EAPD agreements specifically require that the programs supported by federal funding under the Agreements be in accordance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (and therefore would necessarily respect the mobility protections contained in the Charter).