March 2001

INTRODUCTION

THE FEDERAL COMMITMENT TO THE MOBILITY OF CANADIANS

THE FEDERAL MOBILITY REVIEW PROCESS

THE RESULTS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA REVIEW

FEDERAL COOPERATION WITH PROVINCES AND TERRITORIES 
ON MOBILITY ISSUES

THE FEDERAL ACTION PLAN ON MOBILITY

Appendix 1

INTRODUCTION

On February 4, 1999, Prime Minister Chrétien signed the Social Union Framework Agreement (SUFA) with the First Ministers of all provinces and territories 1 except Quebec. The Agreement commits governments to work better together, and with Canadians, to strengthen Canada's social safety net, involve Canadians in the development of social programs, and strengthen partnerships among governments.

It is no longer possible to draw sharp lines between governments, between the economy and society, and between economic and social policy. Globalization and the emerging information economy have increased interdependence among and within all countries. Governments cannot act alone; increasingly, they affect and need each other.

The Social Union Framework Agreement represents the commitment of governments to strengthen their partnership with each other and with Canadians. This will mean respect for the Constitution, dialogue and collaboration among governments and, above all, a commitment to serve and engage Canadians.

A priority for the Government of Canada in the discussions that led to the Social Union Framework Agreement was to achieve a commitment by governments to the principle of freedom of movement for Canadians.

The freedom of movement of individuals is central to the notion of Canadian citizenship and is crucial to succeeding in the knowledge-based economy. Governments must work together to ensure that Canadians are not denied access to economic opportunity or essential government services by virtue of residency. 

Facilitating the mobility of Canadians is one of the priorities for governments under the Agreement. The Agreement states that: 

"All governments believe that the freedom of movement of Canadians to pursue opportunities anywhere in Canada is an essential element of Canadian citizenship."

1. Ensure that no new barriers to mobility are created in new social policy initiatives;

 
2. Eliminate, within three years, any residency-based policies or practices which constrain access to post-secondary education, training, health, and social services and social assistance unless they can be demonstrated to be reasonable and consistent with the principles 2 of the Social Union Framework Agreement;

 
3. Sector Ministers to submit annual reports to the Ministerial Council identifying residency-based barriers to access and providing action plans to eliminate them; 

 
4. Ensure, by July 1, 2001, full compliance with the mobility provisions of the Agreement on Internal Trade by all entities subject to those provisions, including the requirements for mutual recognition of occupational qualifications and for eliminating residency requirements for access to employment opportunities.

The Agreement requires that governments publicly justify maintaining any residency-based policy or practice that constrains access to social programs and services by demonstrating that it is reasonable and consistent with the principles of the Social Union Framework Agreement. 

The mobility commitments on residency-based barriers to access to social programs and services are subject to the dispute avoidance and resolution provisions outlined in Section 6 of the Agreement, providing governments with the means to challenge one another regarding compliance of the mobility provisions.

Accountability is an essential part of the Social Union Framework Agreement. Governments agreed to report annually on their work to identify and eliminate, within three years of the Agreement's signing, residency-based mobility barriers facing Canadians. This is the second report of the Government of Canada on its actions.
 

THE FEDERAL COMMITMENT TO THE MOBILITY OF CANADIANS

The Government of Canada believes that:

• Unfettered mobility is a core feature of what it means to be a Canadian - no unreasonable barriers should exist that make it difficult for Canadians to move within the country;

 
• All Canadians should be able to take advantage of social programs on the same terms as their neighbours, regardless of how long they have lived in a particular province or territory;

 
• Canadians' legitimate skill and educational qualifications should be recognized in all jurisdictions.

The Government of Canada is committed to removing any residency-based barriers in its programs within three years, to avoid the creation of such barriers in its new initiatives, and to work with provinces and territories to meet SUFA's deadline to meet the labour mobility provisions of the Agreement on Internal Trade by July 1, 2001. 
 

THE FEDERAL MOBILITY REVIEW PROCESS

Human Resources Development Canada coordinated the federal review process, under the direction of a steering committee involving Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Health Canada, Canadian Heritage, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Industry Canada, Justice Canada and the Privy Council Office.

This report reflects the cumulative results of the federal mobility review over the last two years.

Federal departments and agencies delivering programs in the four core sectors identified in the Agreement (health, training, post-secondary education, and social services and social assistance), as well as those delivering programs with a direct impact on these core sectors, rigorously examined all their programs and services. They looked specifically for situations in which a person's access to a program or service was conditional on how long the person had lived in a place, in the absence of any reciprocal agreement that might address the situation. 

The federal review also examined two areas in particular on which the Government of Canada is cooperating with provinces and territories to eliminate barriers to mobility: student financial assistance, and the labour mobility provisions of the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT). 

In the first year of the review, federal departments were asked to address standard questions in conducting their assessments of programs:

• Are there residency-based criteria or procedures that constrain access? (A residency-based mobility barrier exists if access to social programs and services in, for example, a province, territory or community, is made conditional on a residency period unless reciprocal agreements, under which the province of origin covers the cost of the program or service, are in place.)

 
• How does the barrier work to constrain access or mobility?

 
• Are there data available on its impact (e.g., migration data)?

 
• Is the barrier reasonable in light of the Agreement's principles? In light of the Agreement's mobility commitments?

 
• What will it take for this barrier to be removed? What are the implications of removing it? What timelines? Costs? Will there be any risks to Canadians?

• examine new programs, as well as significant changes to existing programs and policies, to ensure that no barriers to access were inadvertently created;

 
• continue to examine their activities as they may relate to mobility barriers to ensure that barriers were not missed in the first year of the review; and

 
• examine the practices of third party delivery agents of their programs to ensure that the practices of third party agents did not constrain access on the basis of residency to federal programs and services.

Many federal programs are delivered by third parties (including for example, Aboriginal organizations, volunteer groups, municipalities, non-governmental organizations, and private corporations) under numerous arrangements. Health Canada, for example, has 24 programs that are delivered by third party agents through thousands of agreements. Human Resources Development Canada has 13 programs that are delivered through over 40,000 agreements with third party agents.

While there was no evidence to suggest that third parties were creating residency-based barriers to mobility, departments examined the terms and conditions of their agreements with third parties and the actual practices of third party agents. The review was to ensure agents were not denying people access to federal programs and services by virtue of their residency. 

Given the impracticability of reviewing each and every agreement, departments adopted a systematic phased approach, with progression to next steps based on findings of the previous phase. Departments worked with departmental audit officials to develop a sound methodological approach to ensure that a meaningful and representative sample size of the programs, regions in which they are delivered, and types of delivery agents, were reviewed. The following steps were undertaken:

• preliminary evidence of residency-based barriers was sought through, for example, records of complaints made to federal officials, ministerial correspondence and audit reports;

 
• inventories of programs delivered by third party agents, including number of arrangements/agreements and type of third party delivery agents were developed;

 
• program managers and experts analyzed the terms and conditions of their agreements with third parties and interviewed front line staff for evidence of barriers created in the practices of third party agents. 

THE RESULTS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA REVIEW

After an extensive examination over a two-year period, it was found that federal policies and programming do not create residency-based barriers to their access. Most of the federal government's activity is national in scope as such, eligibility to these programs is based on national criteria, which do not distinguish among provinces and territories of Canada.

A systematic, in-depth review of both the terms and conditions and the practices guiding third party delivery agents across the spectrum of federal programs revealed that, with the exception of a few inconsistencies that are being addressed, third party delivery agents were not, in practice, making an individual's access to programs and services conditional on how long they had lived in a place. Given the large number of arrangements with third parties, however, there is always a risk that residency-based barriers could emerge. The Government of Canada will therefore continue to monitor the practices of its third-party agents, and deal with any mobility issues as they arise on a case-by-case basis. 

The following material provides more details on the results of the two-year Government of Canada review of federal programs for each of the key sectors identified in the Agreement.
 

Post-Secondary Education

The Government of Canada offers program support for post-secondary education primarily through a range of student assistance programs. Eligible students can access the Canada Student Loans Program, Canada Study Grants and Canada Millennium Scholarships (managed by the Millennium Scholarship Foundation) to attend any designated post-secondary institution in Canada. The Canada Education Savings Grant is an incentive to save for the future education costs of a child, which is open to people across Canada.

These are national programs, designed to support equitable access to post-secondary education across the country, and are free of any residency-based barriers to mobility.
 

Training

The Government of Canada mainly provides employment assistance and skills development through Employment Benefits and Support Measures under the Employment Insurance Act. At present, the programs are delivered by:

• The provincial or territorial government in New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories; and

 
• Human Resources Development Canada in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, British Columbia and the Yukon; 

Federal programs offered under Canada's Youth Employment Strategy include Youth Service Canada, Youth Internship Canada and Student Summer Job Action. These programs are national in scope and are free of residency-based mobility barriers.

Under skills development and employment programming, the Aboriginal Human Resources Development Strategy (AHRDS) is an initiative that transfers the responsibility for designing and delivering labour market programs directly to Aboriginal organizations. Under this strategy, Aboriginal organizations design and deliver employment programs and services best suited to meet the unique needs of their communities. Each organization is held accountable for clear performance results. There are 79 AHRDAs that have been signed: 50 with First Nations, 10 with Métis, 13 urban holders and 6 Inuit agreement holders.
 

Health

The Government of Canada offers a range of health-related programs and services through Health Canada and Veterans Affairs Canada. These programs and services are offered across Canada and contain no residency-based mobility barriers.

The Government of Canada is also responsible for working with provinces and territories to uphold the provisions of the Canada Health Act. Through the criterion on portability, the Act ensures that Canadians do not face any residency-based barriers. This criterion requires that people remain covered by a provincial health insurance plan if they move to another province or are travelling out-of-province, particularly within Canada. All signatories of the Framework Agreement have reciprocal agreements under which they reimburse one another for insured services provided to their residents at the rate that the host province authorizes for the service.
 

Income Support, Social Assistance and Social Services

The Canada Health and Social Transfer, which provides provinces and territories with financial support for social assistance and social services (along with health and post-secondary education), prohibits provincial and territorial governments from placing a minimum period of residency as a requirement of receiving social assistance benefits.

The Government of Canada primarily offers income support through the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age Security (OAS), veteran's benefits, the Canada Child Tax Benefit and Part I of the Employment Insurance Act.

Both CPP and OAS are available to eligible Canadians in any province or territory (except in Quebec, where the Quebec Pension Plan is offered instead of CPP) and do not include any residency-based barriers to mobility. 

Employment Insurance (EI) claims are fully portable once established and, therefore, do not present barriers to labour mobility. Since jobs are harder to find where unemployment is high, EI entrance requirements are lower and duration of benefits is longer in regions with high unemployment rates. Once a worker has established a claim, the benefit rate and duration of that claim does not change, regardless of relocation in Canada.

The main federal programs for persons with disabilities are: EI-Sickness Benefits, CPP-Disability, Employability Assistance for Persons with Disabilities (EAPD) and the Opportunities Fund.

Except for EAPD, these programs are national in scope and available to all eligible Canadians. Under bilateral EAPD agreements with the provinces, the Government of Canada shares the costs of many provincial disability programs and services. The EAPD Agreements specifically require that 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).

The National Child Benefit (NCB) is a joint federal, provincial and territorial initiative, launched in July 1998, with the objectives of: reducing the depth of child poverty; promoting attachment to the labour force; and improving program harmonization across governments. Through its contribution to the NCB, the Canada Child Tax Benefit, the Government of Canada is building a new national platform of child benefits for low-income families with children. These increased child benefits go to all low-income families across Canada irrespective of the province or territory, and regardless of how long they have lived there. In turn, most provinces, territories and First Nations are adjusting the income support they provide to children through social assistance programs, while ensuring total benefits to those families remain at least as high as they were before the NCB was introduced. 

In December 1999, the federal government introduced the Supporting Partnership Communities Initiative (SCPI) through which the federal government is providing financial support to communities with significant homelessness problems. The initiative is designed to assist communities to work together, with various orders of governments and other stakeholders, to develop community plans and implement comprehensive local strategies that address the immediate needs of homeless people, and take steps to reduce and prevent homelessness. The program has not, to date, raised any concerns regarding mobility barriers, either at the federal, provincial/territorial or local level. 

Through Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Government offers a range of programs and services for immigrants and refugees, including the Resettlement Assistance Program. These programs are national in scope and contain no residency-based barriers.

Labour mobility and student mobility are two key areas where federal, provincial and territorial governments are working together to address barriers to mobility. 
 

Labour Mobility under the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT)

In 1994, all First Ministers signed the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT). The AIT has a goal of reducing and eliminating barriers to the free movement of goods, services, people and investments in Canada.

Chapter 7 of the AIT on labour mobility sets three major obligations for governments and occupational regulatory bodies:

• Eliminate residency requirements;
• Non-discrimination;
• Mutual recognition of workers' qualifications and reconciliation of differences in occupational standards.

• Requirements to live in a province in order to work there or to get necessary licences or certificates to practise.

 
• Licensing/certification practices that result in unnecessary delays and costs for out-of-province workers.

 
• Lack of recognition for qualifications that were obtained in another province or territory.

One of the major areas of attention for the FLMM involves co-ordinated efforts by all governments to get occupational regulatory bodies to comply with mobility goals. The AIT covers over 100 professions and government-regulated trades involving close to 400 regulatory bodies that must, among other things, reach agreement to ensure that qualifications earned in one jurisdiction can be recognized in the other jurisdictions. 

In the two years since the SUFA was signed, activities towards securing compliance have accelerated significantly. The most challenging aspect of compliance has been to reach agreement within each self-regulating occupation on the terms and conditions to recognize the qualifications of workers from other jurisdictions. Approximately 75% of the self-regulating professions, representing 90% of the applicable workforce, are expected to be in full or substantial compliance by July 1, 2001. 

In the government-regulated trades, the existing Red Seal program already provides for mobility for a majority of tradespersons and most provinces have made recent commitments to extend some form of recognition for tradespersons who are not covered by the Red Seal program. 

With less than six months to the SUFA deadline, work by regulatory bodies and governments has intensified to meet the Chapter 7 obligations. All governments are closely monitoring progress made by regulatory bodies and encouraging them to complete their work by July 1, 2001. The FLMM will consider in Spring 2001 how to ensure compliance with the Labour Mobility Chapter on both a collective and jurisdictional basis. It will decide what, if any, consequences should be considered where regulatory bodies fail to meet the deadline.

An issue has been raised concerning the consistency of the Public Service Commission's use of geographic restrictions for eligibility for positions in the public service with the Agreement on Internal Trade and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Public Service Commission has received legal advice that its practices are consistent with both the Agreement on Internal Trade and the Charter. However, in the spirit of SUFA, the Public Service Commission is reviewing its current recruitment policies and practices with a view to addressing the issue. 

Student Financial Assistance

The Government of Canada and each provincial and territorial government have distinct student financial assistance programs. The Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP) is administered and delivered on behalf of the Government of Canada by participating provinces and territories. Quebec, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut deliver their own programs for which they receive funding from the Government of Canada. 

Provincial and territorial governments, as well as student groups, educational organizations and financial institutions, have recommended harmonization of CSLP and provincial loan programs. The desired outcome would be an end to the existing requirement that students be assessed against two sets of eligibility criteria, under two administrative processes.

The 1998 federal budget committed the Government of Canada to work with the provinces and territories to coordinate student loans programs better. The Government of Canada began directly financing the Canada Student Loans Program as of August 1, 2000, and is discussing, with a number of provinces, a "one student-one loan" option that will be fully portable to all designated institutions within Canada.

There has been significant progress in facilitating the mobility of students across Canada. The 12 provinces and territories with loan programs now permit Canadian students to use their provincial-territorial loans for studies outside of their home province or territory. The federal government will continue to work with provinces and territories to further encourage the mobility of students. 
 

Given the national scope of federal programs, it is not surprising that the review of federal programming in the key sectors found few issues related to residency-based mobility barriers. Much of the federal government's activity is national in scope as such, eligibility to these programs is based on national criteria, that does not distinguish among regions of Canada.

The most obvious institutional barriers to the mobility of Canadians centre on the professional qualifications and residency requirements described in the last section. Once all Mutual Recognition Agreements and the required provincial legislation are in place, Canadian workers and employers will see real improvements over the situation that existed when the AIT was signed in 1994.

The Government of Canada will continue to actively work with the provinces and territories to make it easier for students to pursue their studies wherever they wish in Canada.
 

FUTURE ACTIONS

Between now and the mobility deadlines set out in the Social Union Framework Agreement, the Government of Canada will continue to work to reaffirm that mobility barriers do not exist in federal programs and activities in the areas of post-secondary 
education, training, health and social services and social assistance - whether delivered directly by the federal government, or by third parties. In recognition of the risk that barriers could be created by the delivery of federal programs delivered by numerous third parties, the Government of Canada will be vigilant in monitoring such activities and addressing any problems as they may arise on a case-by-case basis.
The Public Service Commission will also review its current recruitment policies and practices with respect to the use of geographic eligibility restrictions for positions in the public service. 
In addition, consistent with the commitments of governments in the Agreement, the Government of Canada will continue to work collaboratively with provincial and territorial governments to:

• ensure that no new barriers to mobility are created in new social policy initiatives;

 
• further facilitate mobility for students in post-secondary education;

 
• continue to explore means of facilitating the mobility of Canadians consistent with the principle set out in the Agreement to "ensure access for all Canadians, wherever they live or move in Canada, to essential social programs and services of reasonably comparable quality"; and

 
• achieve compliance by July 1, 2001, with the labour mobility provision of the AIT.

Principles of the Social Union Framework Agreement

February 4, 1999

Canada's social union should reflect and give expression to the fundamental values of Canadians equality, respect for diversity, fairness, individual dignity and responsibility, and mutual aid and our responsibilities for one another.

Within their respective constitutional jurisdictions and powers, governments commit to the following principles:
 

All Canadians are equal

• Treat all Canadians with fairness and equity

 
• Promote equality of opportunity for all Canadians

 
• Respect the equality, rights and dignity of all Canadian women and men and their diverse needs

Meeting the needs of Canadians

• Ensure access for all Canadians, wherever they live or move in Canada, to essential social programs and services of reasonable comparable quality

 
• Provide appropriate assistance to those in need

 
• Respect the principles of medicare: comprehensiveness, universality, portability, public administration and accessibility

 
• Promote the full and active participation of all Canadians in Canada's social and economic life

 
• Work in partnership with individuals, families, communities, voluntary organizations, business and labour, and ensure appropriate opportunities for Canadians to have meaningful input into social programs and policies

• Ensure adequate, affordable, stable and sustainable funding for social programs

Aboriginal peoples of Canada

• For greater certainty, nothing in this Agreement abrogates or derogates from any Aboriginal treaty or other rights of Aboriginal peoples, including self-government

1. The territory of Nunavut came into being on April 1, 1999, two months after the signing of the Social Union Framework Agreement. The Government of Nunavut has recently indicated a desire to become a formal signatory of the Agreement and has been participating in the Ministerial Council on Social Policy Renewal since the territory was established. 
2. The principles of the Social Union Framework Agreement can be found in Appendix 1