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Nova Scotia Business Plan 2003-04

Message from the Director General

Canada’s greatest resource is its people. They are the driving force now and in the future. The responsibility to work with Canadians to help develop their skills and employment opportunities, improve the capacity of their communities and to help provide financial security in their senior years is important. Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) is the federal department charged with this responsibility.

HRDC is about people. In Nova Scotia, this includes the thousands of Nova Scotians who benefit from our programs and services, and the 900 staff who are dedicated to helping their fellow citizens and communities.

HRDC’s main program areas help individuals improve their opportunities for employment and to find jobs, assist financially through temporary periods of unemployment, provide income security for seniors and persons with disabilities, and help ensure federally regulated workplaces are safe.

Each year, the network of 19 HRDC offices in Nova Scotia undertakes a planning process to outline the priorities in their local area for the coming year. Taking into account overall Government of Canada and departmental priorities, staff meet within HRDC and with community members and colleagues in other federal departments, and provincial and municipal governments to help determine the department’s areas of focus in the region. The resulting business plan directs our efforts over the year.

Each year, the business plan is produced and shared with our partners, communities and interested individuals. Throughout the year we demonstrate our accountability to the public by publishing our results.

This year, we are introducing a new look for the business plan. In addition to highlighting our priorities for the coming year, we have also included information on the scope of our programs, and specific initiatives that may interest readers. This approach is unique to the department and represents significant work by our staff.

It’s our hope that you find this publication informative and useful in describing and assessing HRDC’s work in Nova Scotia.

Howard Green
Director General
Nova Scotia Region

The Mission of HRDC is
“To enable Canadians to participate fully in the workplace and the community.”

To meet the existing and emerging opportunities of Nova Scotians, HRDC supports four core business lines:

provides temporary financial help to unemployed Nova Scotians while they look for work, are pregnant or caring for a newborn or an adopted child, or while they are sick. In addition, we deliver a range of re-employment benefits and support measures (such as job creation, skills development and self-employment initiatives) in cooperation with the Province, to help claimants upgrade their skills and improve opportunities for re-entering the labour market.

supports the Government of Canada’s goals for Employment and Learning, including targeted investments for youth, persons with disabilities and unemployed Canadians. We work with many Nova Scotians to improve their employability, we help unemployed people find and keep jobs, and we work with a wide range of partners to build stronger and more inclusive communities by assisting those most in need. We also work with employers, workers, educators, and governments to meet the human resource challenges facing a sector or industry.

provides sustainable benefits to ensure a basic income to all eligible Canadians. Old Age Security (OAS) benefits include the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) and the Allowance (for 60 to 64 year- old spouses of low income OAS recipients and widowed spouses). Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits include CPP-Disability, Retirement, Death and Survivors, Child Benefit, and Disabled Contributors Child Benefit.

promotes a fair, safe, healthy, stable, cooperative and productive work environment that contributes to the social and economic well-being of all Canadians. This program is responsible for the Canada Labour Code (the Federal Mediation Service, Occupational Health and Safety and Labour Standards), the Employment Equity Act, as well as other legislation. The Canada Labour Code applies to employment under federal jurisdiction, which is about 10 per cent of the Canadian workforce.

Strategic Objectives

Human Resources Development Canada

HRDC helps Nova Scotians deal with the challenges and transitions they may face at every stage of life. Each year, HRDC establishes business planning priorities to help us focus our work on the needs of Nova Scotians. This enables us to deliver quality services and programs to citizens across the region - helping Nova Scotians deal with the challenges of a rapidly changing economy, and enabling them to take advantage of the opportunities available.

The three strategic objectives for HRDC Nova Scotia Region for 2003-04 were selected after reviewing Government of Canada and HRDC national priorities, provincial partnerships, community-based priorities, and input from clients, citizens and employers. To support these objectives, we will focus on strategic leadership within HRDC.

Excellence in Serving Canadians – This will involve change driven by the needs of clients and citizens; adopting simple, easy-to-use and accessible programs and services; and taking advantage of new technology and other forms of innovation in a way that is affordable and sustainable. Modernizing service will mean changing the department to better meet the needs and opportunities of Canadians.

Social Inclusion – As HRDC’s mission statement is to help all Canadians participate in the workplace and the community, the department is concerned with enhancing citizens’ life chances and opportunities; and facilitating equity, participation in society, and diversity. HRDC’s work will help to promote and foster social inclusion for all.

Skills and Learning – The skill levels required for occupations are rising, the labour force is aging, and the number of young workers and skilled immigrants entering the workforce will not likely meet labour market needs. The need to develop and enhance skills and learning in our economy is recognized in “Canada’s Innovation Strategy: Knowledge Matters” and the provincial government’s “Skills Nova Scotia” paper. HRDC will work with partners to strengthen learning and skills development to help Nova Scotians access new opportunities.

HRDC has established performance targets for our four business lines and we will work to achieve or exceed these targets. Our successes will be shared publicly so you will know whether we are meeting our commitments. We will make sure that funding allocated to our region for employment programs is fully invested in initiatives and programs that benefit Nova Scotians, their families, and their communities. We will be flexible in making these investments, while ensuring accountability to the public.

Through our “Modernizing Service for Canadians” initiative, we are committed to updating our services using innovation and technology. We will provide a variety of ways to access our services, and encourage clients and citizens to use the ones that provide effective service at the most reasonable cost.

Although we will expand services available over the Internet, we will continue to provide services in a variety of ways, including telephone, e-mail, fax and in person. We will change the way our Human Resource Centres of Canada (HRCCs) provide programs and services, to better meet the needs of clients, employers and other community members. We will make our services more convenient, accessible and easier to use; and increase our responsiveness to users.

A client satisfaction survey will capture your views and concerns. This electronic survey will be implemented in all HRCCs so clients can immediately provide feedback on their level of satisfaction with our services. Feedback will be collected on fairness, accuracy, clarity of communication, timeliness and overall satisfaction. Survey results will be used to respond to citizen and client needs, help us improve current programs and services, and plan for the future. Your issues can also be raised using the survey and, if you request, someone from HRDC will contact you within a specified period of time.

Our service standards will be reviewed and aligned to meet our new delivery methods. We will ensure we are accountable to our clients and that our work has citizen-centred outcomes. This information will be posted in our offices so the public will know what our standards are and how we deliver our services.

Increased use of technology and options, such as Teledec and Direct Deposit, will provide faster, more convenient and more accessible services to Nova Scotians. We will expand the use of Appli-web technology that allows clients to apply for Employment Insurance benefits over the Internet, at home or from any public Internet site.

Income Security Programs will continue to simplify processes through the use of technology. These changes will help reduce the current number of application forms, coordinate application processes so that identification requirements for benefits are simplified, and increase the percentage of low-income Canadians who have their GIS application automatically renewed when they file their income tax return.

For CPP-Disability applications, ISP staff will telephone clients early in the process to help increase their understanding of our programs and services and to provide information about options that may be available. The program to help those on disability return to work will be reviewed and new initiatives will be implemented to find ways to respond to the needs of these clients.

Human Resources Investment will work with partners to improve quality of, and access to, career development and counselling services; and to ensure high-quality delivery of programs that support priority clients gaining work exposure and experience.

Employers will be encouraged to post their job advertisements directly on the Internet through the “Job Bank for Employers,” and we will create a new centralized unit for the province, to provide quality monitoring of this job order activity.

When parties cannot resolve disputes on their own regarding termination from employment (for federally-regulated employers), the Labour Program uses Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) to assist the employer and employee to work together to come to a settlement. If successful, this avoids rigid legal processes. The Labour Program is expanding the ADR function to include formal mediation sessions when dealing with these cases. To date, it has proven to be very effective.

In all of our work, we will respect the privacy requirements of our clients and citizens and ensure the Official Languages Act is respected in delivering our services and in the development of official language minority communities.

Society benefits from the experience and participation of all its citizens. Improved equality of opportunity and chances in life for everyone results in a higher level of well-being for all. Some aspects of well-being include employment, education and skills, health, housing and the family and social environment. To build stronger communities and a stronger economy, it is vital that all Nova Scotians are able to take advantage of the opportunities that exist in our province.

We will continue to address social inclusion by working with partners (including federal and provincial government departments and agencies, volunteer groups, specific community and industry groups, non-government organizations, and businesses) to develop new initiatives to promote social inclusion across Nova Scotia.

Some of our efforts will focus on the needs of African Nova Scotians, Aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities, priority youth, actual or near homeless, single parents and lower income seniors. Our offices will work with our partnership committees, to establish new community-based program delivery options to help them provide programs and services to their clients. We will continue to work on the issue of homelessness under our Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative.

We will also work with communities experiencing challenges, such as rural isolation, an aging population, and youth leaving their communities; and work with organizations and community groups to build the capacity they need to serve their citizens.

Income Security Program staff will work to ensure that Old Age Security clients are informed of all the benefits to which they may be entitled – with a special focus on low-income clients.

For employers under federal jurisdiction, the Labour Program will continue its work in the areas of employment equity, the Federal Contractor’s Program, and the Legislated Employment Equity Program.

In addressing social inclusion, we work in full partnership with many other organizations, to prevent individuals from having long-term dependency on government assistance, and to take responsibility for moving toward full integration in the workplace and community.

We live in a rapidly-changing economy, where skills and knowledge are increasingly important in the workplace. Learning new skills can make a significant difference in a person’s ability to find and keep the job they want. Over the next year, HRDC will support national, regional and community priorities to help more Nova Scotians access the skills, training, and knowledge they need to build their careers.

A workshop of federal and provincial departments on Canada’s Innovations Strategy and the Province’s Skills Nova Scotia paper held in late 2002, identified four priority areas related to Skills and Learning: Employability; Apprenticeship, Learning and Earning; Labour Market Information; and Immigration. We will emphasize work in these areas and implement new initiatives, in collaboration with other Government of Canada departments, the Province, strategically-selected business and industrial sectors, employer organizations, communities (both geographic and of specific interest), and the existing local partnership committees. This will include investigation of areas of current or future labour needs, to help workers align their skills with those areas.

HRDC will continue to support the production of accurate, relevant and accessible Human Development Information and Labour Market Information, which is essential for clients, citizens and partners to be aware of current and future employment and labour market opportunities. We will develop closer links with the provincial government to ensure a coordinated approach to product development and distribution to clients, citizens, employers and communities.

Through the development of sectoral targeted interventions, the Labour Program will help federally- regulated employers reduce the leading causes of disabling injuries in high-risk sectors, through a process of analysis and education via training modules. Inspectors will concentrate on educating employer and employee associations, as well as large employers, in selected sectors on the frequency and type of injuries that occur.

To support our objectives, we will focus on strategic leadership. This will help us adjust our operations to reflect the changes clients, citizens, communities and employers want from a high-quality service organization; and ensure we are focusing on the priority areas in our society and labour market. It will impact on our ability to be accountable to the public and ensure we have the right people with the skills necessary to deliver our services.

We will work to reflect the objectives of our business plan and the human development needs of Nova Scotians in our policy development. Our regional policies will be results based with well-defined outcomes, in line with both national directions and Nova Scotian priorities. We will build on existing relationships with partners and community groups to provide effective policy development and programming.

Our business planning and priority setting processes will be reviewed and strengthened, integrating a more consistent local-level planning approach with an evolving national process. We will promote a culture, with an increased focus on results, that provides a strong rationale for the delivery of our programs and services; and resources will be aligned more closely to our business plan priorities. Results-based management activities will ensure we are fully accountable to the citizens we serve.

We will implement “Managing for Results,” our performance management strategy, to ensure our employees have the competencies, training and information to perform their roles. We will continue to develop internal mandatory training programs to invest in our staff, thereby enhancing their skills and experience, and implement retention programs to keep employees in the department and to move us into the future. We will put more emphasis on diversity through our equity investment fund, which reflects the importance of an inclusive and representative work force. With an aging workforce, we will assess our need for recruiting new staff, keeping in mind employment equity, youth, and ways to reflect the diversity of our society in our staff.

For information on the achievements related to HRDC’s Business Plan, or information on our programs and services, please visit our Internet sites:

Service Delivery Developments

Redesigning Services in our Offices

As part of modernizing service, HRCCs in Nova Scotia are being redesigned to provide better service to our in-person clients.

We have determined what to do by talking to many clients and citizens. These conversations have told us that all service options must remain available, but that many clients are interested in making enquiries and filing information on-line for greater privacy and convenience. Clients are also interested in greater access to services by telephone, and to use in-person service mainly for complex activities.

With this in mind, we will make office layouts easier to understand and make sure the signs in our offices are clear and easily understood. Our in-office client satisfaction survey will allow you to rate our performance and the results will be used by managers and staff to help make decisions to improve services.

With more service activity taking place over the Internet or by phone, we will be able to realign our resources to provide more detailed service where necessary and direct you to the most convenient method of service.

Job Bank for Employers

Employers can now post their own job openings to HRDC’s free job advertising service via the “Job Bank for Employers” on the Internet.

Employers can manage their advertisements 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They can input a greater level of detail on their jobs, for the benefit of both employers and job seekers. First time users must register on-line to gain access to the service. It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure their advertisements comply with all applicable employment standards and human rights legislation.

Advertisements are posted to the “Job Bank” where job seekers can view and apply for the positions. The Job Bank is the largest web-based network of job postings available to Canadians. Up to 2,000 new jobs are posted every day, over 30,000 job postings can be accessed at any time and the site receives over four million visits per month.

Jobs can be posted in either French or English. To set up an account and post job orders, go to the Employers section of this Web site: www.jobbank.gc.ca

Improving Employment Insurance Services

The Employment Insurance (EI) program in Nova Scotia is adjusting to provide better quality services to individual EI claimants and employers. The following initiatives will be introduced or enhanced over the next year.

For EI Claimants:

For employers:

The Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) provides benefits, on top of the Old Age Security pension, to low-income seniors living in Canada. To qualify for the GIS, you must be in receipt of Old Age Security. Eligibility also depends on whether your income, or the combined income of you and your spouse or common-law partner, exceeds a specific amount.

You must apply for the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS). Some eligible seniors in Nova Scotia qualify for the GIS but have not applied. HRDC wants to ensure that everyone who qualifies receives the benefit. If you did not qualify for the GIS benefit in the past, but think you may be eligible now due to a change in your financial situation, you should apply again.

For an application form, or further information on any of our benefits, please contact us at 1-800-277-9914 or visit us on the Internet.

Labour Market Information (LMI) is for Everyone

Accurate and relevant information on the labour market is important for many Canadians. HRDC’s team of specialists produce detailed information products which outline and explain local labour market conditions in Nova Scotia. Users and some uses of LMI include:

HRDC’s Labour Market Information is available at Human Resource Centres of Canada or on HRDC’s Internet sites:

Changes to the Canada Labour Code

The Labour Program monitors employers and investigates complaints under the Canada Labour Code. The Code applies to employers under federal jurisdiction, including inter-provincial or international transportation, banking, radio or television broadcasting, and grain elevators or seed mills. It also applies to many First Nations activities.

Following changes to the Occupational Health and Safety section of the Code, more emphasis is being placed on the Internal Responsibility System (IRS). The objective of the IRS is to give employers and employees joint responsibility for health and safety in their workplace, as they are in the best position to identify and resolve these issues.

The changes to the Code enhance the IRS in four main areas:

The IRS is meant to focus resources where they are needed. The Code requires that managers, supervisors and committee members be trained in the roles and responsibilities of the Health and Safety Committee, as well as rights and obligations of everyone on a worksite.

HRDC has 19 Human Resource Centres of Canada (HRCCs) in Nova Scotia. Our toll-free numbers provide telephone access to information on many of our programs and services. Our information is also available on the Internet. Use the information below to locate the service you need or the office closest to you.

Toll Free (No Charge) Telephone Numbers

Canada Pension Plan (CPP) / Old Age Security (OAS)
1-800-277-9914

Employment Insurance (EI) Enquiries
1-800-206-7218

EI Teledec
1-800-531-7555

Social Insurance Numbers (SINs)
General enquiries: 1-800-206-7218

Labour Program Enquiries
1-800-251-1623

Job Order Line
1-866-562-0100