Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2022, published 111st ILC session (2023)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Canada (Ratification: 1966)

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Employment trends and active labour market measures. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the concerns raised by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) with respect to the lack of an active policy to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment that is articulated and integrated into socio-economic decision-making, as required by Article 1 of the Convention. The CLC indicated that the aims set out in Article 2 are difficult to coherently implement through measurable objectives that could lead to concrete reporting for the evaluation of programmes. The Committee requested that the Government indicate the manner in which active labour market measures are kept under review within the framework of an overall coordinated economic and social policy. The Government indicates that the Labour Market Development Agreements (LMDAs) and Workforce Development Agreements (WDAs) include a Performance Measurement Strategy. The data collected under the Strategy allow provincial and territorial governments to support the continuous improvement of programmes and services and ensure that investments are producing concrete results for the population, such as increased income and sustainable jobs. Under the Performance Measurement Strategy, provinces and territories provide the federal Government with data on the number of persons benefitting from employment measures and interventions completed under the LMDAs and the WDAs. The Committee notes that, according to the 2020-21 Employment Insurance Monitoring and Assessment Report, individuals that receive training and employment supports while receiving Employment Insurance (EI) income benefits earn more and reduce their dependence on EI and social assistance. The LMDAs provide labour market support measures to workers and employers across Canada. These supports range from less-intensive employment counselling and job search assistance to more intensive measures, such as skills training and experiential learning through targeted wage subsidies. Recent evaluations have examined the effectiveness of LMDA-funded supports and identified lessons learned for the efficient design and delivery of particular measures. According to the cited report, the incremental impact analysis demonstrated that Employment Assistance Services (EAS), Skills Development (SD) and Targeted Wage Subsidies (TWS) resulted in improvements in labour market attachments overall. These supports have also been shown to benefit sub-groups of participants: females, males, young persons, older workers, indigenous people, persons with disabilities, recent immigrants and visible minorities. The Committee notes that, according to the 2022 Budget, the federal Government provides more than 3 billion Canadian dollars (CAD) in funding annually to provinces and territories for the purpose of providing training and employment support through the Labour Market Transfer Agreements. These investments help more than 1 million Canadians every year prepare for their next job through programmes ranging from skills training and wage subsidies, to career counselling and job search assistance. Budget 2022 also proposes to amend Part II of the Employment Insurance Act to ensure that more workers are eligible to receive assistance before becoming unemployed, as well as to ensure that employers can receive direct support to re-train their workers. During the first months of the pandemic, the Canadian economy experienced its steepest output decline since quarterly data were first recorded in 1960. The Committee notes that the unemployment rate in February 2022 stood at 5.5 per cent, lower than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. It further notes from Budget 2022 that, with the unemployment rate hitting near-record lows, some businesses are struggling to find workers, whereas many Canadians – women with young children, new graduates, newcomers, black and racialized Canadians, indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities, among others – are facing barriers to securing meaningful and well-paid work. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing up-to-date information on the measures adopted or envisaged to achieve the objectives of the Convention and, in particular, on how these have helped the beneficiaries obtain full, productive and sustainable employment and decent work. It further requests the Government to continue to provide information, including statistical data disaggregated by sex, age and economic sector, on the current situation and trends regarding the active population, employment, unemployment and underemployment.

Article 3. Participation of the social partners in the formulation and implementation of policies. The Government reports that, pursuant to the LMDAs and WDAs, the payment of annual funding to provinces and territories is tied to deliverables, including annual plans and reports in which provinces and territories are required to provide information on consultations undertaken with employers’ and workers’ organizations. More specifically, provinces and territories must provide a description of the consultation process and the results of the process in their annual plans and reports, as well as a list of the stakeholders consulted. Broad-based consultations with provinces, territories and stakeholders provide an opportunity to identify ways to improve the labour market transfer agreements and guide future investments to strengthen labour market programming. The feedback received from labour market transfer agreement consultations held in 2016 with the Forum of Labour Market Ministers (FLMM) led to a significant reform of these agreements to expand and improve skills training and employment supports. Consultations also take place, on a needed basis, with federal, provincial, and territorial governments through the FLMM Working Group on Labour Market Transfer Agreements and Performance Measurement. This Forum enables partners to oversee and review the implementation of the performance measurement plan on LMDAs and WDAs, to ensure that it captures the key performance indicators required to fully capture the outcomes of programmes and services. The Committee recalls that Article 3 of the Convention calls for measures and programmes to be adopted and implemented under the national employment policy through an inclusive process of consultation with the social partners and persons affected by the measures to be taken (2020 General Survey, Promoting employment and decent work in a changing landscape, paragraph 94). Paragraph 5 of Recommendation No. 169 indicates that policies, plans and programmes adopted in the framework of the employment policy should be drawn up and implemented in consultation and cooperation with employers’ and workers’ organizations and other representatives of the persons concerned. The Committee requests the Government to provide updated detailed information on the content and outcomes of effective consultations held with the social partners on the matters covered by the Convention, including the consultations involving representatives of the persons affected by the employment measures to be taken.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.