Summary: Evaluation of the Canada-Yukon Labour Market Development Agreement

On this page

• Program objectives
• The LMDAs investment
• Evaluation objectives
• Evaluation methodology
• Key findings
• Recommendations

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Program objectives

The Canada-Yukon Labour Market Development Agreement (LMDA) is bilateral agreement between Canada and Yukon for the design and delivery of Employment Benefits and Support Measures (EBSMs). The objective of EBSMs is to assist individuals to obtain or keep employment.

The following benefits and measures are examined in the evaluation.

Skills Development Employment Benefit provides direct financial assistance to individuals to select, arrange, and pay for training.

Employment Assistance Services support individuals as they prepare to enter or re-enter the workforce or assist them to find a better job. Examples include job search services, career counselling, and résumé writing assistance.

Research and Innovation funds research projects aimed at identifying labour market information or testing new approaches to labour market development.

The LMDAs investment

In fiscal year 2020 to 2021, Canada transferred approximately $4.7 million to Yukon.

Evaluation objectives

Building on the success of previous LMDA evaluation cycles, the aim of this evaluation is to fill in knowledge gaps about the effectiveness, as well as design and delivery of EBSMs in Yukon.

Evaluation methodology

The findings are drawn from 3 separate evaluation studies that use a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, including:

• outcome analysis
• incremental impact analysis
• a questionnaire
• a document review

Key findings

Labour market outcomes were examined for participants in Skills Development Employment Benefits and Employment Assistance Services. Comparing labour market outcomes from the pre-program participation period to the post-program participation period, the outcome analysis describes the average changes in participants’ earnings, incidence of employment, and use of Employment Insurance and social assistance benefits.

Overall, following participation in Skills Development Employment Benefits and Employment Assistance Services, program participants had:

• higher average annual earnings
• a lower incidence of employment, which may be due to retirement decisions
• decreased use of EI benefits, but increased use of SA benefit

A subgroup analysis shows that labour market outcomes for most subgroups of participants in the 2 programs were largely consistent with those for all participants. This excludes older worker participants in Employment Assistance Services who experience decreased earnings in part due to retirement decisions.

A supplemental study of Skills Development Employment Benefits-Apprentices found that after participation in the program, participants had improved their average annual earnings and decreased their use of government income supports.

The evaluation also found that Yukon used the Research and Innovation support measure to fund research projects aiming to collect, analyse and disseminate labour market information.

Recommendations

The evaluation made 2 recommendations.

Recommendation # 1: Yukon is encouraged to share and discuss lessons learned, best practices and challenges associated with the design and delivery of programs and services. Discussions are encouraged with ESDC, at the bilateral or multilateral levels.

Recommendation # 2: Yukon is encouraged to pursue efforts to maintain and strengthen data collection provisions in support of reporting, performance measurement and data-driven evaluations at the national and territorial levels.