A 55-year-old who becomes unemployed can look for assistance through Service Canada for determining their EI eligibility. In terms of supports for re-employment and for training, this person will be referred to the local provincially run employment office that designs and delivers training and employment programs under a number of agreements—federal, provincial, territorial agreements—that we have for training and skills development.
For example, if they are deemed EI eligible, they can access training supports and employment measures, for example, some employment assistance measures. With the support of a counsellor, they identify their needs, do a skills assessment, and receive some job search assistance and job search techniques. With their counsellor, they can identify a plan for getting additional training or literacy training and then would go into what we call the return-to-work action plan. That is managed through the province under our agreements.
If they are not eligible for EI, they can have access to the same suite of interventions most of the time and in most of the provinces under the labour market agreement program. If they are in a smaller community that is eligible for TIOW, where the province has implemented TIOW projects, they can be referred to the community organization responsible for delivering a targeted initiative for older worker project. Those are different types of programs available for that person.