There are two comments I would make. First, I think if you look at the discussion over the Canada job grant, there was a bit of a pushback to say, “We're the provinces. We're in charge. Why is the federal government coming in and trying to dictate?”
I think it is entirely appropriate for the federal government, which is transferring dollars to the provinces, to have some expectation about how the programs are designed. I think the challenge, though, and the very first thing you need to do, is to have consistent data. Provinces and territories can go about and design programs based on a common set of interventions in a way that they believe best meets the needs of their jurisdiction, but if we don't have consistent data in being able to look at what's happening in the system, then it's hard to tell whether what's happening in Manitoba is more effective than what's happening in Ontario or elsewhere.
I'll give you a good example. If you look at the annual reports that came out of the previous LMDAs, I defy you to try to figure out the consistency of outcomes—knowing that what was happening in one province was comparable to the other. This is all because of the way the agreements were negotiated. You had province A saying how many clients they served, without indicating what the outcomes were, and then you had another province actually reporting on outcomes. At the end of the day, when you do an evaluation, you are able to provide some of those outcomes, but through the process, through the years, it's impossible to see what's going on unless you have access to that administrative data.
The second thing I would say is that I think this really calls for the need to have a better governance mechanism. It doesn't make sense that we negotiate bilateral agreements without having first had a conversation about what our national priorities are. That's where I think reinvigorating the Forum of Labour Market Ministers is very key. If you can start the discussions to get everyone on the same page, then I think the way the programs are designed will flow naturally.
The last point I would make is that we have to remember that there is a need for some flexibility here, because the provinces do have to integrate between their welfare systems on one side and the EI interventions they're trying to provide on the other. There does need to be some flexibility there.