Employment Training for Indigenous People—Employment and Social Development Canada

Employment Training for Indigenous People—Employment and Social Development Canada

Opening Statement to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Employment Training for Indigenous People—Employment and Social Development Canada

(Report 6—2018 Spring Reports of the Auditor General of Canada)

29 October 2018

Michael Ferguson, Chartered Professional AccountantCPA, Chartered AccountantCA
Fellow Chartered Professional AccountantFCPA, Fellow Chartered AccountantFCA (New Brunswick)
Auditor General of Canada

Mr. Chair, thank you for this opportunity to discuss our report on employment training for Indigenous people. Joining me at the table is Glenn Wheeler, the Principal responsible for the audit.

The work on this audit was completed in December 2017, and we have not audited actions taken by Employment and Social Development Canada since then.

Many Indigenous people face barriers to sustained employment and have low wages. This audit examined how Employment and Social Development Canada managed two programs: the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training Strategy, and the Skills and Partnership Fund. The common goal of these two programs was to increase the number of Indigenous people who had sustainable and meaningful employment. For both of these programs, the Department worked with Indigenous organizations across the country that provided training and employment support to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit clients.

Overall, we found that the Department could not demonstrate that these programs increased the number of Indigenous people getting jobs and staying employed.

Specifically, we found that the Department did not define the performance indicators necessary to demonstrate whether the programs were meeting their objectives. For example, the Department established an annual target for the number of clients employed after receiving services. However, it counted any employment obtained as a successful outcome—whether the work was short-term, seasonal, part-time, or full-time. This means that it did not know how successful the programs were in helping clients find sustainable employment.

We also found that the Department did not do enough to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the data it obtained from Indigenous organizations on the results their clients had achieved after receiving services. Notably, the Department did not know whether more than 20% of all clients who received services actually found a job or went back to school. Furthermore, while the Department used Employment Insurance data to verify whether clients were employed, it was able to do so for only about 10% of the programs’ clients.

We found that the Department did not analyze the program data it collected to identify trends, problems, or good practices that could help Indigenous organizations improve their services and results. For example, the Department spent $130 million between the 2010–11 and 2016–17 fiscal years on wage subsidies for employers who hired clients for a specific length of time. However, the Department did not track whether these clients continued working after the subsidy ended or whether they found other work.

We also found that the Department allocated funding to Indigenous organizations under the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training Strategy on the basis of 1996 population and socio-economic data that did not reflect the current needs of the populations served. In addition, the Department did not consider individual Indigenous organizations’ past success at helping clients find jobs as a means to redistribute funds to those that had demonstrated the capacity to achieve better results.

The Department supported Indigenous organizations by providing them with guidance and administrative direction, and it worked to reduce their administrative burden. However, it did not provide them with sufficient labour market information to help them determine which services they should provide to help clients prepare for and find available jobs.

In addition, the Department did not consistently monitor Indigenous organizations to ensure that they fulfilled their obligations under funding agreements, nor did it use the information from the monitoring it did to know how well the programs were working. This means that it missed the opportunity to explore ways to improve program delivery and to identify systemic issues requiring attention.

We made eight recommendations. Employment and Social Development Canada agreed with all of them and has prepared an action plan to address them.

Mr. Chair, this concludes my opening remarks. We would be pleased to answer any questions the Committee may have. Thank you.