British Columbia and Canada entered into a joint Labour Market Development Agreement in 1997 to facilitate the co-management of labour market development programs in the province. This report presents findings from a formative evaluation of the Agreement, which used multiple lines of evidence to explore seven types of evaluation issues. The findings are presented and discussed in chapters covering each issue: the relevance of employment benefits & support measures (EBSMs) under the Agreement; joint planning, decision making, and program delivery; short-term impacts and outcomes for program participants; impacts on British Columbia communities and their partners in terms of changes in employment, social structure, community involvement, resident mobility, and volunteerism; achievements with regard to short-term success indicators; efficiency and cost effectiveness; and EBSM-specific issues.

"Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) worked jointly with 12 Provinces and Territories (P/Ts) to undertake the 2012-2017 second cycle for the Labour Market Development Agreement (LMDA) evaluation. The first cycle of LMDA evaluation was carried out between 1998 and 2012 and involved the conduct of bilateral formative and summative evaluations in all P/Ts. Under the second cycle, the evaluation work consisted of conducting two to three studies per year on the Employment Benefits and Support Measures (EBSMs) similar programming delivered under these agreements. The studies generated evaluation evidence on the effectiveness, efficiency and design/delivery of EBSMs for Canada overall and for the twelve P/Ts that opted for a joint evaluation process with Canada. Under LMDAs, Canada transfers $2.14B in Employment Insurance (EI) Part II funds to P/Ts for the design and delivery of programs and services to help unemployed individuals, mainly eligible under EI, to find and maintain employment"--Introd., p. vi.