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Employment and related supports have a key role to play in supporting the skill-building and training needs of individuals, which in turn contribute to a productive and competitive workforce.

As in most provinces, Ontario has three streams of training and education. One is the mainstream education system for Ontarians looking to obtain a degree, diploma or certificate.

Another stream is the programs and supports available through Employment Ontario, for which all those eligible for Employment Insurance can access, as well as those no longer eligible for Employment Insurance but who were in the past (the so-called ‘reach-back’ provisions).

A third stream is employment programs available to those in receipt of social assistance (Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Supports Program and First Nations). The latter are less comprehensive and, again, their quality and availability range across Ontario. There are also different programs for new Canadians and immigrants under the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement delivered by the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration through Local Immigration Partnerships.

New federal-provincial labour market agreements have increased funding for the social assistance stream, but employment supports, training and education for those on assistance remain inadequate and often unhelpful. Overall, employment supports remain a patchwork of uneven access, quality and for the most part not delivered in an integrated way, thereby creating gaps, duplication and instability.

Despite funding and legislative challenges, there is an emerging recognition across different levels of government and community agencies that a more effective approach to workforce development services is needed.

The provincial government, municipal service deliverers, as well as community agencies, are individually and collaboratively implementing new approaches to respond to increasingly complex human service needs. A related theme in this emerging approach is recognition of the value of integrating employment services, financial assistance and related supports including public health, dental services, recreation, child care, and housing.

At the local level there are some practices that have emerged that have found ways to sidestep or push ahead of regulation to best respond to local needs, issues, challenges and mandates particularly in the area of employment services and supports. For example, the City of Toronto has recently opened a new employment opportunity centre in Metro Hall with a professional business-like setting and a clear mandate to assist clients in finding employment.

There are also initiatives relating to coordinating services for individuals and families. The Algoma District Social Services Administration Board, for example, is implementing a one-stop shopping strategy where applicants are directed to Client Services Coordinators who have access to a full range of services, from child care to employment and training, including mental health assistance, in an attempt to turn their service into a ‘helping’ function.

Innovative community initiatives have also been launched that create employment for those often classified as “permanently unemployable.” For example, the Ontario Council of Alternative Business is a psychiatric consumer survivor run organization that creates economic and leadership opportunities for psychiatric survivors and marginalized individuals in Toronto. Currently, the Ontario Council of Alternative Business operates four businesses (The Raging Spoon, Green Thumb Enterprises, Out of This World Café, and Grassroots Research) which provide employment to over 100 psychiatric survivors.

Seeds of change may be found in these local initiatives. The goal should be to increasingly provide multiple service access points and work with individuals to offer a continuum of responsive services. These changes should be guided by an emerging international consensus of best practices, as cited in research by Dean Herd, [Herd 2006] that include:

• Good assessment of individual and local labour market strengths and needs.
• Rapid job placement for those closest to the labour market, plus ongoing training and support for those who require additional help to find work.
• Engaged local employers.
• Job retention and progression, placement in the right job, with suitable hours, skills and location.
• Holistic interventions that address housing, health, child care and substance use issues as well as labour market needs, which are more effective than those that simply address work needs in isolation.

In addition, the province and municipalities have been working jointly for the last few years to redefine the provincial and municipal roles in the delivery of social assistance and employment supports. The two directly related recommendations of the Provincial-Municipal Fiscal and Service Delivery Review are:

• The province and municipalities agree to work together to simplify and modernize delivery of income assistance and employment-related supports.
• The province and municipalities further agree to better integrate Ontario Works, Ontario Disability Support Program and Employment Ontario employment services to improve employment outcomes for clients and to make better use of resources.

A provincial-municipal Human Services Implementation Steering Committee has been established to look at how to implement these recommendations.