Bilateral federalism and workforce development policy in Canada.

In the past decade, federal and provincial governments in Canada have made major modifications in the governance of workforce development policy, an area critical to economic prosperity. Governance shifts have been accomplished primarily through devolution from the federal government to the provinces (including the transfer of federal staff) via a variety of bilateral agreements. This article analyses the performance of the intergovernmental relations system in workforce development policy in Canada since 1996. While there has been remarkable success in producing results in the form of agreements, and workability on a bilateral basis has improved – thereby reducing federal-provincial tensions – this has not been accompanied by improved workability on a multilateral basis. In addition, the changes to the system introduced by devolution have not always been consistent with federal principles. The article concludes that, without a more robust multilateral inter-governmental process to bridge the two orders of government, workforce development policy in Canada will remain inadequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]