Ontario’s Employment Transformation Leaving Too Many Job Seekers Behind

Community Living Ontario and the Ontario Disability Employment Network (ODEN) have published Tangled in Red Tape, a report showing the extent to which Ontario’s Employment Services Transformation has been impacted by underfunding and overwhelming administrative burdens.

It has been five years since the provincial government announced its plan to make Ontario’s employment service system “more efficient, more streamlined and outcomes focused.” Unfortunately, the new system has been implemented without adequately accounting for the needs and realities of people with disabilities.

In a recent survey of their experiences in the new system, Ontario’s disability-focused employment service providers highlighted four key issues:

  1. Administrative tasks and red tape have ballooned under the new model.
  2. As a result of pervasive red tape, time available to work directly with job seekers has declined precipitously.
  3. The amount of funding available to help people obtain work has declined, while caseload requirements have increased to unsustainable levels.
  4. Working conditions across the sector have deteriorated, and staff turnover has been rampant.

Community Living Ontario and ODEN offer a series of recommendations to support a course correction in the province’s ongoing transformation of employment services, including:

  1. The Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD) must engage directly with specialist service providers to understand their experiences in the new system, and to inform changes that will lead to more effective support for job seekers with disabilities.
  2. Urgent changes are needed to reflect the needs of people with disabilities and specialist service providers. This includes changes to operational funding, performance-based incentives, and Employment-Related Funds, and attention to the pervasive loss of experienced employment professionals across the system.
  3. Reducing administration and red tape must be an immediate priority.
  4. Elimination of the ‘20-hour rule’ and replace it with an incentive framework that acknowledges the value of part-time work, as well as the barriers to employment faced by many people with disabilities.
  5. Rebalancing performance-based incentives to (i) increase rewards for long-term job placement and advancement, (ii) address possible unintended consequences of the enrolment incentive, and (iii) acknowledge the need for ongoing support after the first year on the job.

The issues identified by service providers are leading to a lack of effective support for job seekers with disabilities, raising serious barriers to their success in the job market, and preventing them from building long-term financial health and independence. It is time to listen to front-line experts and course-correct before it is too late.

Download the Tangled in Red Tape report

For more information, please contact:
Shawn Pegg
Director, Social Policy & Strategic Initiatives
Community Living Ontario
shawn@communitylivingontario.ca

Jeannette Campbell
Chief Executive Officer
Ontario Disability Employment Network
jcampbell@odenetwork.com