In the past two decades, responsibility for the design and delivery of job training programs in Canada has gradually devolved from the federal government to provincial governments through a series of bilateral agreements. With the devolution, a new federal-provincial accountability regime was developed. This paper assesses the effectiveness of provincial reporting on federal funding received under the Labour Market Agreements or LMAs. It finds that the accountability regime is wanting in facilitating transparency of government activities and decision-making, as well as in providing information to permit citizens and stakeholders to engage with policy and program decisions. Deficiencies in the reporting regime − including the fragmentation inherent in having four sets of different accountability provisions under four different types of labour market agreements – means that Canadians are ill-equipped to develop a culture of learning from what works and what does not.
