Background

Governments recognize that persons with disabilities value employment and want, and are able, to make an important contribution to Canadian society. As a result, governments have offered many programs over the years to help persons with disabilities find meaningful work. One of these was the Vocational Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons (VRDP) program, which was implemented in 1962.

Under VRDP, federal, provincial and territorial governments provided comprehensive programs for the vocational rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. While the program was successful in improving the lives of persons with disabilities, it did not meet its goal of improving their labour market and economic participation. For this reason, all governments worked together to examine how they were helping people with disabilities integrate into the labour market and, more specifically, the programming funded under the VRDP Act.

The multilateral process launched in February 1997 determined that programs to assist persons with disabilities should place a stronger focus on employment. As a result, the VRDP program was replaced by the Employability Assistance for People with Disabilities (EAPD) initiative in April 1998.

Federal, provincial and territorial governments jointly developed the Multilateral Framework on EAPD¹, which focuses on employability and the need to be more accountable to the public and people with disabilities for programming results. The Multilateral Framework provided the blueprint for the development of five-year bilateral agreements between the federal government and 10 provinces.² These bilateral agreements began in April 1998 and provide for cost sharing of provincial programs and services that assist people with disabilities prepare for, attain and maintain employment.

The current agreements, and the Multilateral Framework upon which they are based, provide each jurisdiction the flexibility to direct or focus programming to best meet regional needs or objectives. While adhering to the broad goals of the EAPD initiative, each province has the flexibility to develop programs and services and deliver them in a manner best suited to the needs of its own citizens with disabilities and its own labour market.

When the bilateral agreements were signed, a three-year transition period (April 1998-March 2001) was established to allow provinces time to adjust their programming to reflect the new focus on employability and avoid disruptions in client service. The transition period was extended by one year to March 31, 2002. This annual report describes provincial programs and services funded in fiscal years 1999-2000 and 2000-2001. During this period not all new employability programming or refocused provincial funding was yet in place.