Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC; french: Emploi et Développement social Canada; french: EDSC, label=none)''Employment and Social Development Canada'' is the applied title under the

Federal Identity Program The Federal Identity Program (FIP) is the Government of Canada's corporate identity program (management), program. The purpose of the FIP is to provide to the public a consistent and unified image for federal government projects and activities. O ...

; the legal title is Department of Employment and Social Development (). is a

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

of the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

responsible for social programs and the labour market at the federal level. The department delivers a number of federal government programs and services including

Employment Insurance Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a compu ...

(EI),

Service Canada Service Canada is the program operated by Employment and Social Development Canada to serve as a single-point of access for the Government of Canada's largest and most heavily used programs, such as the Social Insurance Number, the Employment ...

centres, Canada Student Loan Program (CSLP),

Canada Pension Plan The Canada Pension Plan (CPP; french: Régime de pensions du Canada) is a contributory, earnings-related social insurance program. It forms one of the two major components of Canada's public retirement income system, the other component being Old ...

(CPP), issuing social insurance numbers (SIN) and the federal

Labour Program Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

among others things.

History

Background

The Department of Human Resources and Skills Development was created in December 2003, when

Human Resources Development Canada The Department of Human Resources Development, also referred to as Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC), was a department of the Government of Canada with the responsibility over a wide portfolio of social services. HRDC was based at a gov ...

(HRDC) was split into two separate departments: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) and Social Development Canada (SDC). Though they continued to share many common services and operations, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada was to focus on workforce-related aspects of the former HRDC portfolio, while SDC was to focus on social support programs for children, families and seniors. The split was given formal legal effect when the ''Department of Human Resources and Skills Development Act'' and the ''Department of Social Development Act'' were enacted in July 2005.

Recombined

Upon taking office in February 2006, the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

government of

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

announced it would recombine the two departments, and through a series of orders in councils, Social Development Canada was folded into HRSDC. From 2006 to 2008, Social Development's preceding role was reflected by styling the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development as the "Minister of Human Resources and Social Development", and by changing the department's applied title to "Human Resources and Social Development Canada". This practice ended in late 2008 when the title was changed to "Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development." The post was later referred to as "Minister of Employment and Social Development" when the department was renamed. On November 4, 2015, the department underwent

machinery of government The machinery of government (sometimes abbreviated as MoG) is the interconnected structures and processes of government, such as the functions and accountability of ministry (government department), departments in the executive (government), exe ...

changes which saw the employment responsibilities transfer to the Labour Minister resulting in the newly re-titled Minister of Employment, Workforce and Labour. The Social Development aspects were then shaped into the

Minister of Families, Children and Social Development The minister of families, children and social development(french: ministre de la famille, des enfants et du développement social) is a minister of the Crown in the Cabinet of Canada. The associated department is Employment and Social Developm ...

. The

Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion The minister of employment, workforce development and disability inclusion () is the minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for Employment and Social Development Canada, the Government of Canada department that oversees pr ...

is now tasked with handling the file on persons with disabilities.

Sub-agencies, programs and activities

Sub-agencies of ESDC include: *

Service Canada Centres for Youth Previously the Human Resources & Career Centre for Students and the Hire-a-Student program, the Service Canada Centres for Youth (SCCY) were centres, set up by the Government of Canada as part of itYouth Employment Strategy by which it helped studen ...

Canada Student Loans Program Government sponsored Student Loans in Canada was designed to help post-secondary students pay for their education in Canada. The federal government funds the Canada Student Loan Program (CSLP) and the provinces may fund their own programs or be int ...

* Canada Employment Insurance Commission *

*National Seniors Council *

Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) is a Government of Canada program that was introduced by the Pearson government in 1966 between Canada and Jamaica but has since expanded to include Mexico and numerous other Caribbean countries. It i ...

* Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service *

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) (french: Société canadienne d'hypothèques et de logement) (SCHL) is Canada's national housing agency, and state-owned mortgage insurer. It was originally established after World War II, to help re ...

Canada Industrial Relations Board The main responsibility of the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) is to interpret and administer the Industrial Relations and Occupational Health and Safety sections of the Canada Labour Code. The CIRB also contributes to promote effect indu ...

ESDC delivers $87 billion in programs and services and has approximately 24,000 employees. Approximately 19,000 of those employees work under the

banner.

Officials and structure

–

Carla Qualtrough Carla Dawn Qualtrough (; born October 15, 1971) is a Canadian politician and former Paralympic swimmer who is the minister of employment, workforce development and disability inclusion since 2019. Qualtrough has sat as the member of Parliamen ...

** Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development – Jean-François Tremblay *** Senior Associate Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development – Kristina Namiesniowski *

–

Karina Gould Karina Gould (born June 28, 1987) is a Canadian politician who has been the minister of families, children and social development since October 26, 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, she serves as a member of Parliament (MP) and has represent ...

** Senior Associate Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development and Chief Operating Officer for Service Canada – Lori MacDonald ** Associate Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development – Annette Gibbons *

Minister of Labour Minister of Labour (in British English) or Labor (in American English) is typically a cabinet-level position with portfolio responsibility for setting national labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, traini ...

– Seamus O'Regan Jr. ** Deputy Minister of Labour and Associate Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development – Sandra Hassan *

Kamal Khera Kamalpreet Khera (born February 4, 1989) is a Canadian politician who has been the minister of seniors since October 26, 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, Khera was elected to represent the riding of Brampton West in the House of Commons fo ...

– Minister of Seniors

Controversies

2012/2013 privacy breach

On January 11, 2013, Minister

Diane Finley Diane Finley (born October 3, 1957) is a former Canadian politician. From 2006 through 2015, she served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Her ministerial portfolios included Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, M ...

announced that a hard drive containing information of 583,000 student loan borrowers had been lost from a Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP)/HRSDC office in Gatineau, Quebec. Borrowers who registered a loan between 2000 and 2006 were potentially affected. The information on the hard drive contained full names, Social Insurance Numbers, contact information, and loan balances. The hard drive also contained information on 250 HRSDC employees. Concerns of privacy breaches and identity theft led to the filing of three class-action suits against the federal government on behalf of the affected students. On January 18, 2013, the Office of the

Privacy Commissioner of Canada The privacy commissioner of Canada (french: Commissaire à la protection de la vie privée du Canada) is a non-partisan ombudsman and officer of the Parliament of Canada. The commissioner investigates complaints regarding violations of the feder ...

stated that a formal investigation had been launched. The stated outcome of this investigation was to provide information to organizations and individuals to improve privacy protection. The RCMP was notified but is waiting for the outcome of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada's investigation to do their own investigation. This incident has become known as "1 in 60", representing the ratio of affected individuals to the Canadian population as a whole.

Canada Summer Jobs program

In 2018, the government of

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...

introduced a new mandatory criteria for eligible employers and projects of the Canada Summer Jobs program, for which "the core mandate of the organization must respect individual human rights in Canada, including the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter) as well as other rights" like the "

reproductive rights Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows: Reproductive rights rest on t ...

and the right to be free from discrimination". After nine ongoing Federal Court challenges and the complaints of the

Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB; french: Conférence des évêques catholiques du Canada) is the national assembly of the bishops of the Catholic Church in Canada. It was founded in 1943, and was officially recognized by the Holy ...

in union with the Canadian Council of Christian Charities, the requirement was rewritten and became a mandatory point for eligible projects and job activities, which must not "actively work to undermine or restrict a woman's access to sexual and reproductive health services.".

References

Notes

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Employment and Social Development Canada Federal departments and agencies of Canada

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Ministries established in 2003 2003 establishments in Canada Employment in Canada