Federal, provincial and municipal governments share a commitment to a prosperous economy and to supporting services which enable their residents to participate in the workplace to the best of their ability. Governments acknowledge that skilled newcomers face barriers to employment that makes full use of their education and experience, and they undertake a variety of initiatives dealing with this issue.

Traditionally government departments and ministries have worked independently from one another. This has been true both horizontally within a particular order of government, and vertically between orders of government. For example, there may be inter-ministerial committees within the provincial government that focus on a specific issue where ministerial mandates overlap; however, there have been few committees involving the city, the province and the federal government.

This toolkit is about the benefits and challenges of having an intergovernmental relations committee that involves the active participation of all orders of government.