Training as the Principal Focus of Adjustment Policy: A Critical View from Northern Ontario

This is a regional case study of the effects of training on labour market adjustment following mass layoffs in a single-industry mining community, Elliot Lake in Northern Ontario. Based on longitudinal survey data we find that training programs as a whole had limited benefits to the laid-off workers, particularly in terms of re-employment, although longer-duration programs at the college level appeared more effective. This is not a call to cut funding for training, which can have important social and psychological benefits for laid-off workers and their families; but it is a criticism of the current approach that makes training the principal focus of adjustment policy, at least as it plays out in single-industry communities like Elliot Lake.