The following are what two authors have written.
- A further complication was jurisdiction: even if unemployment were admitted as a social, rather than an individual, problem, was insurance against unemployment a federal or a provincial responsibility?
- There existed some uncertainty regarding constitutional jurisdiction over unemployment assistance. As such, even if unemployment was recognized as a social problem requiring state action, it nevertheless wasn’t completely clear which level of government would be responsible ― federal or provincial.
The one below is my attempt at restructuring the question.
Another complication, as Smith (1988) pointed out, was constitutional jurisdiction: if unemployment was indeed recognized as a social problem, it was not clear as to which government—federal or provincial—would then be responsible for administering a support program.
The part after the colon, "if unemployment was..." tends to finish the sentence as a question like author 1 (but I don't want that). I am not sure if the way I have written makes sense (ending it as a statement and not a question).