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The following are what two authors have written.

  1. 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?
  2. 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).

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  • Your version is a statement, as you say, not a question. It makes good sense. – Tᴚoɯɐuo Jul 30 '18 at 18:57
2

Consider:

Which government would have responsibility was not clear.

It was not clear which government would have responsibility.

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  • Pardon me, I am not sure what you meant. Are you saying that I should cut out "as to" and write "...it was not clear which government—federal or provincial—would then be responsible..."? – AIQ Jul 30 '18 at 19:20
  • You can leave as to or omit it. I was trying to give you pared-down examples to make the structure clear to you when using the "cleft" sentence. as to, in regard to, with respect to, regarding could all be used there but they are unnecessary. – Tᴚoɯɐuo Jul 30 '18 at 19:53

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