CCA Bul­letin 18/08

June 6 , 2008

Just the Facts

On May 27, 2008, the Pres­i­dent of the Trea­sury Board of Canada, the Hon. Vic Toews, out­lined at the Vol­un­tary Sec­tor Sum­mit in Toronto the Action Plan of the fed­eral gov­ern­ment to improve the man­age­ment of grants and contributions.

The action plan is the government’s response to the Report of the Blue Rib­bon Panel on Grants and Con­tri­bu­tions deliv­ered to the gov­ern­ment on Feb­ru­ary 14, 2007. The Report reached three fun­da­men­tal conclusions;

• Fun­da­men­tal change is required in the way the fed­eral gov­ern­ment under­stands, designs, man­ages  and accounts for its grants and con­tri­bu­tion programs,
• Sim­pli­fy­ing admin­is­tra­tion is a nec­es­sary pre­req­ui­site to strength­en­ing account­abil­ity, and
• Mak­ing nec­es­sary changes in an area of gov­ern­ment as vast and multi-faceted as grants and con­tri­bu­tions will require sus­tained lead­er­ship by the polit­i­cal and pub­lic ser­vice levels.

The government’s Action Plan has three components;

1. Pol­icy Reform

Changes are made to the Trea­sury Board Pay­ments Pol­icy which gov­erns fed­eral spend­ing. These changes ensure that all grants and con­tri­bu­tions are man­aged in a citizen-and-recipient focused way. The admin­is­tra­tive and report­ing require­ments for appli­cants and recip­i­ents will be bet­ter aligned with the asso­ci­ated risk to funders.

2. Depart­men­tal Action Plans

Six depart­ments of the fed­eral gov­ern­ment account for 51% of all grants and con­tri­bu­tions. These depart­ments must address seven areas of reform. They include sim­pli­fi­ca­tion of fund­ing pro­grams and agree­ments, stream­lin­ing the appli­ca­tion process, flex­i­ble risk-management prac­tices, best prac­tices, improved access to infor­ma­tion through tech­nol­ogy and stake­holder engagement.

The good news for the cul­tural sec­tor is that the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage is one of these six depart­ments and its offi­cials have devel­oped a stan­dard con­tri­bu­tion agreement.

3. Hor­i­zon­tal Enablers

These are inter­nal tools and activ­i­ties within gov­ern­ment to ensure that the changes are both government-wide and sustainable.

Tell Me More

The CCA com­mended the mem­bers of the Blue Rib­bon Panel for its rec­om­men­da­tions when the report was first released. Since then, the CCA and other pan-sector groups have been involved in dis­cus­sions with fed­eral offi­cials about imple­men­ta­tion plans.

The action plan announced by Min­is­ter Toews is an indi­ca­tion that the fed­eral gov­ern­ment has accepted the three fun­da­men­tal con­clu­sions of the Blue Rib­bon Panel. While this is an encour­ag­ing devel­op­ment, the Action Plan has no firm dead­lines for the imple­men­ta­tion of the seven areas that must be addressed by the six gov­ern­ment depart­ments.

The engage­ment of stake­hold­ers is not in clear evi­dence in the Action Plan, despite the insis­tence of the Blue Rib­bon Panel that their involve­ment is crit­i­cal to the suc­cess of the pol­icy reforms.  The CCA rec­og­nizes that this action plan is a mas­sive under­tak­ing which will likely take years to achieve.

The for­mer National Co-Chairs of the Blue Rib­bon Panel, Ian Clark and Frances Larkin will host the first of sev­eral regional stake­holder con­sul­ta­tions on the fed­eral action plan on June 26, 2008 at the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto. About fifty orga­ni­za­tions will be invited to send a rep­re­sen­ta­tive to this ses­sion where they will meet 25 pub­lic ser­vants from the six depart­ments that are viewed as cen­tral to this exer­cise. The CCA has already indi­cated its desire to par­tic­i­pate in this meet­ing. Three other ses­sions will be held across Canada but nei­ther dates nor loca­tions for these meet­ings have yet been announced.

What Can I Do?

The CCA has encour­aged the fed­eral gov­ern­ment to move expe­di­tiously toward the imple­men­ta­tion of the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Blue Rib­bon Panel. The cul­tural sec­tor has a direct stake in the out­come of this exer­cise. If you have views you feel need to be shared, please write to either the Hon. Vic Toews and copy the Her­itage Min­is­ter, the Hon. Josée Verner, Ms. Judith Larocque, Deputy Min­is­ter of the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Heritage.