Highlights from the 2016-17 Departmental Results Reports

January 9, 2018

On November 9, 2017, Scott Brison, President of the Treasury Board, tabled the 2016-17 Departmental Results Reports on behalf of 83 government departments and agencies.

Departmental Results Reports replace the former Departmental Performance Reports, which are part of the Estimates and Supply process. They provide details on an organization’s mandate, commitments and results achieved.

Below are some highlights of interest to the Canadian library and information management community as identified by individual departments and agencies.

Administrative Tribunals Support Service of Canada

Results at a glance

• In 2016-17, the ATSSC conducted functional reviews of various sectors to document work flows, operational processes and procedures. These reviews also assessed knowledge transfer requirements and made recommendations regarding the redesign of work tools or environments where required. This resulted – amongst other things – in enhancements to organizational structures of the secretariats assigned to the tribunals as well as refinements to processes and delivery of travel services. Notably, at the request of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT), the Secretariat worked collaboratively with the Tribunal to restructure its investigative division to significantly improve its capacity to support its growing volume of trade remedy inquiries.
• The ATSSC made enhancements to its service model and facilities such as the modernization of hearing rooms and installation of translation booths; and the onboarding of several tribunal IM/IT environments to the ATSSC network. Initiatives were also undertaken towards creating a paperless workplace, which allowed some tribunals to accept more electronic filings, thereby simplifying administrative procedures and reducing parties’ costs.
• The ATSSC also provided support to tribunals as they continued with their efforts in improving access to justice through the streamlining of their processes and forms and enhancing tribunal website presence to assist those seeking justice in interacting with the tribunals. For example, a tribunal website was refreshed, at the request of the tribunal, with a view to improving accessibility and practice notices designed to reduce the burden on parties were developed and posted for the tribunal.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Operating context and key risks

Key risks

Risks/Opportunity

• Information Management and Technology Risk: The increasing complexity of the information management and technology environments, as well as escalating cybersecurity threats, may increasingly impede the Department’s ability to effectively deliver on its mandate.

Mitigating strategy and effectiveness

• This risk was identified within the 2016–17 Report on Plans and Priorities and is deemed “tolerable with attention required” understanding the response strategies below continue to be implemented.
• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is on track in delivering the overall set of controls. These controls include managing the Department’s business information; identification of long-term information management and information technology requirements for improved planning and infrastructure needs; and managing classified information. In addition, the Department worked with Shared Services Canada to put in place an efficient process to obtain advanced capacity (for example servers, storage) to be used for multiple information management and information technology investments.

Results: what we achieved

Program 3.1: Internal Services

Leverage information and technology capacity to improve business practices

The Department continued to advance information management and information technology solutions in support of Government of Canada and departmental priorities. In collaboration with Shared Services Canada, sensitive information was further safeguarded through the ongoing implementation of the Government of Canada Secret Infrastructure, a government-wide network for sharing classified information. Further security improvements were made including providing encrypted USB devices, securing laptops and workstation ports, and the adoption of a sound travel device policy. Certain modernization initiatives were deferred pending further direction, such as the migration to Government of Canada’s Human Resources System, and applications to enterprise data centres. Efforts on the Open Government Implementation Plan progressed well, with automated tools implemented for publishing data.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada also increased the number of Non-Business Risk Management programs offering online applications which increased digital access to programs and services.

The Department continued to expand its client feedback tools to more programs so clients were given the opportunity to provide ideas to improve the quality of their interactions and provide feedback on design and administration of Grants and Contributions Programs. For example, it mapped client interactions associated with the Market Access Secretariat Services and with the Sector Development and Analysis Market Information Services: both identified the need for easier access to information on available services. This will be one area of service improvement going forward. In addition, the Department held a collaborative design thinking session to improve the design and delivery of the AgriScience Clusters Program. Cluster leads, along with departmental staff, university researchers, and other government departments co-created new approaches to streamlining application requirements, financial reporting and performance and results reporting for the next policy framework, the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

Actual results: what we achieved

Internal Services

To support the Government of Canada’s plan for an open and fair government, the Agency implemented Year 1 requirements of the Open Government Implementation Plan, which included the publication of a data inventory and new data sets on the Government of Canada Open Data Portal.

Canada Border Services Agency

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

In response to the CBSA Information Management (IM) Internal Audit and Office of the Comptroller General (OCG) – Horizontal Internal Audit of Information Management in Large and Small Departments, the IM Program produced a number of products designed to support Agency personnel in meeting their roles and responsibilities for the management of information.

Canada Revenue Agency

Operating context and key risks

Key risks

Risk: Business Intelligence

• There is a risk that the CRA will not strategically manage or govern its data assets and business intelligence to meet the current and future needs of programs, services, and operations.

Mitigating strategy and effectiveness

Business intelligence was identified in the 2016-17 RPP as a key risk under the CRA’s innovation priority. The following are the most recent actions and activities taken to respond to this risk:

• The CRA continued to develop both the Business Intelligence Renewal initiative, and the Managed Metadata Environment project to work toward implementing an integrated “whole of agency” approach to generating and distributing business intelligence and research.

The results of these initiatives will bring new innovative practices to the CRA. Those practices will allow the CRA to enhance its business intelligence capabilities.

Results

Taxpayer and business assistance

Digital services

Canadian taxpayers are seeking increasingly convenient ways to get information to meet their tax obligations and receive their benefit entitlements. To this end, the CRA always looks for ways to meet their needs and expectations by providing information through a variety of means that are convenient and easy to use. The web is the mainstay of the Agency’s communications efforts. In 2016-2017, taxpayers visited the CRA website over 200 million times and downloaded nearly 21 million forms and publications. We have been preparing for a seamless migration to the Canada.ca domain, where taxpayers use improved navigation to access the information they are searching for.

In 2016-2017, the CRA finalized preparations for the transition of all its web content to Canada.ca. For Canadian taxpayers seeking answers to their tax questions on the web, the Taxes tab on Canada.ca provides timely, accurate, and relevant information. We update our web content regularly to improve navigation and clarify information. The Agency also uses web analytics and usability testing to help us understand how Canadians use this information, and to assess and monitor the effectiveness of the content. As part of our efforts to make access to our information as convenient as possible, the CRA’s web content is designed to display on any electronic device: smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer.

Twitter and YouTube

Canadians continue to seek information and updates through innovative platforms, such as videos on the CRA’s YouTube channel and tweets from our Twitter account. We have responded to these demands by expanding the variety and reach of our social media campaigns to better serve taxpayers who choose these media. The CRA uses Twitter as a way to interact with Canadians; it allows us to widely share our web content and YouTube videos about the services we provide. The CRA’s video series on its YouTube channel is available in several languages.

Key Results

In 2016-2017:

• We received over 200 million visits to our webpages
• Nearly 21 million forms and publications available on the web were downloaded
• We posted 32 new or updated videos between April 2016 and March 2017; the English and French videos on our YouTube channels were viewed 156,305 times
• The most-viewed CRA video on YouTube was “Filing online — fast, easy, and secure,” with over 7,000 views, whereas the most viewed video on the CRA website, “How to register for My Account,” was viewed over seven million times
• Since 2015, 75% of all external correspondence has been redesigned to be simpler and clearer

Internal Services

Integrity and security

Canadians rely on the CRA to exercise the highest levels of integrity and security to protect their personal information and they have every right to expect Agency employees will perform their duties fairly and honestly. To this end, the CRA strives to earn the trust of Canadians by incorporating integrity and security considerations into every aspect of its strategic decision-making and daily operations. Through various mechanisms, such as monitoring electronic transactions and using identity and access management tools, the CRA is well equipped to prevent, detect, and mitigate unauthorized access to its systems, as well as to manage employee access to information.

The CRA’s Chief Privacy Officer oversees decisions related to privacy and monitors and champions personal privacy rights, including managing internal privacy breaches and completing privacy impact assessments. In 2016-2017, we completed 22 privacy impact assessments—the most in our history and over five times more than the previous fiscal year.

Integrity and security remained one of the CRA’s most important priorities in 2016-2017, as evidenced by its advancement of the following initiatives:

• Data Security Initiative
• Identity and Access Management project
• National Audit Trail System (NATS) Modernization project

All of these projects aim to protect taxpayer data from unauthorized access. Particularly in regard to the NATS project, the CRA has strengthened the security and confidentiality of taxpayer information by automating its processes to proactively detect, identify, and investigate questionable user transactions using advanced fraud monitoring and detection capabilities.

Information management

The CRA meets its legislative and regulatory obligations, supports decision-making, and fulfils the operational needs of the programs it administers by applying sound information management principles. This also helps the CRA derive value from its information and deliver its programs and services efficiently and effectively.

As the CRA increasingly relies on technology to deliver programs and services, integrating information management requirements into planning becomes even more important in order to ensure the long-term integrity of the CRA’s information, regardless of changes in the organization, movement of employees, changing technology, or changes in the law.

Over the 2016-2017 fiscal year, the CRA’s suite of information management policy instruments was redesigned to better reflect our information management environment. It streamlines information management rules for employees and managers, reducing policy instruments from 22 to eight, and ensures alignment with Government of Canada policy renewal activities, Agency policy simplification efforts, and the current information management strategy.

The CRA set the stage for the launch of the new information management policy and its four new directives to be put into force in April 2017. This new suite allows employees to locate the guidance they need faster and to better understand their roles and responsibilities. It also helps to reduce legal and operational risks to the Agency.

During the CRA’s 2016 Information Management Awareness Week Campaign, we launched a simple tool called the IM Assistant Renaming Tool. It helps employees manage their information by renaming and moving multiple files in one step, in accordance with the CRA’s file naming conventions.

The CRA implemented significant digital services in 2016-2017.

• We prepared for the April 2017 launch of our new information management policy.
• We launched our IM Assistant Renaming Tool, which was downloaded 10,000 times, including by over 7,500 employees during our awareness campaign.

Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

As part of the Agency’s approach to modernizing information management, Phase I of the new Environmental Assessment Management System (EAMS) was successfully rolled out to users in October 2016. EAMS is an innovative project management tracking and repository system that consolidates EA data and documents into a single repository. As a result, the Agency is able to deliver better information on the EA process to colleagues and Canadians. The EAMS project received an Honourable Mention as part of the 2017 Government of Canada Chief Information Officer Council Community Awards.

The migration to the government wide e-mail system ‘YES’ (Your E-mail System) is currently suspended and the Agency has not been provided with a new date for on-boarding. Shared Services Canada launched an interim risk-reduction measure, the Mid-term Email Enhancement Project, in order to refresh the end-of-life email infrastructure.

The Agency continued to harness the power of Blueprint 2020 by successfully implementing initiatives across several areas. For example, knowledge transfer is at the heart of the Agency’s collaborative approach to operational readiness and enables the best use of available talent. One way of sharing information is through the Environmental Assessment Practitioners Portal. This portal makes key knowledge and information available to Agency employees in a convenient and easy to find way. The Portal includes research reports, tools, guidance documents and training material, and is updated on an ongoing basis. This resource keeps Agency employees up-to-date and also facilitates the on-boarding of new project managers and analysts.

The Agency successfully migrated to Canada.ca in December 2016. The Agency also successfully implemented ‘GCDOCS’, the government’s shared information management system.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

In 2014-15, the CFIA developed a three-year plan for increasing internal awareness about privacy protection and developing a suite of policy tools to assist managers and staff in their day-to-day activities. In 2016-17, the CFIA worked on implementing, in two phases, the framework for privacy compliance measurement. This framework will provide a self-assessment tool for the various Agency programs and the Chief Privacy Officer.

Digital Communications

During 2016-17, the CFIA put effort into executing its digital communications implementation plan. The Agency has taken a “digital by default” approach and developed new products to support the organization’s message, including innovative infographics and multiple videos. The Agency also developed a new corporate look, launched in February 2017. The new look represents the core of the Agency, while at the same time modernizing the way it presents itself. The new corporate look is aligned with Treasury Board Secretariat’s federal identity program, which allows the public and stakeholders to easily recognize the CFIA. This consistent visual identity is important in today’s digital world where communications products span many different platforms and media.

The CFIA increased its social media presence by launching a new YouTube channel in September 2016 and developing a strategy for targeted food recalls. This medium helped the Agency reach new audiences and open the conversation with Canadians, resulting in an increase of 42% of CFIA followers on its social media platforms.

The CFIA completed a pilot for the implementation of the e-Retrieval project to optimize access to information services within the Agency, reduce time and cost associated with the retrieval of electronic documents and to provide better service to clients while ensuring compliance with legislative deadlines.

Modernizing and Consolidating Information Technology Applications to Enhance Service and Efficiency

As part of the Government of Canada direction for standardization management of information holdings, the CFIA has been developing products required to transition our document management system to the common Government of Canada documents management system.

Open Government Implementation

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat directive on open government, effective on October 9, 2014, requires that departments and agencies maximize the release of Government of Canada open data and open information. During 2016-17, the CFIA executed the Agency’s open government implementation plan by completing a benchmarking scan of transparency and openness activities by domestic and international counterparts that identified best practices and areas for improvement. In addition, the Agency completed a revised transparency policy, which will provide direction for future transparency and openness activities.

Canadian Heritage

Results at a glance

• Tens of thousands of Canadians demonstrated an interest in the #DigiCanCon consultation on Canadian Content in a Digital World through various channels, including six in-person events held across the country, the Web portal and social media.
  • The results of these consultations were published in a report on February 21, 2017 entitled What we heard across Canada: Canadian Culture in a Digital World. The report will guide the development of a modernized cultural toolkit in 2017.
• Budget 2016 announced an investment of an additional $164.8 million in 2016-17 and 2017-18 in the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, as part of its support for social infrastructure through Phase 1 of the Government’s investing in Canada Plan. In 2016–17, under the CCSF over $145 million of this additional funding was awarded, supporting more than 180 additional projects. In the first year of the plan, the demand for funding was more than 4.7 times greater than the available funds.

Results: what we achieved

Cultural Industries

In Canadian Heritage’s 2016-17 Report on Plans and Priorities, the Cultural Industries Program and its components identified a number of key planning initiatives. During the fiscal 2016-17 year, the Program recorded the following achievements:

• The Minister of Canadian Heritage launched consultations on Canadian Content in a Digital World in September 2016. Tens of thousands of Canadians demonstrated an interest in the #DigiCanCon consultation through various channels, including six in-person events held across the country, the Web portal and social media. The results of these consultations were published in a report on February 21, 2017 entitled “What we heard across Canada: Canadian Culture in a Digital World”. The report will guide the development of a modernized cultural toolkit in 2017;
• Proactive stakeholder engagement on copyright policy took place in advance of upcoming Parliamentary Review of the Copyright Act. This included partnership with the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office on two collaborative events with Canadian music stakeholders to develop innovative music licensing solutions;

In 2016-17, the Program supported the creation and production of a range of cultural content on multiple platforms including books, music, periodicals, film and television. Most of the targets set within this composite indicator were met, with overall results remaining relatively consistent with previous years.   For 2016–17, the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) supported the publication of 790 print and digital periodicals from across Canada. This was 5.3% over the set target of 750 but represents a decrease of 2.6% from the previous year in which 811 titles were supported. While the number of funded titles has declined, diversity of titles has remained relatively stable with 52 ethno-cultural, 29 official language minority communities and 17 Indigenous publications supported. The results demonstrate that these industries continue to consistently produce diverse Canadian cultural content across a range of mediums.

According to data from 2015–16, the funding stream from the Canada Media Fund (CMF) which supports the creation of high quality Canadian television programs and value-added digital convergent content, reported 2.19 million hours tuned in for CMF-supported English language television productions.  This represents an increase of 1.9% from the 2.15 million hours tuned in 2014–15.  Through the Experimental Stream, which encourages the development of innovative digital media content and software applications, the CMF funded a total of 104 applications which is an increase of 44 above the target.  These results demonstrate that CMF-supported productions continue to be successful with Canadian audiences.

The CMF funded projects that enhance the accessibility of Canadian music on digital platforms. For example, the CMF supported the development of platforms that encourage the discoverability of Canadian artists and promote their music, including live performances and products. Other supported projects include the promotion of tools available to music professionals to address the industry wide issue surrounding metadata and provide best practices to improve the efficiency of information gathering throughout the digital distribution chain.

The most recent figure for the cultural industries contribution to Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is $28.67 billion** (Culture Satellite Account, 2014), representing a significant contribution to Canada’s economy.  The original target of $25.5 billion was based on the 2010 data and was exceeded. The cultural industries GDP grew in every subsequent year, showing a progression and demonstrating that cultural industries are a strong component of the Canadian culture GDP.

The Department also delivered a number of policy initiatives in 2016-17. Through the Broadcasting and Digital Communications Sub-Program, the Department continued to support Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) in the analysis and development of policy advice leading to the ISED’s release of the allotment plan and transition schedule announcement, in April 2017, for repurposing the 600 MHz band of spectrum, from broadcasting to commercial mobile use.

Heritage

In Canadian Heritage’s 2016-17 Report on Plans and Priorities, the Heritage Program and its components identified a number of key planning initiatives. During the fiscal 2016-17 year, our Program recorded the following achievements:

• The Museums Assistance Program (MAP) supported 12 projects related to the nation-building milestones on the road to Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017, of which three projects were directly related to Canada’s 150th anniversary. For example, the MAP supported the exhibition “A Story of Canada” presented by the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, in Toronto, Ontario. This exhibition explores 150 years of Canadian history, as shaped by the development of the national railway, and viewed from a First Nations’ perspective. It is currently on exhibition across Canada, showing at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, ON), the Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton, AB), the Glenbow Museum (Calgary, AB), and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery (Charlottetown, PE);
• The Museums Assistance Program supported 17 new projects in its Aboriginal Heritage component. For example, The Rooms Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador, in partnership with the Nunatsiavut Government, received support for a project that will produce and circulate the exhibition SakKijâjuk: Inuit Fine Art and Craft, the first-ever nationally touring exhibition of Nunatsiavut fine art and craft in Canada. The exhibition features approximately 60 multidisciplinary artworks by established and emerging Nunatsiavut artists, with a strong emphasis on Labrador Inuit cultural heritage;
• Young Canada Works received supplemental funding under Budget 2016 through the horizontal Youth Employment Strategy, led by Employment and Social Development Canada. This supplement enabled the creation of 150 additional internships for young Canadian graduates to gain professional experience in museums and related heritage organizations;
• The Canadian Conservation Institute completed the treatment of the Confederation Quilt, thereby making it possible for this important artefact to be returned in time for activities surrounding Canada’s 150th anniversary celebrations at the New Brunswick Museum. It is worth noting that the Canadian public can admire this quilt, which is symbolic of the activities surrounding the founding of Canada, at New Brunswick’s Kings County Museum. It also serves as the main element of the Government of New Brunswick’s official poster commemorating Canada’s 150th anniversary;
• The Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) continued its experimentation with open data as part of its efforts to improve access to Canadian cultural and heritage collections. Thanks to a collaboration with four museums located in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, and a partnership with Canadiana, CHIN’s Linked Data Test Site is opening paths to information about Canadian works of art and a wide range of collections in the humanities, including archaeology, ethnology, and social history;
• The Government of Canada Survey of Heritage Institutions (PDF Version, 138 KB) (GCSHI) was conducted by the Department. The 2015 GCSHI survey report was officially published and released to the public on April 11, 2016. The survey captured data on more than 1,600 heritage institutions, or 62.7% of the heritage sector. The report is available online

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

Continued to support the Government of Canada’s Directive on Open Government by providing greater public access to its data (such as program logs submitted by television broadcasters, or a registration list of telecommunications providers proposing to provide local voice services) via the Government of Canada’s Open Data Portal;

Canadian Space Agency

Results: what we have achieved

Internal Services

The CSA has implemented two three-year strategies, one for the Information Management (IM) section and another for the Information Technology (IT) section, both including the new governmental initiatives. The most important new IM/IT initiative was the establishment of the Open Government initiative. In this direction, the objectives of making a CSA datasets inventory and publishing it on the Open Government portal were achieved.

Correctional Service Canada

Operating context and key risks

Risk

• There is a risk that CSC will not be able to respond to the complex, diverse and evolving profile of the offender population

Mitigating strategy and effectiveness

Conduct research to offer empirical and fact-based information to be used by decision makers to inform policies and guidelines. In 2016–17, CSC conducted research focusing on:

• Mitigating the threat of violent extremist offenders in federal correctional institutions.
• Estimating the prevalence of mental disorders among women offenders and conducting a review of suicide risk assessment instruments.
• The unique needs of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit offenders to inform effective corrections.

Ensure that the Information Management (IM)/ Information Technology (IT) plan reflects CSC’s need to manage a complex population.

• The CSC and Parole Board of Canada (PBC) IM/IT Business Plan 2017–2020 has been developed to address the needs of a complex offender population. Projects have included the launch of the Offender Management System modernization, and the strengthening of offender health services data collection, management, and results reporting through multiple initiatives.

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

CSC remained committed to enhancing practices in the areas of Financial Management, IM/IT, and Contracting and Materiel Management. Particular attention was given to keeping with the Minister of Public Safety’s commitment with respect to Open Government. Recognizing the importance of IM/IT in its future plans, CSC elaborated and advanced its IM/IT strategic direction through a set of defined initiatives.

Courts Administration Service

Operating context and key risks

Risk:

• Information Management– There is a risk of loss of hard copy and digital records.

Mitigating strategy and effectiveness

• Document Management System:
  • Investment in a Document Management System was delayed due to insufficient resources.
  • Identified issues related to storage space and occupational health and safety at the court records storage facility, and initiated plans to address them.

Information Management

There is a risk of loss of hard copy and digital records.

This risk is driven by the changing and complex business environment; the need to improve the efficiency of business processes; the two distinct governance structures for information management – for CAS and the Courts; the need to update and implement a modern electronic document management system capable of meeting CAS’ needs; regulatory requirements; the need to deliver new services; and stakeholders’ demand for new technological solutions.

To mitigate this risk in 2016–17 and ensure the proper alignment of information management with modern principles, practices, and standards CAS developed a plan to adopt and implement, in a phased approach, a new document management system (DMS) for the creation, storage, maintenance and disposition of information. However, due to limited resources, plans for the deployment of a new DMS were not pursued in 2016–17.

Results: what we achieved

Program: Registry Services

In addition, sustained pressure on the Courts from legal professionals and litigants to facilitate the delivery of services within an electronic environment continued to impact the work of the registries and the Courts. In an effort to move towards a digital environment to replace the paper-based systems currently used, CAS continued in 2016–17 to develop requirements for a fully integrated CRMS and explored funding options. A modern CRMS would allow for efficiencies resulting from e-filing of court documents and automating workflows. It would also improve the gathering of data to support CAS’ performance measures.

Department of Finance Canada

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

For 2016–17, the Department identified two management priorities related to information management (IM) and information technology (IT): ensure a secure and reliable IT infrastructure, and implement a collaborative, client-focused approach for IM.

On the first priority, a secure and reliable IT infrastructure, the Department increased the security posture of the dual network by implementing technical and operational controls, including a secure file transfer protocol and secure corporate storage devices; formalized its IT Security Program through the approval of a new departmental policy and the development of other policy instruments; and started leveraging the Government of Canada Secret Infrastructure.

On the second priority, a collaborative, client-focused approach for IM, the Department made progress in implementing its approved IM Strategy, which aims to increase IM capacity and improve IM services (including collaboration, workflow, digitalization, document management and recordkeeping), through the implementation of a joint collaborative platform (SharePoint) and document management system (GCDOCS). The implementation of the SharePoint and GCDOCS solution will enhance the Department’s recordkeeping capabilities and make progress toward compliance with the Treasury Board Directive on Recordkeeping and requirements for electronic disposition.

The Department demonstrated its commitment to maximizing the release of data to Canadians by ensuring that as many datasets as possible were released on a timely basis, including those used in annual federal budgets. These supplement the datasets that the Department had previously released, such as historical fiscal reference tables and results from surveys of private sector economic forecasters. The Department of Finance Canada is one of the top departments for published datasets.

Department of Justice Canada

Results: what we achieved

Program 1.1: Stewardship of the Canadian Legal Framework

Public Law

Justice provided policy support for the Government’s review of the Access to Information Act, including the commitment to apply the law appropriately to administrative bodies that support the federal courts. In March 2016, the Department consulted with the Office of the Registry of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Courts Administration Service, the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs, and the Canadian Judicial Council to begin discussions on how to meet this commitment. In addition, Justice provided assistance relating to the protection of personal information in the public sector, including a review of the Privacy Act.

Internal Services

In alignment with Government of Canada priorities, Justice supported enterprise solutions such as GCDOCs and Shared Case Management and is implementing a new Legal Case Management System (LCMS), providing more integrated and consistent performance information on legal services and better reporting and resource management. Furthermore, the first phase of “Open by Default” was launched in 2016-17 in support of Open Government, providing broader access across Justice to information and documents. To strengthen cybersecurity, Justice implemented the Government of Canada Secure Remote Access (GCSRA), took measures to prepare Justice to migrate to GC Identity and Credential and Access Management Services, and is piloting the GC Secret Infrastructure Network (GCSI). Furthermore, Justice contributed to other Government of Canada initiatives such as data centre consolidation.

The implementation of Blueprint 2020 was actively supported by Justice in 2016-17 through various initiatives, including further implementation of the Information@Justice Strategy. The Digital Workspace has been rolled out to all employees to promote collaboration, streamline Departmental business processes, achieve efficiencies, and enhance productivity. To support and promote inclusiveness for the 1,400 Justice employees who are co-located in the offices of other federal departments to whom they provide legal services, the Departmental Legal Service Units Connectivity project was launched, and has been successful in better connecting a first wave of Justice employees.

Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces

Results: what we achieved

Program 4.0: Defence Capability Element Production

Information Systems

We have made progress in supporting defence priorities, including:

• Enhancing IT security capabilities including monitoring, detection, and controls;
• Enabling, through interoperability development, secure information exchange between Canada and its allies;
• Consolidating IT service and processes to improve service delivery across Defence and better enable the conduct of Cyber operations;
• Delivering a foundational business intelligence/analytics infrastructure and specific capabilities in support of departmental priorities, such as enhanced support to CAF members and veterans; and
• Enhancing the operational effectiveness of the CAF by sustaining current C4ISR capabilities and delivering new or enhanced capabilities through better integration, interoperability, and security.

Internal Services

Communications

We are leading the National Security and Defence theme on the Government of Canada’s website – Canada.ca – in collaboration with partner departments and agencies. Specific sections of the information architecture for this theme were tested with users to help make it easier for visitors to find information and services. The testing involved the sections on jobs with the CAF, operations and exercises, and Defence equipment purchases and upgrades.

In 2016-17, in support of the Government of Canada’s Web renewal initiative, we:

• Created over 50 new topic and 20 new destination pages in each language for the National Security and Defence theme on Canada.ca;
• Developed and validated the list of top user tasks for the Defence pages with data analysis to ensure the information most often sought by visitors is easily accessible; and
• Finalized a plan to get visitors oriented to and using the new Defence pages at Canada.ca.

Employment and Social Development Canada

Operating context and key risks

Risks

• Privacy/Security of Personal Information
  There is an inherent risk of privacy breach that could have a significant impact on affected citizens given the nature of the Department’s work and the need for a very high level of security safeguards.

Mitigating strategy and effectiveness

• ESDC continued implementation of the Departmental Privacy Program including: development and implementation of a risk-based approach to Privacy Impact Assessment identification, prioritization and completion; enhanced strategic planning; development of a privacy analytics framework; and integration of Privacy by Design in major projects.
• ESDC continued to use Shared Services Canada Internet gateways to adequately monitor and protect departmental networks.
• ESDC expanded privacy awareness through Privacy Awareness Month (May) and providing ongoing privacy training to members of the Major Projects and Investment Board and employees through the delivery of both in-person and online sessions such as the mandatory online Stewardship of Information and Effective Workplace Behaviours program, and the online certification program Privacy and Access to Information – It’s Everybody’s Business.
• Physical and digital vulnerabilities were consistently identified and assessed against business impact and employee and public safety, resulting in proactive remediation plans. All necessary groups were notified with the handling of all vulnerabilities. The Department actively managed the vulnerability life cycle through the monitoring of vendor-supplied items, ongoing scanning of the enterprise for early detection of vulnerabilities, investigating and assessing government-wide security advisories and ensuring that all detected vulnerabilities were managed and resolved in a timely fashion.
• The IT Service Continuity Program implementation was continued to ensure that all critical services have up-to-date IT Technical Service Continuity Plans in place.
• A Security Communications Plan and processes have been established for national guidance and direction in preparing for the continued delivery of services and benefits to Canadians.
• Common monitoring and reporting tools and practices are being developed to identify risks, address security readiness levels and align the Portfolio Business Continuity critical services and their supporting IT applications.
• Plans continue to be tested and lessons learned applied to improve business continuity plans to ensure the delivery of mission-critical services.
• The Department continues to identify and assess physical vulnerabilities as part of various ongoing security activities. These include the Security Threat Landscape, Physical Security Posture, Threat and Risk Assessments and Physical Security Inspections. These activities assist in establishing remediation plans.

Results: What we achieved

Program 1.1: Service network supporting government departments

As the principal publisher for the Government of Canada website, Canada.ca, ESDC has supported Treasury Board Secretariat as the policy lead for Canada.ca. Canada.ca provides an enhanced, citizen-centred site with a common Government of Canada search functionality that allows Canadians to locate general information on all Government of Canada programs and services and detailed information on the programs and services offered through ESDC.

The Government of Canada now has one website (Canada.ca) pointing to information and services across the whole of Government, and including content from an increasing number of institutions and one social media platform that manages over 3,000 social media accounts consistently across 65 departments. The single web platform provides greater security, 100 percent availability to date and faster speed for users. Since its launch on this platform in December 2015, Canada.ca has provided uninterrupted service to Canadians. Canada.ca also has a new newsroom used by 74 institutions to communicate government priorities and announcements, and a new web analytics platform used by over 30 institutions to help understand and optimize usage of the website. The search functionality now supports the internal search on Canada.ca and nearly all other governmental websites (over 80 institutions use it). As well, over 20 institutions have adopted the Canada.ca template for over 40 business applications (i.e. jobbank.gc.ca, weather.gc.ca) and are managing this template using an automated tool led by ESDC.

With respect to ESDC’s own online presence, the Department successfully completed its own move to Canada.ca in January 2017. Over 60 of ESDC’s programs and services— 9,500 institutional pages for ESDC, the Labour Program, Service Canada and seven commissions, tribunals, councils and panels—can now be accessed through one site on Canada.ca. With 62 business applications taking on the Canada.ca template, users see just one “website” instead of seeing 26 different “websites” as they did two years ago or 42 different “websites” as they did in 2011.

5.1 Internal services

Priority 11

Manage information and data to ensure they are usable and accessible to all areas of ESDC as appropriate and establish a systematic process for converting raw data into usable information and, ultimately, valuable knowledge:

Integrate Open Government considerations, including open data, open information and open dialogue, into policy, program and service delivery designDuring fiscal year 2016 to 2017, ESDC focused on open information activities that could potentially address the Department’s increasing access to information requests (in fiscal year 2016 to 2017, ESDC experienced a 44 percent increase in the number of access to information requests from the previous fiscal year).ESDC developed evidence-based analysis to help identify open information opportunities. This analysis identified the frequent requests that are the major contributors to ESDC’s access to information volumes/workload.As part of the Open Government Initiative for the Department, ESDC publicly released its 2015 Open Government Implementation Plan in March 2017.

Develop policies to strengthen the Privacy Management Framework and integrate privacy considerations into policy, program and service delivery design.In fiscal year 2016 to 2017, ESDC continued to make important progress on the implementation of its privacy management priorities by:

• providing advice and guidance to program areas on over 126 Information Sharing Arrangements and assisting in the completion of over 26;
• providing department-wide privacy training and awareness activities to over 2,000 employees (in person and online); and
• integrating Privacy by Design into the Portfolio Management Process by providing training sessions on Privacy Impact Assessments.

Establish a Chief Data Officer function to maximize the use of the Department’s data assets in analysis of programs, policies and services and enhance interoperability across the organizationESDC has recently appointed its first Chief Data Officer to maximize the value of the Department’s business assets and advance the oversight of data management and information sharing practices across ESDC. Work has progressed on ESDC’s first enterprise-wide data strategy that will align the Department’s data initiatives and stakeholders to achieve a vision where everyone has access to data when they need it, providing that personal and sensitive information can be kept secure.Complete the move of all ESDC content to Canada.ca and work with departmental partners to improve content and methods of accessTreasury Board Secretariat and ESDC were able to advance the work on the functionality of the Canada.ca site. ESDC successfully launched the Managed Web Service, and 13 institutions have been migrated into the Canada.ca site.

With respect to ESDC’s own online presence (i.e. ESDC/Service Canada/Labour Program), the Department successfully completed its own move to Canada.ca in January 2017. It then shared lessons learned and best practices with Treasury Board Secretariat and other Government of Canada partners in support of the Web Renewal Initiative.

Implement the departmental Electronic Documents and Records Management SystemThe Action Information Management project is a major departmental transformation project which includes three distinct, yet related, components: changes in thinking and culture (as it relates to ESDC information); changes in information handling; and changes in technology (GCDOCS).In fiscal year 2016 to 2017, approval was received to implement GCDOCS as ESDC’s enterprise electronic document and records management solution. The GCDOCS Training Environment was delivered, Public Services and Procurement Canada installed GCDOCS and accessibility testing began in December/January of fiscal year 2016 to 2017.The Enterprise Information Management (EIM) Program refresh was initiated in fiscal year 2016 to 2017 to provide a strategic vision and a strategy for the implementation of a robust enterprise-wide information management program. To date, extensive workshops and consultations have been held with the information management leads throughout the organization.

Environment and Climate Change Canada

Results: what we achieved

Program 1.2: Water resources

The Department provided the public with quality of freshwater, from monitoring stations across Canada. Over 30 data sets were made available through the Government of Canada’s Open Data Portal.

ECCC released an updated water website (in January 2017). The site reflects the Department’s work to better understand and meet stakeholders’ needs for data and information, as recommended in a 2014–15 evaluation of the Hydrological Service and Water Survey program. The site provides hydrometric data (for example, on water levels and flow) to help protect the health and safety of Canadians, especially during flood season or during extreme rain, snow or other events. Other improvements to stakeholder engagement include regular and frequent meetings of the National Administrators Table, revitalizing workshops, surveys and the Canada Water Resources annual meeting.

Internal Services

ECCC continued to support Canada’s Open Government Agenda by ensuring that strong systems are in place to gather, collect, communicate and disseminate information.

Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario

Operating context and key risks

FedDev Ontario recognizes the importance of having information technology and information management systems and infrastructure that are sufficiently integrated and/or adaptable to support client/user needs and program/business processes. Not having access to timely, complete, consistent and accurate information could affect the Agency’s ability to meet legislative responsibilities and could diminish its organizational efficiency and effectiveness, as well as the quality of its decision‑making. In 2016–17, FedDev Ontario continued to implement information management systems and practices in support of effective information management, openness and transparency. This included the completion of the Recordkeeping Implementation Action Plan on March 31, 2017 and the continuation of the Open Government Implementation Plan, scheduled to be completed in October 2019. The Agency also collaborated with other federal partners on the development of a Grants and Contributions Program Management (GCPM) system that is on‑track for delivery by March 2019.

Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada

Operating context and key risks

Risk:

• Security and Privacy – The protection of information that FINTRAC receives, analyzes and discloses is an integral part of the Centre’s mandate.

Risk response strategy

• FINTRAC employs a comprehensive suite of safeguards and controls to address security and privacy risk from both internal and external threats. Some of the most important of these include:
  • FINTRAC’s Personnel Security Program ensures that all personnel and contractors are screened to appropriate levels;
  • Security policies and procedures, and mandatory training and awareness activities are established to secure the Centre’s information and systems. Access controls are also implemented to secure FINTRAC’s facilities and infrastructure;
  • A Privacy Management Framework is in place to ensure that privacy protection is reflected in all aspects of program operations;
  • Information Management and Security programs provide direction and guidance on the capture, storage, protection, access to, classification, dissemination and eventual disposition of all information at FINTRAC; and
  • Review of security safeguards to ensure they are performing as expected.

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

In 2016–17, FINTRAC continued to make steady progress in the implementation of the multi-year plan for the modernization of its analytics system, including the formation of a Technical Working Group to proactively address technical risks and the preparation of data for ingestion. Schedule changes were necessary due to a number of factors, most notably the identification of additional complexities in the historical data ingestion process, which has resulted in a reset of timelines of some planned deployments. While the project is still on schedule for full completion by fiscal year 2018–19, the implementation phase of the project will need to continue into the spring of 2018.

Additionally, in collaboration Shared Services Canada, FINTRAC developed a new IM/IT Strategy and Roadmap for 2017–20 to define the vision and path to continuous improvement and growth of services provided to internal and external partners.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Results: What We Achieved

Internal Services

The Department prepared for the implementation of the Government of Canada Electronic Document Records Management Enterprise Solution (GCDocs), which is scheduled for 2017-18, by completing DFO’s Data Inventory, providing training and workshops to over 1,000 participants, and completing initial GCDocs onboarding activities for select areas within the Department.

In another migration project, the Department ensured that 75 percent of the content on its website was ready to be migrated to consolidated Government of Canada websites, thereby remaining on track to meet the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s (TBS) target of completing the migration by December 31, 2017. DFO is currently awaiting an onboarding date from TBS.

Global Affairs Canada

Operating Context and Key Risks

Corporate Risk 2: Cyber Threats and Exfiltration of Information (2016-17 Report on Plans and Priorities)

Link to the Organization’s Programs: All programs

A cyber-attack, exfiltration of information or limitations of government-wide systems could result in a breach of information held by the Government of Canada, leading to denial of service and creating a perception that Global Affairs Canada is not to be trusted with sensitive information.

Risk Response Strategy

Health Canada

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

Real Property, Information Management and Information Technology

The multi-departmental single window project to increase usage of a single window through which importers can electronically submit information necessary to comply with government import regulations [led by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)] was officially closed on March 31, 2017. Health Canada, along with CBSA and other participating government departments, engaged with industry multiple times throughout the year and anticipate live transactions to begin by fall 2017. A final release is set for production in June 2017 that will improve reporting and implement some enhancements to the system. National retraining for users is planned for August and September of 2017 to prepare for live transactions.

The Department made progress in modernizing the workplace with continued implementation of a number of projects, including: modernized workspaces, kitchenettes, meeting rooms and collaborative areas; preliminary work on the implementation of the GCDOCS records management system including a pilot project; and, continued work with Public Services and Procurement Canada to address current pay modernization challenges which impact the implementation of the My Government of Canada Human Resources system.

Communications

Health Canada used business intelligence gathered from sources such as media monitoring, social media performance, and analysis of media habits of target audiences to inform decisions on how to better communicate with clients, stakeholders and Canadians on matters affecting them.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

Operating context and key risks

Risk 2. Management of information and data

There is a risk that sensitive IRCC information or personal information that IRCC holds could be stolen, inadvertently compromised, lost or improperly shared or managed, or that IRCC will not be able to access required information or data in a timely manner, which could significantly impact IRCC’s service delivery, clients and reputation.

Mitigating strategy and effectiveness

• Implemented a Privacy Framework to enhance governance and review the process for managing privacy breaches.
• Undertook increased information management learning and awareness activities and security sweeps of IRCC offices to enhance the prevention of privacy and data breaches.
• Implemented a departmental Security and Intelligence Strategy to improve access to the information required to make informed policy and operational decisions.
• Implemented significant data loss prevention measures to better safeguard IRCC’s information holdings.

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

Preparing for the Future – Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics uses data, statistics, and other information to make predictions about future events. IRCC has used its extensive data holdings to test how predictive analytics could make improvements in areas such as the prioritization of resources, fraud detection and improving client service. Predictive analytics pilot projects will continue in 2017–2018 with the goal of it becoming a key component of Departmental operations in the future.

Increasing demand for back office services

The Department experienced a significant (10%) increase (from 2015–2016) in Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) requests, and remains the federal department with the highest level of ATIP requests. In response, IRCC continued to streamline its processes, provided additional training for employees, and reviewed its client service standards and practices.

Building trust in government by managing security, fraud and privacy

In 2016–2017, the Department also implemented a privacy framework that sets out a new approach and key responsibilities for privacy protection, as well as common standards and practices for the handling of personal information and managing privacy risks.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

As part of INAC’s commitment to open government, an initial data inventory list and release process was developed, and 19 datasets were uploaded to the Open Government Portal — including the 2016–2017 Targeted Investments in First Nations Community Infrastructure dataset, covering INAC-funded infrastructure projects on reserve.

Technology also plays a critical role in transforming client service delivery. INAC successfully deployed the Government of Canada’s enterprise document and records management systems (known as GCDOCS) within regional records offices, with rollout at national headquarters to follow. In addition, the evaluation, development and re-development of new business systems are now performed using a common platform (Shared Case Management System), while INAC’s Modern Treaty Management Environment was implemented in March 2017, replacing the Treaty Obligations Management System.

Infrastructure Canada

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

In support of openness and transparency, the Department continued to deliver on the Open Government Implementation Plan by posting program datasets on the departmental website. An interactive investments map and a project tracking tool was added to the departmental website, providing Canadians with timely and accurate information about programs and initiatives. As well, proactive disclosures information was migrated from the departmental website to the Open Government Portal website (Canada.ca website).

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

Results at a glance

• ISED supported a comprehensive review of federal support for fundamental science to ensure that the Government of Canada provides strategic, effective support that meets the needs of researchers. The report, produced by an expert panel, was submitted on April 10, 2017, and its recommendations will help strengthen Canada’s international standing in fundamental science and ensure that researchers and scientists have the tools, training and support needed to excel globally. The Department also launched a national campaign to encourage young women to enter science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. The campaign provides material that parents, teachers and mentors can use to support women who see a future for themselves in research. In addition, through its contributions to the Canada Foundation for Innovation and by delivering the Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund, ISED provided support for universities and colleges to attract and retain the best and brightest researchers from around the world by giving them access to cutting-edge research tools and innovation infrastructure.
• ISED received more than 300 applications for the Connecting Canadians program, from which 87 projects were approved. By 2019, the program will provide approximately 300,000 households with extended and enhanced broadband service at a minimum target speed of 5 megabits per second. The Department also launched the Connect to Innovate program, which will invest up to $500 million by 2021 to extend and enhance broadband service in rural and remote communities across Canada.

Results: what we achieved

Program name: Marketplace Competition and Investments

To enhance predictability for marketplace participants in the digital economy, the Bureau conducted an extensive review of allegations that Google contravened the Competition Act’s abuse of dominance provisions. The Bureau found that Google intended to exclude competitors by using anti-competitive clauses in search advertising contracts. These concerns were resolved when Google agreed to change its contracts to give advertisers more flexibility to use competing advertising platforms.

Program name: Spectrum, Telecommunications and the Digital Economy

The construction of the CRC’s Big Data Analytics Centre was completed in 2016–17 . This state-of-the-art facility has leading edge visualization capabilities enabling CRC researchers to pursue progressive ideas like big data analytics and artificial intelligence in a cloud environment, supporting sustainable spectrum management that can ultimately lead to innovation and prosperity for Canadians. It includes spaces for collaboration, demonstrations and interactive learning and is being used for these purposes with industry, academia and other government departments. The Centre is also available to other government science-based departments for their own research purposes.

Program name: Science, Technology and Innovation Capacity

In June 2016, the Minister of Science launched a comprehensive review of federal support for fundamental science to ensure that the Government of Canada provides strategic, effective support that meets the needs of researchers. This includes achieving the right balance between funding for talent, research, and research infrastructure. The review is intended to provide advice on how to maintain and strengthen Canada’s international standing in fundamental science and ensure that researchers and scientists have the tools, training and support needed to excel globally.

ISED launched a national campaign to encourage young women to enter science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. The campaign provides material—such as easy, home-based experiments and citizen science projects—that parents, teachers and mentors can use to support women who see a future for themselves in research.

The Department supported the Minister of Science in engaging domestic and international stakeholders on the design and mandate of the position of Chief Science Advisor. The input provided was crucial in facilitating the development of a proposal to the Prime Minister for a Chief Science Advisor, in line with international best practices. The Department worked with the Privy Council Office to launch a merit-based selection process, which will result in an appointment decision by the fall of 2017.

The Department also continued to work with the federal granting councils and science-based departments and agencies to maximize access to federally-funded scientific research. In partnership with Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Department co-led on the development of an Open Science commitment in the new Open Government Action Plan, launched in July 2016. The Department also co-led on Canada’s participation in a G7 Open Science Working Group.

Program name: Community Economic Development

In 2016–17, ISED continued to implement the Connecting Canadians program, which received and reviewed more than 300 applications, from which 87 projects were approved. Once completed, by 2019, the selected projects will provide approximately 300,000 households with extended and enhanced broadband service at a minimum target speed of 5 megabits per second.

Through the Computers for Schools program, the Department continued to improve access to computer equipment for Canadians. As part of the program, ISED contributed to the #WelcomeRefugees initiative by delivering 7,567 computers to Syrian refugees and resettlement organizations. In total, the Computers for Schools program provided 74,896 refurbished computers to schools and non-profit organizations, including those that support low-income Canadians, seniors, Indigenous communities, and new Canadians.

Internal Services

ISED began the operational deployment of GCDOCS information management system in 2016–17, with approximately 20 percent of shared drive-hosted files migrated by March 31, 2017.

Library and Archives Canada

Military Grievances External Review Committee

Results at a glance

• Prepared for the implementation of a new version of the Committee’s case management system
• Completed the implementation of the Web Renewal Initiative
• Implemented the Government of Canada common file plan

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

Exploratory work began during this period to determine how the Committee’s information management system (GCDocs) could be leveraged to automate processes, incorporate electronic signatures, and reduce paper usage and administrative steps to result in greater efficiency and productivity. This work has also included evaluating how the Committee manages and ensures the security of its information.

As part of the Treasury Board Secretariat’s Web Renewal Initiative, the Committee’s web content was migrated to the centralized canada.ca website in November 2016. This was the conclusion of a three-year project that started with the Committee being selected to participate in the pilot project (Pathfinder). As noted above, technical difficulties have made the Committee unable to publish all of its communications materials on canada.ca.

In addition, the Committee implemented the Government of Canada Information Management Common Core file plan into its document management system (GCDocs), bringing it in line with government information management practices, and requiring significant cleanup of documents and email stores.

Military Police Complaints Commission

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

As directed by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the MPCC focused on its Recordkeeping policies and practices in order to better transition into its Open Government Implementation Plan.

National Energy Board

Operating context and key risks

Risk:

• Alignment of Information Technology/ Information Management (IT/IM) plans and business strategies

Mitigating strategy and effectiveness

• Piloted an Information Management and Architecture portfolio management process, focused on capacity planning and annual budget plans.
• Established a Data Management Committee of executives and Chief Information Officer to provide oversight and guidance on data management.
• Risk identified in the 2016–17 RPP
• Strategies reduced risk exposure

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

During the past year the NEB has prioritized an “Enterprise-First, Architecture-Principled and Data-Driven Approach” in our Information Technology and Information Management (IM/IT) services, piloting an Information Management and Architecture portfolio management process focused on capacity planning and budget strategies. The new portfolio management process has increased NEB planning efficiency by identifying common business requirements and consolidating efforts. It also ensures that all IT/ IM investments support the Departmental Results Framework and are aligned with the Enterprise Architecture Framework.

In conjunction with this, the NEB’s IM/IT services have also been reviewed and adapted to incorporate Shared Services Canada’s evolving mandate, as well as to support the Canada’s Action Plan on Open Government. Working with the Treasury Board Secretariat on the Canada.ca Web Renewal Initiative, the NEB’s web team launched Web Experience Toolkit 4.0, which was an important milestone towards readying our site for full content migration to the Canada.ca site.

National Research Council of Canada

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

A restructuring exercise in 2016‑17 led to the integration of two NRC branches responsible for knowledge, information and technology services as well as access to information and privacy. The consolidated branch deployed a document collaboration platform, published data sets on the Government of Canada Open portal, strengthened NRC’s record-keeping practices, and improved employee skills in information and data security.

Natural Resources Canada

Results at a glance

Making world-class science available to Canadians: NRCan is a science department and our work provides hard data for evidence-based decision-making. In the spirit of transparency, accountability and engagement with Canadians, we have made information publicly available through the Open Government initiative. Tools such as the Federal Geospatial Platform provide publicly available information, including socioeconomic and environmental data, to Canadians through the Open Maps portal.

Results: what we achieved

Program 1.2: Innovation for New Products and Processes

In the area of geospatial data, NRCan:

• Provided increased and more efficient access to geospatial data and tools to Canadians, improving how data are updated and provided to clients and strengthening the alignment of web services. NRCan also worked with the provinces and territories under the National Elevation Data Strategy to prepare new accurate elevation data products and services, which are used to build high-resolution maps and geospatial analysis. Under the North American Cooperation on Energy Information (NACEI) initiative with the United States and Mexico, NRCan also added new data layers for energy infrastructure maps and updated web services. These initiatives are consistent with Federal Geospatial Platform (FGP) and Open Government initiatives aimed at providing access to the federal government’s most relevant geospatial information;
• Provided geospatial expert advice for decision-making and economic growth, including for the University of Sherbrooke’s Lake Pulse project on Canadian lakes, which is designed to help manage and conserve freshwater resources. NRCan also developed a multidimensional processing methodology for mapping ground deformations that is used by researchers around the world; and
• Expanded the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) for increased connections across geospatial data sources and as well as improved data access and use. Through the GeoConnections program, NRCan:
  • Engaged with the Open Geospatial Consortium to help strengthen the availability of Arctic data and influence information management practices by the Arctic Council;
  • Supported the creation of GeoAlliance Canada to help strengthen Canada’s geomatics community and address strategic priorities for the geomatics sector; and
  • Funded Canadian companies like SensorUp Inc., Open North and AMITA Corporation to advance CGDI objectives in Smart City deployment.

Program 3.2: Landmass Information

• Modernizing the Canada Lands Survey System through the digitization of over 100,000 documents in the Canada Lands Survey Records and shifting to electronic processes to reduce wait times for Canadians seeking regulatory approvals of legal survey documents;
• Digitizing 200,000 aerial photographs of Canada’s landmass currently housed in NRCan’s National Air Photo Library (NAPL). These original photographs provide historic value and support information requirements on historical land use for litigation, emergency response and environmental protection;

Internal Services

Openness and transparency

As part of its efforts to increase capacity to engage with stakeholders, foster greater transparency and accountability, share knowledge and report on performance, NRCan:

• Made significant progress in advancing Open Government Initiative, by:
  • Contributing to the Government of Canada’s (GC) open data portal by providing data sets that account for 90% of all data on the Portal.
  • Leading the Federal Geospatial Platform (FGP), interface with the GC portal, including the open maps
  • Launching the Federal Science Library (FSL), a one-stop, self-serve web portal that allows for sharing of scientific knowledge, and makes government research and data resources available to all Canadians.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Results: what we achieved

Program 1.2 – Discovery: Advancement of Knowledge

Research results are mainly published in peer-reviewed journals, books and conference proceedings. These publications provide a measure of discovery and knowledge generation by researchers at the leading edge of their fields. Publication output is a good indicator of the immediate outcome of NSERC research funding, and can be used to benchmark Canada’s performance against the rest of the world.

Canadian research publication productivity is very high; the country ranked 2nd in the G20 on the per capita output of peer-reviewed journal publications in the NSE in 2015. Canada occupied the 11th position in terms of overall number of publications produced in 2015 by the G20.

The high quality and impact of Canadian research is evident in its ranking among top countries on the average number of times Canadian peer-reviewed publications are cited by other researchers. Citations are a measure of the knowledge flow and influence of a researcher’s work. Based on the number of citations received by scientific papers over the three years following the publication year, a standardized measure known as the Average Relative Citation factor is calculated for each country for international comparison purposes. Based on the most current data available (2015), Canada sits in 7th position in the G20.

Canada produces four percent of the world’s science and engineering publications. As such, it is important for Canadian researchers to access the latest knowledge and expertise from across Canada and the world. Collaborative research facilitates knowledge transfer and sharing among individuals, institutions, and nations. One indicator of this activity is the number of Canadian publications co-authored with foreign researchers. About 56 percent of Canadian publications in the NSE in 2015 had a foreign collaborator, and this percentage has been growing every year over the past decade.

Funding through the Discovery Grants (DG) Program allows Canada to build a solid capacity for basic research across a broad spectrum of natural sciences and engineering disciplines.

The 2016 competition awarded Discovery Grants to 369 early-career researchers and 1,725 established researchers. The success rate (number of awards divided by the number of applicants) for the 2016 competition was 66.1 percent. NSERC continues to promote and maintain a diversified base of high quality research capacity as well as support the development of early-career researchers.

Internal Services

In 2016-17, NSERC continued to post annual award and funding results datasets (by award, co-applicant and partner) on the Government of Canada’s Open Data website. As per the directive on Open Government, a methodology for creating and maintaining comprehensive inventories of data and information resources to determine their eligibility and priority was established and approved by senior management. An approval process for the release of open data and open information resources was implemented. Moreover, NSERC is participating in a Tri-agency Open Data working group led by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in order to increase the comparability of the data collected and released by each funding agency, and to explore opportunities for a harmonized approach to our respective Open Government commitments.

Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada

Results at a glance

• Finalized the implementation of an electronic management system (GCDOCS).

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

Information management: FJA completed the implementation of the Management Action Plan on the Office of the Comptroller General Horizontal Audit on Electronic Record Keeping. FJA has updated the Information Architecture, revised the existing file structures, identified all Information Resources of Business Value, identified retention periods and security requirements, and undertaken a clean-up exercise of older legacy information and migrated almost all of its electronic information holdings to GCDOCS.

Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada

Operating context and key risks

Risk

• Breaches of secure information This is critical for preserving confidentiality and maintaining trust in the Office. Sensitive or private information must be protected from potential loss or inappropriate access in order to avoid potential litigation, damaged reputation and further reluctance in coming forward. This risk was identified in the 2016-17 report on plans and priorities.

Mitigating strategy and effectiveness

• The Office has ongoing practices aimed at ensuring the security of information, which include security briefings and confidentiality agreements, random information security checks within premises, and controlled access for the storage of sensitive information.
• No security issues occurred in 2016-17 and work to mitigate this risk will continue in 2017-18.

Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada

Registrar’s Message

During the course of the last fiscal year, the Office continued to place a high priority on pursuing its business transformation efforts in order to pursue its work towards (i) the improvement of electronic access to the Court’s case files and information, (ii) making court operations more efficient and (iii) ensuring the long term preservation of Court data and information.

Results: what we achieved

Program name: 1.1 Court Operations

The Supreme Court of Canada has a consistent record of meeting its objectives in processing cases without delay, providing effective access to Court services and programs, including reference information, and providing reliable courtroom services.  At the same time, the Office has maintained stakeholder satisfaction and high standards of service quality.  To meet the challenges of continuing to provide excellent services to the Court and litigants in an environment of shrinking resources and added pressures such as physical and IT security, the focus on business transformation will continue.  In the upcoming year, the Business Transformation Program will continue to direct resources to the implementation of digital recordkeeping, workflow enhancements and the development of policies and rules to support efficient processes. Amendments will also be made to the Rules of the Supreme Court of Canada to further clarify some business processes.

Internal Services

• The Library and Information Management Branch supports the information management needs of the organization.  Accomplishments for 2016-17 included progress in the implementation of GCDOCS across the organization, so as to better manage documents and records of business value, including closed case-related records. The Library Services and Human Resource Management units were respectively onboarded to GCDOCS during the fiscal year. In addition, business processes in the Records Centre were realigned to support clients and their information needs. Finally, the Office continued to release information related to its key mandate in a timely way pursuant to its Open Government Implementation Plan (OGIP).
• During 2016-17, the Court’s Communications Services increased its use of social media to better disseminate information about the Court and its proceedings. The Court also brought significant changes to its website to facilitate access to Court information. The format of the Court’s webcasts was modified, thereby permitting access across all platforms. A record number of in-person visitors (58,745) came to the Court in 2016.

Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

Communicating Effectively

OSFI communicated its plans and activities to a wide range of stakeholders via its website, webcast information sessions and other means. As in previous years, OSFI received many requests for speakers to address external conferences and events. The Superintendent and senior officials delivered presentations and remarks across Canada and internationally.

Throughout the year, OSFI communicated with interested Canadians, by serving 2,691,839 visitors to OSFI’s website, responding to 9,369 public enquiries, 141 enquiries from Members of Parliament and 205 enquiries from representatives of the news media. OSFI also delivered more than 61 presentations to industry and regulatory forums, including nine key speeches that were posted on the website and processed 52 access to information requests and 41 inter-departmental consultations within permitted statutory timelines, as per the Access to Information Act.

Renewing Technology and Systems

OSFI made substantial progress on the implementation of a new enterprise document and records management system (eSpace) to improve organizational efficiency and information management. This new collaborative tool ensures better sharing and access to information and enhances the protection of information assets. The eSpace system will be fully implemented by June 2017.

Parks Canada Agency

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

Management and Oversight Services

In 2016-17, Parks Canada implemented a project management office aimed at strengthening national project management practices, processes and controls, and supporting the delivery of investment projects on time, on budget and with prudence and probity. The Agency also continued to invest towards the implementation of an improved asset management information system to further enhance the quality of asset information, reporting capabilities and ensure the application of consistent asset management practices across the Agency. This new system actively maintains information for the entire built asset inventory and further improves the ability to plan and prioritize capital work as well as corresponding operational and maintenance activities. In addition, year two of a five-year Investment Plan was implemented. The plan highlights priority investments that reflect the areas of greatest risk for the Agency and best supports the Government of Canada’s objectives, and outlines upcoming projects and considers the assessed capacity of the Agency to manage those projects.

Over the past year, Parks Canada made significant improvements to its Access to Information function. As a result, the Agency eliminated its backlog of access to information requests and met all the legislative timelines for access to information requests in 2016-17.

Information Management (IM) Services

Parks Canada made significant progress identifying and documenting the information resources and associated repositories that support and inform the Agency’s core decision‐making processes and management of programs. This work will enable the effective management, sharing and use of information both within Parks Canada as well as with our partners and the public. A revised approach to the implementation of IM controls has eliminated the need to develop the business unit record-keeping action plans that were planned for this year.

Parks Canada developed an alternative, activity-based approach to the planning and implementation of IM tools such as an Electronic Document and Records Management System. This approach is now being used to implement the required controls and tools for IM on an activity-by-activity basis.

Parole Board of Canada

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

The PBC’s Management Accountability Framework (MAF) 2016-17 Departmental Report highlighted the PBC’s areas of strength, as well as areas which require improvement. Highlights included:

• While the PBC has yet to reach compliance with the Treasury Board Secretariat’s (TBS) Directive on Recordkeeping, there has been an improvement towards integrating Information Management (IM) as a part of business planning; and
• The PBC will continue work to improve its disposition planning processes, procedures, and activities to ensure that information resources of business value in all formats are appropriately managed and disposed of at the end of the lifecycle.

Public Prosecution Service of Canada

Operating context and key risks

Key risks

In addition, given the nature of the PPSC’s core mandate, employees are required to receive and handle a high volume of records from investigators that contain sensitive information. This in turn increases the risk that sensitive information could be inadvertently disclosed or lost, resulting in a potential privacy breach, a threat to the security and safety of individuals, and/or the public questioning the ability of the organization to adequately protect the information under its control. Accordingly, in 2016-17, the PPSC communicated to investigative agencies the importance of ensuring that sensitive information is provided in a secure fashion, and took steps to ensure that employees are aware of their obligation to safeguard information.

Finally, the PPSC does not currently have mechanisms in place that would assist the organization in meeting its obligations to dispose of records that have reached the end of their lifecycle. Therefore, there is a risk that the organization will be unable to respond to central agencies requirements. This past year the PPSC worked on implementing policy instruments and tools to ensure effective information management in order to address this issue and to reduce the risk.

Public Service Commission of Canada

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

Systems and government-wide initiatives

• implemented many information management and information technology priorities such as:
  • piloting usage of tablet devices with a new operating system and image
  • implementing GCDOCs
  • mitigating security threats and vulnerabilities
  • producing the first PSC Information Management Strategy
• implemented Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat web standards and supported implementation of Government of Canada web renewal
• moved forward with the Open Government Implementation Plan, including the Open Data Release Plan and Annual Report Data Sets and established an Open Government Champion and supporting governance

Public Services and Procurement Canada

Results—What we achieved

Program 1.7: Specialized programs and services

With regard to government-wide corporate services, PSPC continued to focus on providing modern, innovative solutions for its clients across government to support them in delivering their programs and services. It worked closely with TBS to contribute to the government’s back-office transformation, which involves large-scale complex projects to bring the government’s finance, human resources and information management systems into the digital age, through the ongoing roll-out, expansion and evolution of common administrative services and IT systems. These systems make administrative services more efficient and take advantage of economies of scale, which in turn supports the government in delivering better services to Canadians with better value for taxpayer dollars.

Excellent progress was made in the roll-out and ongoing management of key administrative services. For example:

• managing information through GCdocs:
  • 139,000 employees were using GCdocs
  • 11 new departments were on-boarded to GCdocs, and several departments and special projects were at the development or testing stage
  • GCdocs was enhanced including with improved permissions management

In its role in supporting Government of Canada communications to Canadians, PSPC:

• expanded and continued to promote e-services offered by the Canada Gazette, such as updating its electronic request forms to make them more relevant and user-friendly
• implemented a workflow management system to allow the seamless tracking of documents throughout the Canada Gazette publication process
• undertook initiatives specific to supporting official language compliance in advertising, including:
  • conducting a study on media consumption patterns of populations of official language minority communities
  • developing a bilingual toggle on Government of Canada digital advertisements to facilitate access to both languages regardless of the advertisement’s placement

 

PSPC continued to contribute to the Government of Canada’s open information portal in 2016 to 2017. It catalogued a record number of Government of Canada publications by adding 76,335 publications to its website (compared to approximately 42,000 the previous year), and the public downloaded about 1,226,000 publications in 2016 to 2017 (compared to 700,000 the previous year).

In addition, PSPC delivered services related to asset disposal as well as standards development and conformity assessment. For instance, in 2016 to 2017, the department:

• set a new record selling over $57.5 million of surplus goods to Canadians
• maintained positive net proceeds from disposal of seized assets
• hosted the criminal asset management enforcement regulators association meeting in March 2017

PSPC also provided quality and efficient document imaging and data capture offerings as a cost-recovery service to federal organizations, leveraging internal and private-sector solutions. The department provided image processing, indexing and secure archiving of electronic records in support of the government’s modernization and process automation initiative. In 2016 to 2017 the service imaged 31 million pages.

 

PSPC continued to improve document imaging services by implementing more rigorous tracking and management of processes, production and costs, implementing lean process improvements and enhanced quality assurance. Marketing activities were increased through participation in regional events.

Program 1.9: Internal services

Sub-program internal services 6: Information management services

PSPC continued to implement GCdocs throughout the department. Increased use of GCdocs allows for better standardization and enables the department to manage information more efficiently. As measured by the departmental space utilization, PSPC increased the level and adoption of GCdocs by more than double (9.2 terabytes), as compared the previous year.

In compliance with the Directive on Record Keeping, the department completed 71% of planned paper disposition and is currently moving forward with a strategic plan that will guide how the department manages electronic holdings.

In line with the Directive on Open Government, PSPC published 41 datasets and a completed data inventory to open.canada.ca, enhancing accessibility, knowledge and sharing of Government of Canada data for Canadians.

Building on success from the previous year on the management framework for protecting personal information, the department also developed a stand-alone privacy program, distinct from the access to information component. Targeted consultations on privacy considerations were undertaken with PSPC‘s senior management teams responsible for managing large amounts of personal information. Training products were revised in fall 2016, resulting in content related to privacy requirements. An awareness presentation was created in winter 2017 on privacy breaches, with a focus on preventative measures and required steps to follow in the event of a breach. The evolution into a stand-alone privacy program permitted increased engagement with key stakeholders, resulting in enhanced support to senior management on proactively managing privacy-related risks.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Results: what we achieved

Canadian Law Enforcement Services

Scientific, Technical and Investigative Support

Building on significant gains achieved by the Real Time Identification Project (RTID), the RCMP continued to advance towards the creation of an automated, paperless national criminal record information system. In 2016-17, Canadian Criminal Real Time Identification Services (CCRTIS) assisted contributing agencies as they progressed towards electronically submitting all criminal and civil fingerprints. CCRTIS can now accredit private fingerprint companies and directly assist them to electronically submit fingerprints for civil criminal record check purposes. Over 60 accreditation clearances were completed over the reporting period, in addition to the over 65 accreditation clearance requests that were received.

Further efforts were expended to support the Biometrics Expansion Project, a four-year, $146.7 million Major Crown Project led by Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada. The project will make it mandatory for all individuals wishing to enter Canada to provide their fingerprints for screening against the National Repository of Criminal Records and the Immigration and Refugee Database for all temporary visas, work permits, study permits, and individuals making a temporary resident or permanent resident application (excluding American citizens).This project remained on track with several milestones achieved in 2016-17 including: the implementation of IT enhancements in the RTID system to support Bio-Expansion; the completion of RCMP business requirements; and the completion of information sharing testing and certification for Australia, which brought online the second of five countries currently sharing immigration information.

CCRTIS continued to work on the Criminal Justice Information Management (CJIM) project to improve the quality of criminal record submissions, standardize processes, and enable modern technologies to further business efficiency. Since its creation, CJIM has provided police and other contributing agencies with the ability to enter the results of court rulings (dispositions) electronically and directly into the National Repository, which is accessed through the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) system, effectively bypassing labour-intensive submission processes. As of March 31, 2017, 1,159 of 1,578 contributing agencies, or 73%, were on-boarded to CJIM disposition reporting, resulting in 87% of dispositions entered electronically during the reporting period. CCRTIS is now targeting all agencies to be CJIM-enabled by September 2017.

Work also continued on the elimination of the current backlog of criminal record dispositions awaiting update to the National Repository of Criminal Records. Due to the successful rollout of the CJIM application and the corresponding decline in paper disposition reporting from contributing agencies, the size of the backlog is now in a steady downward trend. The elimination of priority files (containing violent and sexually-based offences) is projected by early 2018.

The Canadian Police Information (CPI) Centre continued to provide functional guidance and oversight for its national information sharing tools. These tools provided secure, timely, and accurate criminal justice and public safety information to Canadian and international law enforcement agencies, as well as domestic agencies having a role complimentary to, and in support of, law enforcement. In 2016-17, CPIC was queried an average of 674,932 times per day by these agencies. In conjunction with the RCMP’s IM/IT Program, the CPI Centre provided proactive updates and responded to user needs. During this past year, the CPI Centre’s central database was significantly enhanced with the introduction of photo functionality, which has increased the relevancy and accuracy of information shared by contributing agencies.

Internal Services

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Branch addressed 12,000 access and privacy requests, covering a large variety of complex topics. To improve its internal processes and provide better services, the ATIP Branch implemented a new training program for junior analysts, increased personnel within the policy unit, and established a new triage unit to analyze incoming requests.

Security Intelligence Review Committee

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

SIRC relies heavily on its information resources to effectively fulfill its mandate. This last fiscal year, there has been emphasis on changing business processes to include the management of electronic documents as part of day-to-day operations. SIRC also started with the digitalization of paper documents and has been meeting its planned goal.

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Results: what we achieved

Program 1.2: Insight: new knowledge in the social sciences and humanities

• Following the release of the Tri-Agency Statement of Principles on Digital Data Management in spring 2016, SSHRC engaged the research community to discuss data management policy development, including researcher awareness, institutional capacity and possible data management requirements for grant holders. This involved presentations and meetings at various venues, including the Canadian Association of Research Administrators 2016 annual conference, and the 2016 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Internal Services

• In 2016-17, in response to the Open Government Implementation Plan and its objectives, SSHRC has developed its methodology and process for releasing open data and information to the public on an ongoing basis. Thus far, SSHRC has published its expenditures data set on the Open Government Portal. SSHRC is also leading a tri-agency open data working group to increase the comparability of data collected and released by the agencies, and to explore opportunities for a harmonized approach to the agencies’ respective open government commitments.

Statistics Canada

Chief Statistician’s message

Statistics Canada accomplished much in fiscal year 2016-17:

• The 2016 Census of Population and Census of Agriculture: All Census of Population collection and data processing operations were completed with exceptional results. The overall collection response rate was 98.4%, while the response rate for the long-form questionnaire reached a record high of 97.8%. The Internet response rate (68.3%) and the self-response rate (88.8%) were also the highest on record. In addition, for the first time, the Census of Agriculture collected data on technology use, direct marketing practices, succession planning, farm practices and land features, as well as renewable-energy-producing systems.
• Legislation to strengthen the independence of Statistics Canada: In December 2016, Bill C-36 was introduced in the House of Commons to strengthen the independence of the agency. If passed, the legislation would give the Chief Statistician the authority to make decisions on statistical methods, procedures and operations. It would also increase the transparency of decisions and directives related to the agency.

Transport Canada

Results: What We Achieved

Internal Services

During the 2016-17 fiscal year, our Program recorded the following achievements as we:

• Completed and released the Open Government Data Inventory, which has benefitted Canadians by increasing the release of transportation data by publishing 22 datasets on the open.canada.ca website;
• Continued working towards improving the efficiency and capacity of information management systems to ensure data completeness and consistency by:
  • Working on the multi-year System Architecture and Rationalization (SAAR) project, which aims to reduce the number of applications and increase integration amongst those that remain by introducing a modern, consistent approach to delivering and supporting applications;
  • Integrating the Directive on Open Government’s “open by default” requirements into system planning and analysis so future applications can more easily share and reuse information/data; and
  • Completing an upgrade of the Transport Canada (TC) Records Documents and Information Management System (RDIMS) to accommodate Protected B document storage; and
• Positioned ourselves to adapt to the Government of Canada’s planning strategy for back-office transformation, including:
  • Email Transformation Initiative: We prepared for the migration of our more than 6,000 accounts to the new email system in 2016-17. However, the migration was delayed by Shared Services Canada and a new migration date is not yet scheduled;
  • Migration to Canada.ca: We started to migrate Transport Canada’s web pages to the Canada.ca website in September 2016, and are on track to meet the December 2017 full migration deadline.

Transportation Safety Board of Canada

Operating context and key risks

Managing Information Effectively

Ineffective safeguarding, retention and retrieval of information pose a risk to the achievement of the TSB mandate. The TSB’s work is fundamentally reliant on the collection, retention, management and analysis of occurrence information.  The TSB must therefore ensure that information is complete, accurate, appropriately stored and readily accessible to employees who need it when they need it. There is a medium/low likelihood that gaps in the safeguarding, retention and retrieval of information could have a moderate impact on the TSB’s ability to deliver its mandate in a timely and effective manner.

Mitigating strategy and effectiveness

• The TSB will continue to enhance the processes, tools and technology in support of the management of its information resources to mitigate the risk of losing critical information and corporate knowledge. In particular the TSB will increase its monitoring of information management practices with respect to the classification, storage and retention of occurrence information with the objective of ensuring a consistent application.The TSB Executive Committee will review the department’s annual results of Treasury Board Secretariat’s Record Keeping Assessment Tool to monitor its progress.

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

Work continued on implementation of the Open Government initiative and additional data elements were added to datasets available on the web.  Continuous improvement measures were implemented with respect to Information Management, records disposition procedures were updated, and awareness training was provided.

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

Results at a glance

In 2016-17, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (the Secretariat) supported the President of the Treasury Board in delivering on key elements of his mandate through initiatives under the Secretariat’s 4 programs. The following are highlights of the Secretariat’s achievements in each of these programs.

Program 1.2: Management Policies Development and Monitoring

• Modernized communications by releasing a new Policy on Communications and Federal Identity
• Released the Interim Directive on the Administration of the Access to Information Act
• Developed the Government of Canada Service Strategy and published the Guideline on Service Management

Program 1.3: Government-Wide Program Design and Delivery

• Spearheaded work that resulted in Canada’s being ranked second in the world on the Web Foundation’s Open Data Barometer and being elected to the Open Government Partnership Steering Committee

Results: what we achieved

Program 1.2: Management Policies Development and Monitoring

The Secretariat supports departments and agencies on implementing more than 200 policy instruments.

In 2016–17, the Secretariat continued to review these policy instruments through the Policy Suite Reset initiative, which aims at developing clearer, more coherent requirements and accountabilities. More time is needed to complete this initiative, but it is having the intended impact. 82% of deputy heads say that policy instruments reviewed so far under the initiative are easier to understand and apply. Deputy heads also say, however, that they would like to receive guidance and communications before they have to implement reset policy instruments.

As part of making government more open and transparent, the Secretariat supported the Treasury Board in implementing the new Policy on Communications and Federal Identity. The policy aims to bring Government of Canada communication practices into line with the digital environment. The Secretariat also implemented a new interim process under which Advertising Standards Canada must review all federal government advertising campaigns that have budgets over $500,000.

The Secretariat also released the Interim Directive on the Administration of the Access to Information Act. This directive eliminated all access to information fees except for the initial $5 application fee. It also confirmed that all Government of Canada information should be available to the public, except in specific situations when it must be protected because of privacy, confidentiality and security.

As part of improving services for Canadians, the Secretariat launched the Government of Canada Service Strategy in collaboration with several service-oriented departments and agencies. The Strategy has 3 broad goals:

• Client-driven design and delivery, to make sure that services are designed and delivered in ways that meet client needs and preferences across all channels
• Easy online services, to make the digital channel the medium of choice
• Seamless delivery, to connect services through a single window

To support government organizations in their efforts to provide quality, consistent services to Canadians, the Secretariat published a Guideline on Service Management. The guideline supports the requirements of the Policy on Service by outlining key components of good service management.

Program 1.3: Government-Wide Program Design and Delivery

In 2016–17, the Secretariat led advancements in the area of open government. It released its first set of inventories that were completed under the Directive on Open Government and published on Open.Canada.ca. Canadians can now see both unreleased and released datasets. Over 1,500 new datasets have been identified as eligible for release. In addition to being able to search the inventories on Open.Canada.ca, Canadians can now vote for datasets they would like to access. The Secretariat improved Open.Canada.ca‘s search features by adding an integrated search that has more filters and more metadata. Canadians now have better access to data and information that is proactively disclosed by departments and agencies. As a result of the Government of Canada’s efforts, Canada was ranked second globally in the Web Foundation’s Open Data Barometer and was elected to the Open Government Partnership Steering Committee.

Veterans Affairs Canada

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

Results

• As committed in 2016–17, VAC completed its implementation of GCDOCS – the corporate approach to information management.

Lessons Learned

• While VAC is a leader in the use of GCDOCS, further communication with employees about GCDOCS and its benefits is needed, especially around the transformational nature of the new approach to managing corporate information.

Western Economic Diversification Canada

Results: what we achieved

Internal Services

In 2016–17, WD continues to undertake a number of initiatives to create a technology and systems-enabled workplace to support the Government of Canada’s Blueprint 2020 goals of enhancing service delivery, boosting value for money, and maintaining an efficient and high-performing organization. For example, WD continues its engagement with the other regional development agencies in the design and build of a common client-centric information management/information technology system to support online delivery of grants and contributions programs.  In addition, the Western Canada Business Service Network(WCBSN) transitioned to a new interactive web portal and online reporting system to automate the previously manual processes of performance reporting.

WD also contributes to the Government of Canada’s Open Government initiative by making relevant data accessible to the Canadian public and the businesses community through the Government of Canada’s Open Data Inventory portal.  This portal provides one-stop access to the Government of Canada’s searchable open data and open information, together with open dialogue, as part of the federal government’s commitment to enhance transparency and accountability.