Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada Five-Year Departmental Evaluation Plan 2017-18 to 2021-22

1.1 Purpose of the Five-Year Plan

The primary purpose of the Plan is to help the Deputy Head ensure that credible, timely and neutral information on the ongoing relevance and performance of direct program spending and ongoing programs of grants and contributions is available to support evidence-based decision making and speaks to results for Canadians. The Plan also:

• Provides an opportunity to align evaluations to ensure that the information needs of the Department and other evaluation users (e.g., other government departments) are being met;
• Helps ensure that evaluations supporting program redesign are planned and completed in advance of program renewal;
• Allows departmental units responsible for the development of the Departmental Plan and the Departmental Performance Reports, as well as other groups engaged in strategic planning and reporting activities, to identify when evaluations will be available to inform their work;
• Initiates regular communication and consensus-building on evaluation needs and priorities across the Department; and
• Provides central agencies with advanced notice of when evaluations will be available to inform their work (e.g., in support of Memoranda to Cabinet, Treasury Board submissions, etc.).

Moreover, the Plan serves as an important tool for the Head of Evaluation and the Branch in managing project workflows and planning the activities of its human resources. Status reports on the Plan are typically presented at all regular meetings of the Evaluation and Performance Measurement Review Committee (EPMRC) to provide assurance of timely implementation, and alert the Committee to any required changes or additions. The EPMRC typically meets four times during the fiscal year.

1.2 Background and Departmental Context

The Plan has been developed using the Treasury Board's Interim Guide on Results which was updated to support the new Policy on Results. The Policy on Results allows departments to establish a results framework that identifies core responsibilities, associated results, and appropriate indicators. It also limits requirements so that departments will collect performance information while remitting only some of this to Treasury Board. It allows departments to prioritize evaluation coverage and issues, while professionalizing the evaluation function. It will continue to ask departments to report on both direct program spending and ongoing programs of grant and contribution evaluation coverage, but will grant greater flexibility by allowing for risk-based planning for direct program spending coverage, and the option to defer evaluations beyond five years where average yearly expenditures are less than $5 million (over the preceding five year period).

1.3 Departmental Mandate

INAC is the federal department primarily responsible for meeting the Government of Canada's obligations and commitments to Indigenous peoples (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) and for fulfilling the federal government's constitutional responsibilities in the North.^{Footnote 1} The Department's overall mandate derives from: the Constitution Act (1982), the Indian Act; the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Act; territorial acts; treaties; comprehensive claims and self-government agreements, as well as various other statutes affecting Indigenous people and the North. A significant amount of the Department's mandate also derives from policy decisions and program practices that have evolved over time. Its mandate is also framed by judicial decisions where there are direct policy implications for the Department.^{Footnote 2}

1.4 Program Structures and Performance

Departmental activities are largely structured by funding arrangements or formal agreements with First Nations and/or provincial or territorial governments. Most departmental programs, representing a majority of INAC spending are, in fact, delivered through partnerships with Indigenous communities and federal-provincial or federal-territorial agreements. INAC also works with urban Indigenous peoples, Métis and non–status Indians, many of whom live in rural areas.

1.5 Planned Expenditures and Transfer Payments

According to the 2016 Public Accounts of Canada, INAC is the fifth largest federal department in terms of total ministerial net expenditures, and the third largest in terms of total transfer payments and grants and contributions, after Finance Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada.

According to the 2017–2018 Main Estimates^{Footnote 3}, INAC plans to spend over $10 billion annually, with approximately 89 percent ($8.96 billion) going directly to recipients through transfer payments. Total forecasted spending for 2017-18 is outlined in the table below according to the Department's strategic outcomes.

Table 1:

2.1 Drivers for Evaluation Planning

Program evaluations are required as per the current Treasury Board Policy on Results (2016). There is also a requirement under the Financial Administration Act (Section 42.1) to evaluate all ongoing programs of grants and contributions every five years. Evaluation planning is conducted with those requirements in mind.

Each year, the Audit and Assurance Services Branch develops priority rankings for auditable units in the Department in a manner consistent with guidance from the Office of the Comptroller General. Risk considerations include: the impact of identified risks on the achievement of departmental outcomes; materiality; scope; potential for public scrutiny; legal risk; prevalence of risk; and the severity of consequences. This Plan is developed with alignment to the Risk-Based Audit Plan (2017-2018 to 2019-2020) in mind. Risk rankings are shown in Appendix B and are colour-coded to reflect the level of risk identified in the Risk-Based Audit Plan.^{Footnote 4}

2.2 What's New in the Plan

Note that the Government's Results Agenda, driven by publicly articulated ministerial mandates, the Policy on Results, and key government priorities being communicated to INAC, are collectively poised to spur change in program structures and available performance information in the Department. This will likely result in the creation of new program entities and the articulation of new results expectations and associated performance indicators. Notwithstanding this, Treasury Board Secretariat guidance clarifies that 2017-18 planning is to be done according to existing policies and coverage requirements.

The first step in preparing the 2017-18 to 2021-22 Plan included ensuring that all ongoing program spending is being evaluated every five years. Credit for evaluation coverage is granted upon deputy head approval of a report, under the premise that approval allows for the sharing of information in support of management action and the sharing of results with the public. This review was based on INAC's 2017-18 Program Alignment Architecture (Appendix A).

It also included the review of program areas within the Department to ensure that each is evaluated prior to program renewal or according to timing commitments made to the Treasury Board, and that Federal Accountability Act requirements are being met.

This document includes two 'coverage tables', which all departments must complete and submit to the Treasury Board Secretariat on an annual basis.

Appendix B – Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada – Five-year Evaluation Schedule 2017-18 to 2021-22, outlines the sequencing of all program evaluations over the next five years with planned start and end dates.^{Footnote 5} As a result, the Plan shows the expected conduct of 40 evaluations covering 93.8 percent of direct program spending from 2017-18 to 2021-22. Programs below the $ 5 million average over five years, and thus, not selected for evaluations at this point represent 6.3 percent of total organizational spending.

Appendix C – Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada – Coverage of Ongoing Programs of Grants and Contributions – 2017-18 to 2021-22, includes an overview of the timing of evaluations as required by the Financial Administration Act and presented in a template required by Treasury Board Secretary.

2.3 Planned Evaluation Coverage of Direct Program Spending, Internal Services and Reviews

Looking back on the previous year, six evaluation reports addressing direct program spending were approved in 2016-17. These evaluations represent $950 million (9.7 percent) of the Department's direct program spending and include:

• Evaluation of Governance and Institutions of Government;
• Evaluation of On-Reserve Housing;
• Evaluation of the Emergency Management Assistance Program;
• Evaluation of the Urban Aboriginal Strategy;
• Evaluation of Northern Governance — Support for Territorial Relations and Northern Organizations; and
• Evaluation of the Grants to the Government of Northwest Territories and the Government of Nunavut for Health Care of Indians and Inuit.

In addition to the above evaluations that address direct program spending, additional work completed in 2016-17 included the delivery of Internal Services reviews and lessons learned studies:

• Evaluation of the Implementation of Workplace 2.0 (formerly Accommodation 2.0) (Internal Services Evaluation);
• Review of the Implementation of the Tripartite Education Agreement (formerly identified as the First Nations Education Steering Committee) (Review); and
• Lessons Learned Study of Personal Credits (Review/Lessons Learned Study).

The following evaluation, initially scheduled for 2016-17 has been rescheduled for 2017-18:

• Evaluation of Annual Agreement Management (formerly Accelerated Annual Funding Cycle (Internal Services Evaluation)

Looking forward to 2017-18, the following evaluations, which began in 2016-17 and address direct program spending, are planned to be completed and approved:

• Evaluation of Implementation and Enforcement Supports for the Family Homes on Reserves and Matrimonial Interests or Rights Act (Matrimonial Real Property);
• Evaluation of Income Assistance;
• Evaluation of Assisted Living;
• Evaluation of Family Violence Prevention;
• Horizontal Evaluation of Climate Change Adaptation (to be completed jointly with Environment Canada)^{Footnote 6}; and
• Evaluation of Land and Water Management.

As per the Policy on Results, where programs below the $ 5 million average over five years so not need to be evaluated every five years, the following program and sub-programs are not scheduled for evaluation:

• Pre-1975 ("Historic") Treaties
• Treaty Commissions
• Estates
• Residential Schools Resolution
• Administration of Reserve Land
• Climate Resilience
• Petroleum and Minerals

Appendix D – Evaluation and Performance Measurement Review Committee – 2017-2018 Planned Schedule of Items, provides a list of all commitments and milestones/deliverables for the Branch.

2.4 Planned Evaluation Coverage of Ongoing Programs of Grants and Contributions

INAC currently delivers 36 authorities (voted grants and contributions). A one-to-one relationship between the authorities listed in the Main Estimates and the inventory of ongoing programs of grants and contributions deemed a 'program' by the Department exists in only seven instances. A number of programs draw on multiple grants and contributions. Conversely, there are grants and contributions that contribute to multiple departmental programs.

The Branch takes the above into account when planning in an effort to ensure that evaluations examine the relevance and performance of all voted grants and contributions over a five-year cycle. Evaluation activities are organized to capture necessary information either through discrete evaluations of individual authorities/grants and contributions, or through evaluations that speak to the relevance and performance of authorities imbedded in larger programs. Each evaluation report will clearly identify the authorities that have been addressed through the evaluation activities.

On this basis, the Plan outlines the planned timing of evaluations in Appendix C – Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada – Coverage of Ongoing Programs of Grants and Contributions – 2017-18 to 2021-22. This table links all authorities to all departmental programs. This helps clarify the links that exist between and amongst authorities and programs in order to support the Department's efforts to meet Federal Accountability Act requirements.

2.5 Evaluation, Performance Measurement and Review Branch Performance Metrics

EPMRB has established performance measures to ensure progress towards coverage requirements. The Audit and Evaluation Sector Business Plan 2017-18 has set targets for the Branch regarding the initiation, progression and completion of scheduled evaluations.

2.6 Implementing the Plan

Evaluations conducted by EPMRB are used to inform decision-making and reporting (such as the Departmental Plan, Departmental Performance Reports), to assess progress made by programs in achieving expected results and to incorporate lessons learned in order to improve program design and delivery.

Increasingly, as a means of managing workload, improving the timeliness of evaluations and ensuring the greatest relevance of the evaluation function, the Branch will work to focus on priority issues in its evaluations, and will seek to scope them to respond to the most pressing relevance, performance and efficiency theme as determined in its planning phase. Policy changes provide for more flexibility in the identification of issues, allowing EPMRB more flexibility in scoping its work. Once defined, the Terms of Reference for each evaluation are approved by the EPMRC.

The table below provides an overview of evaluation expenditures and human resources, both planned and actual over a three year period. Note that this does not reflect cost recovery amounts.

Table 2:

While 20 full time equivalent positions are listed, the Branch must work to address position vacancies on an ongoing basis as it has seldom been at full capacity given the general movement of staff to other opportunities and the timelines needed to fill positions. The Branch also leverages the skills and talents of undergraduate and graduate students throughout the year.

2.7 Other Branch Activities

In addition to conducting evaluations, the Branch undertakes a wide range of activities to support and strengthen the Department's evaluation and performance measurement work. These include providing advice and support on performance measurement, corporate planning and reporting at the departmental level (e.g., Program Alignment Architecture and Performance Management Framework), supporting capacity building and outreach activities, and developing research and special studies on evaluation and performance measurement issues.