President of the Treasury Board of Canada Tables Canada's Performance 2003

[ Backgrounder ]

October 30, 2003

OTTAWA - The Honourable Lucienne Robillard, President of the Treasury Board of Canada and MP for Westmount - Ville-Marie, today tabled Canada's Performance 2003 in the House of Commons.

Canada's Performance 2003 is the third report in a multi-year initiative designed to provide a context for assessing the performance of federal programs and initiatives. It is an annual report on the quality of life of Canadians in the following areas: economic opportunities and innovation; health; environment; and strength and safety of communities. The report highlights the state of the economy and society by using 20 societal indicators and establishes comparisons with other countries.

"Canada's Performance is a unique report in the federal government as it links quality of life information to the priorities and contributions of government programs and policies, while also allowing us to compare Canada with other countries," explained Minister Robillard. "Canada is one of the few countries to publish this kind of report, and is a world leader in promoting the achievement of results as a foundation for modern management."

This year, climate change was added as one of the indicators being tracked for the report. This addition reflects the government's commitment to deal effectively with climate change and other environmental challenges.

"This report is an invaluable tool to support the government in making better decisions on investments now and in the future" said Minister Robillard. "The Government of Canada is committed to improving its performance and ensuring responsible spending."

Canada's Performance 2003 highlights Canada's strengths as well as the areas where we need to improve. Canada's economy has shown strong performance, but certain populations continue to be disproportionately below the Low Income Cut-Off, namely Aboriginals, new immigrants and female single-parent families. Improvements are particularly noticeable in the area of life expectancy and infant mortality; self-rated health status is declining, and obesity is increasing. Progress has been made on air and water quality while there continues to be cause for concern in the areas of biodiversity and climate change. In addition, progress has been made in neighbourhood safety and there continues to be a decline in civic participation.

"The objectives of Canada's Performance 2003 are to provide transparency and accountability to parliamentarians, to build trust and encourage citizen engagement, and to encourage a modern management regime focused on results" said Minister Robillard.

Please refer to the attached backgrounder for more information.

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For more information, contact:

Daniel GrenierPress Secretary
Office of the President of the Treasury Board of Canada
(613) 957-2666

Mario Baril
Media Relations
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
(613) 957-2391

IF THERE IS A DISCREPANCY BETWEEN ANY PRINTED VERSION AND THE ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THIS NEWS RELEASE, THE ELECTRONIC VERSION WILL PREVAIL.

TTY (Telecommunications device for the hearing impaired) - (613) 957-9090

 

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Backgrounder

CANADA'S PERFORMANCE 2003

Introduction

Canada's Performance 2003 provides a high-level overview on the quality of life of Canadians, measured by 20 societal indicators that highlight how our national performance is changing over time. The indicators were chosen because they are ones that matter strongly to Canadians and because they can be tracked and reported on over the years.

Taken together, the indicators reflect a balance of social, economic and environmental interests. These issues have been grouped according to four areas, commonly highlighted in the Speech from the Throne: economic opportunities and innovation; the health of Canadians; the environment; and the strength and safety of communities.

This year, in response to recommendations by senior government officials and subject matter experts, a twentieth indicator on climate change was added to the report. Also this year, the international perspective has been expanded and international comparisons are provided for most indicators.

The report also includes breakdowns by region, by gender and by groups of Canadians, for example, Aboriginal peoples and new immigrants. To facilitate government-wide analysis, the report also groups departments and agencies that work towards similar objectives within each theme. Canada's Performance is a strategic tool in that the electronic version links to a database, providing access to Departmental Reports on Plans and Priorities, Departmental Performance Reports, and audit and evaluation information.

Background

Canada's Performance 2003 is part of a multi-year initiative to provide a context for assessing the performance of federal programs and initiatives.

The themes and societal indicators are:

1) Economic Opportunities and Innovation in Canada: real gross domestic product per capita, real disposable income per capita, innovation, employment, literacy and educational attainment.

2) The Health of Canadians: life expectancy, self-rated health status, infant mortality and healthy lifestyle.

3) The Canadian Environment: climate change (new indicator), air quality, water quality, biodiversity and toxic substances in the environment.

4) The Strength and Safety of Canadian Communities: volunteerism, attitudes toward diversity, cultural participation, political participation and safety and security.

Of the 20 indicators in Canada's Performance 2003, improving performance is in: real gross domestic product per capita; real disposable income per capita; innovation; employment; educational attainment; life expectancy; infant mortality; air quality; water quality; and safety and security.

Areas for improvement are in: self-rated health status; climate change (new indicator); biodiversity; volunteerism; and political participation.

Indicators that have no trend data or significant change are: literacy; healthy lifestyle; toxic substances in the environment; attitudes towards diversity; and cultural participation.