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Canada's Performance 2006: The Government of Canada's Contribution
About the Report
Canada's Performance 2006 is the sixth annual report to Parliament on the federal government's contribution to Canada's performance as a nation, highlighting both strengths and areas for improvement. As a companion piece to the 2005–06 departmental performance reports (DPRs), the report provides an overview of how the performance of individual departments and agencies contributes to broader, government-wide outcomes in the following key policy areas: economic affairs, social affairs, international affairs, and government affairs (federal organizations that support all departments and agencies).
The electronic version of the report is a road map to individual departmental reports and assists parliamentarians and Canadians in navigating through them and finding the information they need.
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Interested in finding out more about the government's priorities? The government is committed to delivering on its five key priorities as presented in the 2006 Speech from the Throne and the Budget. If you are interested in further details about the government's plans in those priority areas, see the following sections in this report:
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How to use the report
A useful source of information for Canadians to find out more on the Government of Canada, this report is also intended to support parliamentarians and their staff as they review the 2005–06 departmental performance reports. While departmental performance reports cover the most recently completed fiscal year, which ended in March 2006, Canada's Performance 2006 includes information beyond that period and highlights the government's most recent priorities and commitments throughout the report.
Serving as a guide to 88 departmental performance reports, Canada's Performance 2006 adopts the same structure as those reporting documents. In other words, this report maps the contributions of federal organizations by grouping the departmental strategic outcomes[1] used in DPRs into outcome areas.
An analysis of the 88 DPRs reveals that a number of departments and agencies are working towards achieving integrated and consistent results in 13 outcome areas that can be summarized as follows:
Economic Affairs
- income security and employment for Canadians;
- strong economic growth;
- an innovative and knowledge-based economy;
- a clean and healthy environment; and
- a fair and secure marketplace
Social Affairs
- healthy Canadians;
- safe and secure communities;
- a diverse society that promotes linguistic duality and social inclusion; and
- a vibrant Canadian culture and heritage
International Affairs
- a safe and secure world through international cooperation;
- global poverty reduction through sustainable development;
- a strong and mutually beneficial North American partnership; and
- a prosperous Canada through global commerce
Government Affairs
Figure 1.1 shows how to use this document. The reader can identify a broad policy area of interest (for example, Economic Affairs–shown on the left-hand side of the figure) and explore an area of more direct interest (e.g. the federal government's role in "strong economic growth" or the government's most current commitments in that particular area). The reader can then determine how many departments, agencies, and/or Crown corporations have strategic outcomes and program activities[2] included in that outcome area (e.g. 24 federal organizations contribute to "strong economic growth" through their 30 departmental, agency, or Crown corporation strategic outcomes).
Using the same example, Industry Canada's program activity "Spectrum, Information Technologies and Telecommunications Sector–Economic Development" contributes to the achievement of Industry Canada's strategic outcome "a competitive industry and sustainable communities," which in turn contributes to the "strong economic growth" outcome area.
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Canada's federal and provincial governments' roles and responsibilities The Constitution assigns a range of exclusive legislative powers to the federal and provincial orders of government and also explicitly provides for joint federal and provincial jurisdiction over certain areas. In practice, however, both the multi-faceted nature of many policy issues and the emergence of entirely new areas of public policy since the 1860s have resulted in pragmatic arrangements among the different orders of government. The current roles and responsibilities of federal, provincial, and territorial governments are depicted in the figure below. |
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The Government of Canada is working towards a renewed relationship with provincial and territorial governments, based on collaboration, in order to restore fiscal balance and support the provision of quality services to Canadians. As indicated in Budget 2006, the Government of Canada is committed to the principle of enhancing the accountability of governments through clarification of their respective roles and responsibilities. Among other things, it is taking action to refocus federal efforts toward the reforms and funding that are required to meet long-standing needs in core areas of federal responsibility and providing financial support for shared priorities through transfers to provinces and territories. Source: Restoring Fiscal Balance in Canada, Budget 2006 |
Electronic version of the report
The electronic version of this report links to department and agency planning and performance reports, as well as to the Annual Report to Parliament on Crown Corporations and Other Corporate Interests of Canada. Figure 1.1 illustrates how a reader can drill down to more details in the online version of this document. In the electronic version, by clicking on e.g. the outcome area "strong economic growth," the reader can obtain further departmental and agency explanations on strategic outcomes, expected results, performance measures, and resources, as found in relevant departmental performance reports.
The electronic version also links to important databases on government audits and evaluations and detailed program and expenditure information for the federal program suite for Aboriginal peoples. Hyperlinks provide additional information on various publications, policies, and websites relevant to each policy area.
In addition, three supplementary annexes are available online: a glossary and two annexes containing additional information on indicators.
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The role of Crown corporations Although Crown corporations do not table departmental performance reports, they do play an integral role in Canada's economic, social, and international affairs. These publicly owned corporations serve a number of significant functions in the Canadian economy and are often responsible for the provision of essential services to Canadians. Twenty-five Crown corporations that received financial assistance through budgetary appropriations from the Government of Canada in 2005–06. These Crown corporations contribute to Canada's progress within many outcome areas described in this report. Furthermore, revenues earned by these Crown corporations provide additional benefits to Canadians in areas such as housing, transportation, heritage, communication, aviation security, and international trade. For further information, this document provides hyperlinks to the Annual Report to Parliament on Crown Corporations and Other Corporate Interests of Canada. Tabled in Parliament annually by the President of the Treasury Board, the report highlights the businesses and activities of parent Crown corporations and provides information on all Crown corporations and other corporate interests of Canada. Source: Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, 2006 |
Information on Canada's current socio-economic trends
If you are interested in Canada's performance as a nation in three key federal policy areas, this report includes 30 societal indicators to provide an assessment of quality of life in Canada and a context for federal government performance.
The societal indicators are drawn from recognized data sources–e.g. the Census of Canada, general social surveys conducted by Statistics Canada, public opinion polls and reports from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Economic Forum. A number of indicators have not been updated for 2006 either because they are based on one-time surveys or surveys that are not repeated annually or because data were not available in time for inclusion in this report. While not every indicator is updated annually due to different reporting cycles, the most recent trend data available are always included.
A legend of the symbols used can be found below.
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Legend |
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▲ |
Improving performance |
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▬ |
No definitive trend noted at this time (due to either a lack of trend data, relatively stable performance and trends, or multiple measures with opposing trends) |
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▼ |
Declining performance |
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† |
New indicator |
