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ARCHIVED - Internal Audit of Strategic Plan Development Process


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5.0  Management Response

The senior management of Treasury Board Secretariat agree on the need to improve its strategic planning process. The Secretariat must remain focused on its long-term strategic priorities and at the same time have the capacity to cope with unplanned short-term demands in a frequently changing environment.

The Secretariat agrees with the recommendation to develop a new approach that includes developing, for approval, a strategic plan every three years that sets direction for annual corporate planning and feeds forward results to other planning activities like the annual departmental report on plans and priorities.

On December 12, 2003, the government refocused the mandate of the Secretariat and on June 8 the Secretary restructured the Secretariat in order to deliver on this new mandate. As a result, planning for 2004-05 is off cycle. Transition to the 2005-06 cycle will require a simplified and streamlined approach to bring clarity to priorities, plans and resources and allow time to develop the appropriate internal TBS planning infrastructure.

Throughout the remainder of 2004-2005, the TBS Executive Committee will clarify its needs and expectations for a strategic planning function and put in place an internal management and planning cycle that is streamlined, integrated, forward-looking and comprehensive. Given the circumstances in which the Secretariat must operate, it must be responsive yet cannot be too cumbersome or process-oriented.

Efforts will also be made to ensure that the results of bottom-up planning processes already established across the Secretariat marry up with the new process for setting strategic priorities for the organization

Critical to the success of the Secretariat's strategic planning efforts will be the establishment of a Management Resources and Results System (MRRS), which sets out

  • The strategic outcome of the department
  • The logic of how programs and program activities align to contribute to the achievement of that strategic outcome
  • Planned and actual resources used to deliver results at each level
  • Performance measures and actual results achieved

The 2004-05 internal management and planning cycle will be set up in time to deliver on the information requirements of the Management Resources and Results Structure (MRRS) government – wide timetable. Once completed, this structure will provide a baseline from which to launch a complete strategic planning cycle for the 2005-06.

Although the audit does not touch on the issue of the resources, TBS will also review resources currently dedicated to planning in light of its recent reorganization to ensure that an appropriate planning infrastructure and governance mechanisms are in place to do effective planning.

In addition, TBS will benchmark its approach to other organizations similar in size, mandate and operating environment (e.g., Treasury Boards of Ontario and BC, OMB in the US) to identify "best practice" that is meaningful and useful and consistent with the recommendations of this audit report.