Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
Symbol of the Government of Canada

ARCHIVED - Evaluation of the Public Service Modernization Act Strategic Investment Framework

Warning This page has been archived.

Archived Content

Information identified as archived on the Web is for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It has not been altered or updated after the date of archiving. Web pages that are archived on the Web are not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards. As per the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, you can request alternate formats on the "Contact Us" page.

Management Response – Approved by Secretary – December 6, 2011

Lessons Learned Management Response
Lesson Learned 1:  Large funding initiatives such as the SIF should, whenever possible, be implemented from within a stable organizational structure. - Reorganizations that take place simultaneously with the implementation of major enterprise initiatives run the risk of preventing a new initiative from measuring and evaluating the achievements of its intended outcomes. If this cannot be avoided, an information management strategy specific to the reorganization should be developed that includes all the relevant contacts for specific responsibilities of the initiative.

Management response: The Treasury Board Secretariat/Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer agrees. The lessons learned could or will be applied to future enterprise funding initiatives with a similar design to the Public Service Modernization Act (PSMA) Strategic Investment Framework (SIF). Many of the lessons learned from this evaluation relate to the issue of performance measurement and reporting. The Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS)/Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer (OCHRO) will respond to the issue of information management by bringing greater awareness regarding the importance of establishing performance measurement strategies and reporting frameworks in advance of implementing government initiatives. OCHRO, with support from the Expenditure Management Sector (EMS), agrees to initiate a process and discussions to ensure that the lessons learned are applied to similar large enterprise initiatives such as the SIF.

Specifically:

  1. Convene a meeting between OCHRO, EMS, IAEB and other sectors to relay the lessons learned in this initiative and how they might be applied or considered in similar future enterprise funding initiatives, both at the OCHRO and Public Service-wide level; and
  2. Initiate the process with IAEB and EMS to discuss how the lessons learned can be applied to provide enhancements to current projects in order to strengthen performance measurement and reporting for future initiatives.

TBS commits to initiating the process once the Evaluation Report has been tabled at the Treasury Board. 

Lesson Learned 2:  Reporting frameworks should be designed in such a way as to balance expenditure and outcome (not just output) reporting with the administrative demand. - These frameworks should be designed in consultation with all stakeholders well in advance of implementation.
Lesson Learned 3:  Performance measurement strategies need to be developed before the implementation of major enterprise initiatives in order to provide the information needed for evaluations.
Lesson Learned 4:  Conducting a baseline assessment at the initial stage of the implementation of an initiative would provide program managers with a basis for comparison with results that could measure the impacts of a policy, program or initiative.
Lesson Learned 5:  When planning for an evaluation, consideration should be given to evaluating all related funds that contribute to a single outcome. - In this case, for instance, the PSMA Reserve Fund ($238 million) included the SIF ($200 million), both of which contributed to the same desired outcomes. - It is difficult to isolate the impact of the $38 million used for the start-up phase from the rest of the SIF funds, since they were all part of the implementation of the PSMA.
Lesson Learned 6:  Developing a system to follow up on an initiative after its conclusion will help program managers track long term benefits of long term initiatives such as the PSMA.