Summary of the Evaluation of the Celebration and Commemoration Program (2011‐2012 to 2015‐2016)

The Major Events, Commemoration and Capital Experience Branch delivers the Celebration and Commemoration Program (CCP), a grants and contributions program with two main components: Celebrate Canada and Commemorate Canada.

Total direct expenditures of the CCP for the period covered by the evaluation is $166.1 million.

Program relevance

The CCP is considered relevant and addresses a demonstrable need. The program is aligned with government and PCH priorities.

Celebrate Canada component

Canadians are in agreement that there is a need for federal funding and this perceived need has risen in the last decade.

Agreement (in percentage)

The chart below indicates the level of agreement of Canadians regarding the need for federal Government funding for celebrations and commemorations. It shows the level of agreement of national celebrations, in percentage, and a comparison to public opinion research responses from 2007. Compared with findings from 2007, the perceived need to fund and support celebrations and commemorations has risen across the four national celebrations, particularly for Saint-Jean-Baptiste (from 60% to 69%), followed by National Aboriginal Day (from 63% to 70%) and Multiculturalism (from 65% to 72%).

Level of agreement	2017	2007
Canada Day	84%	N/A
Multiculturalism Day	72%	65%
National Aboriginal Day	70%	63%
Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day	69%	60%

There is stable and continued demand for funding

Table below, provides an overview of Celebrate Canada application trends as detailed in administrative records.

Application Fiscal Year	Total Applications (#)	Total Requested ($)	Successful Applications (%)
2011-12	1,872	$17.1M	93%
2012-13	1,865	$15.5M	90.7%
2013-14	1,904	$16.7M	86.0%
2014-15	1,941	$17.9M	85.4%
2015-16	1,896	$18.4M	89.1%

Celebrate Canada is aligned with federal government and PCH priorities

The activities of the Celebrate Canada component are aligned with:

• Federal priorities
• PCH strategic outcomes

Commemorate Canada component

Canadians approve of national commemorations

83% of Canadians agree that celebrations and commemorations are a good way to increase a sense of pride and belonging to Canada.

81% of respondents agreed that national commemorations are a good way to increase awareness of Canadian history.

Variable demands for funding

The number of Commemoration applications increased from 29 applications in 2013-14 to 296 in 2015-16. This represents a 920% increase.

The amount requested for commemoration projects varied ranging from a low of $7M in 2012-13 to a high of $37M in 2014-15.

The Commemorate component was responsive to government and departmental priorities, but the National Commemoration Policy and Interdepartmental Commemoration Committee (ICC) were deemed partially responsive to government and departmental priorities since November 2015.

National Commemoration Policy

• Lack of national principles for national commemorations.
• Perceived lack of consultation with recipients, interested parties or professional historical expertise.

The Interdepartmental Commemoration Committee (ICC)

Deemed effective particularly in fostering inter-departmental cooperation through communication (for example: World Wars Working Group).

Program performance

Celebrate Canada component

Achieving expected outcomes

The component was effective in meeting the short-term result of creating opportunities to participate in community events open to the public and free of charge.

• Annual participation estimates in Celebration events range from 6 to 8 million people.
• 8,400 opportunities to participate in community celebration events were open to the public and free of charge.

A majority of surveyed recipients believe that Canadians participating in celebratory events significantly increased their…

• sense of belonging to local community (88%)
• sense of pride (85%)
• sense of belonging to Canada (82%)

With the exception of National Aboriginal Day, participation has decreased

• Canada Day reported 7.2 million participants in 2011-12 and 5.8 million in 2015-16.
• Multiculturalism Day reported 69,000 participants in 2011-12 and 48,000 in 2015-16.
• Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day reported 21,000 participants in 2011-12 and 16,000 in 2015-16.
• Poster/Canada Day Challenge reported 14,989 participants in 2007-08 and 2,778 in 2015-16.

Commemorate Canada component

Achieving expected outcomes

The Commemorate Canada component reached its short-term result of creating opportunities to commemorate and celebrate historic figures, places, events, and accomplishments.

• 232 commemoration projects funded across Canada.
• 6.2 million participants took part in Commemorate Canada projects, an average of 145,000 participants per commemoration event.

There were varied participation rates among Canadians aware of Commemorate Canada activities

• Participation rate among Canadians aware of Anniversaries of World Wars was 29%. Among participants commemorating the anniversaries of the Two World Wars, 61% reported a significant impact on their sense of belonging to Canada. Men were particularly likely to report these commemorations positively impacted their sense of belonging to Canada (76% of men compared to 50% of women).
• Participation rate among Canadians aware of Anniversary of Women's Right to Vote was 11%.
• Participation rate among Canadians aware of Anniversary of the Grey Cup was 24%. Higher participation rates were found for the 100th Grey Cup in the Prairies.
• Participation rate among Canadians aware of Anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference was 8%. Higher participation rates in Atlantic Canada were found for the 150th Anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference.
• Low participation rates in Quebec were found across all commemoration themes.

Efficiency and economy

Total expenditures doubled from $23M in 2011-12 to $47.8M in 2015-16.

This represents a 103% increase. This increase is substantial and devoted almost entirely to funding five special initiatives commemorating specific high government priority events.

A total of $35 million was attributed in grants and contributions for Celebration activities across evaluation years, with an estimated 38.6 million participants. This equates to less than $1.00 cost per participant for these projects.

Service standards were not always met…

Acknowledgement of receipt of application

Celebrate Canada – service standards for the acknowledgement of receipt of application

• In 2011-12, did not meet the service standards.
• In 2012-13, did not meet the service standards.
• In 2013-14, met the service standards.
• In 2014-15, met the service standards.
• In 2015-16, met the service standards.

Commemorate Canada – service standards for the acknowledgement of receipt of application

• In 2011-12, met the service standards.
• In 2012-13, met the service standards.
• In 2013-14, met the service standards.
• In 2014-15, met the service standards.
• In 2015-16, met the service standards.

Notification of the funding decision

Celebrate Canada – service standards for the notification of the funding decision

• In 2011-12, met the service standards.
• In 2012-13, did not meet the service standards.
• In 2013-14, did not meet the service standards.
• In 2014-15, did not meet the service standards.
• In 2015-16, met the service standards.

Performance in meeting funding decision service standards declined for Celebrate Canada component in part due to the implementation issues during phase 1 of the Grants and Contributions Modernization Initiative (GCMI).

Commemorate Canada – service standards for the notification of the funding decision

• In 2011-12, met the service standards.
• In 2012-13, met the service standards.
• In 2013-14, did not meet the service standards.
• In 2014-15, did not meet the service standards.
• In 2015-16, did not meet the service standards.

The number of commemoration projects funded varied during the evaluation period, from 6 in 2011-12 to 59 in 2014-15 to 136 in 2015-16, which likely also affected compliance with the service standards.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: renew the Policy and Commemoration guidelines

The evaluation found that in order to keep the programs and suggested themes in step with government priorities and the issues of interest to Canadians, it needs to be updated and strengthened particularly to make room for reconciliation, and to better identify commemorative themes with high demand.

Principles

Guiding principles that promote a broad and inclusive vision for commemoration, to be better aligned with government priorities.

Definitions

Definitions including a statement that persons or events are "nationally significant" as determined by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMB) (while retaining the current right to mount commemorations that have not been recognized by the Board), and a definition of "national reach".

Roles

Clarity on the role of all member Departments in the ICC in leading commemorations and making evidence-based recommendations to the Five-year Plan in their area of expertise/mandate.

Remove

Remove all non-essential barriers to applications for commemoration funding such as requirements for: a positive story, or participation in existing institutions, or national pride.

Consultations

Development of consultation mechanisms to be used to identify or confirm which potential commemoration themes might be relevant to Canadians.

Recommendation 2: strengthen data used to inform and enhance CCP

CCP should strengthen data collection, monitoring and analysis, to improve management, monitoring of high-risk, high-value projects, and to provide a stronger evidence base for the CCP's contribution to its intermediate and long-term outcomes.

Monitoring

Implement a systematic monitoring of high value/risk projects.

Attendance

Include an estimate of attendance in the site visit reports from the periodic monitoring of Celebrate events by Regional staff, and make it available to PCH HQ staff in order to verify trends in attendance.

Measures

Develop a measure of the geographic reach "across Canada" to complement the CCP medium-term result for Celebrate of "Canadians across Canada have opportunities to participate in community events that are open to the public and free of charge".