Departmental Results Report 2022-23 — Canadian Heritage

The Honourable Pascale St-Onge, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Canadian Heritage

The Honourable Carla Qualtrough, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Sport and Physical Activity

The Honourable Kamal Khera, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities

The Honourable Randy Boissonnault, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages

The Honourable Marci Ien, P.C., M.P.
Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on Canadian Heritage’s website:

Alternate format

Departmental Results Report 2022-23 [PDF version - 1.72 MB]

Message from the Ministers

As Ministers, we are pleased to present the Departmental Results Report 2022–23 for the Department of Canadian Heritage.

At the departmental level, the last year of emergency support in response to the pandemic was also a year of major legislative work. As part of its support for arts and culture, Canadian Heritage worked hard to ensure that Canadian laws reflect the evolution of the digital world. Bill C-11, reintroduced in February 2022, with the intention of modernizing our broadcasting policy, led to the adoption of the Online Streaming Act in April 2023. Bill C-18 also received Royal Assent in June 2023, establishing the Online News Act, which aims for greater fairness in Canada’s digital news market. These two achievements illustrate the scope of our efforts to support creativity, the arts and culture.

It was also a landmark year for the Crown in Canada. Among the most significant events were the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, the 2022 Royal Tour of Canada, and the death of Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022. In addition to organizing events and commemorations, Canadian Heritage continued to provide opportunities for Canadians to participate in national celebrations and heritage activities in their communities.

Access to inclusive and safe sport environments benefits all aspects of our lives and our society as a whole. In 2022–23, Canadian Heritage supported the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner and strengthened its safe sport requirements for funded organizations. Preparations for a new Canadian Sport Policy also continued, with the aim of encouraging sport for all, including members of Indigenous communities, women, girls and members of 2SLGBTQI+ communities. It is of the highest importance to ensure that everyone can participate in sport free from harassment, abuse and discrimination.

In Canada, a multitude of cultures and traditions enrich our social fabric. Through Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy, the Government has tackled various forms of racism, including antisemitism and Islamophobia, and notably with the appointment of the first Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia in January 2023. In addition, the Department has worked to advance the path of reconciliation, notably through Canada’s commitment to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. A high priority, reconciliation is increasingly reflected year over year in the Department’s organizational culture, the delivery of its programs and the continued work with First Nations, Inuit and Métis to fully implement the Indigenous Languages Act.

The year 2022–23 paved the way for major advances in the promotion of Canada’s two official languages. Indeed, Bill C-13 to amend the Official Languages Act, tabled in March 2022, went through the entire parliamentary process to become law early in the following fiscal year, in June 2023. In addition, the Department completed implementation of the Action Plan for Official Languages 2018–2023 and put the finishing touches on the Action Plan for 2023 to 2028. It was a remarkable spirit of collaboration and sustained effort that led to the adoption of modernized legislation and the presentation of an ambitious action plan. These advances will enable us to continue supporting official languages and official language minority communities in the years to come.

Canadian Heritage has continued to implement initiatives that focus on equity, diversity and inclusion. Following a series of inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA) retreats facilitated by a visiting scholar to the Canada School of Public Service, Dr. Rachel Zellars, a Culture Statement was created that will act as a guiding vision for the Department to become more inclusive, diverse and accessible in the coming years. The Department’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Review was completed in March 2023, and resulted in a final report with over 80 recommendations to address system-level barriers. In 2022, Canadian Heritage also launched its first accessibility plan to promote the rights and dignity of people with disabilities. The Department has put in place the conditions necessary to create an inclusive, safe, welcoming and barrier-free environment for its staff with diverse abilities and for all those we serve. This initiative will help deliver on the Government of Canada’s commitments under the Accessible Canada Act and the “Nothing Without Us” Accessibility Strategy.

We invite you to read this report to learn more about the achievements of Canadian Heritage in 2022–23.

The Honourable Pascale St-Onge
Minister of Canadian Heritage

The Honourable Carla Qualtrough
Minister of Sport and Physical Activity

The Honourable Kamal Khera
Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities

The Honourable Randy Boissonnault
Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages

The Honourable Marci Ien
Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth

Results at a glance

From April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023, Canadian Heritage’s total actual spending amounted to $2,300,555,037 and its total actual full-time equivalents were 2,132.1.

In addition to delivering the last year of temporary pandemic measures, the Department advanced legislative and policy work to make the online world a fairer, more inclusive and safer place, while ensuring that it remains a fertile ground for innovation and free expression. This included:

Advancing legislation to reform the Broadcasting Act to ensure Canada’s laws reflect the evolving digital world (Online Streaming Act).
Introducing Bill C-18, the Online News Act to establish a new legislative and regulatory framework to ensure fairness in the Canadian digital news marketplace.
Further engagement to combat serious forms of harmful content online on a risk-based approach which included an expert advisory group, a Citizens’ Assembly, and 20 Ministerial roundtables across Canada.

The Government’s commitment to address racism and hate was reaffirmed through Budget 2023. It committed additional funding in support of the renewed Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy to fight all forms of racism, including but not limited to anti-Indigenous racism, anti-Black racism, anti-Asian racism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. Following extensive public consultations, Canadian Heritage also led the development of Canada’s first Action Plan on Combatting Hate. Additionally, Budget 2022 provided a $1.5 million contribution towards an endowment which supports the ongoing activities of the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora.

In collaboration with the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and the Métis National Council, Canadian Heritage developed distinction-based Indigenous languages funding models for First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The funding models, tailored to the needs of each distinction, increase Indigenous autonomy and control over funding decisions based on the priorities of First Nations, Inuit and Métis, and also introduce long-term funding agreements to support multi-year strategies. This will help to provide long-term, predictable and sustainable funding in order to preserve, promote and revitalize Indigenous languages in Canada.

The Government of Canada believes it is of paramount importance to ensure Canadians can participate in sport free from harassment, abuse, and discrimination. As such, on June 12, 2022, the Minister of Sport, accompanied by sport leaders and athlete representatives, announced new governance requirements, a push for heightened accountability, and safe sport standards for funded sport organizations, which includes the expectation that all funded national-level sport organizations become signatories to the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada’s Abuse-Free Sport Program,^{Footnote 1} granting the organization access to the services of the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner. This Office became operational as Canada’s new independent third-party mechanism to receive, investigate, and adjudicate complaints under the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport^{Footnote 2} from members of sport organizations who are Abuse-Free Sport Program signatories.

This was a landmark year for the Crown in Canada, with the Department coordinating the commemorations of the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, marking the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne; the 2022 Royal Tour of Canada by His Majesty King Charles III and Her Majesty the Queen Consort, then Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall; and the commemorative events to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022.

The Government also prioritized the modernization of the Official Languages Act. Bill C-13, amending the Official Languages Act, was tabled in the House of Commons in March 2022. From December 2022 to March 2023, Bill C-13 went through the parliamentary process, and as of March 31, 2023, was under clause-by-clause review by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages. It became law on June 20, 2023.

Canadian Heritage actively promotes reconciliation and advances Indigenous initiatives. In 2021, Canadian Heritage released a Reconciliation Strategic Framework and established the Reconciliation, Treaties, and Engagement Branch to guide its work towards reconciliation. During 2022–23, the Department made important progress in implementing the Calls to Action,^{Footnote 3} and in collaborating with other departments to implement the Federal Pathway to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People,^{Footnote 4} which is the Government of Canada’s response to the National Inquiry^{Footnote 5} into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ peoples. In doing so, the Department worked to address and implement the Calls for Justice ^{Footnote 6} (PDF version) and Calls for Miskotahâ^{Footnote 7} (PDF format) while working towards the National Action Progress Report^{Footnote 8} and the Federal Pathway Annual Progress Report^{Footnote 9}. As well, Canadian Heritage contributed to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UNDA) Action Plan,^{Footnote 10} as part of Canada’s commitment to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.^{Footnote 11} The Department is committed to advancing reconciliation by ensuring it remains a key priority as part of its governance, and ensuring it is reflected in the delivery of its programs, services, and initiatives. In 2022-23, a new governance committee was established focused on supporting the Department’s reconciliation efforts and addressing barriers faced by Indigenous employees.

Canadian Heritage continued to implement initiatives focused on equity, diversity and inclusion throughout the Department’s policies and programs. Notable departmental initiatives include:

strengthening capacity and further integrating Gender-Based Analysis (GBA) Plus into all departmental activities and products;
the conclusion of the Department’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Review, which involved over 60 participants from twelve departmental funding programs, each of which identified barriers to equity, diversity and inclusion and are working towards solutions, and which resulted in a final report with over 80 recommendations to address system-level barriers;
ongoing work of departmental programming and policy development aimed at areas such as multiculturalism, anti-racism and combatting hate, official languages, and youth;
ongoing work of departmental programming and policy development to remove barriers for members of equity-deserving groups to access funding; and
the creation of the new Internal Organizational Culture directorate and two new departmental governance committees to ensure coherence among inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA) initiatives as well as to facilitate community engagement internally.

Canadian Heritage is strongly committed to contribute to a barrier-free Canada. On December 2, 2022, the Department launched its first 3-year Accessibility Plan^{Footnote 12} and feedback mechanisms, which promote the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others. The Accessibility Plan upholds the principle of Nothing Without Us—co-development and accountability to persons with disabilities on policies, programs, and services that affect them so that we may learn from their lived experience. Most importantly, the Accessibility Plan promotes an important paradigm shift—from the inability of people to engage with their environment, to the need for environments to be inclusive of all abilities.

For more information on Canadian Heritage’s plans, priorities and results achieved, see the “Results: what we achieved” section of this report.

Results: what we achieved

Core responsibility 1: Creativity, arts and culture

Description

Ensures that a wide range of Canadian artistic and cultural content is accessible at home and abroad. Provides opportunities for Canadians to participate and engage in Canada’s creative life, fostering a sense of belonging and inclusion. Fosters creativity, innovation, growth and employment opportunities in Canada’s cultural sector, and in the creative economy. Support policy, legislative and regulatory measures; deliver funding programs that support creation, professional training, cultural infrastructure and arts presentation; business development and marketing initiatives; and the establishment of partnerships in Canada and abroad.

Results

The Department contributes to core responsibility 1 through several programs: Arts; Cultural Marketplace Framework; and Cultural Industries Support and Development.

At a high level, Canadian Heritage supports marketplace conditions for a strong, innovative, competitive and equitable cultural sector through policy development and advice to ensure a responsive legislative and policy framework. This includes advice on horizontal fields like discoverability of Canada’s creative industries internationally to help creators reach their export potential, and matters related to the digital environment, and disinformation. The Department fosters a vibrant Canadian artistic sector by increasing opportunities for Canadians to connect with the arts, explore artistic excellence and become full partners in supporting a resilient arts sector. Canadian Heritage also encourages the creation of and access to Canadian cultural content, as well as fosters the competitiveness of Canada’s music, book publishing and periodical industries, and film and video.

COVID-19 impacts have been felt by the arts and culture sector since March 2020, and the Department continued to deliver an unprecedented number of temporary measures to support recovery and reopening throughout 2022–23. While pandemic impacts have been experienced by all, the types and depths of impacts have varied, and the recovery has been uneven across the various subsectors. The Department’s response mechanisms have been informed by continuous stakeholder engagement and cultural sector data throughout the pandemic to ensure that funding was disbursed to areas most in need.

To support the arts and culture sector through the pandemic, the Recovery Fund for Arts, Culture Heritage and Sport sectors and the Reopening Fund together delivered $500 million over two years (2021–22 and 2022–23) across the arts, culture, heritage and sport sectors, with substantial investments being made in support of core responsibility 1 in 2022–23 through the following programs and initiatives:

Creative Industries

Local Journalism Initiative, to support the hiring of more journalists in underserved communities.
Canada Media Fund, to support the recovery of third-language community productions and to support Production of Local News and Local Programming by Independent Broadcasters.
Canada Book Fund, to increase promotion and access to Canadian books and support publishers of underrepresented communities.
Creative Export Strategy, to provide support to export-ready Canadian businesses and organizations and accelerate the growth of creative exporters by providing them with training and mentorship opportunities.

Performing arts, infrastructure, and live events

Canada Arts Presentation Fund, to support not-for-profit organizations in the professional arts presentation sector for costs to encourage the return of audiences.
Canada Music Fund, to continue the Emergency Support to Canadian-Owned Music Venues, Concert Promoters and Producers in 2022–23.
Canada Cultural Investment Fund, to provide support to arts and heritage organizations impacted by the pandemic for multi-year partnership projects.

Cultural Infrastructure

Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, to provide support to arts and heritage organizations whose active funded infrastructure projects experienced cost overruns or revenue losses.
Harbourfront Centre Funding Program, to undertake urgent capital work to update performance spaces and venues, including those necessary to reopen safely for staff, visitors and audiences.

In addition to the Canadian Heritage-delivered components of the Recovery and Reopening Funds related to core responsibility 1, other components within these funds were delivered by portfolio organizations, which helped support film festivals, cinema recovery, performing arts and several sector-related supports.

The Department and Telefilm also administered the third and final year of funding for the Short-Term Compensation Fund in 2023. The fund was a temporary emergency measure to address the lack of insurance coverage in the Canadian film and television production industry. The Fund had a budget of $50 million in 2020–21, $149 million in 2021–22, and was set to have as much as $150 million in 2022–23. Four claims were received in 2020–21, 22 in 2021–22 and 45 in 2022–23, representing a total of $12.9 million in indemnities paid over the three years.

In the same vein, an additional initiative called the Canadian Arts and Culture Recovery Program was put in place to compensate Canadian arts, culture, and heritage organizations for revenue losses due to public health restrictions and capacity limits of the COVID-19 pandemic. Budget 2022 provided an additional $50 million of funding to Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, and Telefilm Canada.

Today’s digital reality required the sector to rethink its frameworks, policies and programs. In 2022–23, the Department advanced cultural and digital policy that responded to the impacts of online dynamics and new media on consumption practices and business models. The Department worked on a legislative agenda that contributes to ensuring Canadians have access to Canadian content in a digital world, helping Canada’s creative and cultural industries benefit from the digital economy and marketplace, while also helping Canadians feel free to express themselves fully and safely in this online ecosystem.

Engagement with stakeholders has been critical to the development and delivery of relevant and responsive sectoral supports. In 2022–23, the Department delivered the National Culture Summit: The Future of Arts, Culture and Heritage in Canada, responding to the Minister of Canadian Heritage’s mandate commitment to hold a summit on plans to restart and position these sectors for the future. The summit mobilized over 400 in-person and 1,000 online participants from across the arts, culture and heritage sectors for a national conversation on resilience, sustainability and transformation of the arts, culture and heritage sectors in Canada. A final report was released in October 2022. The Department also continued its open dialogue through a recipient survey on the Recovery and Reopening Funds, through the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Culture and Heritage table engagement and via sector- and theme-specific conversations related to policy development and program delivery.

The actual spending budget allocated to this core responsibility was $776,134,605 and was supported by a total of 468.9 actual full-time equivalents.

Creative industries are successful in the digital economy, foster creativity and contribute to economic growth

In 2022–23, the Government advanced its work to ensure that Canada’s laws reflect our evolving digital world. Legislation to reform the Broadcasting Act was reintroduced on February 2, 2022. The Online Streaming Act will have streaming services showcase Canadian music and stories, as well as support our creators and producers.

Budget 2022 underlined the Government’s commitment to ensuring that the Copyright Act protects all creators and copyright holders. Budget implementation extended the general term of copyright from 50 to 70 years after the life of the author. Budget 2022 also committed to ensure a more sustainable educational publishing industry. The Department and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada continued to explore potential policy options related to this commitment. Finally, in the fall of 2022, Canadian Heritage conducted targeted engagement on implementing resale rights for artists. Roundtables with equity deserving groups on resale rights for artists were completed in January 2023.

As part of the work towards modernizing the audiovisual policy framework and funding tools, Budget 2023 included increased funding to support Canadian audiovisual content through the Canada Media Fund. Budget 2023 provided $40 million over two years for the Canada Media Fund to make funding more open to traditionally underrepresented voices, and to increase funding for French-language screen content.

The Indigenous Screen Office plays a vital role in advancing Indigenous narrative sovereignty and the promotion and revitalization of Indigenous languages and cultures. With a Government investment of $13 million in the Indigenous Screen Office in 2022–23, the program was able to fund 106 recipients through the Story fund and support 8 initiatives under the Sector Development stream, including a large capital contribution to support the ground-up building of a film and television production studio in Iqaluit, Nunavut. These investments helped to advance the growth of the Indigenous screen sector in Canada and build the overall capacity of the Indigenous audiovisual sector.

Budget 2021 announced resources to support the efforts of the book industry and help increase sales of Canadian books online. For the first year of this initiative in 2022–23, the Canada Book Fund provided funding that helped Canadian booksellers review their business models, innovate and make strategic investments to compete in a highly competitive environment dominated by e-commerce giants.

Canadians are able to consume Canadian content on multiple platforms

On April 5, 2022, the Government introduced Bill C-18, the Online News Act to establish a new legislative and regulatory framework to ensure fairness in the Canadian digital news marketplace, by ensuring that news media and journalists receive fair compensation for their work. It provides a market solution by facilitating fair commercial agreements between online platforms and news outlets, with minimal government intervention. This bill, which later became law on June 22, 2023, will contribute to the sustainability of the news sector, including the sustainability of independent local news businesses.

As the national public broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada has a mandate to provide a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens and entertains. Budget 2022 provided the Corporation with $21 million in both 2022–23 and 2023–24 to help it address its funding pressures and to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the new media environment.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy have exacerbated the financial sustainability of journalism and media, already weakened by declining advertising revenues. To further support the production of local news in underserved communities, Budget 2022 allocated an additional $10 million in 2023–24 for the Local Journalism Initiative. In 2021–22 only, the Local Journalism Initiative supports have resulted in the hiring or retention of 448 journalists. Collectively they offered journalistic coverage to 1,544 underserved communities in Canada, of which 47 journalists provided coverage for Indigenous communities, 66 for ethnocultural communities, 206 for official-language minority communities and 2 for 2SLGBTQI+.

Budget 2022 also relaunched the temporary Special Measures for Journalism component of the Canada Periodical Fund. In 2022–23, grants were allocated to 682 non-daily newspapers and magazines that have a free or low level of paid circulation, or are digital-only publications. This is in addition to the 754 paid periodicals funded by the Aid to Publishers component. In both cases, many of the recipients are from diversity groups.

Creative industries are successful in global markets

The Creative Export Strategy helped Canadian creative industries maximize their export potential and stand out in the global market in 2022–23 through:

The Creative Export Canada program, which provided funding to 38 export-ready projects totalling nearly $13 million to support creative businesses and organizations in achieving their international objectives.
Trade Missions, which included the fifth Creative Industries Trade Mission to Europe (Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands), led by the Minister of Canadian Heritage with a delegation of 29 Canadian creative industries companies and organizations. They benefited from over 360 business-to-business meetings organized between Canadian delegates and international participants. The Department also delivered a virtual trade mission to Australia and New Zealand with 193 Canadian creative industries organizations, 59 Australian and 9 New Zealand organizations, and a virtual trade mission to South Korea, which attracted 157 Canadian creative industries organizations and 68 South Korean organizations.
17 international creative industries events which helped create trade opportunities through business-to-business meetings and pitch sessions to international buyers.
The annual meeting of the Canada-Mexico Partnership in November 2022 hosted by Canada, including the meeting of the Working Group on Culture and Creativity.

Canadian Heritage continued to advance Canada’s trade and cultural interests on the world stage and in the review of foreign investments. In 2022–23, the Department processed 36 foreign investments, which included eight reviews for net benefit to Canada and involved the negotiation and securing of undertakings designed to shape the development of Canada’s cultural sector. Though dominated by investments in the film and video sector, which includes interactive digital media and video games, the Department also treated higher-than-normal volumes of investments in other prescribed business activities, such as the publishing and music sectors. The new Canada-France co-production treaty, which covers film, television and on-demand services, also came into force on May 1, 2022, after having been ratified by both countries.

Canadian Heritage continued to represent and advance Canada’s creative sector and copyright interests in international trade agreement negotiations (such as the Canada-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement and the Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) and in multilateral forums such as the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization. Through participation in international trade negotiations, Canada maintained the flexibility to support and nurture domestic cultural industries, including in the online environment, while creating conditions favourable for participation in other markets. Furthermore, Canadian Heritage continued to support initiatives on the protection of Indigenous arts and cultural expressions, including codifying a commitment on the protection of Indigenous cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions as part of Canada’s Action Plan to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Canadians have access to cultural facilities in their communities; and festivals and performing arts series that reflect Canada’s diversity.

As part of the Canada Arts and Culture Recovery Program, the Canada Arts Presentation Fund provided additional support to existing program recipients that own or operate an indoor facility as a presentation venue, as well as other non-profit organizations that demonstrate they regularly provided such type of venue for the live performing arts, and that experience significant viability and business continuity issues.

The Canada Performing Arts Workers Resilience Fund provided funding to independent, self-employed workers in the live performing arts sector, and funding to organizations that provided programs and services to workers in this sector. This program provided emergency funding to workers experiencing financial hardship through two streams:

The direct financial assistance stream: over 15,000 independent, self-employed workers in the live performing arts sector received emergency financial assistance.
The programs or services stream: workers had access to professional development webinars, mentorship opportunities, legal and mental health counselling services, and hands-on training.

In addition, the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund delivered funding through the Supporting the Foundations of Cultural Infrastructure initiative to support existing Canada Cultural Spaces Fund recipients with infrastructure projects underway and experiencing cost overruns and revenue losses, due to COVID-19. Priority was given to projects from Indigenous peoples, equity-deserving groups, official language minority and rural and remote communities, and to projects in underrepresented artistic disciplines.

Also, the Canada Arts Presentation Fund delivered supplemental funding to address a heightened demand and COVID-19 impacts on supported organizations. This investment allowed the program to support new recipients from equity-deserving groups, which are a program priority; this includes Indigenous, racialized, official language minority communities, 2SLGBTQI+, women-led organizations, Deaf and people living with disabilities. As a result, more Canadians were able to see, hear and celebrate the talents of Canadian artists and have access to artistic experiences that reflect Canada’s diversity. The funding also helped promote the talents of Canadian artists in more communities across the country.

Canadians have access to more safe, diverse and secure digital environment and are resilient to disinformation

As part of the Department’s efforts to develop and introduce legislation to combat serious forms of harmful online content, in 2022–23 an Advisory Group, composed of 12 experts from diverse backgrounds and experiences, met to provide the Department with advice to support the development of a legislative and regulatory framework around online safety. Additionally, a Citizen’s Assembly on Democratic Expression, composed of participants from across Canada with a variety of backgrounds met to discuss the issue of a new legislative and regulatory framework to address harmful content online. Lastly, the Minister conducted 20 roundtables - 13 regional, across Canada, and 7 on specific themes. These roundtables on online safety provided the opportunity to listen to and understand the perspectives of those who would be most impacted by the legislation. Canadian Heritage has started drafting of the bill and is drawing upon the information collected through its engagement in 2022.

Since 2019, the Department has been working to address emerging challenges posed by online technologies, which resulted in the publication of the 2021 International Guiding Principles on the Diversity of Content Online, developed in consultation with the Canadian Heritage-led International Multi-Stakeholder Working Group. The Department also worked with Global Affairs Canada to explore options to formalize the Guiding Principles in an international framework, such as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) convention or other initiatives that could positively impact the online ecosystem. In 2022–23, the Working Group developed an inventory of best practices that each sector (government, industry, and civil society groups) can implement to foster a diverse and inclusive digital ecosystem that addresses all four areas of the Guiding Principles.

Gender-based Analysis Plus

In 2022–23, several programs under core responsibility 1 sought to provide equitable access to funding for equity-deserving groups to Canadian Heritage’s arts and culture programming. For example:

The Canada Arts Presentation Fund implemented two measures to reduce barriers faced by equity-deserving groups and underserved communities: it extended the eligibility criteria for the development component to include non-incorporated organizations and ad hoc community groups representing equity-deserving communities, including Indigenous groups; and it created an alternative application method in the form of oral applications to increase the diversity of Canadian Heritage funding recipients.

The Government of Canada provided targeted funding to the Canada Media Fund to increase support for productions led by people from equity-deserving groups working in the Canadian audiovisual industry and to increase support for third-language productions. These investments provided opportunities for equity-deserving creators to build skills and experience, as well as to support greater diversity in top-tier productions. Targeted funding for the Canada Media Fund has also been used to directly benefit underrepresented professionals in the industry, including women, people with disabilities, 2SLGBTQI+ people, Black, racialized and Indigenous people.

The Indigenous Screen Office continued to support Indigenous creators, who through their work and projects, improved the representation of Indigenous peoples in Indigenous and non-Indigenous media outlets. The Indigenous Screen Office also helped create equitable access to funding and capacity building for Indigenous peoples, including women and 2SLGBTQI+ creators. Additionally, in 2022–23, the Indigenous Screen Office launched a new program with the National Film Board of Canada that provides two Immersive/Interactive Producer mentorships in both French and English at the National Film Board of Canada digital studios.

The Canada Book Fund introduced a new measure to support book sales by authors from racialized, Indigenous and official language minority communities. It further incentivized all Canadian independent publishers to publish and promote books by authors from these communities. The funding formula was adjusted to give more weight to these works, which translated to relatively higher funding.

The Local Journalism Initiative requires that administrator organizations have mechanisms and practices in place to promote diversity in hiring and coverage. Each administrator organization submitted an outreach plan during the application process on how they intended to promote hiring and coverage in a manner that is reflective of diverse communities in Canada. These plans have then been reflected as a condition of funding in the contribution agreement with the administration organizations. In addition, for 2022–23, at least $3.1 million was earmarked for coverage of underrepresented and underserved groups and communities.

The Creative Export Canada program encourages projects that implement gender or diversity considerations for staffing, leadership and decision-making roles. This criterion is met when the applicant outlines respect for gender or diversity in their application but is enhanced when a policy is already in place in terms of human resources, such as gender parity policies, 2SLGBTQI+ inclusionary policies and Black, Indigenous and racialized minority inclusionary policies. The Creative Export Canada program considers applications that have special considerations, such as women’s empowerment, racialized community-owned, consideration for Indigenous peoples and official language minority communities, and accessibility to people with disabilities, as additional information supporting the recommendations for ministerial approval. Of the 38 projects receiving funding in 2022–23, 32 projects had special considerations.

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals

In 2022–23, initiatives related to core responsibility 1 helped advance Quality education (SDG 4), Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), Industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9), Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10), Peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16) and Partnerships for the goals (SDG 17):

Created opportunities to deepen Canadians’ knowledge of digital media literacy, information literacy, and civic literacy to be more resilient in the face of disinformation (SDG 4)—the Digital Citizen Contribution Program funded projects that aim to help people identify misinformation and disinformation online, understand the role of non-news and alternative media sources of disinformation and ensure that Canadians can navigate the Canadian information ecosystem in an informed and secure manner.
Supported the international business development efforts of Canadian cultural companies and organizations to help them maximize their export potential through the Creative Export Strategy (SDG 8). This included leading an in-person trade mission to Europe (Sweden, Netherlands and Germany), two virtual trade missions, one focused on Australia and New Zealand and another on South Korea, and supporting business programming on the margins of international cultural industry events to facilitate trade opportunities, such as business-to-business meetings with international buyers, market briefings, networking opportunities, and pitch sessions (SDG 8).
Provided support through the Canada Arts Training Fund to Canada’s top arts training schools of proven national significance specializing in a wide variety of artistic disciplines such as dance, theatre, music, visual arts, and multidisciplinary arts (SDG 8).
Advanced legislation to reform the Broadcasting Act to ensure Canadian stories and music are widely available on streaming platforms to the benefit of future generations of artists and creators in Canada, which will support our creators and producers (SDG 8).
Introduced Bill C-18, the Online News Act to ensure fair revenue sharing between digital platforms and news outlets, which creates greater fairness and sustainability in the news industry, including the sustainability of independent local news businesses (SDG 9).
Supported the hiring of more journalists in underserved communities through the Local Journalism Initiative (SDG 10, SDG 16).
Promoted the discovery and distribution of Canadian programming in French at home and abroad through the TV5 program to develop and revitalize the diversity in cultural domains within the global Francophonie. The renewal of TV5’s core values and the adoption of TV5MONDE’s new strategic plan confirms this commitment by multiple international stakeholders (SDG 17).

Innovation

The Canadian Artists and Content Creators Economic Survey^{Footnote 13} was a pilot project designed to generate timely data on the economic circumstances of artists and content creators prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was designed to collect disaggregated data that would allow analysts to identify major differences across equity-deserving groups. The survey reached respondents outside the traditional scope of grants and contributions programs, including comedians, content creators, crafters, and low-participation creatives (those earning less than 25% of their income from creative work). In 2022–23, key findings were published and are used to improve programs aimed at supporting the well-being and economic viability of Canada’s artists and content creators.

In 2022–23, the Creative Export Canada program received funds from the Recovery Fund for Arts, Culture, Heritage and Sport Sectors in order to support projects from the performing arts sector. This additional funding allowed the program to be more accessible by providing funding to organizations that expected to generate export revenues over a longer term. With this supplementary funding, the program provided funding to 17 export-ready projects in 2022–23. The program’s new approach aligned with feedback received from industry consultations and helped support the creation of the new Export Development Stream, which enables organizations to obtain funding even if they do not expect to generate export revenues in the short term (i.e., 3 months following project completion).

The Canada Arts Training Fund is supporting a multi-year initiative in collaboration with the Indigenous Arts Knowledge Exchange, a national coalition of Indigenous training schools, to enhance program responsiveness to the needs of Indigenous arts training organizations. The initiative involves the creation and implementation of collaborative land-based training model, which has been identified as the most effective way to attract Indigenous students and ultimately increase the number of successful graduates from Indigenous training programs in Canada.

Key risks

In 2022–23, the Department undertook initiatives where potential risks were identified—in particular, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the arts and culture sector.

Canadian Heritage implemented measures to mitigate impacts of these risks on its results. For example, programs continued to pivot to maximize support for the creative sector and Canadians. Programs prioritized activities that are in direct support of the sector and of its stakeholders. Also, additional targeted supports and investments were added to some programs to mitigate the risks. Lastly, the Department worked closely with its delivery partners and clients to implement flexibility to support targeted needs.

Results achieved for Creativity, arts and culture

The following table shows, for Creativity, arts and culture, the results achieved, the performance indicators, the targets and the target dates for 2022–23, and the actual results for the three most recent fiscal years for which actual results are available.

Results achieved for Creativity, arts and culture
Departmental results	Performance indicators	Target	Date to achieve target	2020–21 actual results	2021–22 actual results	2022–23 actual results
Creative industries are successful in the digital economy, foster creativity and contribute to economic growth.	Gross domestic product (GDP) of the Canadian cultural sector (in billions of dollars).	$56 billion	March 2023	$51 billion	$61 billion	$62 billion
	Number of jobs in the cultural sector.	615,000	March 2023	578,697	653,780	711,985
Canadians are able to consume Canadian content on multiple platforms.	Number of Canadian Television productions.	1,190	March 2023	n/a^{Footnote 14}	n/a^{Footnote 14}	1,456^{Footnote 15} (2021–22)
	Number of Canadian theatrical feature films produced.	122	March 2023	n/a^{Footnote 14}	n/a^{Footnote 14}	148^{Footnote 15} (2021–22)
	Number of Canadian-authored books published.	6,000	March 2023	n/a^{Footnote 14}	n/a^{Footnote 14}	7,056
	Number of magazines in Canada producing Canadian content.	1,200	March 2023	1,212	1,079	n/a^{Footnote 16}
	Number of non-daily newspapers in Canada producing Canadian content	900	March 2023	974	950	949
	Market share of Canadian artists on top 2,000 domestic album sales chart.	20%	March 2023	19%	24%	23%
	Market share of Canadian artists on top 20,000 domestic streaming chart.	15%	March 2023	11%	10%	11%^{Footnote 17}
Creative industries are successful in global markets.	Value of creative exports (in billions of dollars).	$20 billion	March 2023	n/a^{Footnote 14}	n/a^{Footnote 14}	$19.4 billion^{Footnote 18} (2020–21)
Canadians have access to cultural facilities in their communities.	Number of communities with improved cultural facilities.	80	March 2023	101	91	89
	Percentage of Canadians with access to improved cultural facilities.	40%	March 2023	41%	41%	42%
Canadians have access to festivals and performing arts series that reflect Canada’s diversity.	Percentage of funded festivals and performing arts series whose programming promotes diversity.	70%	March 2023	66%	60%	72%
Canadians have access to a more safe, diverse and secure digital environment and are resilient to disinformation.	Percentage of funded Digital Citizen Contribution Program projects with partners	80%	March 2023	New indicator	New indicator	100%

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Creativity, arts and culture

The following table shows, for Creativity, arts and culture, budgetary spending for 2022–23, as well as actual spending for that year.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Creativity, arts and culture
2022–23 Main Estimates	2022–23 planned spending	2022–23 total authorities available for use	2022–23 actual spending (authorities used)	2022–23 difference (actual spending minus planned spending)
693,223,296	693,223,296	786,762,814	776,134,605	82,911,309

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Creativity, arts and culture.

The following table shows, in full-time equivalents, the human resources the Department needed to fulfill this core responsibility for 2022–23.

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Creativity, arts and culture.
2022–23 planned full-time equivalents	2022–23 actual full-time equivalents	2022–23 difference (actual full-time equivalents minus planned full-time equivalents)
431.5	468.9	37.4

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Core responsibility 2: Heritage and celebration

Description

Offers opportunities for Canadians to participate in celebrations and commemorations of national significance, and in local festivals and heritage events. Invests in the development of learning materials and experiences that give Canadians opportunities to enhance their understanding of Canada’s history. Facilitates access to heritage and provides support to heritage institutions to preserve and present heritage to all Canadians. Delivers projects, programs and services; grants, contributions and tax incentives; conducts research; provides authoritative information and expertise; and supports the implementation of heritage-related legislation.

Results

The Department contributes to core responsibility 2 through several programs: National Celebrations, Commemorations and Symbols; Community Engagement and Heritage; Preservation of and Access to Heritage; and Learning about Canadian History. Canadian Heritage offers opportunities for Canadians to participate in celebrations and commemorations of national significance, recognizes notable people, places, symbols, anniversaries and accomplishments of national significance across Canada, offers events and activities in the National Capital Region, and promotes and protects Canadian symbols. The Department provides funding in support of local festivals, community anniversaries and capital projects. Canadian Heritage ensures that Canada’s cultural heritage is preserved and accessible to Canadians today and in the future, assists Canadian museums in documenting and managing their collections, provides Canadians access to Canadian and international heritage through the circulation of artefacts and exhibitions in Canada, and helps Canadian heritage institutions compete with foreign institutions for the loan of prestigious international exhibitions. Finally, the Department encourages Canadians to learn about Canada’s history, civic life and public policy.

To support the heritage sector through the pandemic, the Recovery Fund for Arts, Culture, Heritage and Sport sectors and the Reopening Fund together delivered $500 million over two years (2021–22 and 2022–23) across the arts, culture, heritage and sport sectors, with substantial investments made in support of core responsibility 2 in 2022–23 through the following initiatives in the Recovery Fund:

Celebration and Commemoration Program, to facilitate post-COVID-19 initiatives as the country emerges from the pandemic. In 2022, the program received Reopening funding to support post-COVID-19 celebration and commemoration initiatives as Canada emerges from the pandemic. Overall, 237 projects across Canada were funded. The funding supported local economies following the hardship of the pandemic, commemorated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada by honouring first responders, front-line workers, community and paid tribute to lives lost and provided an opportunity for Canadians, impacted by COVID-19 to share their stories, experiences and contributions during the course of the pandemic.
Building Communities through Arts and Heritage supported recurring festivals offering arts and heritage programming and presenting the work of local artists, artisans or heritage performers, including 2SLGBTQI+ events and Indigenous cultural celebrations. Also, it continued to deliver project funding to Treaty commemorations. This funding furthered commitments towards reconciliation and supported eligible activities towards the commemoration of Treaty 3 (Manitoba and Ontario) in 2022–23.

Additional pandemic support was provided in 2022–23 for the heritage, arts, and cultural sectors through the Canada Arts and Culture Recovery Program, including

The Museums Assistance Program, to help secure the viability of Canadian heritage organizations experiencing reduced revenues while operating under capacity restrictions and audience hesitancy to return to in-person activities. Funding ensured that heritage institutions were able to contribute to the resilience of their communities as Canada recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this funding was to support ongoing operating costs for heritage organizations to allow them to continue to care for their heritage collections, as they seek to recover from pandemic-related losses.

The actual spending budget allocated to this core responsibility was $220,705,354 and was supported by a total of 354.9 actual full-time equivalents.

Canadians are engaged in celebrations and commemorations of national significance.

This was a landmark year for the Crown in Canada, with:

The Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, marking the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne. She was Canada’s longest-reigning sovereign, and the first to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee;
The 2022 Royal Tour of Canada by His Majesty King Charles III and Her Majesty the Queen Consort, then Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II and meet inspiring Canadians; and
The commemorative events to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022.

Canada Day 2022 celebrations took place on LeBreton Flats Park due to the rehabilitation project at Parliament Hill. It marked the first large-scale, outdoor, in-person event following the restrictions imposed by COVID-19. Celebrations included performances from Canadian artists live from the National Capital Region as well as from Vancouver, Halifax, Montréal, Saskatoon and Yellowknife.

Furthermore, an Indigenous Reflection kicked off the Canada Day 2022 Noon Show as part of the broadcast to millions of Canadians. This special moment permitted Canadians to continue to learn about Indigenous cultures as it featured an Indigenous women-led Water Ceremony held along the Ottawa River.

In 2021, Canadian Heritage received ongoing funding for initiatives to commemorate the history and legacy of Residential Schools, including activities related to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. As part of this funding, a commitment was made to engage with Survivors and Indigenous Peoples to inform and shape Canadian Heritage’s funding approach for commemorative activities and events.

In fall 2022, Canadian Heritage began reaching out to numerous Indigenous organizations across the country who will facilitate this engagement with Survivors, their families, and community members to learn how best to create awareness and commemorate the history and legacy of Residential Schools. This engagement will continue until March 31, 2024.

The construction of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism resumed, with additional funding from Budget 2021, and an experienced contractor was engaged by the National Capital Commission to produce the artwork. The completion of the Memorial is scheduled for fall 2023.

In April 2022, the Minister of Canadian Heritage announced the names of the 16 members of the new Survivor-led Steering Committee, which is currently guiding the work of the Residential Schools National Monument. The Committee met 8 times (virtually and in person) in 2022–23.

Canadians across the country are engaged in their communities through local arts and heritage.

In 2022–23, the Building Communities through Arts and Heritage Program provided grants and contributions funding to 800 projects, including 744 local festivals and 56 community anniversary and commemorative capital projects that encourage citizens across the country to connect with one another and engage in their local communities through performing and visual arts, and through the expression, celebration, and preservation of local historical heritage. In addition, to support recipients through the pandemic and during recovery, the Program extended temporary flexibilities, including an expanded list of eligible expenses.

Among the local festivals and heritage events supported:

The Local Festivals component supported Cw Wolahkomiksuwakon in Fredericton, New Brunswick, an event celebrating local Maliseet culture and heritage.
Similarly, the program supported Festival des Folies Franco-Fun in New Liskeard, Ontario, which attracted more than 800 attendees.
The Community Anniversaries component supported a project in Inukjuak, Nunavik, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the film “Nanook of the North” (1922).
The Building Communities through Arts and Heritage Program also supported the 100th Anniversary of Signing Treaty 11 at Nahanni Butte, Northwest Territories, which promoted the work of more than 50 local artists.

The Legacy Fund component continued to support activities related to the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Hudson Bay Trading Post at Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, which marked a century of collaboration and a celebration of Inuit culture.

The Legacy Fund also commemorated the 100th anniversary of the founding of Hearst, Ontario. The project included the restoration of a heritage residence housing the Hearst Eco-Museum and established a cultural park with the First Nation of Constance Lake, creating a dedicated space for Indigenous culture. Overall, it engaged 16 local artists, artisans, and heritage specialists and 30 volunteers.

The public is provided with access to cultural heritage.

The Department advanced the renewal of the Canadian Museum Policy by launching consultations targeting the public, Indigenous partners, heritage sector stakeholders, advocacy organizations, provincial and territorial representatives, and federal institutions. The Department published a Discussion Guide for the consultations to stimulate thoughts on themes such as the role of museums in society, sustainability, reconciliation, equity, diversity, and inclusion, and preservation and access, including digital transformation. Input was solicited through online surveys, virtual roundtable sessions, and written submissions by mail or email. Results of the consultations are being made available via a dedicated museum policy webpage.^{Footnote 20} These consultations ensure that the public has input on the shaping of the new Museum Policy and its future impact on how we protect our heritage and how Canadians will be able to access it.

Meanwhile, the Department continued to support the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Heritage Centre in its activities seeking to become a new national museum, by providing guidance and expertise on a possible transition.

Heritage objects and collections are preserved by heritage organizations for current and future generations.

The Museums Assistance Program’s Digital Access to Heritage component provided funding to heritage organizations to digitize collections, develop digital content, and build their digital capacity, through activities such as digitization strategy development, professional development, and purchase of specialized equipment or collections management software. Digitization ensures that heritage objects and collections are preserved for current and future generations.

As part of the implementation of their strategic plan,^{Footnote 21} the Canadian Conservation Institute and the Canadian Heritage Information Network advanced many commitments in 2022–23 identified under each of the strategic objectives through initiatives such as:

Developed a self-paced online course titled “Museum Collections Documentation and Data Cleaning”^{Footnote 22} offered for free on a platform developed jointly with Athabasca University.
Published a new Technical Bulletin entitled “Airtightness Measurement of Display Cases and Other Enclosures.”^{Footnote 23}
Contributed to the new generation of the Bibliographic Database of the Conservation Information Network (BCIN).^{Footnote 24}
Established three internal working groups on: reconciliation with Indigenous communities; sustainable development; and equity, diversity and inclusion.
Met with representatives of Indigenous communities, in partnership with Parks Canada, regarding the selection of a site for a new joint facility for the Cultural Heritage Science hub.^{Footnote 25}

As part of the Our Collections Matter^{Footnote 26} initiative, the Canadian Conservation Institute worked with partners based in Belgium, Colombia, Italy, the Netherlands, Thailand, and the United States to develop a self-assessment tool, to be published in 2023–24, to help heritage institutions understand how the work they do with collections can contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The Canadian Conservation Institute continued to develop online tools to help heritage institutions make evidence-based decisions towards reducing energy consumption and making better use of available resources, as well as obtaining a better understanding of the risks to which they are exposed, some of which are related to climate change.

The Canada History Fund has also contributed to this core responsibility through the following activities in 2022–23

The Canada History Fund supported the Royal Canadian Geographical Society to create a monthly series of virtual events and learning materials about Canadian history shared with the Society’s network of 20,000 educators. #ExploreCan offers virtual sessions, created in partnership with Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants. Each session was accompanied by classroom learning materials and an interactive story map. The Canada History Fund also supported the Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s creation of learning materials exploring the relationship of the Crown with Indigenous communities and environment in advance of the Coronation of King Charles III.

Furthermore, the Canada History Fund supported Algoma University in creating culturally informed educational resources connected to residential schools and reconciliation. The project drew upon Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre archival holdings and knowledge held by the Survivors of the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association. It will help to sensitize learners about the intergenerational impacts of racism on Indigenous peoples. Algoma University created a bilingual website with five modules, featuring interactive timelines and learning activities, and produced six video interviews sharing the stories of Indigenous knowledge holders and residential school survivors.

Also, the Canada History Fund supported the Association for Canadian Studies to host a series of sessions at their annual Identities conference. The organization also published two editions of Canadian Issues, including “The History of Refugees in Canada: From Past to Present.”

Finally, the program supported the partnership between the Governing Council of the University of Toronto and l’Université Laval to produce the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, a historical biographical dictionary that provides authoritative and accessible accounts of individuals who contributed to Canada’s development. Updates to the learning materials connect stories to broader search themes. In 2022–23, the project, which documents Canada’s development as a diverse and inclusive nation, generated more than 2.3 million page views.

Gender-based Analysis Plus

In 2022–23, several programs under core responsibility 2 sought to provide greater access for equity-deserving groups to celebrations and commemorations of national significance, local festivals and heritage events in Canada, including through the implementation of measures to advance reconciliation. For example:

To ensure greater accessibility to diverse peoples and communities in Canada, the Celebration and Commemoration Program largely distributes small grants to community organizations for activities and events that are free of charge, open to the public, and include measures, such as broadcast initiatives, to increase participation for those living in remote areas.

National events such as Canada Day, Winterlude, Winter Lights Across Canada and the Sound and Light show highlight anniversaries of national significance and ensure participants have opportunities to learn and appreciate Canada’s linguistic, cultural and regional diversity.

Several engagements were held with various organizations to develop activities. For Winterlude 2023, the Department worked with Indigenous Experiences to deliver activities such as a pow wow, interactive arts and craft activities, and food tastings. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami was also consulted to develop partnerships and programing showcasing Inuit artists. Canadian Heritage also co-produced a major Indigenous show at the Canadian Museum of History along with First People Radio. Finally, the Department worked with Capital Pride to develop best practices for event planning and to develop programming material. Capital pride was also the official presenter of Winter Pride and the co-producer of 2SLGBTQI+ programming on Sparks Street in Ottawa.

The Building Communities through Arts and Heritage Program continues to fund events and projects that foster inclusive communities through its support to diverse local organizations, in addition to the projects supporting Indigenous communities. For example, in 2022–23, the Program supported 37 2SLGBTQI+ events ($1,702,600 in approved funding) through the Local Festivals component.

The Heritage component of Young Canada Works is increasingly aiming to serve youth from equity-deserving groups as part of the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy led by Employment and Social Development Canada. As such, it undertook work to review its data collection and application processes and, for the first time, launched an outreach strategy.

The Museums Assistance Program has undertaken many initiatives to advance greater inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility in its programming. Further to its participation in the Department’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Review, the Museums Assistance Program created an Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility Action Plan.

The Museum Assistance Program also increased its flexibility and funding limits for its Indigenous Heritage component, as well as broadened eligibility criteria for other program components to make them more accessible to Indigenous organizations and communities

Through the Museums Assistance Program, funding was provided to the Canadian Museums Association to conduct a national review of museum policies and practices to determine their compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 67. The review was undertaken in collaboration with Indigenous heritage professionals, knowledge keepers, and community members, and resulted in the publication of the report entitled “Moved to Action: Report and Standards on Activating UNDRIP in Canadian Museums”^{Footnote 27} in September 2022.

As part of the renewal of the Museum Policy, public consultations were held in 2022–23, where GBA Plus was incorporated in the design of the sessions and discussion guide. As well, the online public survey included disaggregated demographic data collection.

The Canada History Fund encourages applicants to address priority themes, namely the history of official language minority communities, the history of Indigenous Peoples in Canada, and the learning needs of young Canadians. It continues working with a large and diverse community of recipients who are enriching Canadian history with a variety of inclusive perspectives. In 2022–23, the program supported a diversified group of recipients, which included eight projects related to equitable and diverse histories. These projects were in addition to several ongoing commitments such as the project from Dalhousie University entitled “A Black People’s History of Canada.”

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals

In 2022–23, initiatives related to core responsibility 2 helped advance Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8) and Reduced inequalities (SDG 10):

Prepared the next generation of heritage workers through short-term employment and paid internships (SDG 8). Youths hired in these positions allow institutions to carry out important projects in a variety of functions, such as collections management and visitor experience. Institutions may also hire their interns on a more permanent basis after they have completed their internship, to help ensure the stability of the institution and to take advantage of the training already provided. Young Canada Works-Heritage short-term positions help youth to consider career choices in the heritage and cultural sectors and to acquire the overall skills and knowledge that they need to prepare for the labour market. The internships help youth to acquire advanced skills and professional experience to assist their integration into the heritage and cultural sector labour force.
Encouraged positive connections between Canadians with celebrations and commemorations promoting the inclusion of all, irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, age, mental or physical disability, and a multitude of other factors (SDG 10).
Encouraged and hosted events with strong Indigenous components to contribute to broader government-wide initiatives to advance reconciliation efforts with Indigenous groups and Indigenous Peoples (SDG 10). These efforts ensure all Canadians are provided with opportunities to learn about the unique culture and history of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

Innovation

In November 2022, the Canadian Conservation Institute launched a new initiative on social media for #AskAConservatorDay. This new digital approach generated a record number of engagements on the Facebook page for the year. It also increased the Canadian Conservation Institute’s and the Canadian Heritage Information Network’s online reach and amplified the ongoing promotion of their general information request service.

Key risks

Given the reality of COVID-19 and the impacts on outdoor events, the team had established contingency plans to ensure that some form of Canada Day celebrations would still occur in 2022. Fortunately, no measures were required by July 1st as the restrictions were lifted, which permitted for Canada Day 2022 to go forward with no restrictive measures required.

For the Memorial to the Victims of Communism project, a contingency period has been added to the timelines, which should allow the project to be completed as planned in 2023–24, even in the event of a new confinement or construction delays.

Results achieved for Heritage and celebration

The following table shows, for Heritage and celebration, the results achieved, the performance indicators, the targets and the target dates for 2022–23, and the actual results for the three most recent fiscal years for which actual results are available.

Results achieved for Heritage and celebration
Departmental results	Performance indicators	Target	Date to achieve target	2020–21 actual results	2021–22 actual results	2022–23 actual results
Canadians are engaged in celebrations and commemorations of national significance	Number of participants in events and activities by attending or volunteering.	9,500,000	March 2023	5,392	345,304	7,208,206^{Footnote 28}
	Number of participants in events and activities by viewing traditional and new media broadcasts or downloading related information materials.	14,000,000	March 2023	37,314,650	40,291,024	44,294,214^{Footnote 29}
Canadians across the country are engaged in their communities through local arts and heritage.	Number of performers and volunteers in Building Communities through Arts and Heritage funded arts and heritage projects each year.	173,674	March 2024	181,413 (2019-20)	47,988^{Footnote 30} (2020-21)	95,331 (2021-22)
	Total attendance for Building Communities through Arts and Heritage funded arts and heritage projects each year.	18,088,538	March 2024	23,221,181 (2019-20)	21,410,746^{Footnote 31} (2020-21)	25,773,856 (2021-22)
The public is provided with access to cultural heritage.	Number of in-person and online visits to cultural heritage rendered accessible through heritage programs and services.	2,000,000	March 2023	740,811	756,002	825,072^{Footnote 32}
Heritage objects and collections are preserved by heritage organizations for current and future generations.	Number of heritage objects and collections whose preservation has been supported by heritage programs and services.	100,000	March 2023	43,941,159	60,808,711	30,443,389^{Footnote 33}

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Heritage and celebration

The following table shows, for Heritage and celebration, budgetary spending for 2022–23, as well as actual spending for that year.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Heritage and celebration
2022–23 Main Estimates	2022–23 planned spending	2022–23 total authorities available for use	2022–23 actual spending (authorities used)	2022–23 difference (actual spending minus planned spending)
190,685,235	190,685,235	225,429,639	220,705,354	30,020,119

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Heritage and celebration

The following table shows, in full-time equivalents, the human resources the Department needed to fulfill this core responsibility for 2022–23.

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Heritage and celebration
2022–23 planned full-time equivalents	2022–23 actual full-time equivalents	2022–23 difference (actual full-time equivalents minus planned full-time equivalents)
326.6	354.9	28.3

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Core responsibility 3: Sport

Description

Promotes and enhances Canadian participation in sport, from initial introduction to sport to the highest levels through transfer payments and policy leadership. Ensures that all Canadians have access to quality aligned sport programs in a safe and welcoming environment regardless of race, gender or physical disability. Fosters the development of high-performance athletes, coaches, officials, leaders and organizations within the Canadian Sport System. Assists Canadian communities in hosting the Canada Games and international sport events.

Results

The Department contributes to core responsibility 3 through the Sport Development and High Performance Program. Sport Canada aims to establish Canada as a leading sport nation at home and abroad, where all Canadians and their communities enjoy, value and celebrate the benefits of active participation and excellence in sport. It contributes to advancing the goals of the Canadian Sport Policy, funds eligible organizations to deliver sport programming, including using sport for social development projects in Indigenous communities in Canada, and supports and promotes gender equity in Sport.

The Department further provides direct financial support to Canadian athletes in their pursuit of excellence and to foster the development of high-performance athletes and assists sport organizations to host international sport events in Canada.

To support the sport sector through the pandemic, the Recovery Fund for Arts, Culture Heritage and Sport sectors and the Reopening Fund together delivered an additional $96 million over two years (2021–22 and 2022–23) for the sport sector, with substantial investments in 2022–23 through the following programs and initiatives:

Sport Support Program, to support National Sport Organizations, National Multisport Services Organization, and the Canadian Olympic and the Paralympic Sport Institute Network that are struggling financially to restore programming and services cancelled or stalled due to COVID-19.
Hosting Program, to help organizations continue to host events, to provide support to offset higher costs due to COVID-19 for the North American Indigenous Games and for International Single Sport Events, to diversify International Single Sport Events locations, and to offset travel costs associated with hosting the Canada Games in smaller jurisdictions.

The actual spending budget allocated to this core responsibility was $336,607,653 and was supported by a total of 108.6 actual full-time equivalents.

Canadian athletes succeed at the highest levels of competition.

The focus of the Canadian High Performance Sport Strategy^{Footnote 34} and Action Plan continues to be the support of Daily Training Environments providing athletes, coaches, technical leaders and sport science, sport medicine and innovation practitioners timely access to appropriate high performance training facilities. This organized and streamlined approach is delivered through the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network, comprised of seven training centres located strategically across the country designed to deliver consistent services to Canadian high-performance athletes. In 2022–23, the Department invested an additional $694,493 under the Reopening Fund to assist in adapting Daily Training Environments.

Additional support for high performance programs in 2022–23 included initiating the design of a results database which will facilitate information sharing among high-performance stakeholders. In December 2022, the Minister of Sport announced $2.4 million in funding to support crisis care, education, and training for Olympic and Paralympic athletes and coaches, giving athletes and coaches access to mental health care professionals as part of their Daily Training Environments.

In 2022–23, the Athlete Assistance Program provided $27.8 million in living and training allowance to 1,941 eligible athletes, where $2.4 million was provided to 747 eligible athletes to help them obtain post-secondary level education. This financial assistance alleviates some of the financial burden associated with training and competing, and in the case of the tuition funding, helps the transition from athletic to post-athletic careers.

The Department supports several organizations to maintain sport programming and competition opportunities for Canadian athletes. In 2022–23 this support represented $125 million distributed between 62 national sport organizations, $15.9 million distributed between the 7 members of the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network, $1.98 million distributed between 19 international events, and $1.6 million distributed to Canada Games Host Societies as well as $10 million to the Canada Games Council for participant travel for the 2022 and the 2023 Canada Games in Niagara and Prince Edward Island respectively.

The 2023 Arctic Winter Games were held in Wood Buffalo, Alberta from January 29 to February 4, 2023. Sport Canada contributed $2 million in 2022–23 to the Host Society for the delivery of the event and supported a federal delegation attending the Games.

In 2022–23, Sport Canada led the Issues Management Team to prepare for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, which conducted simulation exercises to test emergency preparedness and response plans, supported Team Canada security planning, and collaborated on cyber security. The Department provided $498,460 to ensure the health of Team Canada and to address travel costs increases and contributed an additional $97,475 to address security concerns. For the Games, Sport Canada also led a communications working group on behalf of all its partners and other government departments involved with Canada’s participation at the Games.

The 2022 Canada Summer Games were held in Niagara, Ontario between August 6 and 21, 2022, while the 2023 Canada Winter Games were held on Prince Edward Island from February 18 to March 5, 2023. The Department contributed $450,000 to the 2022 Host Society and $934,843 to the Canada Games Council for participant travel to the Canada Summer Games, and $7,087,000 to the 2023 Host Society and $750,000 to the Canada Games Council for participant travel to the Canada Winter Games. For both Games, Sport Canada coordinated federal preparation and participation, including monitoring the Host Societies and Canada Games Council onsite to ensure compliance with the federal investment in the Games, appropriate support for the federal delegation and issues management.

In 2022–23, Sport Canada continued to develop the Major Sport Event Framework, improving and building upon the resources and tools of the Framework through participation in major sport event projects and Canada Games. The lessons learned from these major sport event projects and from the hosting of Canada Games were incorporated into the framework and serve to further strengthen and support future hosting success in Canada. This included work with others to advance understanding and support for the participation of Indigenous peoples in major sport events, in line with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 91.

Canadian Heritage also focused on the progress towards a national results model to create a consistent national approach to reporting on the impacts and benefits of hosting sport events in Canada. The Department led a federal-provincial/territorial working group, where respective federal, provincial and territorial sport ministers approved the renewed Strategic Priorities for the Canada Games, the collective expectations and the extensive Performance Measurement Framework for the Games aligning with the national results model.

Canadian children and youth are enrolled in a sport activity.

The Department continued work to support safe and welcoming initiatives so that Canadians can participate in sport free from harassment, abuse, and discrimination. On June 12, 2022, the Minister of Sport, accompanied by sport leaders and athlete representatives, announced new governance requirements, a push for heightened accountability, and safe sport standards for funded sport organizations, which includes the expectation that all funded national-level sport organizations become signatories to the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada’s Abuse-Free Sport Program, granting the organization access to the services of the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner. This Office became operational as Canada’s new independent third-party mechanism to receive, investigate, and adjudicate complaints under the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport from members of sport organizations who are Abuse-Free Sport Program signatories.

Between 2019-20 to 2022-23, all Sport Canada national-level funded sport organisations had to fulfil the requirements of having an independent third-party mechanism in place to administer the implementation of the Universal Code of Conduct, to provide mandatory safe sport training to all participants at the national level, and to align their policies and processes to the Universal Code of Conduct. In addition, they were required to disclose incidents of maltreatment to Sport Canada to ensure issues were addressed in compliance with their contribution agreements. Once the Abuse-Free Sport program and the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner began operations in June 2022, the requirement was adjusted to ensure funded sport organisations transitioned to the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner for their independent third-party services.

Meanwhile, part of the Department’s funding of the Canadian sport system was used to support sport organizations to implement return to play strategies and programs as they adapt to post-COVID-19 realities. In 2022–23, $21 million from the Recovery Fund was distributed to 59 national sport organizations and $7.4 million across 14 Multisport service organizations, with a portion of these funds used on programming for children and youth. For instance, Physical Health Education Canada was provided a direct investment of $30,600 into children and youth’s enrollment in a sport activity to ensure that sport programming is delivered in a safe manner in compliance with public health guidelines.

To help federally funded sports organizations remain compliant to the safe sport funding requirements that came into effect on April 1, 2021, Sport Canada allocated an additional $6 million in funding in 2022–23. This additional funding has enabled organizations to develop and implement appropriate safe sport policies to prevent and manage cases of concussions, maltreatment and doping.

The Department also advanced further work on addressing concussions, such as help develop the toolkit for the second annual national Concussion Awareness Week in September 2022, in partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Federal-Provincial/Territorial working group on concussions.

Additionally, Sport Canada funded the Sport Information Resource Centre to host the fifth annual Concussion in Sport Symposium in February 2023. This virtual event attracted over 1,000 participants from various sectors across the country. The number of participants and the positive feedback from the event demonstrate the need to continue concussion-related knowledge transfer, dialogue among stakeholders, evidence-based research and innovative work in this field.

Canadian Heritage contracted Léger Marketing to conduct the qualitative study, Perceptions on the Implementation of a Concussion Passport in Organized Sport: FINAL Report,^{Footnote 35} which discusses the Canadian public’s perceived value, benefits, interests and concerns on the implementation of a concussion passport in sport. This research supplements and supports the current quantitative data on concussions from the Canadian Heritage (Sport Canada) Survey on Ethics, Equity and Safety in Sport 2021. The study will guide the Government of Canada’s future directions for support and leadership in managing and preventing concussions, and will directly inform the work of the Federal-Provincial/Territorial Working Group on Concussions in Sport, which is co-chaired by Canadian Heritage and federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for sport, physical activity and recreation.

Furthermore, in January 2022, Sport Canada took on a role as co-chair of the Canadian Concussion Network’s Advisory Council. This initiative is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The Department continues to fund projects that use sport for social development in Indigenous communities. These projects ensure community-driven sport-related programs which are tailored to address the self-identified social objectives of individual Indigenous communities. In 2022–23, funding was provided for three streams under Sport for Social Development in Indigenous Communities:

Stream One provided $5.3 million to 13 Provincial/Territorial Aboriginal Sport Bodies and the Aboriginal Sport Circle for the development of sport community projects.
Stream Two provided $3.6 million to 57 Indigenous governments, communities and organizations, including delivery organizations working in collaboration with Indigenous communities, for projects that promote sport in Indigenous communities.
Stream Three provided $2.5 million to 10 Provincial/Territorial Aboriginal Sport Bodies for the delivery of sport community projects to ensure that Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQI+ people have access to meaningful sports activities.

Canadians, regardless of gender, physical ability and cultural background, who participate in sport activities are satisfied with the manner in which the activity is provided.

While funding through Sport for Social Development in Indigenous Communities and the Community Sport for All initiative supported increased participation of youth and underrepresented groups, specifically Indigenous, Black, racialized, 2SLGBTQI+, low-income, persons with a disability and newcomers, another $3,388,300 million was distributed to 6 national multisport organizations to increase sport participation.

After conducting a domestic scan on greening measures and initiatives in sport, the Department advanced several actions in 2022–23. In April 2022, Parliamentary Secretary Adam van Koeverden chaired an advocacy roundtable on greening the sport sector, held in Ottawa. Among the participants were the Ministers of Sport, Environment and Climate Change, Natural Resources, and Health as well as representatives from non-governmental organizations, sport organizations and academia. The roundtable was an occasion to engage with sport stakeholders that have a particular interest in greening and to gather insights to inform future government action.

Also, in September 2022, the Minister of Sport held a roundtable in Montréal on sport ecology as part of the renewal of the Canadian Sport Policy. The roundtable demonstrated that the environment remains a priority for the federal government and was an occasion to support engagement with athletes, national sport organizations and multisport service organizations. Discussions about current practices, impacts of sport on climate change and opportunities to reduce carbon footprint and climate impacts had shown notably the importance of a collaborative approach, stakeholders’ implication, science and expertise as part of the solution.

The Department also undertook an environmental scan on domestic greening measures and initiatives in the sport and recreation sector by focusing on measures that have been taken across Canada within the last 10 years, at various levels of government and sport and recreation sector. The results of this study highlighted the need to expand data and research efforts in the field. In early 2023, Canadian Heritage contracted an academic to conduct research to document the landscape of sustainability in sports, the key challenges facing the sector in adopting green policies and practices, and to assist the Department in prioritizing areas of intervention. The findings of this research are currently being examined.

Following the release of the Government of Canada’s Greening Government Strategy^{Footnote 36}, in the summer of 2022, Sport Canada revised the Terms and Conditions for the Sport Support Program and the Hosting Program to include the purchase of carbon offset credits as an eligible expense. By encouraging federally funded sport organizations to reduce the environmental impact of their travel, conferences and events through the purchase of eligible carbon offsets, Sport Canada intends to create awareness and incentivize lower-carbon options.

This allowed the Canada Games Council to purchase carbon offsets through the Great Bear Forest Carbon Project by Ostrom Climate to offset participant travel for the 2022 and 2023 Canada Games. The Great Bear Forest Carbon Project is a unique opportunity to protect a valuable Canadian resource by investing in a conservation economy through the purchase of carbon offsets and is the first carbon project in North America on traditional territory with unextinguished Aboriginal rights and Title. As a result of the Canada Games Council’s purchase of carbon offsets, the 2022 Canada Games earned the Climate Friendly Flights designation, while the 2023 Canada Games earned the carbon neutral designation.

Gender-based analysis plus

In addition to the many initiatives outlined above, other initiatives under core Responsibility 3 also sought to improve representation of equity-deserving groups in Sport programming in 2022–23. For example:

Sport Canada’s Innovation Initiative is designed to reduce barriers to sport participation, in particular for Canadian children and youth. The 2022–23 call for concepts of the Innovation Initiative component of the Sport Support Program supported a total of 14 pilot projects for a total of $1,145,697 to support increased participation of youth and underrepresented groups, specifically Indigenous, Black, 2SLGBTQI+, newcomer populations, and women and girls, as it has been reported that they have lower sport participation rates than the general Canadian population. The funds were divided among 12 organizations, nine of which were regional or community organizations receiving funds from Sport Canada for the first time.

One of the projects funded was led by SPECTRUM, for which Sport Canada provided $90,744 over 2 years starting in 2022–23, to test a multi-sport/team game model for use in limited population settings, and the efficacy of the delivery of inclusive and safe programs for 2SLGBTQI+ people.

2022–23 saw the Community Sport for All Initiative provide $36.6 million to 24 sport organizations to support increased participation of youth and underrepresented groups, specifically Black, Indigenous, racialized, 2SLGBTQI+, low-income, persons with a disability, and newcomers. Specific examples of funded projects under Community Sport for All include:

Special Olympics Canada provided programming opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities within Black and newcomer communities in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario. Their programming focused on “Unified Sport” and “Try-it” days. The programming provided potential athletes with the opportunity to experience Special Olympics Canada programs and sports first-hand in a fun, welcoming, and safe environment while encouraging ongoing participation by sparking athletes interest and excitement in sports. It also helped families to understand what organized sport looks like. Special Olympics Canada increased the percentage of their diverse participants to reach 2,768 participants.
Judo Canada launched its Judo for All programming which spanned over 15 clubs in 10 cities across 7 provinces, reaching 364 newcomers. Through partnerships with 7 local organizations, Judo Canada supported participants with immigration and racialized communities background (newcomers, refugees, or economic immigrants). These partnerships resulted in Judo Canada reaching a high volume of newcomer youth as well as delivering programming at no cost.

Additionally, bilateral agreements were signed with each of the 13 provinces and territories which represents a total investment of $6,977,935 in 2022–23 to strengthen physical literacy and increase sport participation for children and youth, including culturally relevant sport programming for Indigenous children and youth at the community level.

The Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute, one of the organizations funded by Canadian Heritage, launched a data portal to spotlight diverse populations in relation to key participation rates in sport and physical activity and correlated to barriers and supports. Funding was provided for the data release focused on women and girls. Deliverables included a summary report, bulletins, data tables and charts.

While the Athlete Assistance Program is not designed to specifically target underrepresented groups (with the exception of persons with disabilities), it does seek to lower the financial barriers for athletes and some of these barriers may be more pronounced for underrepresented groups.

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals

In 2022–23, initiatives related to core responsibility 3, such as the Community Sport for All, Sport for Social Development in Indigenous Communities, and the Innovation Initiative, helped advance Good health and well-being (SDG 3), Quality education (SDG 4) Gender Equality (SDG 5), Reduced inequalities (SDG 10) and Sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11):

Improved health (physical and mental) and education for Indigenous communities (SDG 3, SDG 4)—Community health projects funded through the Sport for Social Development in Indigenous Communities program, such as through the Noojmowin Teg Health Centre, supported sport activities and wellness information sessions. Session topics included addressing health risks in children and youth through healthy physical activity and improved mental health, smoking prevention to reduce at-risk behaviours and healthy eating to address diabetes and obesity. Another project by Transformative Life Skills (TLS) Nunavut that introduced in-school movement-based curriculum and customized learning materials observed that participants were more focused and engaged in school. Participants also reported less anxiety or depression and greater self-control in stressful situations.
Contributed to inclusive sport for women, girls and 2SLGBTQI+ people (SDG 5, SDG 10)—Stream Three of the Sport for Social Development in Indigenous Communities contributed towards empowering Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQI+ people, with the objective to ensure that they have access to meaningful sports activities that support one or more of the social development goals: physical and mental health, suicide prevention, sexual trafficking awareness and prevention, safe and healthy relationships, and sexual positivity (SDG 5).
Contributed to inclusive sport in Indigenous communities through Stream One and Two of the Sport for Social Development in Indigenous Communities (SDG 10, SDG 11). Both streams provide opportunities for Indigenous people to participate in meaningful sport activities that support one or more of the social development goals: focus on improved health, education, and employability, and the reduction of at-risk behaviour.

Innovation

Under the Canadian Heritage Innovation Fund, the Department developed an Artificial intelligence (AI) tool to undertake an analysis of the bilingualism of the websites of Sport Canada funding recipients. The objective of the AI project was to reduce the human burden of monitoring Sport Canada funding recipients’ public communications (via their websites) by using AI tools (scraping and analysis) to compare content between the English and French versions. If successful, there would have been the potential for other departments to use the tool and customize it to their sectors and funded organizations with similar official language requirements in their contribution agreements. Unfortunately, after using a variety of tools and undergoing rigorous testing, the tool was found to be unreliable in its ability to detect language comparability between the English and French websites of funded sport organizations. As a result, the project was not implemented beyond the testing phase.

Key risks

In 2022–23, Sport Canada began the work to modernize its accountability standards and monitoring processes of federally funded sport organizations. The intent is to have a continuous, proactive and systematic approach to managing risk from a Sport Canada perspective. Enhanced monitoring was implemented to ensure that organizations meet critical benchmarks on governance and safety in sport.

Results achieved for Sport

The following table shows, for Sport, the results achieved, the performance indicators, the targets and the target dates for 2022–23, and the actual results for the three most recent fiscal years for which actual results are available.

Results achieved for Sport
Departmental results	Performance indicators	Target	Date to achieve target	2020–21 actual results	2021–22 actual results	2022–23 actual results
Canadian athletes succeed at the highest levels of competition.	Ranking of Canada relative to other countries in Olympic Ranking Index, disaggregated for summer and winter sport.^{Footnote 37}	7	June 2022	n/a	n/a	11^{Footnote 38}
	Ranking of Canada relative to other countries in Paralympic Ranking Index, disaggregated for summer and winter sport.^{Footnote 39}	13	June 2022	n/a	n/a	12
Canadian children and youth are enrolled in a sport activity.	Number of Canadian children and youth enrolled in a sport activity.	4,000,000	June 2022	n/a^{Footnote 40}	3,652,198	n/a^{Footnote 41}
Canadians, regardless of gender, physical ability and cultural background, who participate in sport activities are satisfied with the manner in which the activity is provided.	Percentage of Canadians (children and youth) reporting that they experience sport in a welcoming environment.	85%	June 2022	80%	79%	n/a^{Footnote 41}
	Percentage of Canadians (children and youth) reporting that they experience sport in a safe environment.	80%	June 2022	82%	83%	n/a^{Footnote 41}

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Sport

The following table shows, for Sport, budgetary spending for 2022–23, as well as actual spending for that year.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Sport
2022–23 Main Estimates	2022–23 planned spending	2022–23 total authorities available for use	2022–23 actual spending (authorities used)	2022–23 difference (actual spending minus planned spending)
327,068,407	327,068,407	342,459,431	336,607,653	9,539,246

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Sport

The following table shows, in full-time equivalents, the human resources the Department needed to fulfill this core responsibility for 2022–23.

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Sport
2022–23 planned full-time equivalents	2022–23 actual full-time equivalents	2022–23 difference (actual full-time equivalents minus planned full-time equivalents)
105.9	108.6	2.7

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Core responsibility 4: Diversity and inclusion

Description

Focuses on celebrating Canada’s diversity, identity and multicultural heritage, promoting resilient communities and reinforcing the rights of Canadians, as a means to foster diversity and inclusion. Supports legislation on multiculturalism. Promotes and supports domestic implementation of international human rights treaties, constitutional and quasi-constitutional rights in Canada. Works in collaboration with a variety of governmental and non-governmental organizations to support the provision of programs and services on matters of diversity and inclusion. Supports the engagement, participation and inclusion of Canadian youth in their communities and in exchange activities. Revitalizes, preserves and promotes Indigenous languages and cultures and celebrates achievements, and strengthens Indigenous communities through investments in a variety of initiatives.

Results

The Department contributes to core responsibility 4 by working to build a more equitable and inclusive society through the following program areas: Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism; Human Rights; Indigenous Languages and Cultures; and Youth Engagement. Through these programs, the Department seeks to build an integrated, socially inclusive society, by supporting communities confronting racism, engaging on multiculturalism, incorporating equity, diversity and inclusion, and by strengthening research and evidence to better understand disparities and challenges faced by Indigenous peoples, racialized peoples, and religious minority communities. Canadian Heritage also seeks to strengthen and maintain one of the core values relating to Canadian identity—respect for human rights—by addressing barriers to active participation that arise from a lack of awareness, understanding and access to rights. The Department aims to increase awareness among youth of the importance of being active and engaged citizens, increase youth knowledge and understanding of Canada, and strengthen their sense of belonging to Canada, thereby strengthening their sense of shared Canadian identity. Canadian Heritage also focuses on supporting Indigenous Peoples in their efforts to reclaim, revitalize, maintain, and strengthen their Indigenous languages. Through grants and contributions, the Department supports Indigenous governments, governing bodies and other organizations to implement language plans and activities aimed at increasing the use of Indigenous languages in all aspects of community life.

Furthermore, two federal secretariats reported under this core responsibility in 2022–23. The Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat^{Footnote 42} leads work across government to coordinate federal action and identify and develop further areas for action through engagement with racialized and religious minority communities and Indigenous peoples, stakeholders, other levels of government, and various sectors (e.g., philanthropy, academia, health, housing, labour and law).

The Youth Secretariat is responsible for the federal implementation of Canada’s Youth Policy and supporting the Prime Minister’s Youth Council and its advocacy efforts. The Secretariat engages across the federal government to provide advice on youth initiatives and to encourage the inclusion of youth voices in government decision-making. As one of the Youth Policy commitments, the Secretariat is also responsible for the State of Youth Report, which was published for the first time on August 11, 2021, and which explores how young people in Canada are doing. Subsequent reports will be published every four years with the next Report expected to be released in 2025.

In addition, during 2022–23, the Department made important progress in implementing the Calls to Action, and in collaborating with other departments to implement the Federal Pathway to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People, which is the Government of Canada’s response to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ peoples. In doing so, the Department worked to address and implement the Calls for Justice and Calls for Miskotahâ while working towards the National Action Progress Report and the Federal Pathway Annual Progress Report. As well, Canadian Heritage contributed to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UNDA) Action Plan, as part of Canada’s commitment to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Department is committed to advancing reconciliation by ensuring it remains a key priority as part of its governance, and ensuring it is reflected in the delivery of its programs, services, and initiatives.

The actual spending budget allocated to this core responsibility was $237,631,544 and was supported by a total of 242.0 actual full-time equivalents.

Canadians value diversity

Building a Foundation for Change: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy (2019-2022) is guided by a vision of Canada where all Canadians benefit from equitable access to and participation in the economic, cultural, social and political spheres. To achieve this vision, the Government of Canada is supporting communities with lived experience and expertise in addressing various forms of racism and discrimination. The Community Support, Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Initiatives Program and the Anti-Racism Action Program were both designed to support communities in confronting racism and discrimination, promoting intercultural and interfaith understanding and fostering equitable opportunities to participate fully in Canadian society. There is no place for racism, discrimination or hate in Canada.

As of December 2022, the Community Support, Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Initiatives and Anti-Racism Action Program have implemented a revised applicant attestation to funding applications, after the Multiculturalism Program had been put on pause. This attestation signifies a commitment to adhere to the goals that underpin Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy, the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Human Rights Act. Applicants are informed of the expectations for them to receive any funding; and should they receive funding, the consequences of non-compliance. Applicant assessments have also been enhanced with a two-tier review process involving an enhanced monitoring process, and a secondary file review.

Budget 2023 committed the federal government to introduce a new Action Plan on Combatting Hate in 2023. This includes measures to combat hateful rhetoric and acts, building on measures being taken in Budget 2023 to build safer, more inclusive communities. The Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat organized 21 roundtables with diverse peoples and communities with lived experience of hate to inform the creation of Canada’s first Action Plan on Combatting Hate. The Federal Secretariat also disseminated a questionnaire on the topic, which received over 23,000 responses on how the government should combat hate.

The Federal Secretariat demonstrated its leadership by overseeing Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy. It planned and delivered key commemorative events in 2023 including activities related to Asian Heritage Month, Emancipation Day, Black History Month and the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Also, the Federal Secretariat planned and delivered 21 engagement sessions with communities to inform the development of an inaugural Action Plan on Combatting Hate and validate an approach to a renewed Anti-Racism Strategy.

The Federal Secretariat continues to focus on disseminating data and evidence-based information and products funded under Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy. Communications about funding opportunities and announcements are sent through emails bimonthly to 11,000 stakeholders. This email also contains newly released reports that speak to Indigenous peoples, racialized and religious minority communities.

Meanwhile, the Federal Secretariat continued to advance its work on the implementation of the Federal Anti-Racism Framework to ensure it reflected insights and input from pilot participants. This included centring the Anti-Racism Framework in the development of a regional Anti-Black Racism Strategy in the Department.

The Community Support, Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Initiatives Program provided $31.5 million in 2022–23 to 247 projects and community capacity building. The program supported community development, anti-racism initiatives, and engagement projects that promoted diversity and inclusion by encouraging interaction among community groups.

For instance, the Program provided funding to York University to carry out a project for 80,000 direct participants to enable two Toronto-area school boards as well as Asian Canadian, African Canadian and Indigenous artists to widen attitudes and perspectives regarding anti-racism education and community involvement. This was achieved via a suite of arts and artificial intelligence (AI) in-person and virtual workshops. AI apps were designed with the school boards and IBM on cultural colour visual recognition, culturally enhanced natural language understanding and virtual assistant. Asian Canadian, African Canadian and Indigenous artists shared best practices to overcome social and cultural barriers.

Under the Events component, 311 events were supported, reaching over 3.8 million people in Canada for a total investment of $7.5 million to community-based events that promote intercultural or interfaith understanding, promote discussions on multiculturalism, diversity, racism, and religious discrimination, or celebrate a community’s history and culture such as heritage months recognized by Parliament.

The Anti-Racism Action Program was created through Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy to support multi-year projects that address barriers to employment, justice and/or social participation among Indigenous peoples, racialized communities, and religious minorities, and to projects addressing online hate and digital literacy. This program continued to support 172 projects with an investment of $10.8 million in 2022–23. For instance, the program funded the Bureau de la communauté haïtienne de Montréal, which implemented the “Justice for All” project in Montréal. The aim of the project was to reduce the obstacles to justice associated with the disproportionate number of children from Black and racialized groups in Montréal’s child protection system.

The Federal Secretariat remained engaged in international activities (including conferences, events, bilateral and multilateral discussions) with partners on issues. In January 2023, the Declaration on the North American Partnership for Equity and Racial Justice was signed by Canada, the United States and Mexico at the North American Leadership Summit with each country declaring their commitment to building just, inclusive, and equitable democracies that combat systemic racism and discrimination in all forms.

In November 2022, in Mexico City, the Federal Secretariat was represented on a panel at the Global Forum Against Racism and Discrimination focused on “Setting up institutional and legal frameworks.” It also co-hosted with UNESCO and Mexico a panel discussion on the partnership, which saw 13,000 in-person and online participants.

The Federal Secretariat hosted a virtual forum for over 400 participants to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which brought US, Canadian and Mexican government and civil society representatives together to discuss the backlash against anti-racism work across North America.

Meanwhile, Canadian Heritage launched a virtual public education and awareness campaign on combatting racism to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racism on March 21. Digital tools were produced to assist people in Canada to share a message of anti-racism within their networks.

The Federal Secretariat assisted the Department of Justice to finalize and publish “Black Youth and the Criminal Justice System Report: Summary Report of an Engagement Process in Canada” that summarized barriers faced by Black youth who have come into contact with the Canadian criminal justice system. The Federal Secretariat also supported the Department of Justice to establish the foundational approach to Canada’s inaugural Black Justice Strategy, which included the establishment of a Steering Group and Community Engagement Plan.

The Federal Secretariat also worked with the Department of Justice to ensure a Black and racialized community perspective was represented in the Federal Delegation that presented alongside provinces and territories at the National Restorative Collaborative Learning Conference held in October 2022.

The Government of Canada is committed to reinforcing and strengthening Canada’s efforts to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and to combat antisemitism. To support this work, the position of Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism was established as a permanent position, supported by dedicated resources, and the Honourable Irwin Cotler was reappointed to the position.

The Special Envoy is Canada’s Head of Delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. In 2022, Canadian Heritage, in partnership with Global Affairs Canada, supported the participation of Canada’s delegation in two plenary meetings held under the Swedish Presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Furthermore, on May 26, 2022, Canadian Heritage held the inaugural Jewish Heritage Month event titled Recognizing and Countering Holocaust Distortion and Denial. This event highlighted initiatives to combat the impacts of Holocaust distortion and denial.

The Government of Canada stands with and supports Muslim communities across Canada and reaffirms its commitment to take action to denounce and tackle Islamophobia, hate-fuelled violence, and systemic discrimination against Muslims as part of the broader action against racism. Budget 2022 provided new resources to support the new Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, who serves as a champion, advisor, expert, and representative to the Canadian government, for the purpose of enhancing efforts to combat Islamophobia and to promote awareness of the diverse and intersectional identities of Muslims in Canada. The appointment of Amira Elghawaby as the Special Representative was made on January 26, 2023.

Finally, Budget 2022 provided a $1.5 million contribution towards an endowment that supports the ongoing activities of the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora. Housed at York University, it is focused on addressing the systemic barriers and racial inequalities in the Canadian education system to improve educational outcomes for Black students.

Reversal of the current downward trend in the use and fluency of Indigenous languages.

In support of the Minister’s mandate commitment, in 2022–23 Canadian Heritage continued to work with the Joint Implementation Steering Committee (which includes representatives from the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Métis National Council) to guide the implementation of the Indigenous Languages Act.

Canadian Heritage worked collaboratively with Indigenous partners on the development of distinction-based funding models for Indigenous languages, which are intended to contribute to the provision of long-term, predictable and sustainable funding. These funding models will increase Indigenous autonomy and control over funding decisions, introduce long-term funding agreements to support multi-year strategies, and be more responsive to the distinct priorities of First Nations, Inuit and Métis.

Canadian Heritage also continued to engage with Self-Governing Indigenous Governments, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and other Indigenous organizations, governments and governing bodies to develop costing analysis and delivery approaches.

Budget 2021 investments were used to bolster the efforts of Indigenous Peoples to revitalize Indigenous languages. With increased investments, there has been an unprecedented increase in community-driven activities and programming. Although demand continued to outweigh available resources, in 2022–23 Canadian Heritage supported a record 1,085 projects.

In 2022–23, Canadian Heritage implemented a framework for agreements under sections 8 and 9 of the Act that was developed in partnership with Indigenous partners. Four new agreements were signed with Kinoomaadziwin Education Body Inc., the National Association of Friendship Centres, the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and the Matawa First Nations Management. These agreements allow for time-limited funding that support partnerships, leverage economies of scale and accelerate addressing critical gaps or test innovations towards the reclamation, revitalization, maintenance and strengthening of Indigenous languages.

Canadian Heritage co-led an Assistant Deputy Minister Steering Committee in 2022–23, to advance access to federal services in Indigenous languages. A survey of federal institutions was developed in collaboration with Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated and launched to create an inventory of services available in Inuktut in Nunavut. The completed inventory will inform subsequent steps including the development of pilot projects to further increase access to federal services in Inuktut and develop future regulations.

In 2022–23, Canadian Heritage collaborated with the Joint Implementation Steering Committee and other Indigenous partners to draft Canada’s National Action Plan for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032). The draft National Action Plan been developed with the objective of supporting Indigenous Peoples in the development of their own distinctions-based National Action Plans. It is envisioned that this Plan will complement and seek opportunities to support the implementation of First Nations, Inuit and Métis National Action Plans, should they choose to develop them.

Canadian Heritage supported the participation of Indigenous youth and other Indigenous representatives in the official launch of the Decade by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization and co-hosted a joint gathering with Indigenous Peoples and government officials from Canada and Australia to exchange good practices on advancing multiple Indigenous languages.

The Department also hosted a joint gathering with Indigenous peoples and government officials from Australia on advancing multiple Indigenous languages.

Youth enhance their appreciation of the diversity and shared aspects of the Canadian experience.

The Exchanges Canada and Youth Take Charge programs provided about 625,000^{Footnote 43} Canadian youth opportunities to learn about and understand Canada’s society, diversity, history and institutions through active engagement in projects aiming to increase youth attachment to Canada. In particular, the Exchanges Canada Program offered approximately 5,000^{Footnote 44} youth opportunities to learn about Canada, create linkages with one another, and enhance their appreciation of the diversity and shared aspects of the Canadian experience through exchanges, forums, and summer work experiences.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted some projects funded through these two programs; thus, they were delivered in virtual or hybrid formats, downsized, postponed, or cancelled. To support organizations through the pandemic, in 2022–23, the Exchanges Canada Program extended amendments increasing the flexibility of its terms and conditions and supported recipients to determine alternative formats for planned activities.

In 2022–23, the program priorities were reconciliation, diversity and inclusion, and official language minority communities. For instance, the Exchanges Canada Program supported the “National Youth Leadership Forum on Reconciliation” (Experiences Canada), which gathered 74 young people from across Canada to learn from Residential Schools Survivors, Elders and Knowledge Keepers. Based on their learning, they developed proposals for action to address Reconciliation, and these were published online.

Meanwhile, the Youth Take Charge Program supported “S’engager à découvrir le Canada” (Place aux compétences), which mobilized almost 2,000 Francophone New Brunswickers (aged 7 to 19) to develop and put on projects in schools across the province aiming to help fellow students and community members learn more about Canada. Several projects were showcased during the final event.

Individuals or groups have access to funding to initiate or participate in test cases pertaining to rights and freedoms covered by the Court Challenges Program.

The University of Ottawa has continued to deliver on the administration of the Court Challenges Program funding to recipients. The University operates with discretion in honouring solicitor-client privilege where appropriate and has met all reporting requirements to demonstrate sound results.

Budget 2023 announced a doubling of funding for the Court Challenges Program over the next 5 years, for which the Department is currently seeking authorities.

The Department has established a new contribution agreement with the University of Ottawa for 2023–24 and 2024–25, ensuring good continuity to the public’s access for funding. Meanwhile, at the conclusion of the previous contribution agreement, all expectations have been met by the University of Ottawa to demonstrate sound financial stewardship and administration of the program.

Canadians value human rights.

The Human Rights Program fosters the promotion of human rights in Canada through the use of social media campaign messaging and websites as channels for raising awareness. These methods allow for reaching a wide audience and engaging Canadians. There were approximately 96,770 unique website views in 2023, which demonstrates the level of interest generated by the program’s activities.

One significant aspect of the program’s efforts is the promotion of various commemorative days related to human rights, such as events dedicated to Human Rights Day, Black History Month, Asian Heritage Month, and National Child Day. By leading or supporting these promotional initiatives, the program sought to raise awareness on the importance of human rights in different communities and segments of society.

On December 10, 2022, the Human Rights Program launched a year-long promotional campaign building momentum towards the 75th anniversary of the Declaration on Human Rights on December 10, 2023. The Department shared promotional messages on social media channels published on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all while highlighting prominent advocates for human rights that have had an impact on the understanding of human rights in Canada.

The Human Rights Program advanced several Canadian priorities in international human rights, including coordinating Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial reporting to the United Nations and responses to human rights mechanisms, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Program worked diligently to address the backlog of reporting to the United Nations caused in large part by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, the following key activities by the Youth Secretariat contributed to this core responsibility in 2022–23

The Youth Secretariat created meaningful opportunities for youth voices to be heard and provided support by:

Holding quarterly interdepartmental executive-level meetings to ensure the Policy is implemented across the federal government.
Growing a community of practice for other government department youth council coordinators.
Providing support to the Youth Engagement Collaborative through presentations, active participation in meetings and youth engagement tools.

The Secretariat delivered monthly meetings of the Prime Minister’s Youth Council, including one in-person meeting, and completed the recruitment process for the sixth cohort of youth. Council meetings allowed members to provide non-partisan advice to the Prime Minister (Chair) and Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth (Vice-Chair), other members of Parliament, and senior government officials on important issues such as democratic participation, youth funding priorities for Budget 2022, and Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate.

The selection process for the sixth cohort included measures to ensure the Council reflects the full spectrum of diversity of Canadian youth. Engagement activities included outreach to increase applications from three key demographic groups: Quebec and Francophone youth across Canada, Indigenous youth, and youth not in education, employment or training.

The Secretariat held quarterly interdepartmental executive-level meetings to ensure the Youth Policy is implemented across the federal government, and disseminated a toolkit, which included the Youth Impact Analysis Tool.

Gender-based analysis plus

In 2022–23, several programs under core responsibility 4 sought to undertake initiatives to advance inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility.

The Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Program actively contributes to the Government of Canada’s goal to foster and promote an inclusive society where everyone can fully participate in the economic, cultural, social and political spheres. Activities and funding touch on issues that affect various groups differently across Canada in consideration of GBA Plus, which is a factor in research projects and for grants and contributions project funding. In addition, the Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Program has supported the Department of Women and Gender Equality Canada in the evaluation process of GBA Plus, with the goal of enhancing data with particular attention to the intersectional analysis of race, indigeneity, rurality, disability and sexual identity, among other characteristics.

The primary objectives of Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy are to increase equity of access among racialized communities, Indigenous peoples, and religious minorities to employment, justice, and social participation as well as to support grassroots communities with expertise in addressing various forms of racism and discrimination. Taking intersectional factors of identities into account, the Strategy aims to increase understanding of the disparities faced by Indigenous peoples, racialized communities, and religious minorities, as well as change public attitudes and practices that perpetuate racism and discrimination.

The Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat has applied intersectionality and GBA Plus principles to all its community-focused town halls, including those on the issues and needs of Indigenous, racialized and religious minority, and 2SLGBTQI+ communities.

Established in partnership with Women and Gender Equality Canada in March 2020, the Equity-Seeking Communities COVID-19 Taskforce led by the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat was repurposed to focus on systemic racism from an intersectional perspective. In 2022–23 the taskforce continued to be a space in which federal organizations obtained access to critical data, learned directly from subject matter experts with lived experience of oppression, and shared information about current initiatives.

Canadian Heritage has continued to promote the diversity of Indigenous languages through the Indigenous Languages and Cultures Program. In collaboration with the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and the Métis National Council, Canadian Heritage developed distinction-based Indigenous languages funding models for First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Indigenous review committees continued to established funding priorities for all Indigenous Language Component applications received by Canadian Heritage. Funding allocation and priorities took into account the specific needs of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation communities across all provinces and territories, on and off reserve or settlements, in large and small urban areas as well as in rural areas. Canadian Heritage also supported the participation of Indigenous youth and other Indigenous representatives in the official launch of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-32) by UNESCO.

For the first time, as part of the Canada Day celebrations in Ottawa on July 1, 2022, signs on the site featured an Algonquin greeting. On the same panels, visitors were invited to learn more about Indigenous languages by clicking on a QR code. The signs also featured a link to the International Decade of Indigenous languages. Relevant press releases and statements, for example for Mother Tongue Day, were translated in a variety of First Nations, Inuit and Métis languages. The contributions of Indigenous language revitalization champions were showcased on social media alongside words of the month campaigns.

The Court Challenges Program, administered independently by the University of Ottawa, provided funding for 74 requests in total, providing Canadians with the opportunity to bring forward legal cases of national importance. The funding decisions are made by two independent Expert Panels, one for official language rights and one for human rights. Canadian Heritage maintained an excellent relationship and communication with the University of Ottawa in managing the terms of Expert Panel members, ensuring that all 6 vacancies for 2022–23 were filled with members who help to represent the diversity of the cultural fabric of Canada. This included members who are representative of official language minority communities, racial and ethnic diversity, Indigenous heritage, and the 2SLBGTQI+ community.

Thirty-three cases were funded by the Official Language Rights Expert Panel and forty-one cases by the Human Rights Expert Panel. Ten of the official language rights cases funded concerned sections 16 and 16.1, with thirteen dedicated to section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Official Languages of Canada. Most of the human rights cases funded (31) concerned section 15 of the Charter: Equality rights.

The activities of the Human Rights Program are directed at all people living in Canada, and efforts are made to raise awareness and understanding of human rights by the general public. By providing funding for test cases available to all people living in Canada, the Court Challenges Program undertakes efforts to increase access to the Canadian justice system and contributes to the promotion of gender equality, diversity and inclusion.

The Exchanges Canada and Youth Take Charge Programs assessed funding applications against the reach, diversity, and number of youth involved in the proposals. Altogether, youth-serving organizations funded by the programs delivered projects on a geographic and demographic scope and scale reflective of the overall Canadian youth population, which helped support gender and demographic diversity in programming.

The Exchanges Canada Program began work on a review project, the goal of which is to ensure that the Program remains relevant and appealing to today’s youth. The project includes:

an environmental scan;
applying Gender Based Analysis Plus and a series of engagement sessions with federal stakeholders, youth-serving organizations and youth.

The Youth Secretariat continues to apply a youth lens to all documents, analyses and policy initiatives that are developed or reviewed to ensure that age and youth considerations are taken into account. A new toolkit, which includes the Youth Impact Analysis Tool, was developed by the Secretariat so the youth lens can be applied across all government programs and policies. In 2022–23, the Secretariat continued to focus on developing approaches to reach youth facing barriers to opportunity, including youth not in education, employment or training and youth from equity-deserving communities.

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals

In 2022–23, initiatives related to core responsibility 4 helped advance the horizontal goal of leaving no one behind and Reduced inequalities (SDG 10):

Continue to build on the multi-facets of social identity to ensure no one is left behind through various initiatives of the Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Branch, the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat, and the Youth Secretariat.
Provided support to racialized and equity-deserving communities by prioritizing community-based projects through its transfer payment funding programs (SDG 10). The Community Support, Multiculturalism, and Anti-Racism Initiatives Program provided funding to support community development, anti-racism initiatives, and engagement projects that promoted diversity and inclusion by encouraging interaction among community groups.
Advanced activities to enhance Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy (SDG 10). As part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to combatting racism and discrimination, the 2020 Fall Economic Statement announced an additional $50 million over two years to expand the Community Support, Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Initiatives Program and Anti-Racism Action Program, and extending the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat mandate by another year, to 2022–23.
Supported Employment and Social Development Canada’s efforts in advancing Canadian policy and programming options with regards to the United Nations Decade for Persons of African Descent (SDG 10). The Department was involved in the Interdepartmental Working Group efforts led by Employment and Social Development Canada, co-led the Recognition Pillar with Canadian Commission for UNESCO, and supported Canada’s participation at the inaugural Permanent Forum for Persons of African Descent meeting in Geneva in December 2022. The Federal Secretariat also hosted an international forum on combatting anti-Black racism and advancing the rights of People of African Descent, which took place at the United Nations Headquarters, in New York, and featured government and civil society representatives from Mexico, Canada, the United States, and Costa Rica. The Federal Secretariat inscribed language regarding advancing the International Decade for People of African Descent within the Declaration on the North American Partnership for Equity and Racial Justice as well as in the Canada-Mexico Action Plan.
Reduced inequality regarding Indigenous languages by focusing investments and efforts towards the reclamation, revitalization, maintenance and strengthening of Indigenous languages in the context of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032) and through the implementation of the Indigenous Languages Act (SDG 10).
Continued to contribute to reducing inequalities through the Court Challenges Program (SDG 10), administered independently by the University of Ottawa, by providing financial support to Canadians to bring forward legal cases of national significance that aim to clarify and assert certain constitutional and quasi-constitutional official language rights and human rights. The Program also provides a recourse for Canadians to clarify their rights, which contributes to strengthening Canadian institutions (SDG 16).
Continued to amplify the voices of diverse youth, who encompass various intersectionalities, with decision makers within and outside the federal government and via Canada’s first State of Youth Report (SDG 10). The Prime Minister’s Youth Council participated in meetings with governmental officials on a range of issues affecting youth to provide impartial advice to reduce systemic inequalities.
The Youth Secretariat provided advice by convening an interdepartmental executive-level committee to ensure a whole-of-government approach is taken in addressing youth issues, by implementing Canada’s Youth Policy that commits to applying a youth lens to policymaking, and through the development of a Youth Impact Analysis tool, which provides targeted approaches to supporting youth facing barriers.

Innovation

The Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat is working with Women and Gender Equality Canada to enhance the GBA Plus analytical tool, with particular attention to the intersectional analysis of race, indigeneity, rurality, disability and sexual identity, among other characteristics. Working in collaboration with Women and Gender Equality Canada, the Federal Secretariat provided feedback to enhance GBA Plus to better reflect the lived experience of all Canadians.

Key risks

Some equity-deserving communities and organizations may still not be able to access new investments under the Multiculturalism Program due to their small organizational and human resource capacity. The Multiculturalism Program continued to review its resourcing model and begin to implement policies and initiatives to enable access to funding for the most impacted and racialized communities.

The Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Branch continued to explore and implement options to renew the two core funding programs. This includes streamlining the application intake processes and implementing more targeted calls for proposals.

In 2022–23, Canadian Heritage engaged with First Nations partners to identify ready-to-implement projects eligible for time-limited funding under Section 8 and 9 of the Indigenous Languages Act. This collaborative work enabled the Department to enter into multi-year agreements with four Indigenous communities and organizations. The approach mitigated the risk of an untimely delivery of Budget 2021 funds in 2022–23, while engagement with the Assembly of First Nations advanced to develop a Call for Proposals opened to all First Nations. This call was launched in February 2023.

In response to concerns raised by the Human Rights Program’s key stakeholders and partners, the Human Rights Program took steps to improve its engagement and collaboration efforts. Notably, the Human Rights Program made efforts in support of the Engagement Strategy on Canada’s International Human Rights Reporting Process^{Footnote 45} and the Protocol for Follow Up to Recommendations from International Human Rights Bodies.^{Footnote 46} Furthermore, a pilot project was launched in 2022 to explore a new approach to engagement, to strengthen collaboration with stakeholders and partners, and to examine ways of improving the follow-up on the implementation of recommendations received by United Nations human rights bodies.

Several organizations funded through the youth engagement programs were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions on travel and in-person gatherings. Some projects had to be adapted to the pandemic context and were either delivered in a virtual/hybrid format, or were downsized, postponed, or cancelled.

The pandemic had a significant impact on the Exchanges Canada Program, due primarily to the Program’s travel- and gathering-based delivery model. To support organizations through the pandemic and continue to deliver on planned results, in 2022–23, the Program extended temporary amendments to its terms and conditions to offer increased the flexibilities to funded organizations, such as support for virtual activities, as they adapted their programming through the pandemic and recovery context. The Program also worked closely with funding recipients to determine alternative formats for planned activities, such as virtual formats. Overall, in 2022–23, compared to the previous year, the pandemic had a moderate impact on participation results. However, some results improved as compared to the first year of the pandemic. For example, the total number of youth engaged in funded projects increased to about 5,000 (from 2,945 reported in the previous year). Before the pandemic, the average number of youth reached by the Program was about 12,000. The Program will continue to monitor performance.

Results achieved for Diversity and inclusion

The following table shows, for Diversity and inclusion, the results achieved, the performance indicators, the targets and the target dates for 2022–23, and the actual results for the three most recent fiscal years for which actual results are available.

Results achieved for Diversity and inclusion
Departmental results	Performance indicators	Target	Date to achieve target	2020–21 actual results	2021–22 actual results	2022–23 actual results
Canadians value diversity	Percentage of Canadians who feel that ethnic and cultural diversity is a shared value.	80%	May 2025	n/a	80%	80%^{Footnote 47} (2020-21)
Reversal of the current downward trend in the use and fluency of Indigenous languages.	Percentage of First Nations people who can conduct a conversation in an Indigenous language that is not their mother tongue.	4% increase in the number of First Nations people who can conduct a conversation in an Indigenous language that is not their mother tongue	December 2022	26.7% (Census 2016)	26.7% (Census 2016)	31.3%^{Footnote 48} (Census 2021)
	Percentage of Métis people who can conduct a conversation in an Indigenous language that is not their mother tongue.	4% increase in the number of Métis people who can conduct a conversation in an Indigenous language that is not their mother tongue	December 2022	41.7% (Census 2016)	41.7% (Census 2016)	48%^{Footnote 49} (Census 2021)
	Percentage of Inuit speaking in an Inuit language	63.3%	December 2022	64.3% (Census 2016)	64.3% (Census 2016)	58.1%^{Footnote 50} (Census 2021)
	Number of participants in language-learning activities.	30,000	December 2022	n/a^{Footnote 51}	n/a^{Footnote 51}	33,726^{Footnote 52} (2020-21)
Youth enhance their appreciation of the diversity and shared aspects of the Canadian experience.	Percentage of participants in the Exchanges Canada Program who report having a better understanding of what Canadians have in common.	85%	February 2024	81% (2019-20)	75% (2020-21)	75%^{Footnote 53} (2021-22)
	Percentage of participants in the Exchanges Canada Program who report having a greater appreciation of how diverse Canada is.	90%	February 2024	86% (2019-20)	81% (2020-21)	80%^{Footnote 53} (2021-22)
Individuals or groups have access to funding to initiate or participate in test cases pertaining to rights and freedoms covered by the Court Challenges Program.	Number of recipients who received funding for cases related to the rights and freedoms of people in Canada under the Court Challenges Program.	65	March 2023	57	41	74
Canadians value human rights.	Percentage of Canadians who feel that human rights are a shared value.	90%	March 2023	n/a	n/a	n/a^{Footnote 54}

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Diversity and inclusion

The following table shows, for Diversity and inclusion, budgetary spending for 2022–23, as well as actual spending for that year.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Diversity and inclusion
2022–23 Main Estimates	2022–23 planned spending	2022–23 total authorities available for use	2022–23 actual spending (authorities used)	2022–23 difference (actual spending minus planned spending)
260,786,472	260,786,472	280,373,371	237,631,544	(23,154,928)

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Diversity and inclusion

The following table shows, in full-time equivalents, the human resources the Department needed to fulfill this core responsibility for 2022–23.

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Diversity and inclusion
2022–23 planned full-time equivalents	2022–23 actual full-time equivalents	2022–23 difference (actual full-time equivalents minus planned full-time equivalents)
217.8	242.0	24.2

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Core responsibility 5: Official languages

Description

Supports the promotion of Canada’s two official languages in Canadian society as well as the development of official-language minority communities by collaborating with voluntary organizations and provincial and territorial governments. Fosters a coordinated approach to ensure participation from across the federal government in the implementation of the Official Languages Act, and the coordination of related horizontal initiatives.

Results

Canadian Heritage contributes to core responsibility 5 notably by fostering a coordinated approach to ensure participation from all institutions of the federal government in the implementation of the Official Languages Act, and the coordination of whole-of-government initiatives on official languages.

The Department also coordinates the implementation of the Action Plan for Official Languages 2018–2023: Investing in our future, a federal initiative for official languages.

Moreover, Canadian Heritage delivers the Official Languages Support Programs. These Programs support the promotion of both official languages in Canadian society, as well as the development of official language minority communities, by collaborating with community organizations and provincial and territorial governments.

Since March 2020, the Official Languages Support Programs pivoted and reprioritized their activities to help support recipients, including the arts and culture organizations in official language minority communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the Recovery Fund for Arts, Culture Heritage and Sport sectors and the Reopening Fund, the Department supported official languages minority communities in 2022–23 via the Development of Official Language Communities program. The Fund provided investments to Official Language Support Program clients who received emergency funding in 2020–21 and 2021–22 and who still required assistance with the modernization of their activities and operations for the post-COVID-19 period, and also supported arts and culture organizations that are not Program clients, but meet the eligibility criteria, and have needs to relaunch their operations.

The actual spending budget allocated to this core responsibility was $625,652,097 and was supported by a total of 178.8 actual full-time equivalents.

Canadians recognize and support Canada’s official languages.

In 2022–23, the Department continued its work to modernize the Official Languages Act and worked through the legislative stages of Bill C-13, amending the Official Languages Act, tabled in March 2022. This bill introduced a series of changes to improve on the previous version, with the aim of modernizing and strengthening the Official Languages Act and its related instruments.

Bill C-13 passed second reading on April 1, 2022, and was adopted and sent to committee on May 30, 2022. From June 2022 to March 2023, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages (LANG Committee) reviewed the bill. Several witnesses and stakeholders were heard from June to December 2022. The LANG Committee then undertook a clause-by-clause study of the bill, which included several proposed amendments, and continued until beyond the reporting period of 2022–23. On June 20, 2023 Bill C-13 became law.

The Department has completed the implementation of the Action Plan for Official Languages 2018–2023 with several innovative projects and initiatives, including funding support for:

Réseau des cégeps et collèges de la francophonie canadienne for two projects aimed at closing gaps in post-secondary education service provision in underserved provinces and territories. The Réseau des cégeps et collèges de la francophonie canadienne's first two-year project, in collaboration with the Association des francophones du Nunavut, involves setting up a local executive committee to coordinate the creation of the Qaujimaniq Centre, whose mission will be to offer continuing vocational training in French to young adults and workers wishing to upgrade their skills. As part of the second project, the Réseau des cégeps et collèges de la francophonie canadienne is working with the Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador to set up a local round table of around eight key community partners to coordinate the implementation of a French-language training and education service for young adults and workers aiming to upgrade their skills.
the Union nationale métisse Saint-Joseph du Manitoba Inc. for a project to promote Métis culture through various tools for children aged five to ten. A booklet was created, inserted in the community newspaper La Liberté and distributed to Manitoba’s Francophone community. The booklet’s main character, a little girl named Rielle, led children through a series of adventures based on historical facts, stories, language games (French and Michif) and learning about Métis traditions and culture. The content produced was also the theme of a social media campaign, as well as across the partners’ respective networks.

In the meantime, during 2022–23, the Department continued work towards a new Action Plan in support of both official languages. This included supporting consultations from across the country. The 2022 Cross-Canada Official Languages Consultations took place from May 24 to August 31, 2022. The Minister of Official Languages and her Parliamentary Secretary initiated in the following consultation mechanisms:

15 regional forums were organized in each of the provinces and the three territories to hear, in person, from over 300 local stakeholders, the majority of whom came from official language minority communities.
7 thematic virtual consultation sessions were organized in June and July 2022, on topics such as the protection of the French language and equity, diversity and inclusion. Some 650 stakeholders took part in these virtual sessions.
A closing summit was held on August 25, 2022, in Ottawa, attended by nearly 300 stakeholders.
An online questionnaire that was available on Canada.ca enabled the entire Canadian population to participate and provide comments and recommendations. Over 5,200 valid responses were received.
Consultations with provincial and territorial governments were organized by Canadian Heritage, notably through correspondence between the Minister of Official Languages and the relevant provincial and territorial ministers, and meetings of the Ministers’ Council on the Canadian Francophonie.

In all, more than 6,500 Canadians expressed their views during the consultations, which also included written submissions from over 80 individuals and organizations. A report^{Footnote 55} on the consultations was published in December 2022.

The Government disclosed its intention to support this new Action Plan on March 28, 2023 at the unveiling of Budget 2023, confirming the allocation of nearly $1.4 billion in support of community development, official language learning, the defence of language rights, employment assistance and to support the creation of a new Centre for Strengthening Part VII of the Official Languages Act.

In 2022–23, the Department supported three Budget 2021 commitments: support quality post-secondary education in official language minority communities; support construction, renovation and development of educational and community spaces that serve official language minority communities, including measures to protect English-speaking communities in Quebec; and support students across the country in achieving higher levels of bilingualism, including improved access to French immersion and French as a second language programs across Canada.

Canadian Heritage provided a total contribution of over $31 million to support 13 new multi-year projects targeting the post-secondary education sector led by provincial and territorial governments (over $28 million) and to increase funding for the provincial action plans of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario (over $3 million).
Between 2021 to 2023, the Department supported the États généraux sur le postsecondaire en contexte francophone minoritaire. This resulted in a contribution of $488,000 to support the various consultation activities as well as the drafting of a final report. Organized by the Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne in collaboration with the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada, the États généraux consulted nearly 1,400 people across the country, including 70 experts and educational organizations. The final report, tabled in the fall of 2022, contains 32 recommendations for provincial, territorial and federal governments to ensure the development and sustainability of French-language post-secondary education in Canada.
Canadian Heritage contributed $37 million to 23 new infrastructure projects led by provincial and territorial governments. In terms of community support, the Community Spaces Fund contributed $13.4 million in 2022–23 to 23 new infrastructure projects led by community organizations.
The Department contributed $173 million in 2022–23 to provincial and territorial governments through bilateral education agreements, including new investments of $86.6 million from Budget 2021. These funds are intended to help the provinces and territories improve French-second-language programs at all levels (from preschool to post-secondary education), including French immersion programs. Bilateral agreements have been signed with all provinces and territories to include their priorities for French as a second language with the additional funding.
Moreover, an additional amount of $3.8 million was added to the current funding for the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy for the French-Language Minority Schools subcomponent of the Development of Official-Language Communities Program, and the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy for French Immersion and French Second-Language Programs subcomponent of the Enhancement of Official Languages Program. In 2022–23, 26 projects were approved for a total of $19 million.

The Department remained involved after the launch of the Mauril application by CBC/Radio-Canada in April 2021 and its web version in November of the same year under the terms of the memorandum of understanding signed between the public broadcaster and Canadian Heritage. The Department actively contributes to the Mauril dissemination process by amplifying CBC/Radio-Canada’s messages on its social networks (Facebook, Twitter) and by organizing presentations of the learning tool, both internally and to external stakeholders. The Department uses its expertise to help the public broadcaster build its network of stakeholders and experts dedicated to learning French or English as a second official language and developing the Mauril community in each province and territory.

In 2022–23, Canadian Heritage amended or concluded 13 bilateral agreements on education with every provincial and territorial government to support minority-language education and second official-language instruction, including additional funding to support French second-language instruction announced in Budget 2021. These bilateral agreements have enabled $340 million to be allocated to the provincial and territorial governments to support education in both official languages.

In addition, 12 provinces and territories had a bilateral agreement on minority-language services in effect, allowing Canadian Heritage to transfer $25 million in 2022–23 to support the delivery of provincial and municipal services in the minority language.

Federal institutions develop and implement policies and programs in accordance with Section 41 of the Official Languages Act.

Canadian Heritage updated the tools for federal institutions to increase consideration of official languages in policy and program development, and to reflect the strengthened Part VII provisions following the Federal Court of Appeal ruling in the Fédération des Francophones de la Colombie-Britannique v. Canada (Employment and Social Development). This ruling and its impact on federal institutions were discussed in bilateral meetings and with all federal institutions at meetings of the National Network of Resource Persons Responsible for Section 41 of the Official Languages Act and the Committee of Assistant Deputy Ministers on Official Languages.

To clarify official language requirements for the design, delivery and management of transfer payment programs and in collaboration with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Canadian Heritage developed a tool on Official Language Requirements for Transfer Payments,^{Footnote 56} including agreements with provinces and territories, which was published in November 2022.

Canadian Heritage has also continued to promote the use of the Guide for Drafting Memoranda to Cabinet — Official Languages Impact Analysis^{Footnote 57} since its publication in 2020–21 and during the awareness campaign that followed in 2021–22. Developed in collaboration with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and the Department of Justice, the tool encourages the systematic application of an official languages lens to all government initiatives.

To continue strengthening Canadian Heritage’s Interdepartmental Coordination Network, the Department implemented most of the recommendations of the interdepartmental coordination evaluation covering the period 2013–14 to 2017–18. For example, a virtual information session for new members was held in December 2022 to give regional coordination officers a better understanding of their role and that of Canadian Heritage’s Interdepartmental Coordination Network. In addition, tools adapted to the realities of three particular regions were developed to provide officers with data and results that enable them to have a more targeted coordination approach with federal institutions.

The Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage was supported in her role as champion of the official languages community, by increasing awareness, accountability and mobilization of senior management in the public service through the following activities:

Providing strategic direction to the Committee of Assistant Deputy Ministers on Official Languages and advancing government priorities, such as the modernization of the Official Languages Act and the development of the five-year official languages strategy (Action Plan for Official Languages 2023–2028).
Act as spokesperson and ambassador for official languages at interdepartmental and public events, such as Official Languages Day, the Best Practices Forum on Official Languages and International Francophonie Day.
Demonstrate ongoing leadership by intervening in a targeted manner with deputy ministers and deputy heads to encourage and strengthen implementation of the Official Languages Act.
Strengthen and systematize the application of the official languages lens in the policies and programs of federal institutions to ensure that they meet the needs of official language minority communities.

To strengthen collaboration and cooperation between official language minority communities and federal institutions, Canadian Heritage encouraged exchanges, consultations and presentations, notably by inviting community representatives to present their needs and priorities at meetings of the Committee of Assistant Deputy Ministers on Official Languages and the National Network of Resource Persons Responsible for Section 41 of the Official Languages Act. In addition, the Department worked with community groups to organize events such as Official Languages Day, the Forum on Official Languages Best Practices and International Francophonie Day. These events helped build bridges between the public service and communities.

In 2022–23, Canadian Heritage continued to coordinate the Collaboration Agreement for the Development of Arts and Culture in the Francophone Minority Communities of Canada 2018–2023,^{Footnote 58} working with the signatory federal institutions—the National Arts Centre, the Canada Council For The Arts, the Société Radio-Canada, the National Film Board of Canada, and Telefilm Canada—as well as with the organizations represented by the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française, to identify measures to address the priorities and issues facing Francophone minority communities. In addition to the sectoral working groups provided for in the Agreement, in 2022–23, well-established mechanisms brought together federal partner institutions and organizations to examine in greater depth the labour shortage, an issue heard repeatedly during the working group meetings. These discussions fed into the Department’s thinking on the development of the Action Plan for Official Languages 2023–2028.

Gender-based Analysis Plus

In 2022–23, the Official Languages Branch carried out an annual update of the generic GBA Plus document, which serves as the basis for the GBA Plus, for any specific policy or program development exercise that has been launched.

Based on the GBA Plus analysis, which highlights the differentiated issues and challenges faced by Canada’s English- and French-speaking linguistic minorities, it has been possible to conduct more in-depth analyses using a multitude of other factors (such as gender, age group, education level, income level, unemployment rate and language transmission) These enriched analyses enable us to take full account of the impact on various population sub-groups when developing policies and programs.

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals

In 2022–23, initiatives related to core responsibility 5 helped advance Quality Education (SDG 4) and Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10).

Reached out to equity-deserving clients, notably the 2SLGBTQI+ communities and Arctic communities for the Pan-Canadian Consultations on Official Languages 2022 (SDG 10).
Implemented a people-centred approach in the development of the Action Plan for Official Languages 2023–2028 (SDG 10). This approach included the following objectives: substantive equality between Canada’s two official languages, sustainable development of official language minority communities, greater access to education in both official languages at all grade levels across Canada, and greater equity between genders, whose experiences differ within community organizations.
Fostered greater support for official language minority communities and their institutions (SDG 10). Bill C-13 is helping to build bridges between all Canadians across the country by recognizing the importance of reclaiming, revitalizing, and strengthening Indigenous languages, while continuing to value the use of other languages.
Amended or concluded 13 bilateral agreements on education with every provincial and territorial governments to support minority-language education and second official-language instruction, including additional funding to support French second-language instruction (SDG 4, SDG 10).
Helped increase the rate of French-English bilingualism among Canadians through the Mauril application (SDG 4, SDG 10). Since its launch, Mauril has been downloaded more than 210,000 times by Canadians, 66% to learn French and 34% to learn English. The application contains almost 400 learning units per language, divided into 8 levels, from beginner to advanced. By making it possible to learn English and French at a distance, flexibly, independently and without having to travel, Mauril gives Canadians access to quality training and equips them for the job market, both in Canada and abroad.

Key risks

To counteract the decline of French in Canada, the Department has been actively engaged in identifying measures to reverse this trend, including Francophone immigration, the attraction and retention of French-language teachers, and the implementation of a true continuum in minority-language education, from early childhood to post-secondary education, through the development of the next Action Plan for Official Languages 2023–2028. In this regard, the 2023 budget allocated $679.2 million over 5 years to intergovernmental collaboration on official languages education and services.

In addition, as part of its ongoing efforts to modernize the Official Languages Act, the Department analyzed a number of amendments proposed to the House of Commons, over fifty of which were adopted. The Department has ensured that the proposed changes continue to preserve the vitality of English- and French-speaking minorities and recognize the diversity of language regimes across the country, while providing for targeted measures that it can take to advance the equality of status and use of English and French in Canadian society. This while recognizing and taking into account the fact that French is in a minority situation in Canada and North America due to the predominant use of English.

Results achieved for Official languages

The following table shows, for Official languages, the results achieved, the performance indicators, the targets and the target dates for 2022–23, and the actual results for the three most recent fiscal years for which actual results are available.

Results achieved for Official languages
Departmental results	Performance indicators	Target	Date to achieve target	2020–21 actual results	2021–22 actual results	2022–23 actual results
Canadians recognize and support Canada’s official languages.	Percentage of Canadians who agree that Canada’s two official languages (English/French) are an important part of what it means to be Canadian.	60%	March 2023	60%	60%	54%^{Footnote 59}
	Number of Canadians who can conduct a conversation in their second official language.	6,200,000	March 2023	6,216,070	6,216,070	6,581,680
	Maintenance of the 85% baseline of Official-Language Minority Communities who live within a 25 km radius of an arts/culture organization that offers services in the minority language.	85%	March 2023	85.7%	85.7%	85.7%
	Maintenance of the 85% baseline of Official-Language Minority Communities who live within a 25 km radius of a regional/local community development organization that offers services in the minority language.	85%	March 2023	87.3%	87.3%	87.3%
Federal institutions develop and implement policies and programs in accordance with Section 41 of the Official Languages Act.	Percentage of federal institutions that report concrete results in their annual review in support of Section 41 of the Official Languages Act.	80%	March 2023	73.4%	n/a	93.7%^{Footnote 60} (2021-22)

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Official languages

The following table shows, for Official languages, budgetary spending for 2022–23, as well as actual spending for that year.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Official languages
2022–23 Main Estimates	2022–23 planned spending	2022–23 total authorities available for use	2022–23 actual spending (authorities used)	2022–23 difference (actual spending minus planned spending)
622,859,750	622,859,750	667,229,326	625,652,097	2,792,347

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Official languages

The following table shows, in full-time equivalents, the human resources the Department needed to fulfill this core responsibility for 2022–23.

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Official languages
2022–23 planned full-time equivalents	2022–23 actual full-time equivalents	2022–23 difference (actual full-time equivalents minus planned full-time equivalents)
160.9	178.8	17.9

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Internal services

Description

Internal services are those groups of related activities and resources that the federal government considers to be services in support of programs and/or required to meet corporate obligations of an organization. “Internal services” refers to the activities and resources of the 10 distinct service categories that support program delivery in the organization, regardless of the internal services delivery model in a department. The 10 service categories are:

Acquisition management services
Communication services
Financial management services
Human resources management services
Information management services
Information technology services
Legal services
Material management services
Management and oversight services
Real property management services

Management and oversight services

Canadian Heritage Data Strategy

The Canadian Heritage Data Strategy Working Group supported the development of the 2023–2026 Federal Data Strategy, participating in central agency feedback activities and consulting internally.

There was a concerted effort made to define, incorporate and communicate research ethics best practices into departmental research activities. In March 2023, in response to a request from the Office of the Chief Science Advisor, the Department revised its Scientific Integrity Policy, expanding its scope to include all research activities within the Department. Canadian Heritage also developed a toolkit that includes an ethics protocol, to support internal engagement initiatives, and communications to support research ethics literacy. It also collaborated with the Government of Canada Community of Practice in research ethics to better understand other government-wide initiatives underway.

In terms of data literacy, the Policy Research Group developed and distributed to departmental employees several infographics aimed at highlighting valuable Census 2021 data sources related to the Department’s mandate. It has also created and distributed tools to support disaggregated data best practices, with more on the way.

Canadian Heritage, with other key partners, supported the Research in Residence: Arts’ Civic Impact project. Mentored by faculty from post-secondary institutions, six early-career researchers worked with Canadian arts organizations and festivals to create practical tools and approaches for the arts sector to better articulate its impact in communities.

Canadian Heritage collaborated with Statistics Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts on the “Everyday Well-Being Pilot Study” initiative. By asking Canadians questions on the spot about their activities and well-being, this study resulted in having a better understanding of the factors that influence well-being, particularly artistic, cultural and sports activities. As the data collection took place over the course of 2021, the initiative gathered innovative information on the social impacts of COVID-19, particularly in terms of well-being and the sports and cultural participation of the Canadian population.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Review

In 2021–22, Canadian Heritage launched the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Review, a two-year project which aimed to identify and help remove systemic barriers to accessing programming for equity-deserving communities, and support sectors in developing their own approaches to improve equity, diversity and inclusion.

Over 60 representatives from twelve departmental funding programs (including arts, celebrations, culture, heritage, official languages and sport sectors) collectively examined inequities in their policy and program design, including underlying biases and assumptions, the impacts of a colonial legacy, and ways forward.

A final report was delivered on March 31, 2023. It contained over 80 recommendations for departmental consideration on ways in which the Department can build a sustainable and impactful path to equity, including:

improving methods of engaging and being accountable to equity-deserving communities;
greater collection and use of disaggregated data;
creating more accessible, inclusive and transparent funding processes; and
working with external stakeholders to further advance inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility in the arts, culture, heritage and sport sectors, all of which activities align with GBA Plus goals and approaches.

Participating programs developed their own assessments of program-specific barriers and strategies to address them including the further use of GBA Plus tools and approaches.

Strengthening Gender-based analysis Plus (GBA Plus)

In 2022–23, the Department’s GBA Plus Responsibility Centre continued to undertake efforts to strengthen the rigour and intersectionality of GBA Plus, with a view to ensuring that GBA Plus is meaningfully integrated into policy and program development, implementation, and outcomes measurement as well as Cabinet processes. This included:

Supporting work led by Women and Gender Equality Canada to advance mandate-letter commitments to enhance GBA Plus;
Advancing the implementation of Women and Gender Equality Canada’s new GBA Plus tools across the Department to expand the focus on identity factors beyond gender;
Providing a challenge function on all Budget and Cabinet documents to support rigorous GBA Plus analysis; and
Undertaking capacity-building and awareness-raising activities through the Department’s GBA Plus Community of Practice, GBA Plus Awareness Week, as well as the work of the Assistant Deputy Minister champion of GBA Plus.

Accessibility

The Department’s Accessibility Office and Canadian Heritage’s Accessibility Plan support the mandate letter of the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion and those of all Ministers to bring to fruition the horizontal commitments of the Government of Canada under the Accessible Canada Act and the Nothing without Us Accessibility Strategy.

The Accessibility Plan lays out an ambitious agenda to proactively identify barriers and design solutions in the following priority areas:

Improve recruitment, retention and promotion of persons with disabilities
Enhance the accessibility of the built environment
Make communications and information technology usable by all
Equip public servants to design and deliver accessible programs and services
Build an accessibility-confident public service.

The Accessibility Office advanced significant actions to ensure the inclusion of persons with disabilities in a more deliberate, transparent, and accountable fashion. It continued to roll out the Department’s Accessibility Plan through a combination of measures, such as:

Promoted a high level of awareness and understanding of accessibility and disability inclusion and why it matters through various engagement activities and consultations with all Canadian Heritage employees, working in collaboration with the Advisory Committee on (Dis)Ability, learning activities, and promoting events like National AccessAbility Week and International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Created an Accessibility Allies Network to help spread the word and the practice of accessibility inclusion and a Community of Practice on Accessible Communications;
Established the Bob Fern Deputy Minister Award in Accessibility, providing recognition for those pioneering innovative actions or excellence in disability inclusion;
Promoted inclusive leadership expectations and accountability through performance management assessments:
- for increasing the representation of employment equity-designated groups at all levels through staffing and retention
- for creating a healthy and inclusive work environment
- for addressing unconscious bias, discrimination, and harassment in their sectors
Promoted intersectionality analysis to enable consideration of how multiple inequities compound;
Pioneered and launched the GC Workplace Accessibility Passport;
Established a one stop shop for accommodations (the Bob Fern Centre for Accommodations), including a centralized accommodation fund;
Collaborated with departments and agencies in conducting research and analysis, and building an inventory of promising practices to support transformational cultural change within the public service for disability inclusion;
Launched the Accessibility Feedback Mechanisms in December 2022 to provide employees and Canadians the opportunity to provide their anonymous and confidential feedback on accessibility barriers and the Accessibility Plan.

IDEA — Governance and Accountability

Work to advance inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA) gained momentum in 2023, with two governance committees formed to make decisions and advise on all IDEA initiatives at Canadian Heritage. Following a series of IDEA retreats, facilitated by a visiting scholar to the Canada School of Public Service, Dr. Rachel Zellars, a Culture Statement was created that will act as a guiding vision for the Department to become more inclusive, diverse and accessible in the coming years.

To focus on workplace culture, the Internal Organizational Culture Directorate was created in 2022 and tasked with assessing Canadian Heritage’s readiness for culture change. This work entailed simultaneous consultations with IDEA stakeholders in the Department and equity, diversity and inclusion and anti-racism units and teams in other government departments. The results of this exercise were presented as Canadian Heritage’s first Culture Report in 2022. This was followed by a Department-wide mapping exercise in the summer of 2022, which identified key themes and priority areas to focus on in the coming years to create a change in workplace culture and become an organization that is inclusive, values the diversity of its workforce and is barrier-free and accessible for all employees at the Department. Following this, a short-term IDEA Action Plan was approved for action in January 2023. Key partners implementing the Action Plan at Canadian Heritage, leading different priority areas, include Human Resources and Workplace Management, Office of the Ombuds, Well-being and Ethics, Strategic Policy, Communications, Internal Organizational Culture Directorate and Accessibility Office.

Greening Government

The National Culture Summit took place in May 2022, and included a plenary session on arts, culture and heritage as drivers for social change, and a breakout session on Greening the Arts, Culture and Heritage Sectors. At this session, participants recognized the urgency of the current environmental crisis and spoke to the demand of audiences for climate action and greening of the sectors.

The Department also focused on expanding its data and research efforts by completing a comprehensive jurisdictional scan. The scan looked at publicly available information on greening measures provincial and territorial governments and their agencies currently have in place to support and initiate activity related to greening the arts, culture and heritage sectors. This domestic scan followed the international scan the Department conducted in 2021 and identified 36 greening initiatives at both the federal and provincial levels, including one measure from an Indigenous-led organization. The report was finalized in January 2023.

Human resources and real property management services

The return to the workplace for Canadian Heritage employees required a substantial undertaking of planning, coordination and implementation of activities from the Department’s human resources management team, like adapting the physical locations to a hybrid model, ensuring the safety, security and well-being of employees, providing management support, and developing training and supporting awareness of new and ongoing initiatives.

During 2022–23, the Department established a “Hybrid by Design” Advisory Committee to bring together diverse perspectives in the development of Canadian Heritage’s Future of Work and hybrid work model approach. Its composition reflects the interests of equity-deserving communities, accessibility issues, regional realities and different levels of management and employees to ensure that the IDEA principles were incorporated to the workplace return decisions and actions.

To ensure the optimization of the new hybrid model, the Department continued to implement the Workspace Depersonalization Project, participated in the GCcoworking pilot project, increased the efficiency of information technology infrastructure, and updated its directives related to employee finances and equipment.

Throughout the implementation, employees were encouraged to explore and experiment within the new work environments and share their experiences using different feedback tools to improve this new way of working.

The Department also updated its procedures, guidelines and provided awareness sessions to ensure the health, safety and well-being of employees. Additionally, various activities and initiatives supporting employee wellness and reintegration into the workplace included:

Providing training in Mental Health First Aid and The Mind at Work to employees and managers in both official languages, across the country.
New module developed on the return to the workplace and offered via informal discussion sessions in both official languages.
Collaboration in the development and launch of the departmental wellness platform.
Promoting the Employee Assistance Program and LifeSpeak as part of communications regarding return to the workplace.
Worked closely with partners to innovate and implement Emergency Management solutions to ensure a safe return to the workplace in a hybrid model.

The Department facilitated culture change and continued to contribute to the physical and mental well-being of its employees by consistently communicating updates related to the new realities of work. Information sessions and workshops were offered on various topics such as wellness, mental health and return to the workplace. The Department also promoted various training courses to ensure a healthy, safe, inclusive and respectful workplace, free from racism, discrimination, harassment and violence.

Following the launch of Canadian Heritage’s Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan 2021–2024, several actions were put in place to foster a greater organizational culture of diversity, to provide an environment that values belonging, inclusion, equity and accessibility, to consolidate the anti-racism approach and to reduce systemic barriers and racism.

To support equity-deserving public servants in their career paths and development, the Department participated in various initiatives such as: the Mosaic Leadership Development Program^{Footnote 61} to increase diversity at the executive level; the sponsorship component of the Mentorship Plus^{Footnote 62} program, which matches executives and employees to better support their career advancement.

To support managers in recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce, advancing careers, and facilitating culture change, a variety of initiatives have been put forward such as:

Developed a set of disaggregated data to support recruitment planning, including hiring, promotion and acting opportunity rates for all employment equity groups.
Began the change management process surrounding the new Public Service Commission provisions by meeting with managers to explain the new directions for barrier-free assessment of candidates. The workshops were developed in collaboration with the Employment Equity team and others were offered by the Public Service Commission.
Developed tools and training for staffing advisors on making a job offer accessible, using simple and appropriate language on job postings, and navigating the different types of employment equity appointments.
Established a departmental target for hiring 61 new public servants with disabilities from outside the public service by 2025.

To support efforts to retain employees of diverse backgrounds and encourage their career advancement, the following actions and initiatives have been taken:

Facilitated access to the Departmental Fund for Language Training to support the development of employees’ language skills and reduce barriers.
Established a multidisciplinary work team to coordinate and responded in a timely manner to the increasing requests for accommodation following the return to the workplace in an unassigned work environment.

Various partners were engaged to ensure that concrete actions are put in place and that all participate in the successful implementation of the departmental Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, such as:

Assign a resource to provide advice and guidance to staffing advisors on implementing inclusive recruitment processes and removing barriers in a much more concrete and proactive manner.
The creation of an Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Circle to enable exchanges on recruitment issues, advancement and retention of Indigenous employees.
Creation of the Jewish Employees Committee and the Muslim Employees Committee at Canadian Heritage.

To support this culture change, feedback and sharing mechanisms took place which facilitated exchanges and supported the transition:

Development of a new tool to track the return and response rate of self-identification forms.
Participated in the Managers’ Forum to identify barriers and successes related to the implementation of inclusive practices.
Created an entry feedback questionnaire to measure how departmental employees are welcomed.

Information management, information technology and security services

In 2022–23, the Chief Information Officer Branch worked closely with partners to implement modern and automated information technology solutions, allowing them to work more efficiently, streamlining their processes and facilitating decision-making and accountability. For example, a centralized data entry platform with reporting capability was developed to collect the Department’s core planning and results information, which will provide transparent, clear, and useful information on departmental results.

The Department strengthened its management of information resources and promoted sound recordkeeping by providing information sessions on information management depersonalization and clean-up, creating or updating training and awareness tools, leading Information Management Community of Practice meetings, and promoting the course on information management from the Canada School of Public Service - Fundamentals of Information Management (COR501).

Meanwhile, the Canadian Heritage Funding Portal, which went live in 2021, added nine new program components in 2022–23 for a total of 16 program components, to allow applicants to submit their funding application online. In 2022–23, the Department received over 8,000 applications through this portal (approximately 35% of its overall volume). Early surveys have indicated that 82% of applicants were satisfied with the portal. The average adoption rate of portal use for a program component is 87%.

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals

The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Review’s final report noted that Canadian Heritage must embrace a paradigm shift in social and cultural policy and practice to adequately address the needs and realities of an increasingly diverse Canadian public and to ensure that everyone who lives in Canada feels a sense of well-being and belonging. The Report also noted that the Department has an opportunity to recognize and create the space to rethink how the organization meets the public’s needs, by centring its role in supporting the evolving definition of Canadian identities and values so that it is inclusive of all intersecting identities that make up Canadian society, including gender, ethnicity and linguistic factors.

Canadian Heritage is advancing Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8) and Reduced inequalities (SDG 10) by continuing to apply the actions identified in its Accessibility Plan, such as holding the Department’s leadership accountable (pillar leads) for driving change through their actions and by empowering their teams.

Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

Canadian Heritage must ensure that a minimum of 5% of the total value of the contracts is awarded to Indigenous businesses by the end of 2022–23. In its 2023–24 Departmental Plan, the Department forecasted that, by the end of 2022–23, it would award 9% of the total value of its contracts to Indigenous businesses.

As shown in the following table, Canadian Heritage awarded 7.9% of the total value of its contracts to Indigenous businesses in 2022–23.

Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

Contracting performance indicators	2022–23 Results
Total value of contracts^{Table Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses note } awarded to Indigenous businesses^{Table Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses note *} (A)	$2,355,018.35
Total value of contracts awarded to Indigenous and non-Indigenous businesses^{Table Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses note ***} (B)	$29,777,934.12
Value of exceptions approved by deputy head (C)	$0
Proportion of contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses [A / (B−C)×100]	7.9%

Table Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses notes

Table Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses note *

Includes contract amendments with Indigenous businesses. May include subcontracts.

Return to table Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses note * referrer

Table Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses note **

For the purposes of the 5% target, Indigenous businesses include Elders, band and tribal councils; businesses registered in the Indigenous Business Directory^{Footnote 63} for contracts under the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business;^{Footnote 64} and businesses registered in a beneficiary business list for contracts with a final delivery in a modern treaty or self-government agreement area with economic measures as defined by Indigenous Services Canada.

Return to table Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses first note ** referrer

Table Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses note ***

Includes contract amendments.

Return to table Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses first note *** referrer

During the fiscal year 2022–23, the Department leveraged the use of Public Services and Procurement Canada’s established procurement tools to increase the participation of Indigenous firms in Canadian Heritage contracting opportunities. When using procurement tools for goods and services where capacity has been identified by Public Services and Procurement Canada (i.e., Indigenous suppliers are prequalified to these procurement tools), the Department ensured that Indigenous suppliers were invited to participate in these procurements.

While no specific outreach activities were conducted during the fiscal year 2022–23, the Department has participated in outreach activities in 2023–24.

Canadian Heritage has revised internal training documents to raise awareness and to promote the consideration of Indigenous service offerings with program clients and administrative staff responsible for processing contracting requests whose value is less than $10,000.00. The training highlights Canadian Heritage’s contracting obligations under the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business, including the requirement to meet the 5% minimum target, how to identify Indigenous vendors in the financial system, and strategies on how to locate Indigenous firms providing the goods or services required in the Indigenous Business Directory.

For open tenders and low dollar value contracting opportunities, where Indigenous businesses are not registered in the Indigenous Business Directory, Canadian Heritage encourages these businesses to register to increase their visibility and allow them to compete for federal government contracts that are set aside for Indigenous businesses through the Indigenous business and federal procurement.

In addition, the Department has revised its procurement planning documentation used with internal clients when preparing procurement strategies. Based on Canadian Heritage’s three-year Integrated Business Planning exercise (updated annually), departmental officials meet with procurement clients from the various sectors to establish procurement strategies for upcoming requirements during the fiscal year. During these planning meetings, departmental officials inquire with clients about Indigenous capacity in the specific commodity market. Where capacity is unknown, Canadian Heritage assists clients in conducting market research to determine whether capacity exists, and an appropriate strategy is pursued based on the results of the market research.

The Department also periodically monitors the percentage of procurement contracts awarded to Indigenous business throughout the financial year. This ensures that the data entered in the Financial Management Systems is accurate, reflects pre-established input norms that are consistent with reporting requirements and provides the opportunity adjust internal strategies towards achieving the planned target.

The departmental governance committee, Finance, Information Technology and Human Resources, are provided a quarterly procurement outlook (forecast), highlighting the results achieved in the previous quarter as it relates to planned Indigenous procurement targets.

One hundred percent of Contracting and Materiel Management Directorate staff have completed the mandatory course Indigenous Considerations in Procurement (COR409) from the Canada School of Public Service. While the staff has not taken the Procurement in the Nunavut Settlement Area course from the Canada School of Public Service, to date, Canadian Heritage has not had any contracting requirements in the Nunavut Settlement Area.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

The following table shows, for internal services, budgetary spending for 2022–23, as well as spending for that year.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)
2022–23 Main Estimates	2022–23 planned spending	2022–23 total authorities available for use	2022–23 actual spending (authorities used)	2022–23 difference (actual spending minus planned spending)
89,741,629	89,741,629	102,605,432	103,823,784	14,082,155

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

The following table shows, in full-time equivalents, the human resources the Department needed to carry out its internal services for 2022–23.

Human resources (full-time equivalents)
2022–23 planned full-time equivalents	2022–23 actual full-time equivalents	2022–23 difference (actual full-time equivalents minus planned full-time equivalents)
823.6	778.9	(44.8)

Spending and human resources

Spending

Spending 2020–21 to 2025–26

The following graph presents planned (voted and statutory spending) over time.

Fiscal year	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Statutory	450	30	33	29	28	28
Voted	1,512	1,977	2,268	1,911	1,561	1,488
Total	1,962	2,007	2,301	1,940	1,589	1,516

In 2020–21, Canadian Heritage spent over $420 million of statutory funding, which came through the Department by way of the Public Health Events of National Concern Payment Act to establish a COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations as well as to support students and youth impacted by COVID-19.

To further promote recovery from the pandemic for heritage, arts, and sport sectors that contribute profoundly to the cultural, civic and economic life of Canada, the 2020 Fall Economic Statement and Budget 2021 allocated unprecedented investments of $2.3 billion to Canadian Heritage and its Portfolio organizations for a variety of programs, including funding of $181.5 million to support the planning and presentation of COVID-19-safe events and in the arts—both live and digital—and to stimulate work opportunities in these sectors and to provide $89.1 million in support over five years, starting in 2021–22, for performing arts festivals, cultural events, arts and heritage institutions, celebrations, and commemorations which all play a vital role in the Canadian cultural and social fabric all while helping build strong communities.

Budget 2021 also announced over two years, starting in 2021–22 the distribution of the $300 million Recovery Fund to help restore immediate viability for organizations with pandemic-related financial needs and help them adapt to post-pandemic realities and the $200 million Reopening Fund to support local festivals, community cultural events, outdoor theatre performances, heritage celebrations, local museums and amateur sport events, while ensuring events comply with local public health measures.

The 2020 Fall Economic Statement announced an expansion of Canadian Heritage’s Community Support, Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Initiatives Program and its Anti-Racism Action Program by $50 million over two years, starting in 2021–22 to deliver on the government’s anti-racism objectives.

Contributing to the increase in 2021–22 and 2022–23 expenditures as well as 2023–24 planned spending is the $383.5 million three-year investment announced in Budget 2021, starting in 2021–22 to support second-language learning, high-quality post-secondary minority-language education and the construction, renovation and expansion of educational and community spaces that serve official language minority communities and the $268.5 million additional funding to support Indigenous communities in their efforts to reclaim, revitalize, maintain and strengthen Indigenous languages.

Additionally, another Budget 2021 initiative that explains the peak seen in the 2022–23 actual spending: Community Sport for All which sought $80 million over two years, starting in 2021–22, to support organized sport at the community level to help Canadians and communities recover from the impacts of COVID-19.

Announced in the 2021 Fall Economic Statement and contributing to the culmination of the 2022–23 actual spending, is the $62.3 million Canada Performing Arts Worker Resilience Fund initiative which has helped retain specialized workers in the sector during a period of heightened precarity for the cultural workforce.

Further adding to the increase in 2022–23 actual spending is the delivery of a temporary $31.6 million for Canadian Heritage for a measure announced in Budget 2022 to compensate Canadian arts, culture, and heritage organizations for revenue losses due to public health restrictions and capacity limits.

Lastly, for 2022–23 actual spending, the Prime Minister’s announced a legacy gift to the Queen Elizabeth Scholars Program of $20 million on September 19, 2022.

Starting in 2023–24 and future years, a downward slope in planned spending is foreseen due to the ceasing of the temporary funding initiatives and a return to pre-COVID-19 departmental program activity levels.

Funding for initiatives announced in Budget 2023 will be reflected in future reports.

Budgetary performance summary for core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)

The “Budgetary performance summary for core responsibilities and internal services” table presents the budgetary financial resources allocated for Canadian Heritage’s core responsibilities and for internal services.

Budgetary performance summary for core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)
Core responsibilities and internal services	2022–23 Main Estimates	2022–23 planned spending	2023–24 planned spending	2024–25 planned spending	2022–23 total authorities available for use	2020–21 actual spending (authorities used)	2021–22 actual spending (authorities used)	2022–23 actual spending (authorities used)
Creativity, arts and culture	693,223,296	693,223,296	581,358,679	488,199,021	786,762,814	811,416,984	786,146,182	776,134,605
Heritage and celebration	190,685,235	190,685,235	135,638,306	107,320,673	225,429,639	162,057,233	170,227,101	220,705,354
Sport	327,068,407	327,068,407	264,497,322	237,180,444	342,459,431	321,270,921	285,863,288	336,607,653
Diversity and inclusion	260,786,472	260,786,472	322,704,475	218,407,189	280,373,371	107,737,768	172,146,413	237,631,544
Official languages	622,859,750	622,859,750	552,774,917	457,607,688	667,229,326	462,296,619	491,573,181	625,652,097
Subtotal	2,094,623,160	2,094,623,160	1,856,973,699	1,508,715,015	2,302,254,581	1,864,779,525	1,905,956,165	2,196,731,253
Internal services	89,741,629	89,741,629	83,128,810	80,685,340	102,605,432	96,762,722	100,578,014	103,823,784
Total	2,184,364,789	2,184,364,789	1,940,102,509	1,589,400,355	2,404,860,013	1,961,542,247	2,006,534,179	2,300,555,037

Creativity, arts and culture; Heritage and celebration; and Sport:

In the last three years, the upward spending profile is a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The one-year Emergency Support Fund to support cultural, heritage and sport organizations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic explains the significant surge in spending in 2020–21. COVID-19 funding continued in 2021–22 and 2022–23 with targeted temporary funding received to support the planning and presentation of COVID-19-safe events and in the arts—both live and digital—and to stimulate work opportunities in these sectors and to provide support for performing arts festivals, cultural events, arts and heritage institutions, celebrations, and commemorations which all play a vital role in the Canadian cultural and social fabric all while helping build strong communities.

Furthermore, the Recovery and Reopening Funds received in 2021–22 and 2022–23 helped restore immediate viability for organizations with pandemic-related financial needs and helped them adapt to post-pandemic realities and supported local festivals, community cultural events, outdoor theatre performances, heritage celebrations, local museums, and amateur sport events, while ensuring events comply with local public health measures. In addition, a one-year funding was received in 2022–23 for the Canada Performing Arts Worker Resilience Fund initiative which helped retain specialized workers in the sector during a period of heightened precarity for the cultural workforce. Lastly, the Community Sport for All Initiative received $80 million over two years, starting in 2021–22, to support organized sport at the community level to help Canadians and communities recover from the impacts of COVID-19.

The decrease in planned spending for 2023–24 and future years reflects the ending of various COVID-19 fundings and indicate a return to pre-pandemic levels of spending.

Diversity and inclusion:

The increase in spending from 2020–21 to 2022–23 is explained with the 2020 Fall Economic Statement which announced an expansion of Canadian Heritage’s Community Support, Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Initiatives Program and its Anti-Racism Action Program by $50 million over two years, starting in 2021–22, to deliver on the government’s anti-racism objectives. Budget 2019 announced funding to support Indigenous communities in their efforts to preserve, promote, and revitalize Indigenous Languages and Budget 2021 announced additional three-year funding, starting in 2021–22 to continue to support Indigenous communities in their effort to reclaim, revitalize, maintain, and strengthen Indigenous languages. The planned spending in 2023–24 is expected to increase as the above-mentioned fundings received allocation increases in 2023–24 ending in 2024–25 where a considerable decrease in spending is expected.

Official languages:

Contributing to the increase in 2021–22 and 2022–23 expenditures and decrease in planned spending in 2023–24 is the three-year investment profile announced in Budget 2021, starting in 2021–22 to support second-language learning, high-quality post-secondary minority-language education and the construction, renovation and expansion of educational and community spaces that serve official language minority communities.

Internal services:

The spending from 2020–21 to 2022–23 has been stable and starting in 2023–24 and future years, a downward slope in planned spending is foreseen due to the ceasing of the above-noted temporary initiatives and a return to pre-COVID-19 departmental program activity levels.

Human resources

The “Human resources summary for core responsibilities and internal services” table presents the full-time equivalents (FTEs) allocated to each of Canadian Heritage’s core responsibilities and to internal services.

Human resources summary for core responsibilities and internal services
Core responsibilities and internal services	2020–21 actual full-time equivalents	2021–22 actual full-time equivalents	2022–23 planned full-time equivalents	2022–23 actual full-time equivalents	2023–24 planned full-time equivalents	2024–25 planned full-time equivalents
Creativity, arts and culture	416.0	430.2	431.5	468.9	454.0	432.7
Heritage and celebration	286.8	323.9	326.6	354.9	350.0	340.5
Sport	96.4	100.6	105.9	108.6	102.8	102.8
Diversity and inclusion	194.8	234.3	217.8	242.0	212.2	202.2
Official languages	148.8	163.3	160.9	178.8	171.6	149.6
Subtotal	1,142.8	1,252.3	1,242.7	1,353.2	1,290.6	1,227.8
Internal services	701.6	739.3	823.6	778.9	780.5	780.5
Total	1,844.4	1,991.6	2,066.3	2,132.1	2,071.1	2,008.3

Creativity, arts and culture:: The full-time equivalents increase in 2021–22 and 2022–23 is mainly due to the two-year funding received in Budget 2021 to support the recovery in the heritage, arts, culture, and sport sectors and the reopening for events and in-person experiences to support program delivery. The 2022–23 full-time equivalents also increased due to the one-year transitional program, Canada Performing Arts Workers Resilience Fund, delivered by the Department of Canadian Heritage, to respond to ongoing adverse economic conditions affecting the arts and culture sector, specifically the live performance sector, by providing support to individual workers and averting a loss of skilled workers from the sector. Starting in 2023–24, the full-time equivalents decrease due to the sunsetting of temporary initiatives ending in 2022–23 like the $500 million for COVID-19, and the Protecting Canada’s Democracy initiative.
Heritage and celebration:: The full-time equivalents increase in 2021–22 to 2023–24 mostly due to the two-year funding received in Budget 2021 to support the recovery in the heritage, arts, culture, and sport sectors and the reopening for events and in-person experiences to support program delivery. Additionally, Budget 2021 announced three years of funding for support for Digital access to heritage and for the RCMP Heritage Centre to begin its process of transitioning to a national museum. Both initiatives contributed to the increase of 2021–22 to 2023–24 full-time equivalents which then start decreasing in 2024–25 and stabilizes to pre-pandemic levels.
Sport:: The full-time equivalents in 2021–22 and 2022–23 increase due to the two-year funding received in Budget 2021 to support the recovery in the heritage, arts, culture, and sport sectors and the reopening for events and in-person experiences to support program delivery. The full-time equivalents in 2022–23 also increased due to the funding announced in the 2022 Fall Economic Statement to support a diverse Canadian sport system.
Diversity and inclusion:: The increase in the full-time equivalents in 2021–22 and 2022–23 is due to the new time-limited funding to support the creation of a new Anti-Racism Strategy with a related Anti-Racism Secretariat (time-limited funding ending in 2021–22) and the new time-limited funding for three years, starting in 2021–22, to Reclaim, Revitalize, Maintain and Strengthen Indigenous languages announced in Budget 2021.
Official languages:: Starting in 2021–22, a portion of the increase in full-time equivalents is explained by the three-year investment announced in Budget 2021 to support second-language learning, offer high-quality post-secondary minority-language education and support the construction, renovation and expansion of educational and community spaces that serve official language minority communities and by the two-year funding also announced in Budget 2021 to support the modernization of the Official Languages Act.
Internal services:: The full-time equivalents increase in 2022–23 and stabilizes for subsequent years to ensure proper support is available to carry out the departmental mandate.

Expenditures by vote

For information on Canadian Heritage’s organizational voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada.^{Footnote 65}

Government of Canada spending and activities

Information on the alignment of Canadian Heritage’s spending with Government of Canada’s spending and activities is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Financial statements and financial statements highlights

Financial statements

Canadian Heritage’s financial statements (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2023, are available on the Department’s website.^{Footnote 66}

Financial statement highlights

The financial highlights presented within this Departmental Results Report are intended to serve as a general overview of Canadian Heritage’s financial position and the net cost of operations before government funding and transfers. The unaudited financial statements have been prepared using the Government’s accounting policies, which are based on Canadian public sector accounting standards.

Although the effects of COVID-19 were not felt as strongly as in previous years, change and uncertainty remained part of the environment. As a result, Canadian Heritage made the commitment to prioritize recovery following the pandemic, through the Recovery Fund for Arts, Culture Heritage and Sport sectors and the Reopening Fund allocated across 14 Canadian Heritage programs.

Condensed Statement of Operations (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2023 (thousands of dollars)
Financial information	2022–23 planned results	2022–23 actual results	2021–22 actual results	Difference (2022–23 actual results minus 2022–23 planned results)	Difference (2022–23 actual results minus 2021–22 actual results)
Total expenses	2,215,584	2,335,008	2,035,895	119,424	299,113
Total revenues	8,743	11,283	6,940	2,540	4,343
Net cost of operations before government funding and transfers	2,206,841	2,323,725	2,028,955	116,884	294,770

The Department’s actual cost of operations increased from the previous year’s total by $294.8 million (13%). This is explained by increases in every core responsibility except for Creativity, Arts and Culture for which spending was slightly lower, but relatively similar to 2021–22.

The increase in the Official Languages core responsibility was to improve support for learning a second language and minority-language education by providing more support to the provinces and territories for second-language learning, post-secondary minority-language education and the construction, renovation and expansion of educational and community spaces that serve official language minority communities.

The increase in the Diversity and Inclusion core responsibility was for the Indigenous Languages and Cultures Program to support Indigenous communities in their effort to reclaim, revitalize, maintain, and strengthen Indigenous languages and for the Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Program to strengthen multiculturalism to address racism and discrimination.

The increase in the Heritage and Celebration core responsibility was largely to stimulate work opportunities, and to provide support for performing arts festivals, cultural events, arts and heritage institutions, celebrations, and commemorations which all play a vital role in the Canadian cultural and social fabric all while helping build strong communities.

The increase in the Sport core responsibility was for continued support for the reopening of events and in-person experiences, and organized sport at the community level to help Canadians and communities recover from the impacts of COVID-19.

Although the Creativity, Arts and Culture core responsibility had an increase of funds for the Canada Performing Arts Worker Resilience Fund initiative to help retain specialized workers during this period of instability for the cultural workforce, there was also a corresponding and slightly larger decrease in funds in other programs that returned to pre-COVID-19 spending levels.

The Department’s actual cost of operations in 2022–23 compared to planned results is higher by $116.9 million (5%). This is explained by additional funding received during the fiscal year as part of the Supplementary Estimates process which were not in the initial plan for the fiscal year. This additional funding, adjusted for accruals, is presented under the Forecast Results in the Future-Oriented Statement of Operations included in the 2022–23 Departmental Plan. The forecast results net cost of operations for 2022–23 is $2,391.3 million, which is $184.4 million more than initial planned results of $2,206.9 million.

The 2022–23 planned results information is provided in Canadian Heritage’s Future-Oriented Statement of Operations and Notes 2022–23.^{Footnote 67}

Condensed Statement of Financial Position (unaudited) as of March 31, 2023 (thousands of dollars)
Financial information	2022–23	2021–22	Difference (2022–23 minus 2021–22)
Total net liabilities	803,923	577,219	226,704
Total net financial assets	790,269	559,955	230,314
Departmental net debt	13,654	17,264	(3,610)
Total non-financial assets	8,834	10,902	(2,068)
Departmental net financial position	(4,820)	(6,362)	1,542

The departmental net financial position was ($4.8) million in 2022–23, a decrease in deficit of $1.5 million (28%) compared to the previous year’s net financial position of ($6.3) million. This decrease is largely explained by the larger decrease in non-financial assets of $2.1 million compared to the $3.6 million decrease in net debt.

Total net liabilities were $803.9 million at the end of 2022–23, an increase of $226.7 million (28%) above the previous year’s total liabilities of $577.2 million. The increase is mainly explained by accounts payable and accrued liabilities related to contribution agreements not paid out prior to closing of the fiscal year or existing agreements pending the receipt of the recipient’s final report to issue the final payment. Most of the contribution agreements were related to Federal/Provincial and Territorial agreements in the Official Languages program.

Total net financial assets were $790.3 million at the end of 2022–23, an increase of $230.3 million (29%) above the previous year’s total net financial assets of $560 million. The increase is explained by the amount “Due from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF)” which represents the amount of cash that the Department is entitled to draw from the CRF without further appropriations, to discharge its liabilities. It is the result of timing differences at year-end between the recognition of certain transactions and the disbursement of receipt of funds.

Total non-financial assets were $8.8 million at the end of 2022–23, a decrease of $2.1 million (19%) from the previous year’s total non-financial assets of $10.9 million. The decrease is largely explained by a reduction applied to the last portion of an online portal component of the My PCH Online Project, an increase in accumulated amortization, which was offset by an increase in acquisitions.

The 2022–23 planned results information is provided in Canadian Heritage’s Future-Oriented Statement of Operations and Notes 2022–23.^{Footnote 67}

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate ministers:

From April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, the appropriate ministers were the following:

The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Canadian Heritage
The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion
The Honourable Marci Ien, P.C., M.P.
Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth
The Honourable Pascale St-Onge, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec

Institutional head:

Isabelle Mondou

Ministerial portfolio:

Department of Canadian Heritage

Enabling instrument:

Department of Canadian Heritage Act^{Footnote 68}

Year of incorporation / commencement:

The Department of Canadian Heritage was created in June 1993. However, the Department of Canadian Heritage Act received Royal Assent in June 1995.

Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do

“Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do” is available on Canadian Heritage’s website.^{Footnote 69}

For more information on the Department’s organizational mandate letter commitments, see the Ministers’ mandate letters^{Footnote 70}.

Operating context

Information on the operating context is available on Canadian Heritage’s website.^{Footnote 69}

Reporting framework

Canadian Heritage’s departmental results framework and program inventory of record for 2022–23 are shown below.

They are also available in text version.

Canadian Heritage's Departmental Results Framework, Results and Program Inventory for 2022-23

Supporting information on the program inventory

Financial, human resources and performance information for Canadian Heritage’s program inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 19}

Federal tax expenditures

The tax system can be used to achieve public policy objectives through the application of special measures such as low tax rates, exemptions, deductions, deferrals and credits. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures.^{Footnote 71} This report also provides detailed background information on tax expenditures, including descriptions, objectives, historical information and references to related federal spending programs as well as evaluations and GBA Plus of tax expenditures.

Organizational contact information

Mailing address:: Canadian Heritage
15 Eddy Street
Gatineau, QC J8X 4B3 Canada
Telephone:: 819-997-0055
Toll-free:: 1-866-811-0055
Call toll-free from all regions, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Local time)
TTY:: 1-888-997-3123
(for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired)
Email:: info@pch.gc.ca
Website:: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage.html^{Footnote 72}

Appendix: definitions

appropriation (crédit)

Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

budgetary expenditures (dépenses budgétaires)

Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, organizations or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.

core responsibility (responsabilité essentielle)

An enduring function or role performed by a department. The intentions of the department with respect to a core responsibility are reflected in one or more related departmental results that the department seeks to contribute to or influence.

Departmental Plan (plan ministériel)

A report on the plans and expected performance of an appropriated department over a 3-year period. Departmental Plans are usually tabled in Parliament each spring.

departmental priority (priorité)

A plan or project that a department has chosen to focus and report on during the planning period. Priorities represent the things that are most important or what must be done first to support the achievement of the desired departmental results.

departmental result (résultat ministériel)

A consequence or outcome that a department seeks to achieve. A departmental result is often outside departments’ immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.

departmental result indicator (indicateur de résultat ministériel)

A quantitative measure of progress on a departmental result.

departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)

A framework that connects the department’s core responsibilities to its departmental results and departmental result indicators.

Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)

A report on a department’s actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Departmental Plan.

fiscal year (exercice)

The period beginning on April 1 in one year and ending on March 31 in the next year.

full-time equivalent (équivalent temps plein)

A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person-year charge against a departmental budget. For a particular position, the full-time equivalent figure is the ratio of number of hours the person actually works divided by the standard number of hours set out in the person’s collective agreement.

gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS Plus])

An analytical tool used to support the development of responsive and inclusive policies, programs and other initiatives; and understand how factors such as gender, sex, race, national and ethnic origin, Indigenous origin or identity, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic conditions, geography, culture, language and disability, impact experiences and outcomes, and can affect access to and experience of government programs.

government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)

For the purpose of the 2022–23 Departmental Results Report, government-wide priorities are the high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the November 23, 2021, Speech from the Throne:^{Footnote 73} building a healthier today and tomorrow; growing a more resilient economy; bolder climate action; fighter harder for safer communities; standing up for diversity and inclusion; moving faster on the path to reconciliation; and fighting for a secure, just and equitable world.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

An initiative where two or more federal organizations are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.

Indigenous business (enterprise autochtones)

For the purpose of the Directive on the Management of Procurement Appendix E: Mandatory Procedures for Contracts Awarded to Indigenous Businesses and the Government of Canada’s commitment that a mandatory minimum target of 5% of the total value of contracts is awarded to Indigenous businesses, an organization that meets the definition and requirements as defined by the Indigenous Business Directory.^{Footnote 63}

non-budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)

Net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.

performance (rendement)

What an organization did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the organization intended to achieve, and how well lessons learned have been identified.

performance indicator (indicateur de rendement)

A qualitative or quantitative means of measuring an output or outcome, with the intention of gauging the performance of an organization, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.

performance reporting (production de rapports sur le rendement)

The process of communicating evidence-based performance information. Performance reporting supports decision making, accountability and transparency.

plan (plan)

The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how an organization intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally, a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead to the expected result.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)

For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in Main Estimates.

A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.

program (programme)

Individual or groups of services, activities or combinations thereof that are managed together within the department and focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.

program inventory (répertoire des programmes)

Identifies all the department’s programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department’s core responsibilities and results.

result (résultat)

A consequence attributed, in part, to an organization, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single organization, policy, program or initiative; instead they are within the area of the organization’s influence.

statutory expenditures (dépenses législatives)

Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.

target (cible)

A measurable performance or success level that an organization, program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period. Targets can be either quantitative or qualitative.

Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and additional sexually and gender diverse people (2SLGBTQI+) (personnes aux deux esprits, lesbiennes, gaies, bisexuelles, transgenres, queers, intersexuées et celles qui indiquent leur appartenance à divers groups sexuels et de genre [2ELGBTQI+])

This is the designation used by the Government of Canada to refer to the Canadian community. Gender and sexual diversity terminology is continuously evolving. For further information, refer to the Gender and sexual diversity glossary.^{Footnote 74}

voted expenditures (dépenses votées)

Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an appropriation act. The vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.

Footnotes

Footnote 1

Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner

Return to footnote 1 referrer

Footnote 2

Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport

Return to footnote 2 referrer

Footnote 3

Delivering on Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action

Return to footnote 3 referrer

Footnote 4

Federal Pathway to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People

Return to footnote 4 referrer

Footnote 5

National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Return to footnote 5 referrer

Footnote 6

Calls for Justice (PDF format)

Return to footnote 6 referrer

Footnote 7

Métis Perspectives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and LGBTQ2S+ People (PDF format)

Return to footnote 7 referrer

Footnote 8

Progress Reports

Return to footnote 8 referrer

Footnote 9

The federal pathway

Return to footnote 9 referrer

Footnote 10

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act Action Plan 2023-2028

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Footnote 11

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act

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Footnote 12

Canadian Heritage Accessibility Plan 2023–2025

Return to footnote 12 referrer

Footnote 13

Canadian Artists and Content Creators Economic Survey Report

Return to footnote 13 referrer

Footnote 14

These were the published results at the time of tabling in Parliament.

Return to first footnote 14 referrer

Footnote 15

Results for 2022–23 will be available in the winter of 2024 and presented in the Economic report on Screen-Based Media Production Industry in Canada.

Return to first footnote 15 referrer

Footnote 16

Data for this result was no longer available for 2022-23. The Department will be exploring sources for this result in upcoming reporting periods.

Return to footnote 16 referrer

Footnote 17

2021 and 2022 results cannot be compared with previous years due to a change in the data source as of 2021. Therefore, 2021 will become the baseline for future comparisons.

Return to footnote 17 referrer

Footnote 18

According to the Statistics Canada release schedule, 2022 data will be unavailable until 2024.

Return to footnote 18 referrer

Footnote 19

GC InfoBase

Return to first footnote 19 referrer

Footnote 20

2022-23 Consultations on the renewal of the Museum Policy

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Footnote 21

Canadian Conservation Institute and Canadian Heritage Information Network Strategic Plan 2021-2026

Return to footnote 21 referrer

Footnote 22

Museum Collections Documentation and Data Cleaning

Return to footnote 22 referrer

Footnote 23

Airtightness Measurement of Display Cases and Other Enclosures—Technical Bulletin 38

Return to footnote 23 referrer

Footnote 24

Bibliographic Database of the Conservation Information Network

Return to footnote 24 referrer

Footnote 25

Cultural Heritage Science

Return to footnote 25 referrer

Footnote 26

Our Collections Matter–Fostering greener, prosperous and cohesive communities through collections-based work

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Footnote 27

Moved to Action: Report and Standards on Activating UNDRIP in Canadian Museums

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Footnote 28

2022-23 was the first time since the beginning of the pandemic that most activities took place without major public health restrictions and the number of in-person participants significantly increased compared to the two previous years. This number is expected to continue to increase to pre-pandemic levels in upcoming years.

Return to footnote 28 referrer

Footnote 29

Although most activities delivered or funded by the Major Events, Commemorations and Capital Experience Branch took place in person for the first time this year since the beginning of the pandemic, virtual elements remain in high demand and well attended. This number also includes participants for funding components limited to 2022-23 such as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Fund and the Reopening Fund. The target for this indicator will be refined in upcoming years.

Return to footnote 29 referrer

Footnote 30

Low response rates and decreased results are attributed to project cancellations as well as project and administrative delays linked to pressures created by the pandemic. A total of 244 projects were cancelled in 2020–21.

Return to footnote 30 referrer

Footnote 31

Significant increase in results due to program flexibilities provided for costs related to digital activities as eligible expenses during the pandemic, when online attendance and viewership was increasing, and in-person gatherings were largely restricted.

Return to footnote 31 referrer

Footnote 32

The heritage sector’s visitorship continues to be affected by COVID-19. The sector remains in recovery and the number of visitors attending exhibitions and public programming activities had not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Return to footnote 32 referrer

Footnote 33

Target was established at pre-pandemic levels. Higher results than usual are boosted due to pandemic-related temporary emergency funding. In 2022–23, with the lifting of the public health restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, operations at the Canadian Conservation Institute’s facility continued to gradually return to pre-pandemic levels and services at client sites could be resumed.

Return to footnote 33 referrer

Footnote 34

2019 Canadian High Performance Sport Strategy

Return to footnote 34 referrer

Footnote 35

Perceptions on the implementation of a concussion passport in organized sport: final report

Return to footnote 35 referrer

Footnote 36

Greening Government Strategy: A Government of Canada Directive

Return to footnote 36 referrer

Footnote 37

The calculation for this indicator was modified from a combined result to a disaggregated result for summer and winter Olympics. Disaggregated data was collected this year. However, the target remained as a combined value. Targets reflected the disaggregated approach as Sport Canada now uses two separate indicators and targets for summer and winter Paralympics in the Departmental Plan 2023-24.

Return to footnote 37 referrer

Footnote 38

Target was not achieved due to COVID-19 pandemic impacts on athlete performance during that time frame. It should be noted that the goal of a 7th place ranking was nearly achieved, even with the challenges of COVID-19; however, there were only 25 ranking points separating Canada’s 11th place ranking versus the goal of 7th place. In contrast, there was a difference of 88 ranking points between the 11th and 12th position.

Return to footnote 38 referrer

Footnote 39

The calculation for this indicator was modified from a combined result to a disaggregated result for summer and winter Paralympics. Disaggregated data was collected this year. However, the target remained as a combined value. Targets reflected the disaggregated approach as Sport Canada now uses two separate indicators and targets for summer and winter Paralympics in the Departmental Plan 2023-24.

Return to footnote 39 referrer

Footnote 40

The data collected responds to a parent/proxy survey that asks about “participation” and not “enrollment” in sport and therefore does not match this indicator exactly. There is no survey that refers to the number of children and youth “enrolled” as this would require a specific census that would give a number count of children and youth that are enrolled in sport programming. The Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute’s Physical Activity Monitor Parent survey, surveyed parents on whether their child (aged 5 to 17) had participated in sport (broadly defined as physical activities usually involving competition and rules, and that develop specific skills) during the previous 12 months prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2019 to March 2020). That percentage was 79%. Parents were also surveyed about the period during the pandemic, March 2020 to March 2021 and this percentage decreased to 45%. The Parent survey is a panel study conducted in May-June 2021. These statistics are based on the 1st of 3 waves of data collection and will be updated upon completion of the 2nd and 3rd waves of data collection.

Return to footnote 40 referrer

Footnote 41

Data for this indicator comes from research efforts with a third party. As a result of challenges in advancing research projects Canadian Heritage was unable to collect the data for 2022-23.

Return to first footnote 41 referrer

Footnote 42

About the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat

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Footnote 43

The number of youth reached can vary greatly from year to year. The programs reached an annual average of 675,000 youth over the past five years.

Return to footnote 43 referrer

Footnote 44

The statistics provided are the most recent data available. Results from demographic reports are only made available the following fiscal year. The statistics provided reflect the 2021–22 demographic results.

Return to footnote 44 referrer

Footnote 45

Engagement Strategy on Canada’s International Human Rights Reporting Process

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Footnote 46

Protocol for Follow-up to Recommendations from International Human Rights Bodies

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Footnote 47

Data for 2022-23 is not available as it is collected every 5 years.

Return to footnote 47 referrer

Footnote 48

When comparing only data from areas that participated in both 2016 and 2021 Census, 2021 Census data reveal that, 31.3%, or 57,515 of the 183,765 First Nations who reported being able to speak an Indigenous language, may have learned their Indigenous language as a second language. These First Nations people have most likely learned English or French as their first language and learned their Indigenous language later. Census data shows that in 2021, 4,375 more people can conduct a conversation in an Indigenous language that is not their mother tongue compared to 2016. This 8,2 percent increase exceeds the target of a 4 percent increase in the number of First Nations speakers (1,770 people) who have learned their Indigenous language as a second language since 2016. Census 2021 shows an increase in the number of speakers of Blackfoot, Atikamekw, Wolastoqewi (Maliseet) and Mi’kmaq.

Return to footnote 48 referrer

Footnote 49

When comparing only data from areas to participated in both 2016 and 2021 Census, 2021 Census data reveal that, 48%, or 3,995 of the 8,315 Métis people who reported being able to conduct a conversation in an Indigenous language may have learned it as a second language. These Métis people have most likely learned English or French as their first language and learned their Indigenous language later. Census data results show that in 2021 there was a decrease of 35 Métis people who can conduct a conversation in an Indigenous language that is not their mother tongue compared to 2016. This result reveals that the target of a 4 percent increase (or 159 Métis) who have learned their Indigenous language as a second language since 2016 was not met. This is explained by the overall decrease of 14% in the number of Métis people who can conduct a conversation in an Indigenous language between 2016 and 2021 and a 20,7% decrease of mother tongue speakers for 2021. However, Census 2021 reveals that there was an increase in the number of Michif speakers during that period.

Return to footnote 49 referrer

Footnote 50

Based on 2021 Census data, while there were 405 more Inuit reporting an Inuit mother tongue than in 2016, the target of maintaining the percentage of speakers to the whole Inuit population was not met. The total Inuit population increased faster than the number of Inuit speaking an Inuit language.

Return to footnote 50 referrer

Footnote 51

Due to the impacts of COVID-19 on program delivery, data was not available.

Return to first footnote 51 referrer

Footnote 52

The statistics provided were the most recent data available and reflect data for 2020–21.

Return to footnote 52 referrer

Footnote 53

Data for 2022-23 was not available at the time of publication. Data will be published in the next report. For 2021–22, the pandemic had an impact on the Youth Program. Many projects, including those delivered by longstanding recipient organizations of significant funding, were either delivered virtually, downsized, postponed, or cancelled altogether. Therefore, survey response rates and actual results during the pandemic are lower than normal but are within an acceptable range of established targets and thresholds, and the Program will continue to monitor performance.

Return to first footnote 53 referrer

Footnote 54

The data is consolidated and analyzed every 5 years by Statistics Canada. The next release is in 2025.

Return to footnote 54 referrer

Footnote 55

Report on the consultations–Cross-Canada Official Languages Consultations 2022

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Footnote 56

Official Language Requirements for Transfer Payments

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Footnote 57

Guide for Drafting Memoranda to Cabinet—Official Languages Impact Analysis

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Footnote 58

Collaboration Agreement for the Development of Arts and Culture in the Francophone Minority Communities of Canada 2018-2023

Return to footnote 58 referrer

Footnote 59

This result can be partly explained by the strong growth in multilingualism in the country (linked to the rise in international immigration) and the decline in the relative weight of the French-speaking population in Canada. Among others, these factors have had a negative impact on the presence of French outside Quebec. With less exposure to the French language and more exposure to a diversity of languages, Canadians may identify less with the country's two official languages.

Return to footnote 59 referrer

Footnote 60

Data for 2022-23 was not available at the time of publication. Data will be published in the next report.

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Footnote 61

Mosaic Leadership Development program: How Mosaic works

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Footnote 62

Mentorship Plus

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Footnote 63

Indigenous Business Directory

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Footnote 64

Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business

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Footnote 65

Public Accounts of Canada

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Footnote 66

Canadian Heritage financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2023

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Footnote 67

Future-oriented statement of operations for the years ending March 31, 2022 and March 31, 2023 (audited)

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Footnote 68

Department of Canadian Heritage Act

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Footnote 69

Raison d’être, mandate and role – Canadian Heritage

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Footnote 70

Ministers’ Mandate Letters

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Footnote 71

Report on Federal Tax Expendituresl

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Footnote 72

Canadian Heritage website

Return to footnote 72 referrer

Footnote 73

Speech from the Throne

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Footnote 74

Gender and sexual diversity glossary

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©His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of the Department of Canadian Heritage, 2023.
Catalogue No. CH1-38E-PDF
ISSN 2560-8819

Page details

2024-06-27

Departmental Results Report 2022-23 — Canadian Heritage

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Alternate format

Message from the Ministers

Results at a glance

Results: what we achieved

Core responsibility 1: Creativity, arts and culture

Description

Results

Creative industries are successful in the digital economy, foster creativity and contribute to economic growth

Canadians are able to consume Canadian content on multiple platforms

Creative industries are successful in global markets

Canadians have access to cultural facilities in their communities; and festivals and performing arts series that reflect Canada’s diversity.

Canadians have access to more safe, diverse and secure digital environment and are resilient to disinformation

Gender-based Analysis Plus

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals

Innovation

Key risks

Results achieved for Creativity, arts and culture

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Creativity, arts and culture

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Creativity, arts and culture.

Core responsibility 2: Heritage and celebration

Description

Results

Canadians are engaged in celebrations and commemorations of national significance.

Canadians across the country are engaged in their communities through local arts and heritage.

The public is provided with access to cultural heritage.

Heritage objects and collections are preserved by heritage organizations for current and future generations.

The Canada History Fund has also contributed to this core responsibility through the following activities in 2022–23

Gender-based Analysis Plus

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals

Innovation

Key risks

Results achieved for Heritage and celebration

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Heritage and celebration

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Heritage and celebration

Core responsibility 3: Sport

Description

Results

Canadian athletes succeed at the highest levels of competition.

Canadian children and youth are enrolled in a sport activity.

Canadians, regardless of gender, physical ability and cultural background, who participate in sport activities are satisfied with the manner in which the activity is provided.

Gender-based analysis plus

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals

Innovation

Key risks

Results achieved for Sport

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Sport

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Sport

Core responsibility 4: Diversity and inclusion

Description

Results

Canadians value diversity

Reversal of the current downward trend in the use and fluency of Indigenous languages.

Youth enhance their appreciation of the diversity and shared aspects of the Canadian experience.

Individuals or groups have access to funding to initiate or participate in test cases pertaining to rights and freedoms covered by the Court Challenges Program.

Canadians value human rights.

In addition, the following key activities by the Youth Secretariat contributed to this core responsibility in 2022–23

Gender-based analysis plus

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals

Innovation

Key risks

Results achieved for Diversity and inclusion

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Diversity and inclusion

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Diversity and inclusion

Core responsibility 5: Official languages

Description

Results

Canadians recognize and support Canada’s official languages.

Federal institutions develop and implement policies and programs in accordance with Section 41 of the Official Languages Act.

Gender-based Analysis Plus

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals

Key risks

Results achieved for Official languages

Budgetary financial resources (dollars) for Official languages

Human resources (full-time equivalents) for Official languages

Internal services

Description

Management and oversight services

Canadian Heritage Data Strategy