At a glance – Departmental Evaluation Plan, from fiscal year 2021 to 2022 to fiscal year 2025 to 2026, Environment and Climate Change Canada

About the Departmental Evaluation Plan

Environment and Climate Change Canada’s (ECCC) Audit and Evaluation Branch (AEB) produces a five-year rolling departmental evaluation plan that is informed by an annual planning exercise and approved by the Deputy Ministers. Updated annually, the five-year DEP aims to ensure that ECCC's evaluation activities:

• address departmental information needs, priorities and risks
• support the renewal of programs and policies
• address requirements under the Financial Administration Act (FAA) and the 2016 Policy on Results
• allow regular assessment of results achieved by departmental program funding

The plan also supports the allocation of departmental resources to conduct evaluations over a five-year period.

The plan was developed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This unprecedented public health event has forced ECCC to adapt its operations in an unexpected way. The activation of the business continuity plan and prolonged teleworking of a majority of employees have created new operational realities for the Department. Adaptive approaches are required to meet both ongoing and emerging priorities and maintain the continuity of the government business. The proposed evaluation schedule factors in this new operational reality in order to ensure that ECCC continues to access relevant and timely evaluative information to support decision making and the management of programs and policies.

Fiscal year 2020 to 2021 by the numbers

In fiscal year 2020 to 2021, the Evaluation Division of the AEB:

• completed 2 ECCC-led evaluation reports
• completed 1 internal study on the suite of federal programming related to climate change adaptation
• worked on 3 horizontal evaluations led by other government departments
• launched or continued work on 8 evaluations that will be completed in 2021 to 2022

Planned evaluations, fiscal year 2021 to 2022 to fiscal year 2025 to 2026

This new five-year cycle of evaluations builds on accomplishments made in the previous fiscal year.

Thirty-five evaluation projects are planned to be completed from FY 2021 to 2022 to FY 2025 to 2026. Of these, ECCC will lead 26 projects, eight of which will be horizontal evaluations involving other government departments (OGD). As well, ECCC will participate in nine horizontal evaluations led by OGDs. The AEB will support the OGDs with the planning, conduct, reporting and approval of these horizontal evaluations.

Overall, the proposed five-year evaluation plan will cover 93% of total departmental program spending (excluding internal services).

Overview of planned ECCC evaluation projects, by fiscal year of approval by the Deputy Ministers

Fiscal year 2021 to 2022

• International Climate Change Cooperation (horizontal evaluation, ECCC lead)
• Environmental Damages Fund (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Canada Nature Fund – Protected Areas and Species at Risk (ECCC internal formative evaluation)
• Great Lakes and Lake Winnipeg (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Weather Observations, Forecasts and Warnings (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Core Climate Change Mitigation (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Federal Leadership Towards Zero Plastic Waste in Canada (horizontal evaluation, ECCC lead)
• Green Municipal Fund (horizontal evaluation, ECCC lead)
• World Class Tanker Safety Initiative (horizontal evaluation, ECCC participant)
• Trans-Mountain Pipeline Expansion –Phase IV Implementation (horizontal evaluation, ECCC participant)

Fiscal year 2022 to 2023

• Hydrological Services (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Pan-Canadian Carbon Pricing (horizontal evaluation, ECCC lead)
• Eco-Action Community Funding Program (ECCC internal evaluation)
• St. Lawrence Program (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Species at Risk (horizontal evaluation, ECCC lead)
• Habitat Conservation and Protection (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Emergency Management Strategy Floodplain Mapping and Alerting System for Coastal (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Oceans Protection Plan (horizontal evaluation, ECCC participant)
• Impact Assessment and Regulatory Processes Initiative (horizontal evaluation, ECCC participant)
• Canadian Shellfish Sanitation Program (horizontal evaluation, ECCC participant)
• Whales Initiative, including Protection Measures for the Southern Resident Killer Whale (horizontal evaluation, ECCC participant)

Fiscal year 2023 to 2024

• Low Carbon Economy Fund (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Trans-Mountain Pipeline Expansion - Terrestrial Cumulative Effects Initiative (horizontal evaluation, ECCC lead)
• Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan: Phase IV (horizontal evaluation, ECCC lead)
• Migratory Birds and other Wildlife Program (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Enforcement Modernization Initiative (ECCC internal evaluation)

Fiscal year 2024 to 2025

• Water Quality and Ecosystems Health, including Joint Oil Sand Monitoring (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Climate Action Awareness Fund (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Canadian Centre for Climate Services (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Biodiversity and Partnership Programs (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (horizontal evaluation, ECCC participant)
• Chemicals Management Plan (horizontal evaluation, ECCC participant)

Fiscal year 2025 to 2026

• Addressing Air Pollution Horizontal Initiative (horizontal evaluation, ECCC lead)
• Sustainability Reporting and Indicators (ECCC internal evaluation)
• Adaptation to climate change - Horizontal Roll-up (planning - horizontal evaluation, ECCC lead)
• Genomic Research and Development Initiative (horizontal evaluation, ECCC participant)

Resource requirements

The implementation of the present DEP is included in the AEB's FY 2021 to 2022 planned budget of $4.2 million and estimated 31.92 FTE. The Evaluation Division shares resources with the Internal Audit Division for the provision of support to committees, document editing and web publication and follow-up on recommendations.

Evaluation resources will be used to support the planning and implementation of planned evaluation projects, the coordination with other departments on horizontal evaluations and the provision of advisory services on performance information. It will also support the purchase of tools and skills training for staff.