1. Introduction

1.1 Purpose of the evaluation

This report presents the findings of the evaluation of the grant to Quebec. It was conducted in accordance with requirements under the Financial Administration Act (FAA) which calls for departments to review, every five years, each on-going program of grants and contributions for which it is responsible.^{Footnote 3}

The evaluation provides an assessment of the relevance and performance of the grant, in alignment with the five core evaluation issues outlined in the 2009 Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) Directive on the Evaluation Function (the evaluation matrix can be found in Annex I).

1.2 Structure of the report

The report is organized into five sections. Section 1 provides an introduction to the evaluation; section 2 presents the methodology used for the evaluation; a profile of Quebec permanent residents is provided in section 3; findings are presented in section 4; and section 5 summarizes the overall conclusions and presents recommendations.

1.3 The grant to Quebec

The grant to Quebec is the mechanism used to transfer funds to the province of Quebec under a federal-provincial agreement, the Canada-Quebec Accord related to Immigration and Temporary Admission of Aliens (the Accord). The Accord was signed on February 5, 1991 and came into force on April 1, 1991. It is the fourth agreement between the Federal government and the province of Quebec with respect to immigration since 1971.

The funds provided in the grant are to compensate the province of Quebec for the delivery of reception and integration services in the province, following the federal government’s withdrawal from providing these services in Quebec, pursuant to the Accord. The amount of the grant is determined using a specific formula, defined in Annex B of the Accord.

The Accord does not stipulate that the province is required to report to the federal government on the use of the grant, but Quebec does table an annual report in its National Assembly.

While the Accord gives the province sole responsibility for providing settlement services to newcomers, the province, largely through the Ministère de l’immigration et des communautés culturelles (MICC), has an on-going relationship with CIC and is in regular contact with the department on a variety of issues related to integration and immigration, among others. Four main branches/areas in the department are involved, either directly or indirectly, in the management of the grant:

• The department’s International and Intergovernmental Relations (IIR) Branch acts as the point of contact with the MICC and is in regular communication with them with respect to the management of the Accord and policy matters.
• The Quebec Region is responsible for day-to-day operational issues, most of which pertain to the Accord and not specifically to the grant.
• While Integration Branch is not directly involved in the management or administration of the grant, it is involved in federal-provincial settlement forums such as the Settlement and Integration Joint Policy and Program Council (SIJPPC), the Federal/Provincial Language Training Forum, and the FPT Settlement Working Group in which the province of Quebec participates. The FPT Settlement Working Group is currently working on the development of a national framework for settlement outcomes and the province of Quebec is participating as an observer. The province also participated in the consultations leading to the development of the National Settlement Funding Formula in 2007. The Integration Branch also collaborates bilaterally with the MICC within specific portfolios such as language related initiatives.
• The grant itself is administered by CIC’s Financial Management Branch which is responsible for the calculation of the grant amount and payment.

The Accord established two bilateral committees to manage CIC-MICC relations: the Joint Committee and the Implementation Committee. The Joint Committee, co-chaired by a representative from the MICC and a representative of CIC (Assistant Deputy Minister-level), meets annually. It has a general mandate to “promote the harmonization of the economic, demographic and socio-cultural objectives of the two parties in the area of immigration and integration, as well as to coordinate the implementation of the policies of Canada and Quebec relating to these objectives”^{Footnote 4}. The Implementation Committee is also co-chaired by representatives of the MICC and CIC (Director General-level). Its mandate is “to coordinate the implementation of the Accord and develop terms and conditions of operation”^{Footnote 5}. It works under the direction of the Joint Committee and meets twice per year. The secretariat function for both committees resides with the IIR Branch.

1.4 Scope and timeline for the evaluation

The evaluation focuses on the provision of the grant and not on the Accord. While the Accord sets out the rights and responsibilities of the province and the federal government with respect to the number of immigrants destined to Quebec and the selection, reception and integration of those immigrants, the grant is strictly designed to cover the delivery and administration of reception and integration services provided by Quebec (which includes settlement, resettlement and integration services for clients in that province). This is outlined in Sections 24 through 26 of the Accord^{Footnote 6}, as follows:

24. Canada undertakes to withdraw from the services to be provided by Quebec for the reception and the linguistic and cultural integration of permanent residents in Quebec.
25. Canada undertakes to withdraw from specialized economic integration services to be provided by Quebec to permanent residents in Quebec.
26. Canada shall provide reasonable compensation for the services referred to in sections 24 and 25 provided by Quebec, if:
    1. those services, when considered in their entirety, correspond to the services offered by Canada in the rest of the country;
    2. the services provided by Quebec are offered without discrimination to any permanent resident of Quebec, whether or not that permanent resident has been selected by Quebec.

The evaluation covers the period from 2006 to 2011. This timeframe was chosen to align with the coming into force in 2006 of the FAA requirement to evaluate all grant and contribution programs over a 5 year period. In some cases, however, such as to understand the context surrounding the grant, a longer timeframe is considered, while in others, particularly with respect to the basket of settlement and integration services provided, a shorter timeframe is used due to limitations in the availability of data. The evaluation questions and their linkage to the core issues identified in the Directive on the Evaluation Function are listed in Table 1.1.

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