At a Glance: Departmental Evaluation Plan for the Public Health Agency of Canada 2020-21 to 2024-25

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the work of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) as it was at the forefront of the Government of Canada's response. To be respectful of the need for branches to focus on the response, many engagements scheduled to start in 2020-21 were put on hold. In addition, the Office of Audit and Evaluation (OAE) mobilized staff to assist in PHAC critical functions and to remain responsive to management requests for advice or assistance. The present Departmental Evaluation Plan (DEP) reflects the response of OAE to these circumstances, by developing a plan that ensures that evaluation focuses its efforts and resources on emerging priorities.

This document presents the OAE Departmental Evaluation Plan (DEP) for fiscal years 2020-21 to 2024-25 for PHAC. While not presented jointly, OAE also prepared a Risk-Based Audit Plan (RBAP) in parallel to the DEP. Both plans are updated annually through an extensive consultation process with each branch in PHAC as well as a document review. The use of parallel processes allowed OAE to fully utilize synergies between the audit and evaluation functions and maximize their combined value.

The DEP is updated annually to support the allocation of resources to a suite of evaluation projects over a five-year period, and is focused on PHAC information needs. The development of this plan complies with requirements of the Treasury Board (TB) Policy on Results (July 1, 2016). The projects contained within this plan were selected to ensure compliance with legislation and policy, support information needs, and consider risks in order to ensure the optimal use of resources.

The 2020-21 to 2024-25 DEP for PHAC reflects OAE's commitment to implementing TB's Policy on Results (2016) requirements. The Departmental Results Framework (DRF), program inventory, and performance information profile developed by PHAC have formed the basis for this plan.

Planning for Evaluation

Over the next five years, the OAE plans to conduct 31 evaluations that involve PHAC: 22 will focus on PHAC activities only while the remaining nine are horizontal evaluations led by other government departments or agencies. A yearly breakdown is provided in Table 1. Appendix A outlines the direct program spending (DPS) by branch for all scheduled evaluation for the next five years.

Table 1 – Number of evaluations per fiscal year

	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	Total
PHAC	2	6	6	4	4	22
Horizontal OGD led	3	2	2	1	1	9
Total	5	8	8	5	5	31

Appendix A – Coverage of Direct Program Spending

Program	Evaluations planned in the next five years	Fiscal year of approval	Annual spending covered by evaluation ($)Table 3 footnote 1	Rationale for not evaluating program or spending
Core Responsibility	Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention ($273,587,495)
Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention ($219,253,992)	Maternal and Child Health Programs (CAPC, CPNP)	2020-21	98,209,100	N/A
	Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-based Violence	2020-21	9,333,339	N/A
	Aboriginal Head Start in Urban and Northern Communities	2021-22	33,347,831	N/A
	Roadmap for Canada's Official Languages: Education, Immigration, Communities	2021-22	2,088,475	N/A
	Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care	2021-22	6,671,642	N/A
	Health Portfolio's Tobacco Activities (including vaping)	2021-22	4,410,443	N/A
	Canadian Drugs & Substances Strategy (including opioids and drug overdose crisis in Canada)	2022-23	2,003,096	N/A
	Autism Spectrum Disorder Initiatives	2022-23	4,958,513	N/A
	ParticipACTION	2023-24	5,000,000	N/A
	Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention - Multi-Sectoral Partnerships (MSP) Program	2024-25	23,194,806	N/A
	Supporting the Health of Survivors of Family Violence	2024-25	6,250,000	N/A
	Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund	2024-25	4,947,000	N/A
	Division of Aging, Seniors and Dementia	2024-25	13,731,521	N/A
	Oral Health	N/A	-	Low Need: Evaluation conducted within last seven years (2016-17).
	Nutrition North Canada	N/A	335,000	Low Need: These activities are part of the broader horizontal initiative, led by Indigenous Services Canada. There is low utility to assessing in isolation, but there is the potential that ISC will cover these activities as part of a broader horizontal evaluation, which will be determined in year 3 or 4 of this plan.
	Pan-Canadian Suicide Prevention Strategy	N/A	4,773,226	The timing of this evaluation will be determined in an upcoming version of the DEP
Evidence for Health Promotion, Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention ($54,333,503)	Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-based Violence	2020-21	241,453	N/A
	Evidence for Health Promotion, Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention (including CPHO Report and CCDR)	2021-22	39,201,427	N/A
	Canadian Drugs & Substances Strategy (Including opioids and drug overdose crisis in Canada)	2022-23	4,773,583	N/A
	Autism Spectrum Disorder Initiatives	2022-23	94,288	N/A
	Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Initiatives	2022-23	1,499,000	N/A
	National Collaborating Centres	2023-24	2,921,002	N/A
	Division of Aging, Seniors and Dementia	2024-25	2,325,798	N/A
	Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention - Multi-Sectoral Partnerships (MSP) Program	2024-25	1,083,000	N/A
	Nutrition North Canada	N/A	50,000	Low Need: These activities are part of the broader horizontal initiative, led by Indigenous Services Canada. There is low utility to assessing in isolation, but there is the potential that ISC will cover these activities as part of a broader horizontal evaluation, which will be determined in year 3 or 4 of this plan.
	Addressing the Challenges Faced by Black Canadians	N/A	2,143,952	The timing of this evaluation will be determined in an upcoming version of the DEP.
Core Responsibility	Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control ($198,087,950)
Laboratory Science Leadership and Services ($78,231,514)	Genomics Research and Development Initiative	2020-21	2,008,204	N/A
	Tuberculosis	2021-22	5,000,000	N/A
	Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases	2021-22	6,100,000	N/A
	Lyme Disease Framework Activities	2021-22	1,116,689	N/A
	Foodborne and Waterborne Enteric Diseases	2022-23	16,500,000	N/A
	Health Care-Associated Infections	2022-23	5,250,000	N/A
	Emergency Preparedness and Response	2022-23	27,444,064	N/A
	Sexually Transmitted and Blood-Borne Infections	2023-24	13,334,589	N/A
	Canadian Food Safety Information Network	2024-25	1,477,968	N/A
Communicable Diseases and Infection Control ($68,494,410)	Blood Safety	2020-21	2,190,000	N/A
	Tuberculosis	2021-22	-	N/A
	Health Care-Associated Infections	2022-23	30,187,183	N/A
	Sexually Transmitted and Blood-Borne Infections	2023-24	26,944,000	N/A
	National Collaborating Centres	2023-24	973,666	N/A
	Canadian Food Safety Information Network	2024-25	349,342
Immunization ($32,886,776)	Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases	2021-22	32,886,776	N/A
Foodborne and Zoonotic Diseases ($18,475,250)	Lyme Disease Framework Activities	2021-22	5,765,594	N/A
	Foodborne and Waterborne Enteric Diseases	2022-23	11,735,990	N/A
	National Collaborating Centres	2023-24	973,666	N/A
Core Responsibility	Health Security ($44,759,571)
Emergency Preparedness and Response ($29,538,511)	Emergency Preparedness and Response	2022-23	28,564,845	N/A
	National Collaborating Centres	2023-24	973,666	N/A
Biosecurity ($8,326,416)	Biosecurity	2022-23	8,326,416	N/A
Border Health Security ($6,894,644)	Border and Travel Health Program	2023-24	6,894,644	N/A
Core Responsibility	Other
Single Window Initiative (funding Sunset in 2017-18)			-	N/A