Public Services and Procurement Canada
Fiscal year 2021 to 2022 to fiscal year 2025 to 2026 Departmental Evaluation Plan: Infographic

Evaluation function at Public Services and Procurement Canada

Mission: Transformation for greater effectiveness

Deliver high-quality, timely evaluations to guide and support decision-making, improvements, innovation and accountability

Evaluation office’s key accomplishments in fiscal year 2020 to 2021

The Evaluation Office supported evidence-based decision-making through 5 evaluation projects:

• 1 approved: evaluation of the Risk-based Defence Procurement Pilot Project, mandatory evaluation (end date: June 2020)
• 4 in progress (including 2 horizontal evaluations)
  • evaluation of Federal Accommodations and Special Purpose Space, mandatory evaluation (end date: March 2022)
  • evaluation of Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC)’s Use of Selected Consulting Services (end date: Sept. 2021)
  • evaluation of the Official Languages Action Plan -mandatory evaluation/horizontal- department responsible Heritage Canada (end date: May 2022)
  • evaluation of the Initiative for Federal Leadership on Zero Plastic Waste in Canada, mandatory evaluation/horizontal department responsible Environment and Climate Change Canada (end date: March 2022)

It also built the evaluation team’s capacity by:

• increasing the number of staff, which varied from 7.5 in April 2020, to 4.5 in August 2020 and to 10 in May 2021
• encouraging individual training
• encouraging group training
• supporting the Canadian Evaluation Society affiliation and certification
• encouraging professional development and mental health support
• supporting informal team meetings

The creation of the Evaluation Advisory Committee has helped support, strengthen and promote the evaluation function within the Department.

Also, its advisory services:

• offered support for the department, specifically related to the development of logic models for programs and initiatives
• provided reviews of Treasury Board submissions
• contributed to the update of 22 Performance Information Profiles

Planned evaluation projects for the period from fiscal year 2021 to 2022 to fiscal year 2025 to 2026

The evaluation plan foresees a significant number of planned evaluation projects and continue to offer advisory services to meet the increased demand.

In addition to advisory services, a total of 24 evaluations are planned to be carried out, including:

• 11 mandatory evaluations
• 13 discretionary evaluations, including 1 joint project with Audit

In fiscal year 2021 to 2022, the Evaluation team expects to:

• continue working on 4 evaluations already started in fiscal year 2020 to 2021
• start 4 new evaluations, 1 of which will be completed in the same fiscal year

Examples of innovative activities aimed at transforming the PSPC Evaluation Office in fiscal year 2021 to 2022:

• pursue the introduction of visual evaluation products and share the information promptly and increase the dissemination of the products
• pursue the creation of evaluation working groups including key players from the program being evaluated and ensure the usefulness of the evaluation and the provision of timely feedback
• pursue the introduction of innovative approaches and ensure the usefulness of the evaluation products (including shorter, real-time evaluations)
• develop post-project lessons learned to reinforce the team’s capacity
• better integrate the findings of the post-project survey in order to increase its scope to include advisory services
• create an interdepartmental network for the sharing of best practices