Canada Transitional Results Report 2018-2021

This report covers the implementation of Canada’s fourth action plan for 2018–2021.[1] In 2022, consistently with the IRM Refresh,^[2] the IRM began to implement a new approach to its research process and the scope of its reporting on action plans. The IRM adjusted its Implementation Reports for 2018–2020/2021 action plans to fit the transition process to the new IRM products and enable the IRM to adjust its workflow in light of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on OGP national processes.

Action Plan Implementation

The IRM Transitional Results Report assesses the status of the action plan’s commitments and the results from their implementation at the end of the action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... cycle. This report does not revisit the assessments for “VerifiabilityOGP commitments should be clear and specific enough to enable measurement of their progress. Verifiable commitments include specific activities that can be monitored. Following an action plan’s subm...,” “RelevanceAccording to the OGP Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should include a clear open government lens. Specifically, they should advance at least one of the OGP values: transparency, citizen partic...,” or “Potential Impact.” The IRM assesses those three indicators in IRM Design Reports. For more details on each indicator, please see Annex I in this report.

General Highlights and Results

The activities set out in Canada’s fourth action plan complemented several initiatives from earlier action plans and were oriented around three priorities identified by the Government of Canada (GoC) and Nathaniel Heller (Results for Democracy) in their role as Co-Chairs of the OGP Steering Committee:[3] inclusion, participation, and impact.[4] During their tenure, an onus was placed on advancing gender equity and better governance at both domestic and international levels through an International Development Research Centre (IDRC)[5] flagship initiative titled Feminist Open Government Initiative.[6]

The 2018–2021 action plan sought to address a broad range of issues, with a focus on inclusive engagement. Milestones and proposed metrics were generally broad, and lacked specificity, clear baselines, and/or measurable indicators. Additionally, misalignment between the GoC’s budget process and OGP action plan cycles has long presented an obstacle to the co-creation of ambitious reforms. This fourth action plan was no exception, with many commitments representing government initiatives that already were underway. Indeed, several milestones were near completion or had already been completed as the plan was launched in December 2018. By the end of March 2019, out of 56 milestones across 10 commitments, 26 had been substantially completed, and six were completed.[7]

Most commitment milestones of the action plan have been met, with two commitments fully completed, and eight substantially completed. This level of progress parallels what was achieved for Canada’s third national action plan (2016–2018).[8]

Although the implementation of the plan led to improvements in service delivery, which is in itself a positive outcome, it did not translate into significant changes to government practice.[9] Consultations and reviews were conducted in relation to beneficial ownershipDisclosing beneficial owners — those who ultimately control or profit from a business — is essential for combating corruption, stemming illicit financial flows, and fighting tax evasion. Technical... More, access to information, and feminist and inclusive dialogue, but there is not enough evidence to demonstrate their having major implications for open government at the domestic level during the period of implementation. Like other commitments in this action plan, these three reforms are laudable but missed the opportunity to leverage their inclusionOGP participating governments are working to create governments that truly serve all people. Commitments in this area may address persons with disabilities, women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, tr... More in the OGP action plan to strengthen or expand on existing government initiatives.

In 2022, the updated OGP Participation and Co-Creation Standards came into force.[10] Under the updated standards, member countries may now choose to adopt a 2- or 4-year action plan. The updated standards also allow for a more flexible action plan delivery window that enables countries to align their OGP processes with budget and election cycles.[11] The IRM recommends that the GoC’s Open Government Team and Multistakeholder Forum (MSF) make use of this increased flexibility to co-create ambitious open government reforms that respond to stakeholder priorities.

COVID-19 Pandemic impact on implementation

In March 2020, the provinces and territories across Canada went into a state of lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This timing corresponded with the last few months of the fourth action plan’s implementation cycle. Items that had not yet been completed and/or for which unforeseen challenges[12] had been encountered were tabled, with resources re‑prioritized in response to the pandemic. There is broad consensus among the government and civil society representatives interviewed for this report[13] that the pandemic had little-to-no impact on the implementation of this plan. By the time it struck, the focus of both government and the MSF had already shifted to planning and preparing for the fifth national action plan. Equally noteworthy was the GoC’s acceptance of the OGP’s offer to extend the implementation timeline of the country’s national action plan to June 2021.

Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic did not tap into any specific frameworks or tools from previous national actions plan per se. However, from the early stages of the pandemic, certain aspects of the response did make use of Canada’s open data portal (https://open.canada.ca/en/open-data). For instance, at a press conference on 17 April 2020, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that:

Moving forward, we will be releasing the latest figures on the CERB through the government’s open data portal three times a week so academics, researchers and Canadians can keep track of the work being done. We will continue to provide and open up data so that we can get the best advice from experts and continue to help Canadians.[14]

Two additional aspects of the pandemic merit mention here. First, the pandemic created a common cause that brought together the government and the MSF in working towards a shared purpose in a manner that drew upon one another’s expertise and resources. Notably, this collaboration fell outside the OGP process. When queried, representatives from both government and the MSF emphasized that these collaborative efforts transcended OGP considerations and bore no direct connection with any facet of the fourth national action plan or the designing of the fifth plan.[15]

Second, the early stages of the pandemic highlighted various shortcomings in data gathering and sharing across federal, provincial, and territorial levels of government, spanning across departments and agencies that were not directly implicated with fourth national action plan or the federal government’s OGP activities. For example, in their discussions with the IRM researcher, representatives from both government and the MSF noted that the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), which did not have any commitments in the fourth national action plan, had been subject to criticism and scrutiny throughout the first few months of the pandemic for deficiencies in its communicating of COVID-related information to the public at large. Commenting on these events, one member of the MSF noted that “PHAC was claiming to do open science but was not communicating in an open science way.” The above-mentioned collaborations were seen as having directly contributed to aiding PHAC improve its communication of COVID-related information to the public in subsequent months.[16]

[1] Following Criteria and Standards Subcommittee (C&S) Resolution to address the delays in the implementation of national action plans resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada extended the implementation period for its 2018–2020 action plan by 12 months (until August 2021). See, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/criteria-and-standards-subcommittee-resolution-covid19-pandemic/

[2] See: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/process/accountability/about-the-irm/irm-refresh/

[3] The Government of Canada and Nathaniel Heller were Co-ChairsThe leadership of the Steering Committee is made up of four co-chairs who provide strategic guidance and support to advance OGP’s overarching priorities. Co-Chairs serve two-year terms beginning on ... of the OGP Steering CommitteeThe Steering Committee is OGP’s executive decision-making body. Its role is to develop, promote and safeguard OGP’s values, principles and interests; establish OGP’s core ideas, policies, and ru... for 2018–2019.

[4] The three priorities were also manifest in Canada’s 2018–2020 National Action Plan on Open Government, and most explicitly in Commitments 8 and 10. See, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/GovCan_Heller_Co-Chair-Vision_20190928_EN.PDF. See also, Canada’s 2018-2020 National Action Plan on Open Government https://open.canada.ca/en/content/canadas-2018-2020-national-action-plan-open-government

[5] Established in 1970 through an Act of Parliament, IDRC is a crown corporation whose mandate is “to initiate, encourage, support, and conduct research into the problems of the developing regions of the world and into the means for applying and adapting scientific, technical, and other knowledge to the economic and social advancement of those regions.” It operates as a research granting agency supporting Southern researchers to find solutions to their development challenges, and is governed by a board of 14 governors. The Board’s chairperson reports to Parliament through the Minister of International Development. See, About IDRC, https://www.idrc.ca/en/about-idrc

[6] International Development Research Centre (2018, July 18). New Feminist Open Government Initiative. https://www.idrc.ca/en/news/new-feminist-open-government-initiative

[7] See, 2018–2020 National Action Plan Open Government Reporting Data, https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/d2d72709-e4bf-412d-a1bd-8c726d19393e

[8] See, Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM): Canada End-of-Term Report 2016–2018, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Canada_End-Term_Report_2016-2018_EN.pdf

[9] It merits noting that over time these improvements in service delivery may potentially contribute to fomenting further service delivery improvements across government.

[10] See, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/ogp-participation-co-creation-standards/

[11] For more information on action plan length and delivery windows see the 2022 OGP National Handbook Section 2.2 “Submission of Action Plans to OGP” pages 16–19. https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/OGP-National-Handbook-2022.pdf

[12] The challenges in question predominantly relate to complexities arising from need to adhere to the tenets of the Accessible Canada Act, 2019 and the Official Languages Act, 2017. The former seeks to make Canada barrier-free by January 2040, and the latter mandates that any member of the public be able to obtain federal services in either official language. See also, Summary of the Accessible Canada Act, https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/accessible-people-disabilities/act-summary.html; and Modernization of the Official Languages Act, https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/canadians-official-languages-act.html.

[13] Interviews conducted for this report include an online meeting with the Open Government Team, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Government of Canada, 24 March 2022; online one-on-one interviews with the Executive Director, Open Government, Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Government of Canada, 8 April 2022; member, Multistakeholder Forum, 8 April 2022; Chair, Multistakeholder Forum, 13 April 2022. Email exchanges include the Executive Director, Information and Privacy Policy Division, Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, 19 April 2022; Senior Director, Corporate, Insolvency and Competition Policy, Marketplace Framework Policy Branch, Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada, 20 April 2022.

[14] See, Justin Trudeau Canada COVID-19 Press Conference April 17, 2020, https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/justin-trudeau-canada-covid-19-press-conference-april-17

[15] In terms of OGP activities, members of the MSF and the government met nine times between March 19, 2020, and January 22, 2021. Minutes from these discussions can be found in the MSF working documents file at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18U8iVkW0P01CuqGw9mGo3rtWu0E4TT_2. The minutes are scheduled to be made publicly available via Canada’s Open Government Portal <https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/cd94b0b3-c328-4468-958e-ccd7bd140b48&gt; in the near future.

[16] A detailed accounting of the communication- and data-related challenges encountered by the government and civil society stakeholders along with some of the solutions implemented is available at: https://datalibre.ca/