Consulting Canadians (CA0041)

The Government of Canada will provide direction, and next-generation tools and
resources to enable federal departments and agencies to consult more broadly with
citizens and civil society in support of the development and delivery of government
policies and programs.

Commitment 12. Consulting Canadians

Commitment Text:

The Government of Canada will provide direction and next-generation tools and resources to enable federal departments and agencies to consult more broadly with citizens and civil society in support of the development and delivery of government policies and programs.

Modern technology has enabled governments to connect faster and more easily with citizens. Given Canada's geographic diversity, federal departments and agencies often face a challenge in conducting wide-ranging consultations with Canadians from diverse areas of the country and backgrounds. Evolving technological solutions can help government departments and agencies better consult with citizens and civil society organizations on a wide range of policy, program, and regulatory issues. The result will be a more informed society on government programs and direction, and improved policy development for the government.

To meet this challenge, the Government of Canada will develop new and innovative approaches and solutions to enable Canadians to more easily take part in federal consultations of interest to them. The government will also develop a set of principles and procedures to guide consultation processes in order to increase the consistency and effectiveness of public consultations across government. As a result, Canadians will be more aware of the opportunities to engage with their government, will have consistent, advance notice of government consultations, and will have access to easy-to-use solutions for providing their ideas on federal programs and services.

Deliverables to be completed in 2014-16:

• Improve the existing Consulting with Canadians website to facilitate easier access to information on federal consultation activities for citizens.
• Develop and launch a new government-wide consultation portal to promote opportunities for public participation, host online consultations, and share findings from completed consultations.
• Expand the use of social media across government to enable departments and programs to connect to Canadians in innovative ways and enhance engagement in support of citizen-centric services.
• Develop a set of principles and standards for public consultations in discussion with citizens and civil society (e.g., advance notice and promotion of consultations, best practices for in-person and online engagement, effective use of social media, reporting on results), including setting out minimum benchmarks for consultations.
• Conduct targeted consultations on open government themes with key groups in Canada (e.g., youth, aboriginal populations).

Responsible institution: Treasury Board Secretariat, Privy Council Office

Supporting institution(s): None

Start date: November 2014   End date: 30 June 2016

Commitment Aim:

The aim of this commitment is to improve the tools and resources that allow for enhanced citizen engagement.

STATUS

Mid-term: Limited

The new site for consultations, milestone number two, was part of Canada’s  first action plan and was not completed. As was noted in the mid-term progress report, the government posted a bid for solicitations on 21 March, 2014 and had established a standing offer for stakeholder/citizen engagement services.  According to mid-term interviews with government officials, the new consultation portal was to be launched by June 2016 and was to include a unified consultation calendar, enhanced search functionality, notification and subscription service, and reports and outcomes.

In April 2014, the government contracted with Hootsuite to provide social media account management services. According to information provided to the IRM researcher, 47 federal institutions were using Hootsuite’s services as of July 2015. A review of existing principles and best practices on consultations was underway at that time, including an environmental scan of internal and external guidance documents. The review will be used to draft new principles and best practices. Government officialssaid the draft would be released for public consultation early in 2016 and then finalized. The final milestone of engaging in targeted consultations with key constituencies was behind schedule. Government interviewees noted that some targeted consultations were done with what they referred to as “key” groups around specific commitments in the second national action plan, but no such consultations took place between November 2014 and April 2015.

End of term: Limited

The Consulting Canadians site had been modified in the first year of the action plan. No clearly identifiable progress was made in the development of a new consultation portal during the second year of the plan.

The Treasury Board Secretariat issued new policies and guidelines that, among other things, support the use of social media. The Policy on Communications and Federal Identity went into effect in May 2016. ^{Policy on Communications and Federal Identity, http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=30683}  The Directive on the Management of Communications went into effect the same month.  ^{Directive on the Management of Communications, http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=30682}

There was no clearly identifiable progress on the development of principles and standards for public consultation after the first year of the action plan. Similarly, there is no evidence of additional ‘targeted consultations’ beyond those mentioned in the mid-term progress report, or reported on in this end of term report in reference to previous commitments. Both of these milestones are ongoing.

Did it open government?

Access to information: Did not change

The reorganization of the existing Consulting Canadians website on the Canada.ca website may facilitate citizens’ ability to discover and access information regarding federal consultations. However, it did not lead to the flow of new information.

Civic participation: Did not change

Overall, the incomplete fulfillment and limited progress made on this commitment presents little evidence that civic participation has been enhanced in any meaningful way. The provision of new tools and resources for consultation, which are at the heart of the commitment, are still works in progress - they have been carried forward to the next action plan.

Carried forward?

This commitment is carried forward to the third national action plan, of which the 19^th commitment is to ‘Engage Civil Society on Open Government.’ Milestones include:

• Develop and maintain a renewed mechanism for ongoing, meaningful dialogue between the government of Canada and civil society organizations on open government issues across the country.
• Undertake targeted engagement activities to discuss open government issues in specific domains with key civil society stakeholders.  ^{Government of Canada, Third National Action Plan, http://open.canada.ca/en/content/third-biennial-plan-open-government-partnership}

Commitment 20 of the third action plan is to ‘Enable Open Dialogue and Open Policy Making.’ Milestones include:

• Promote common principles for Open Dialogue and common practices across the government of Canada to enable the use of new methods for consulting and engaging Canadians.
• Engage with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis to ensure that these principles and practices support meaningful engagement and reflect the renewed nation-to-nation/Inuit-to-Crown/government-to-government relationships.
• Identify necessary supports (e.g. skills development, resourcing, technological innovation) needed to deliver on the full potential of engaging with stakeholders.
• Identify and support participatory processes undertaken by departments to share lessons learned and demonstrate the value of including stakeholders and members of the public throughout the policy, program or service design and implementation.
• Develop, implement the measurement of, and promote indicators for open government to support benchmarking and continuous improvement.  ^{Government of Canada, Third National Action Plan, http://open.canada.ca/en/content/third-biennial-plan-open-government-partnership}