Notice to Readers
Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on these updated Guidelines. Keep an eye out for the final versions of the document, coming soon to Canada.ca and Open.Canada.ca.
Introduction
Consultation is a key element of Canada’s open government efforts, and essential to our Third Biennial plan to the Open Government Partnership (2016-2018). The goal of this plan is to make government information and policies more open and transparent, which will in turn increase Canadians’ trust in government. Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat leads on Commitment #11: Increase Transparency of Grants and Contributions Funding. The consultation that follows seeks feedback on key deliverables that once achieved, will increase the transparency of government funding provided through Grants and Contributions, to worthwhile projects.
Potential changes include decreasing the dollar amount for the reporting of Grants and Contributions awards, (currently for over $25,000), increasing and standardizing the information available, and centralizing information on the open.canada.ca portal.
Purpose of this Engagement
This consultation is the first public forum to present recent developments and engage Canadians on the path forward for the public reporting of Grants and Contributions. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat previously engaged 32 departments, agencies, crown corporations, and key stakeholders, and would now like to engage Canadians more broadly, with an aim to ensure the data being reported on is useful for recipients, key stakeholders, data users, and Canadians at large, and to provide increased fiscal transparency.
The Guidelines on the Reporting of Grants and Contributions Awards is composed of four elements, broken down into separate pages to ensure that each area is engaged upon separately.
In this consultation, there are four sections for you to explore, as seen below, but we are primarily seeking feedback on the page entitled “Fields and Field Descriptions”. The four pages are:
- Guidelines (Procedures for departments to follow);
- Fields and Field Descriptions (The fields that are being reported on);
- Field Population Guidance (Guidance for departments to populate these fields); and
- Appendices (Additional information on the reporting process).
The feedback received from this engagement will serve as the basis for developing future iterations of the Guidelines, Guidance, Appendices, and Reporting Standards. Further, all feedback received in engagement will be summarized and included in a “What We Heard Report,” which will be available in Appendix G of the final Guidelines once they are published, and will be published on this page following consultation. All feedback received will be reviewed, and may be included in the revisions made to the final documents. Some relevant suggestions may not be immediately applied, but could contribute to future improvements.
What’s Next?
As the document continues to develop following this engagement, the Committee on Grants and Contributions Award Reporting will continue to work collaboratively with departments, agencies, and key stakeholders to bring forward a final version of this document, to be implemented effective April 01, 2018. More information on the implementation schedule can be seen in Appendix H of the Guidelines.