Canada's Performance 2005: The Government of Canada's Contribution

Performance context

To set its programs, expenditures, and performance in context, the Government of Canada is tracking key measures of long-term progress in the area of income security and employment for Canadians. In the electronic version of the report, clicking on indicators in the Performance Highlight table will lead you to detailed information about current performance and trends.

Note: The legend summarizing the symbols used in the table above can be found in the introduction, on page 2.

The Government of Canada's contribution to income security and employment for Canadians

An important element of quality of life is the ability to adequately support oneself financially. For some groups in society, this is not always possible even when the economy is performing well. In the 2005 budget, the Government of Canada addressed these issues by committing to improving support for seniors as well as making strategic investments in building a skilled and adaptable workforce. The government is also working toward creating a fair work environment, ensuring effective industrial relations in the workplace, and helping persons with disabilities.

The well-being of children is a determinant of both the present quality of life in Canada and Canada's future productivity. Based on a strong public policy consensus that service support for parents and income support for low-income families are important to achieving social well-being, the Government of Canada continues to make supporting children and their families a priority. The government works with the provinces and territories on three major initiatives, including the National Child Benefit, the Early Childhood Development Agreement, and the Multilateral Framework on Early Learning and Child Care. In addition, Budget 2005 committed the federal government to work with provinces and territories on the development of a new $5-billion early learning and childcare initiative.

In 2003, 4.1 million Canadians were 65 years of age or older. Their numbers are expected to reach 6.4 million in 2020-nearly one in five Canadians-making them the fastest growing age group in Canada. Seniors today are generally healthier, better educated, and economically better off than seniors of previous generations. Canada's diversified retirement income system has significantly contributed to the income security of the country's seniors, a long-standing priority for the Government of Canada.

According to 2001 Census data, the median age of the labour force was 39 in 2001, up from 37.1 in 1991. With the baby boomers aging and fewer young people entering the working age population due to lower fertility rates over the past 30 years, the potential exists for shortages in certain occupations. As a result, a wide range of occupations, from doctors and nurses to teachers, plumbers, and electricians, may face shortfalls by 2011.

To help offset these potential shortages, Canada has increasingly turned to immigration as a source of labour force and skill growth. The 2001 Census data show that immigrants who landed in Canada during the 1990s and who were in the labour force in 2001 represented almost 70 per cent of the total growth of the labour force over the decade. Although young Canadian-born individuals will make up the majority of new entrants to the labour market for the foreseeable future, current projections suggest that if current immigration rates continue, immigration could account for virtually all net labour force growth by sometime between 2011 and 2016.

Several departments, agencies, and Crown corporations contribute to income security and employment for Canadians through their respective departmental strategic outcomes or Crown mission statements. Clicking on the links in the electronic version of the following table will lead you to planning, performance, and resource information, which is contained in the organizations' departmental performance reports and reports on plans and priorities as well as in the Annual Report to Parliament on Crown Corporations and Other Corporate Interests of Canada. The Strategic Outcomes Database, which can be found at http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rma/krc/cp-rc_e.asp, also leads to relevant audits and evaluations.

Supplemental Information

Labour force

Canada's demographic challenge

Performance context

To set its programs, expenditures, and performance in context, the Government of Canada is tracking key measures of long-term progress in the area of a fair and secure marketplace. In the electronic version of the report, clicking on the indicator in the Performance Highlight table will lead you to detailed information about current performance and trends.

Note: The legend summarizing the symbols used in the table above can be found in the introduction, on page 2.

The Government of Canada's contribution to a fair and secure marketplace

The marketplace is an essential foundation for investment, innovation, trade, sustainable development, job creation, consumer confidence, and economic growth. A secure, fair marketplace maintains and enhances consumer confidence and gives businesses the best environment possible for competitiveness. The Government of Canada is committed to providing a fair and secure marketplace by ensuring that

• the Canadian financial system is stable and sound;
• Canadians comply with tax, trade, and border legislation;
• both consumers' and producers' rights are protected; and
• high standards for a safe, fair, and secure trading system are in place.

Recognizing that protecting citizens, consumers, and the natural environment is a more demanding task in the 21st century, the Government of Canada's Smart Regulation Initiative aims to modernize regulations to enhance conditions for an innovative economy while finding improved ways to meet high standards of social and environmental protection. The co-operation among all levels of government, industry, non-governmental organizations, and citizens is at the heart of this new regulatory strategy for Canada. The Smart Regulation Initiative is not only protective but also responsive to the pace of change in science, technology, and global markets. In Budget 2005, the government committed to building continuous improvement to the federal regulatory system, making it more transparent, accountable, and adaptable to new technologies and changing public priorities.

The Government of Canada is committed to addressing fraudulent, unfair, and deceptive behaviour in the marketplace by seeking tougher penalties, increasing awareness among target groups on how to detect and self-protect against these crimes, and modernizing the tools used for detection, prevention, and deterrence. (Industry Canada, Making a Difference-Contributing to the Quality of Life of Canadians, 2003)

Several departments, agencies, and Crown corporations contribute to a fair and secure marketplace through their respective departmental strategic outcomes or Crown mission statements. Clicking on the links in the electronic version of the following table will lead you to planning, performance, and resource information, which is contained in the organizations' departmental performance reports and reports on plans and priorities as well as in the Annual Report to Parliament on Crown Corporations and Other Corporate Interests of Canada. The Strategic Outcome Database, which can be found at http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rma/krc/cp-rc_e.asp, also leads to relevant audits and evaluations.

Performance context

To set its programs, expenditures, and performance in context, the Government of Canada is tracking key measures of long-term progress in the area of a clean and healthy environment. In the electronic version of the report, clicking on indicators in the Performance Highlight table will lead you to detailed information about current performance and trends.

Note: The legend summarizing the symbols used in the table above can be found in the introduction, on page 2.

The Government of Canada's contribution to a clean and healthy environment

Canada's lands, waters, and wildlife provide the foundation for Canada's health and economy and are important to the quality of life of all Canadians. Healthy ecosystems support an abundance of plants, wildlife, and other organisms and perform essential functions that provide a vast array of life-supporting services, such as maintaining the earth's climate, cleaning air and water, maintaining nutrient cycles, facilitating crop pollination, and helping to control floods and pest infestation. Canada's mosaic of ecosystems on land and sea, and along coastlines, is home to more than 71,500 known species of wild animals, plants, and other organisms. Despite Canada's seeming abundance of species and the appreciation of Canadians for nature and wildlife, Canada's natural capital is at risk. Ecosystem health and biodiversity are threatened by air and water pollution, the invasion of alien species, and human-induced habitat loss and fragmentation, mainly as a result of urbanization, agricultural intensification, and resource extraction.

Human health is dependent on the natural functions of a healthy environment, such as providing clean air to breathe and clean water to drink, filtering dangerous radiation, maintaining a relatively stable temperature regime, and absorbing wastes. In turn, the health of Canadians is key to maintaining a healthy workforce-an essential component of productivity and competitiveness. Environmental degradation has an effect on the economy through lost worker productivity and health care costs. Smog caused by air pollution, for example, is associated with thousands of preventable deaths, illnesses, and emergency room admissions in Canada each year.

Canada is the steward of a substantial portion of the world's natural capital, with responsibility for 20.0 per cent of the world's wilderness, 24.0 per cent of its wetlands, 7.0 per cent of its fresh water, 10.0 per cent of its forests, and the longest coastline in the world. To accomplish its role pertaining to the environment, the Government of Canada has passed several laws, including the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA 1999), the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the Fisheries Act, the Species at Risk Act, the Pest Control Products Act, and the Oceans Act.

The Government of Canada has signed on to several international conventions, including the Canada-U.S. Migratory Birds Convention, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Significance, the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, Canada is committed to sustainable use of its biological resources and to conserving biodiversity. To further this objective, the Government of Canada, in collaboration with provinces and territories, developed the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy. In addition to the government's obligation to protect Canada's natural capital and sustain ecological services, the government also has a responsibility to act as a global steward by conserving shared habitats and species and helping to enhance the capacity of less developed nations to conserve their biodiversity.

Several departments, agencies, and Crown corporations contribute to a clean and healthy environment through their respective departmental strategic outcomes or Crown mission statements. Clicking on the links in the electronic version of the following table will lead you to planning, performance, and resource information, which is contained in the organizations' departmental performance reports and reports on plans and priorities as well as in the Annual Report to Parliament on Crown Corporations and Other Corporate Interests of Canada. The Strategic Outcomes Database, which can be found at http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rma/krc/cp-rc_e.asp, also leads to relevant audits and evaluations.

Supplemental Information

Agricultural intensification

Ecosystems