Section VII: Report on Government-Wide Initiatives

Modern Comptrollership and Management Accountability Framework

The Modern Comptrollership Initiative was superseded in 2003 by Treasury Board Secretariat's Management Accountability Framework (MAF). The MAF covers all of the elements of Modern Comptrollership, and a departmental assessment was completed by the Treasury Board Secretariat using the MAF which, in turn, was used in the identification of management priorities for 2004-2005.

An Assurance Audit on the implementation of Modern Comptrollership was completed in January 2004 as a means of benchmarking and monitoring progress achieved to date in the department. The audit findings indicated a high degree of satisfaction with the steps taken to implement modern management within HRDC.

An emphasis on learning and training continued throughout 2003-2004. A two-day awareness session entitled "Modern Comptrollership: Managing for Results", reached 283 participants throughout National Headquarters and the Ontario Region. This brings the total number of managers and functional specialists trained across the department to 2,317 since the sessions began in September 2000.

Government On-Line Initiative

The overall objective of the Government On-line Initiative is to increase the availability of the on-line federal services. The approach is both citizen/client-centred and Government of Canada-wide. As part of the effort to ensure government information and services were accessible on-line by 2005, the department, with Social Development Canada, identified eleven key services. Both departments also manage the Canadians Gateway and five on-line clusters. Reporting on HRSDC's Government On-line Initiative projects can be found in Section IV in the Employment Insurance and Employment Programs section.²⁸

Sustainable Development Strategy

During the reporting period, the department continued working towards the goals, objectives and targets identified in the second iteration of the Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS-II) which was tabled in Parliament in February 2001. Progress achieved to date by both departments in achieving the SDS-II goals, objectives and targets is identified as follows.

In addition to these results, significant work was accomplished during the reporting period regarding the preparation, update and implementation of the next iteration of the Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS-III). Because of the December 2003 division of HRDC, and for reporting and tabling efficiency reasons, the Ministers of HRSDC and Social Development Canada decided to jointly table the Sustainable Development Strategy 2004-2006 on February 16, 2004. At that time, the Ministers committed to tabling individual departmental strategies by 2006 reflecting sustainable development goals, objectives and targets that coincide with the specific mandates of each department.

The updated Strategy (SDS-III) capitalizes on the achievements and lessons learned from previous rounds of Strategies (SDS-I and SDS-II) in addition to acting upon recommendations made by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development to improve the overall Sustainable Development outcomes in terms of the social and economic dimensions of sustainable development.

The previous strategy (SDS-II) commitments focused on four key goals:

• Strengthening the department's capacity to move forward on a path to sustainable development;
• Greening the department's internal operations;
• Participating with other departments to gain a better understanding of the social policy dimensions of sustainable development and their policy implications, and to build a knowledge base in various sustainable development-related issues of interest to the department; and
• Building sustainable development into the department's corporate culture.

While building on the previous strategy, the current strategy (SDS-III) shifts to the following key goals:

• Strengthening the department's capacity to move forward on a path to sustainable development;
• Sustaining the department's internal operations;
• Developing the social and labour market dimensions of sustainable development within the department; and
• Building sustainable development into the department's corporate culture.

The following results were achieved during the reporting period (April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2004) with regards to the goals, objectives, and targets identified under SDS-II. Please also refer to Social Development Canada's Departmental Performance Report.

The following results were achieved during the reporting period (April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2004) in regards to the goals, objectives, and targets identified under SDS-III.