OUR ROLE

In Canada, the power to govern is shared between the federal and provincial governments. With such a constitutional arrangement, there is a great need for governments to communicate, to consult each other, to harmonize their policies and programs, coordinate their activities, resolve conflict, and, in some instances, develop policy jointly.

(Photo: Department of Culture and Communications, Quebec Bernard Vallée)

Over the years, an elaborate framework of intergovernmental relations has arisen with hundreds of daily contacts and transactions and with meetings at every level - bilaterally, regionally and multilaterally. The most visible and important way of conducting formal multilateral relations is by that most Canadian of institutions - the intergovernmental conference. The majority of the high-level intergovernmental conferences are served by the Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat (CICS).

We were established in 1973 by the First Ministers. Governments recognized, at that time, a need for a mechanism to serve on a continuing basis, conferences of First Ministers and a growing number of intergovernmental meetings.

Although designated a federal department for the purposes of the Financial Administration Act, by an Order-in-Council on November 29, 1973, the organization is in fact an agency of the federal and provincial governments. Not only is its budget supported by these two orders of government, but its staff is also selected from both federal and provincial governments.

The Secretary reports to all governments annually. The operations are reviewed by federal and provincial senior officials designated by their respective First Ministers. The Secretariat reports to Parliament through the Prime Minister.

In addition to serving federal-provincial First Ministers' meetings, CICS also serves the Annual Premiers' Conference, the Eastern Canadian Premiers' and New England Governors' Conference and the Western Premiers' Conference. The core of the Secretariat's work, however, is providing services to multilateral meetings of Ministers and Deputy Ministers in virtually every sector of government activity.

The Secretariat's services are available to federal, provincial and territorial departments that are called upon to organize and chair such meetings. The agency's mandate and sole program are designed to relieve its clients of the numerous and various technical and administrative tasks associated with the planning and conduct of senior level intergovernmental conferences.

The CICS also maintains through its Information Services section, a document archives for the use of governments and the general public. Containing over 25,000 conference-related documents spanning every sector of conference activity, this collection is unique. The information contained in the archives is made available, as appropriate, to government institutions at the federal, provincial and territorial levels while unclassified material is also available to the public on request. Also, the Conference Information section of this website contains a listing of the conferences served since 1997 with available news releases.