Results at a Glance - Evaluation of Consultation and Accommodation
Table of contents
Program Overview
Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada provides support to federal departments and agencies as they work to fulfill the Crown's legal duty to consult and work to build capacity among Indigenous groups. The program activities are expected to contribute to the Departmental results of having Indigenous peoples determining their political, economic, social and cultural development.
Summary of Findings
The evaluation determined that funding for Consultation Resource Centres and Consultation Protocol Agreements is critical to support and facilitate Indigenous consultation capacity. However, it has not kept pace with inflation and natural organizational growth of current recipients, and there is a long waitlist of prospective recipients. The program was also found to be particularly engaged in training public servants, responding timely to an increasing number of ad hoc consultation requests from federal entities, and leading discussions about consultation and accommodation in various internal federal networks. Implementing a more comprehensive data collection strategy could further strengthen these successes.
Relevance Coherence
- The Program is found to be relevant and aligned with federal consultation and accommodation objectives but could improve in addressing Indigenous priorities and self-determination. Notably, the annual reporting requirement is seen as being at odds with self-determination and the non-binding nature of Consultation Protocols is seen as being at odds with Reconciliation.
- The Program is coherent with other processes of federal consultation and occupies an important place in the federal consultation ecosystem. The Program activities were found to address critical gaps. However, there is an opportunity currently not addressed to better coordinate the whole-of-government approach to mitigate significant barriers for Indigenous partners.
Effectiveness
- Indigenous consultation tools were found to contribute to Indigenous consultation capacity. Significant challenges persist and leave most Indigenous partners insufficiently resourced to engage in meaningful consultation and engagement. None of the Indigenous organizations were able to respond to all federal consultation requests. Constant waitlists for Indigenous consultation tools demonstrate that the Program cannot keep up with the demand.
- The reach of the Program activities is commensurate with its whole-of-government mandate and is generally seen in a favourable light. However, a lack of adequate performance data make their perceived effectiveness difficult to confirm. There is an opportunity to improve on data collection and use processes to gain insights that should help the Program to better inform its decision-making and to more convincingly show its impact of federal consultation capacity.
Efficiency and Economy
- The current funding structure of Indigenous consultation tools is unsustainable. Demand for the tools cannot be met, and funding levels do not follow inflation and natural organizational growth.
- Cost-effectiveness cannot be assessed due to a weakness in data collection processes. There is a clear opportunity to improve on the ways in which performance data informs the Program's successes and areas of improvement, as well as decision-making.
About the Evaluation
In accordance with its Five-Year Evaluation Plan and the Policy on Results, CIRNAC evaluated the relevance and the performance of the consultation and accommodation program activities between April 1, 2015, to March 31, 2023, with a particular emphasis on the last five (5) years.
Recommendations and Actions
Recommendation 1
With Indigenous partners, the Program should develop a sustainability plan enabling the Resource Centres and Protocol Agreements holders to have long-term funding. The plan should reduce the administrative burden on Indigenous organizations and ensure flexible terms and conditions that meet their needs.
Action:
The Program will work towards a plan to pursue a sustainable, transparent national funding approach to foundational capacity for consultation and will work with Indigenous partners to review the reporting requirements.
Recommendation 2
The Program must strengthen and expand the inclusion and engagement of Indigenous partners in the Program's full suite of training of federal public servants.
Action:
Building on work already undertaken, the Program will use feedback from Indigenous partners to deliver an updated course on the Duty to Consult and will co-develop and co-deliver annual consultation learning events.
Recommendation 3
Program should work with Indigenous and federal partners to increase the coordination of federal consultation activities to reduce the burden on Indigenous people. This should include but not be limited to:
- monitoring consultation activities across government;
- identifying and working to reduce duplications in outgoing requests on the same projects; and
- developing tools to share data with Indigenous partners.
Action:
Without funding for the Program, CIRNAC is not in position to increase the coordination and streamlining of consultation activities outside of its direct responsibilities. However, it will keep leveraging opportunities to promote and advocate for better coordination of consultation activities with central agencies and federal Departments.
Recommendation 4
Program should work with Indigenous partners to revise the Program's performance measurement indicators to better reflect the communities' on-the-ground realities related to consultation and engagement activities.
Action:
The Program will work with Indigenous partners to understand if the reporting requirements are achievable, to identify barriers and to explore how to better reflect their communities' realities in regard with consultation and engagement activities.