ARCHIVED - RPP 2006-2007
Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec

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2 Analysis of program activities
by strategic outcome

Like all other federal organizations, the Agency presents this section of the RPP on the basis of its Program Activity Architecture. The new strategic directions will thus be reflected and explained within the framework of the PAA that is currently in effect. A new PAA was, however, recently approved by the Treasury Board Secretariat, but will come into effect only in April 2007. This will be reflected in the 2007-2008 RPP.

Program Activity Architecture

2.1 First strategic outcome: Vitality of communities

2.1.1 Program activity: Improvement of the economic environment of regions

Through its actions, the Agency aims for Quebec’s different communities to be dynamic and to be revitalized by enjoying better socio-economic prospects. It intends to invest some $360 million over three years in this program activity.

To increase community vitality, closely tied to improving Canadians’ quality of life, the Agency intends to focus on three particular strategic objectives:

• foster the development of social capital through
  • establishment of visions and plans for development and diversification
  • local development
  • integration of target groups so as to increase local mobilization
• support communities so they can take charge of their own development through
  • emergence of new entrepreneurs
  • development and maintenance of viable enterprises of local or regional scope in order to enrich the entrepreneurial fabric
• increase communities’ attraction and retention capability through
  • tourism outreach
  • the presence of assets and conditions raising the profile of the local area so as to attract and retain skilled individuals.

For instance, with the 400th anniversary of Québec in 2008, this region will see major celebrations with a high potential for international visibility and economic spinoffs. The Agency will act as manager of the funds allocated to the St. Lawrence River waterfront development work. This project, which will constitute the Government of Canada’s principal real property bequest in commemoration of this significant anniversary, will help increase access to the St. Lawrence, and that will improve Metropolitan Québec’s tourism offering and the quality of the local environment for many years to come.

Moreover, in connection with community vitality (integration of target groups) and under section 41 of Part VII of the Official Languages Act, the Agency also aims to foster the economic development of official language minority communities in the regions of Quebec. It thus wishes to encourage increased participation by the English-speaking clientele in their communities’ economic development. It intends to pursue implementation of its 2004-2005 to 2007-2008 Action Plan and develop a new action plan in line with its new strategic directions.

Improvement of the economic environment of regions

Resources

Planned spending ($ thousands)

	2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
Grants and contributions	106,538	105,940	91,718
Operations1	18,879	18,751	18,851
Total	125,417	124,691	110,569

Note : 1 Including salaries, fringe benefits, and apportioned corporate services.

Improvement of the economic environment of regions Main planned results1
SOCIAL CAPITAL Development initiatives and projects generate economic and social spinoffs within communities. Community members pursue a development vision and plan and implement the initiatives stemming from them. Groups marginalized in development participate in regional development initiatives and structures.	LOCAL DEVELOPMENT Communities benefit from new enterprises that generate employment and wealth, contributing to diversification of the economic base. Entrepreneurs carry out their corporate projects.	ATTRACTIVE MILIEUS Communities are attractive, they attract, and lead to longer stays by, tourists, skilled individuals (skilled labour or individuals from the creative class) and international organizations. This helps generate economic and social spinoffs within the communities. Communities are recognized for their distinctive character, brand image or outreach.

Note : 1 Complete results chains will be specified over the coming year.

Social capital: social capital refers to the networks of social relations that may provide individuals and groups with access to resources and supports.

Attractive milieus: communities with relatively high vitality and openness to the world which can thus increase their attraction capability through outreach and the quality of the tourism offering, and through the presence of assets which raise their profile so as to attract and retain tourists and skilled individuals

2.1.2 Program activity: Improvement of community infrastructure

The quality of community infrastructure has an impact on Canadians’ quality of life. Quality infrastructure enables communities to attract and retain organizations and individuals that will secure their economic and social future. It also makes the movement of people and goods more efficient and safer.

In this spirit, the Government of Canada announced back in 2000 the creation of several infrastructure support programs and, among other things, it signed an agreement with the Government of Quebec in October 2000 for implementation of the Infrastructure Canada Program (ICP), namely, the Canada-Quebec infrastructure program agreement. In July 2005, this agreement was amended to postpone the expiration date for the ICP and incorporate into it the implementation of a new program, the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund (MRIF). Further to that, the Agency was given the special mandate of managing these two programs in Quebec. In the case of the ICP, the Agency is fully responsible for management of the program. As to the MRIF, the Agency acts as the agent for the Department of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, which has responsibility for the fund.

The MRIF is jointly administered by the Agency with the Quebec ministère des Affaires municipales et des Régions, which is the fund’s prime contractor. The MRIF’s priority is to target small municipalities (fewer than 250,000 inhabitants) for water supply and wastewater infrastructure projects. The federal budget envelope for 2005-2008 is $192 million, and breaks down as follows:

• $140 million for green municipal infrastructure (drinking water and wastewater)
• $2 million for knowledge development
• $50 million for local or regional development support infrastructure.

The ICP targets the renovation, replacement or construction of infrastructure. Its goal is thus to enhance Quebecers’ quality of life, through investment that secures environmental quality, supports long-term economic growth, upgrades community infrastructure and contributes to putting in place 21st-century community infrastructure through the adoption both of better technology and practices and of new approaches. The program has three components, corresponding to three of the Agency’s program sub-activities:

Component 1: Drinking water and wastewater infrastructure

Component 2: Local transportation infrastructure

Component 3: Projects with economic, urban or regional impact.

Under this program, the Agency, in conjunction with the Government of Quebec, provides financial assistance to municipalities, inter-municipal boards, non-profit organizations, and enterprises. Under the terms and conditions of the ICP, as amended in July 2005, disbursement may be spread over the period until March 31, 2009. The nature and scope of infrastructure projects supported will continue to generate long-term results. As presented in the following table, the grant and contribution expenditures the Agency plans to make in support of the development of community infrastructure will reach some $89 million in 2006-2007. Sums not spent in a given year are automatically transferred to subsequent years. As to the MRIF, since the Agency is simply acting as the delivery agent, only the operating budgets are allocated to it, and these are accounted for in the table below.

Improvement of community infrastructure

Ressources

Planned spending ($ thousands)

	2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
Grants and contributions	86,662	---	---
Operations1	2,589	2,785	2,548
Total	89,251	2,785	2,548

Note : 1 Including salaries, fringe benefits, and apportioned corporate services.

Improvement of community infrastructure Main planned results
COMPONENT 1: Drinking water and wastewater infrastructure	COMPONENT 2: Local transportation infrastructure	COMPONENT 3: Projects with economic, urban or regional impact
Municipalities have quality drinking water.	Cities and municipalities benefit from safe transportation infrastructure and contribute to reducing congestion and pollution.	Maintenance and renewal of assets enhance the base of communities’ economic activity.

2.1.3 Program activity: Provision of special adjustment measures

The Agency has a program activity whereby it can come to the assistance of communities or regions facing significant economic shocks, such as the closing of plants in an industrial sector, or natural disasters (flooding in the Saguenay, ice storm in Montréal and Montérégie). In those situations, in the event of additional dedicated funding from the Government of Canada, the Agency temporarily puts special adjustment measures in place enabling communities to support their economic activity and initiate action to help them regain a balance or economic stability.

At present, the Agency is responsible for delivery of the CANtex component of the Canadian Apparel and Textile Industries Program (CATIP). The goal of CANtex is to support initiatives to raise the productivity and competitiveness of textile firms. At the start, CANtex aimed to support activities fostering increased productivity, such as
production process re-engineering activities. Following the December 14, 2004, announcement of additional measures to encourage the textile and apparel industries further, a new component was added to CANtex, in order to foster the transition from traditional textile production to innovative or value-added textiles. This new CANtex II or transformative component enables enterprises to acquire equipment and perform commercial promotion activities in order to convert part of their traditional production into advanced production. Since the new component was launched only in Fall 2005, part of the funding received was deferred to 2006-2007.

Provision of special adjustment measures

Ressources

Planned spending ($ thousands)

	2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
Grants and contributions	20,110	10,112	2,703
Operations1	1,023	1,048	603
Total	21,133	11,160	3,306

Note : 1 Including salaries, fringe benefits, and apportioned corporate services.

Provision of special adjustment measures Main planned results
The communities assisted mitigate economic shocks.	Intervention facilitates the appearance of opportunities for development and diversification in communities affected by the disappearance of major sources of employment.	The programs and initiatives put in place make it possible to manage economic crises associated with natural disasters.

2.2 Second strategic outcome: Enterprises’ competitiveness

2.2.1 Program activity: Enterprise development

The Agency’s second strategic outcome reads as follows: Quebec SMEs and regions are more competitive. Canadians’ standard of living is thus raised through lasting strategic investment in the capability of regions, networks, knowledge institutions, and SMEs to compete Canada-wide and globally.

A single program activity, Enterprise development, is associated with this strategic outcome, in line with the PAA currently in effect. This outcome is intimately linked to Canadians’ and communities’ standard of living. The Agency intends to act primarily on three specific strategic objectives:

SMEs

• foster an increase in strategic capability with respect to management, innovation, adoption of advanced technology, market development, and integration with globalized production chains
• foster support for organizations dedicated to enhancing SMEs’ strategic capability
• facilitate the structuring of clusters to improve SMEs’ performance and make easier their adjustment to the new environment.

Competitiveness poles

• develop and consolidate regional poles and international-calibre poles of excellence through intensification of productive links among innovation players in order to improve the performance and outreach of innovation commercialization efforts.

International promotion of the regions

• foster regions’ international competitiveness through concerted, integrated promotion of identified location factors in order to attract direct foreign investment.

Through this program activity, the Agency aims to make Quebec’s regions and SMEs increasingly prosperous.

Enterprise development

Ressources

Planned spending ($ thousands)

	2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
Grants and contributions	117,855	112,703	115,478
Operations1	27,939	26,236	26,370
Total	145,794	138,939	141,848

Note : 1 Including salaries, fringe benefits, and apportioned corporate services.

Competitiveness poles: combination, in a given geographical area, of enterprises, training centres and public or private research units engaged in a partnership approach so as to derive synergy from innovative projects.

Regional poles: subsets of competitiveness poles whose success is measured in terms of links between enterprises and research institutions enabling enterprises to incorporate innovations into their processes and products.

Poles of excellence: subsets of competitiveness poles whose achievement of excellence is built on international and national research and development outreach and successes with respect to commercialization of innovation.

Enterprise development Main planned results
SMEs	COMPETITIVENESS POLES	INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS OF THE REGIONS
SMEs are high-performance and competitive, and this contributes to generating conditions conducive to sustainable growth.	Technological and commercial alliances exist among knowledge players. Innovation commercialization processes generate economic and social spinoffs in the medium and long term.	Competitive regions contribute to raising Canada’s profile. Competitive regions attract foreign investment, particularly in key high value-added sectors.

Note: 1 Complete results chains will be specified over the coming year.

2.3 Performance measurement strategy

The Agency is implementing a performance measurement strategy which provides managers with information on results that can inform their decision-making. The Agency’s performance measurement strategy includes ongoing monitoring and analysis of its intervention and associated results. It includes several reviews as well, that is, audits and evaluations to analyse its procedures, initiatives and programs. Also, since its main programs are certified ISO 9001: 2000, in a spirit of continuous improvement the Agency is also conducting quality audits, confirming the application, on the one hand, of Departmental Quality Management Policy and, on the other hand, of the procedures adopted.

With integrated planning and results-based management, all this information enables the Agency to learn continuously from its action and adjust its intervention so as to offer quality programs and services and intervene effectively in regional development in Quebec.

In 2006-2007, in the first year of implementation of its new strategic directions, the Agency will work primarily to adjust its performance measurement strategy so as to include new performance indicators in it as well as new data collection methods and sources. Also, having completed most of the evaluations scheduled in its five-year review plan, the Agency will develop a new multi-year review plan while working to establish benchmarks for measuring and monitoring results over time.

As to internal audit activities, the Agency conducted an initial identification of its main risks in 2001, which it updated in 2002. It will conduct a new exercise in 2006-2007. This risk definition exercise will make it possible, among other things, for the Agency to develop and update its risk-based audit frameworks for its programs, as well as its departmental evaluation plan. In addition, the Agency will carry out several audits, including an exercise concerning
the Social Economy Initiative in Quebec and the Infrastructure Canada Program.

As in past years, the Agency will continue to improve the quality of the reports it produces for Parliament and Canadians. In that regard, for the first time since its constituent act came into force in October 2005, it will be tabling a comprehensive evaluation report in Parliament in December 2006.

 

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