ISED Departmental Evaluation Plan 2025-26 to 2029-30

ISED Departmental Evaluation Plan 2025-26 to 2029-30 PDF - 566  KB

Table of Contents

• 1.0 Deputy Head confirmation note
• 2.0 Departmental context
  • 2.1 Government and departmental priorities
  • 2.2 Role of evaluation and governance
• 3.0 2024-25 completed evaluations
  • 3.1 Summary and findings
  • 3.2 Finding highlights
• 4.0 Departmental Evaluation Plan 2025-26 to 2029-30
  • Five-year evaluation plan
• 5.0 Planned evaluations for 2025-26
  • Collaborations
  • Management Response and Action Plans
  • The Evaluation Directorate will continue its progress on the following actions in 2025-26
• Appendix A: Five-year evaluation schedule
• Appendix B: Evaluation coverage by departmental results framework core responsibilities
  • People, skills, and communities
  • Companies, investment and growth
  • Science, technology, research and commercialization

1.0 Departmental Head confirmation note

Note to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat:

I approve the Departmental Evaluation Plan for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) for fiscal years 2025-26 to 2029-30, which I submit to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat as required by the Treasury Board Policy on Results.

I confirm that this Departmental Evaluation Plan:

• Plans for evaluations of all ongoing grants and contributions programs with five-year average actual expenditures of $5 million or greater per year at least once every five years, in fulfillment of the requirements of subsection 42.1 of the Financial Administration Act (FAA);
• Meets the requirements of the Mandatory Procedures for Evaluation; and
• Supports the requirements of the expenditure management system including, as applicable, Memoranda to Cabinet, Treasury Board submissions, and resource alignment reviews.

I will ensure that this plan is updated annually, and I will provide information about its implementation to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, as required.

Philip Jennings
Deputy Minister
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

2.0 Departmental context

3.0 2024-25 completed evaluations

4.0 Departmental Evaluation Plan 2025-26 to 2029-30

The Departmental Evaluation Plan (DEP) is an information and management tool that reflects the results of ISED's annual evaluation planning exercise. The Policy on Results requires that Deputy Heads annually approve a five-year DEP and submit it to the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS). The DEP also provides opportunities to support the Deputy Head to ensure that information on the Department's programs is available to inform policy and program development and decision-making. It includes 100% coverage of all evaluations required under the Financial Administration Act and in TB submissions. 

ISED's Audit and Evaluation Branch (AEB) implements the following approach to its annual evaluation planning exercise to determine its overall evaluation coverage of departmental spending:

1. Gathering information on the evaluation universe: The universe of all possible programs and spending areas that could be considered for evaluation over the next five fiscal years is gathered from the Departmental Results Framework (DRF) and Program Inventory to determine evaluation coverage. The evaluation universe considers all departmental spending.
2. Identifying all mandatory and discretionary evaluations: Mandatory evaluations are identified in accordance with the evaluation requirements in the olicy on Results. Risk factors such as departmental priorities, program materiality, the information needs of stakeholders, and optimal timing of evaluations are also considered in annual evaluation planning.
3. Conducting annual departmental consultations: Consultations are held at the Director General level to discuss needs, timing, and innovative approaches such as thematic evaluations as well as with sector heads to validate risks, priorities, and the planned evaluations. The Internal Audit Directorate is also consulted to assess overall program coverage.

Five-year evaluation plan

The Directorate has 25 program evaluations planned from 2025-26 to 2029-30 across the 3 Departmental Core Responsibilities.  The full five-year evaluation schedule can be found in Appendix A and coverage relative to the DRF can be found in Appendix B. 

The five-year evaluation schedule includes 20 mandatory evaluations to satisfy requirements in the Financial Administration Act (FAA) or Treasury Board (TB) submissions and 5 discretionary evaluations that are exempt from evaluation requirements of the Policy on Results. Of the 25 evaluations planned from 2025-26 to 2029-30, departmental consultations identified 2 thematic evaluations incorporating either a clustering of programs approach or targeted approach that focuses on key program areas.

5.0 Planned evaluations for 2025-26

3 evaluations and 2 Evaluability assessments to determine scope are planned for 2025-26. These include:

Traditional evaluations:

• Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2.0 (continued from 2024-25)
• Global Innovation Clusters
• Small Business and Entrepreneurship Support Initiatives*
  *May include:
  • Small Business Entrepreneurship Development Program
  • Women Entrepreneurship Strategy
  • 2SLGBT+ Entrepreneurship Program

Evaluability assessments:

• Global Innovation Clusters
• Strategic Innovation Fund

Collaborations

Engagements with Regional Development Agencies and other Government Departments on horizontal evaluations will continue. The Directorate will maintain engagements with ISED's Corporate Management Sector, the Innovation and Policy Integration group on performance measurement and the Chief Data Office on common goals and initiatives.

Management Response and Action Plans

AEB will continue to follow up on Management Response and Action Plans (MRAPs) to ensure that evaluation recommendations have been closed by their planned due date.

Status of MRAP recommendations issued in 2024-25 (as of March 31, 2025):

• 5 Recommendation closed in 2024-25.
• 17 Open recommendations going into 2025-26 are on schedule.
• 2 Open recommendations are late/extended.

The Evaluation Directorate will continue its progress on the following actions in 2025-26:

Neutral assessment recommendations: The evaluation function undergoes a neutral assessment every five years and to Deputy Heads in monitoring the implementation of evaluation requirements in the Policy on Results. The externally led assessment was completed in March 2024. AEB has completed 4 of the 5 recommendations, with one in progress.

1) Peer review 2) preliminary findings and 3) sharing best practices and lessons learned has been incorporated into Evaluation project Plans; 4) broader strategic questions were examined during the DEP consultation process and will become an ongoing part of the process.

Data visualization: Evaluation reports and summaries continue to leverage data visualization techniques to improve understanding and readability. The Evaluation Directorate has developed a style guide which ensures consistency and supports new team members. The guide has been presented at the Canadian Evaluation Society and shared with other departments.

Evaluability assessments and consultations: The Directorate will continue to engage with Programs and Sectors to inform the evaluability of the Strategic Innovation Fund, the Global Innovation Clusters, and the Strategic Science Fund, which have incorporated many formerly evaluated programs into a broader initiative. This will identify evaluation readiness, potential approach, data availability and determine resource needs.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted evaluation: Evaluations will continue to explore, where appropriate, increased use of AI to support the planning and conduct of evaluations to facilitate evaluation efficiency.

Appendix B: Evaluation coverage by departmental results framework core responsibilities

People, skills, and communities

Support for underrepresented entrepreneurs

• Small Business and Entrepreneurship Support Initiatives (2025-26)
• Futurpreneur (2028-29)
• Black Entrepreneurship Program (2029-30)

Bridging digital divides

• Computers for Schools Program (2027-28)
• Connecting Families Initiative (2027-28)
• Universal Broadband Fund (2029-30)

Companies, investment and growth

Business innovation

• Cybersecurity Innovation Network (2026-27)
• Strategic Innovation Fund (2026-27)
• Global Innovation Clusters Initiative (2026-27)
• Upskilling for Industry (2026-27)
• NextStar Energy (2027-28)
• Health Emergency Readiness Canada (2028-29)

Talent development

• Computers for Schools Intern Program (2027-28)
• Strategic Science Fund*(2027-28)
• Digital Skills for Youth (2029-30)

Competition law enforcement and promotion

• Competition Bureau: Digital Enforcement and Intelligence Branch (2027-28)

Marketplace protection and promotion

• Canadian Consumer Protection Initiative (2027-28)

Science, technology, research and commercialization

Science and research

• Canada Foundation for Innovation (2025-26)
• Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2.0 (2025-26)
• Canada Biomedical Research Fund and Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund (2026-27)
• Strategic Science Fund^{Footnote *} (2027-28)
• CANARIE (2028-29)
• Digital Research Infrastructure Strategy (2028-29)
• Horizon Europe (2028-29)
• Artificial Intelligence Compute (2028-29)
• Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (2029-30)