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Departmental Results Report 2020–2021
682 KB, 73 pages
Table of Contents
- From the Ministers
- Results at a glance
- Results: what we achieved
- Analysis of trends in spending and human resources
- Corporate Information
- Supporting information on the program inventory
- Supplementary information tables
- Federal tax expenditures
- Organizational contact information
- Appendix: definitions
From the Ministers
It is our pleasure to present the 2020–21 Departmental Results Report for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED).
In a year characterized by uncertainty and rapidly shifting priorities as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, ISED and its portfolio partners remained committed to meet the evolving needs of Canadians and the Canadian economy. The ISED and portfolio departmental results reports describe a number of immediate and significant contributions over the past year, including those that were part of Canada's COVID-19 Economic Response Plan.
ISED and the portfolio took a leading role in helping protect Canadians from COVID-19. For example, the Made-in-Canada call to action saw more than 6,500 companies and individuals step up to offer their expertise and capacity to supply critical personal protective equipment and other essential medical commodities. Complementing those efforts, ISED worked with Canadian industry and the scientific community to reverse decades of decline in domestic biomanufacturing capacity, supporting domestic vaccine and therapeutic developers and manufacturers, and securing partnerships with international players such as Moderna and Novavax. The ability to produce vaccines and therapies domestically is critical because it not only ensures the health and safety of Canadians, it is also a driver for economic growth, increased competitiveness and job creation in this vital sector of the economy.
Given their wide mandate, ISED and the portfolio did much more than protect the health and safety of Canadians from COVID-19. As part of a coordinated federal approach, the portfolio designed, delivered or otherwise supported programs to assist workers and businesses as they faced the pandemic, including in the tourism industry. This included, for example, design of the Canada Research Continuity Emergency Fund to ensure researchers were able to continue their vital work during lockdowns, and together with the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), design and delivery of the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund (RRRF).
Finally, as Canada builds back better, ISED played – and continues to play – a role in creating a prosperous economy that is sustainable, inclusive and digitally enabled.
Supporting Canadian businesses is key to ensuring a strong economic recovery, as they are at the heart of our communities across the country. The pandemic has been particularly difficult for small businesses, their owners and their employees. The Government of Canada took immediate, significant and decisive actions to provide businesses and non-profits access to significant emergency support through the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS), Lockdown Support, and Business Account loans.
In terms of sustainability, investments made through the Strategic Innovation Fund are helping green the auto sector by advancing the country's electric vehicle and battery capabilities. Complementing this, Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) made more than 90 investments last year in transformative ideas and ambitions to meet the climate challenge.
Over the last 12 months, the Department stood behind its commitment to diversity and inclusion, working with ISED Portfolio organizations to support entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in communities across the country as they adapt, grow and compete during a period of intense economic change. As an example, clear progress was made under programs, such as the Black Entrepreneurship Program, the Women's Entrepreneurship Strategy and the 50-30 Challenge.
Meanwhile, recovery efforts across the globe are very much digital in nature; Canada is no different. The Department has strengthened the digital economy through launching the Universal Broadband Fund (UBF); agreeing with Telesat to secure high-speed Internet capacity over Canada through the company's low Earth orbit satellite constellation; and continuing its work under the Connect to Innovate program, among others.
Moving forward, ISED will continue working with provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous peoples, business owners, industry, stakeholders and all Canadians to prepare the Canadian economy for the future and deliver an economic agenda that is internationally competitive and knowledge-based and that allows us to achieve our environmental goals.
We invite you to read this report to learn more about how ISED and its portfolio partners are building a strong culture of innovation to position Canada as a leader in the global economy.
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne
Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
The Honourable Mary Ng
Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development
The Honourable Randy Boissonnault
Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance
The Honourable Gudie Hutchings
Minister of Rural Economic Development
Results at a glance
In 2020–21, ISED continued to deliver on its mandate to enable an innovation culture and strengthen Canada's industrial ecosystems, all in service of supporting a competitive economy that benefits all Canadians. During an unprecedented time, the Department provided support systems for Canadians and Canadian businesses, helping them face the immediate challenges of the COVID‑19 pandemic as well as build toward economic recovery.
Promoting innovation and a resilient, inclusive economy
As part of a whole-of-government response to the COVID‑19 pandemic, the Department supported efforts to purchase and develop vaccines, treatments and related supplies, as well as increasing the production and purchase of protective personal equipment, to protect Canadians from COVID‑19 and support economic recovery. For ISED, that meant investing in Canadian businesses and developing a sustainable biomanufacturing sector for the country, as well as leading the manufacturers' COVID‑19 Call to Action, mobilizing Canadian businesses to support the government response to the COVID‑19 pandemic. The Department led the creation of a Biomanufacturing Strategy Implementation Team to help expand Canada's biomanufacturing capacity. Furthermore, the Department engaged with stakeholders and partners to help inform recommendations for the next steps of economic recovery.
ISED's support of research capacity helped enable economic opportunities and enhance innovation. In 2020–21, ISED continued to implement and monitor contributions made to third-party science and research organizations to ensure effective delivery of research, commercialization and innovation-related activities across Canada, including rapid responses to the COVID‑19 pandemic.
ISED also continued to create opportunities for Canadians and strengthen Canadian industries during the COVID‑19 pandemic. The Department maintained investments in Canadian businesses through the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) and launched the Medical Countermeasures (MCM) initiative to fund clinical trials and manufacturing capacity for vaccines and build Canada's long-term pandemic preparedness. ISED also worked with the National Research Council, the Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada and others to develop COVID‑19 themed challenges through Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) to meet the immediate needs of the health care system.
ISED maintained its efforts to help Canadian businesses facing economic challenges by supporting their resiliency and growth through funding opportunities. The Department continued to provide tailored support to Canadian businesses, by working across government and with partners, in helping them connect to the key supports they need via the Accelerated Growth Service (AGS).
In 2020–21, ISED supported the Government's commitment to advance the economic inclusion and empowerment of women and traditionally underrepresented groups. The Department adopted a whole-of-government approach to advance Canada's first-ever Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES), helping Canadian women to start and grow their businesses and further build Canada's future competitiveness and overall prosperity. This included funding focused on supporting Indigenous women and those in remote and rural communities to start and grow their businesses.
Bolstering support for Canadian businesses to adapt, innovate and export
In 2020–21, the Department maintained and increased support to entrepreneurs and Canadian SMEs, aiming to help them not only survive but also recover and expand to new markets.
ISED has progressed on the Government's commitment to bridging businesses through the pandemic to increase readiness for economic recovery. For example, ISED's Innovation Superclusters Initiative (ISI) supported Canada's COVID‑19 response by co-funding hundreds of projects and activities, including pandemic-related ones, that benefited key industrial ecosystems. In 2020–21, ISED maintained and increased efforts to help Canadian businesses survive and grow by providing additional support in the face of economic challenges due to the COVID‑19 pandemic.
ISED also supported Canada's Export Diversification Strategy, including the Government's objective of making Canada a more globally connected economy and increasing Canada's overseas exports.
Ensuring access for all Canadians to the digital economy
The COVID‑19 pandemic has underscored how important it is to have access to high-quality and affordable Internet and wireless services, including in rural and remote regions of Canada. Canadians can more readily participate in the digital economy while staying connected to people and essential services through reliable Internet and wireless. With increased investments in broadband in 2021, the Department has continued to implement Canada's Connectivity Strategy, now aiming to connect 98% of Canadians across the country to high-speed Internet by 2026, and all Canadians by 2030. ISED has also made spectrum available to support competition, rural connectivity and the effective deployment of 5G technologies.
Digital skills have become essential for participating in today's society, and ISED continued to equip Canadians with skills that allow them to fully participate in the digital economy. Through programs such as CanCode and Computers for Schools, ISED provided Canadian youth with opportunities to learn, develop relevant digital skills and access digital equipment.
ISED also continued to advance Canada's Digital Charter to build an innovative, competitive, people-centered and inclusive digital and data economy built on trust and the protection of citizens' privacy.
Leveraging Canada's regional economic strengths for recovery
In 2020–21, ISED worked to support sectors hard hit by the pandemic, including the tourism sector. ISED also continued to work with RDAs in supporting communities across Canada as they develop and enhance tourism products, facilities and experiences via the Canadian Experiences Fund (CEF),Endnote i and other tourism-related initiatives. Furthermore, ISED supported the launch of the Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program (HASCAP), led by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), financing a high proportion of Canadian businesses in the tourism sector.
ISED continued to work with RDAs to equip them with the funding and tools they need to support economic recovery in a manner that responds to the needs of Canadians in all regions. For example, the Department worked with RDAs to develop and successfully deliver a number of new relief programs announced in 2020–21, such as the RRRF. ISED, in partnership with RDAs, successfully developed and rolled out relief programs announced in 2020 to support Canadian businesses through pandemic-related economic challenges. In March 2021, RDAs also launched the Regional Air Transportation Initiative (RATI) to help regional air transportation ecosystems affected by the economic impacts of COVID‑19. This support aims to ensure that regional air connectivity and services, which are critical to economic growth, are maintained and that regional routes are reconnected across the country.
| Total actual spending for 2020–21 | Total actual full-time equivalents for 2020–21 |
|---|---|
| 2,853,177,513 | 5,411 |
For more information on Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's plans, priorities and results achieved, see the "Results: what we achieved" section of this report.
Results: what we achieved
People, Skills and Communities
Description:
Support the creation, transfer and diffusion of knowledge to ensure that Canadians, including under-represented individuals, are equipped with the skills and tools to participate in an innovative, high-growth economy; advance a culture of innovation where Canadians are motivated to address local, regional, national and/or global challenges; benefit from growth of the middle class across communities; have increased access to affordable broadband and mobile Internet, including in rural and remote regions; and are protected and informed consumers.
Results:
Departmental Result: Canada has a highly skilled workforce that is equipped for jobs in an innovative and high-growth economy
Digital skills are essential for participation in today's society, whether for booking a medical appointment, banking safely, studying or looking for a job. Learning these skills and understanding technologies will increase the amount of information and number of online resources that Canadians can access.
To compete in the digital economy, Canada needs a workforce savvy in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), capable of taking on challenges. That's why ISED continues to invest in providing work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities to connect scientific knowledge to business innovation, in preparing the next generation of Canadian workers to succeed in the increasingly digital economy, and in helping young Canadians improve their digital skills.
ISED continued to invest in the CanCode program, which aims to give students from kindergarten to Grade 12, including those from traditionally under-represented groups, the opportunity to learn digital skills such as coding and digital content development. More than 1.3M training opportunities were offered in 2020–21, for a combined total of 2.6M training opportunities since the second phase, CanCode 2.0, was launched in 2019–20.
The Department supported a total of 27 not-for-profit organizations across Canada and helped to facilitate more than 4.7M training opportunities via the CanCode program since its launch in 2017. While these indicators point to positive program outcomes, some organizations still faced challenges with project delivery because of the COVID‑19 pandemic. A program review was conducted in 2020–21 to help support the program renewal strategy, and outcomes from this report will help the program improve its ability to measure impact.
In 2020–21, ISED continued work to support youth who faced unprecedented challenges due to the COVID‑19 pandemic by reinvesting in the Digital Skills for Youth (DS4Y) program. The funding for the program in 2020–21 was $49.5M, which included additional COVID-19 funding. The program supported 2,110 youth internships, surpassing the target of 630. Of these interns, 51% were women, 34% were visible minorities, 3% were people with disabilities, 5% were Indigenous youth and 6% were official language minorities.
During the COVID‑19 pandemic, ISED increased support to employers to up to 100% of the eligible wage costs and increased the funding for internships to $30,000, up from the $20,000 that was planned as part of the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) modernization. This allowed employers who were struggling financially to hire youth to help their businesses grow, while also covering the cost of training youth interns.
ISED also supported post-secondary students and recent graduates during the pandemic through the Business Higher Education Roundtable (BHER) Canada Comeback Challenge (C3). C3 hosted 811 students as they completed industry-focused projects designed to build real-world experience and help employers overcome emerging challenges. In parallel to the C3, BHER also secured commitments from 11 partners to achieve its target of 44,000 WIL placements by March 31, 2022.
Additionally, ISED contributions through Mitacs supported 15,847 WIL placements in 2020–21. Of these placements, 10,847 were implemented as part of Mitacs' regular funding commitments, while an additional 5,000 were supported under the Government of Canada's COVID-19 response.
The Department increased effort and funding for the Computers for Schools Plus Internship (CFSI) program through the YESS to help support youth who faced unprecedented challenges due to the COVID‑19 pandemic, increasing the target for youth internships from 210 interns to 450. In addition, the program increased its support to employers to up to 100% of the eligible wage costs and increased the funding for internships to $30K. While there were challenges, the CFSI program supported a total of 331 youth in 2020–21.
ISED has continued to increase opportunities for fundamental digital literacy training. In 2020–21, ISED supported 36 not-for-profit partner organizations through the Digital Literacy Exchange Program (DLEP) to deliver initiatives that teach fundamental digital literacy skills to under-represented groups across Canada. Over 152,000 participants have been reached since the start of the program, which has now achieved its target of reaching 100,000 Canadians by March 31, 2022. The delivery partners were successful in changing their program delivery model to online learning due to the COVID‑19 pandemic.
Departmental Result: Canadian communities are connected to and use digital infrastructure
The COVID‑19 pandemic has highlighted how much Canadians rely on digital connections. Now more than ever, Canadians across the country need access to reliable high-speed Internet as many continue to work, learn, access essential services, and stay in touch with friends and family from home. Many Canadians living in rural and remote communities lack access to high-speed Internet.
In 2019, the Government introduced Canada's first broadband strategy, High-Speed Access for All: Canada's Connectivity Strategy,Endnote ii which committed to connecting 95% of Canadian households to high speed Internet by 2026 and all Canadian households by 2030.
In 2020–21, ISED continued to implement the Government of Canada's Connectivity Strategy through the development of the UBF program, which is designed to fund broadband infrastructure projects that will bring high-speed Internet to rural and remote communities. The COVID-19 pandemic added greater urgency for connectivity and as a result, when the UBF launched on November 9, 2020, the Government accelerated its targets and provided an additional $750M to the program. This increased UBF funding was to help ensure that 98% of Canadians will be connected to broadband by 2026, with the goal of connecting all Canadians by 2030. Furthermore, the Rapid Response Stream of the UBF was created to support smaller projects that can bring connectivity to Canadians by November 2021. By March 31, 2021, the Government had announced nearly $25M in funding for 26 connectivity projects to connect over 18,000 households.
Additionally, in March 2021, the Government of Canada and Government of Quebec announced their partnership with Internet service providers Vidéotron, Cogeco, Bell, Xplornet, Sogetel, and TELUS to launch the extensive Canada-Quebec Operation High Speed project. This will connect nearly 150,000 additional homes to high-speed Internet by September 2022 and is a key milestone toward our connectivity goals.
ISED also maintained strong relationships with stakeholders to ensure that policies and programs were available in remote areas. For example, given the urgency for connectivity in the context of the pandemic, additional investments were made to secure high-speed Internet capacity and accelerate the delivery of high-speed Internet to rural and remote communities.
With the increased support for federal broadband initiatives, a request was made to help navigate the application process. The UBF introduced a Pathfinder Service to help applicants—which may be Internet service providers and municipalities, particularly smaller and Indigenous ones—understand the UBF application process and connect to other relevant sources of funding.
In 2020–21, ISED announced an agreement with Telesat to secure high-speed Internet capacity over Canada through the company's low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation. Telesat's constellation will utilize next-generation technology to significantly improve connectivity in rural and remote Canada, including the Far North. This capacity will be made available to Internet service providers at a reduced rate in order to provide reliable high-speed Internet access to the most challenging rural and remote communities in Canada.
Through the Connect to Innovate (CTI) program, ISED continued to enhance broadband service in rural and remote communities. Since its launch in 2019, 32 additional projects were announced to connect 118 additional communities to high-speed Internet. Of these projects, 9 were announced in 2020–21, impacting 13 communities. Additionally, in 2020–21, a large number of projects became operational, and as a result, 696 more communities across the country now have access to high-speed Internet, including 80 Indigenous ones. Furthermore, a new CTI tracker was published online in order to increase accountability and to allow Canadians to track the progress of the projects in their area. Through the Connecting Families initiative, 75,506 families are now receiving $10 Internet packages as of March 31, 2021.
These additional investments brought the Government of Canada's total broadband funding to approximately $6B when including complementary broadband programs such as the Investing in Canada's Infrastructure Program's Rural and Northern Communities Stream, and broadband programs through the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Across all federal programs, by March 31, 2021, the Government of Canada approved over $1B in funding for projects to connect over 620,000 Canadian households. Of these households, 165,000 are already benefitting from improved connectivity.
Through the Computers for Schools Plus (CFS+) program, the Department continued to provide digital tools such as computers and other digital devices to an expanded audience that included libraries, not-for-profit organizations, Indigenous communities and eligible low-income Canadians. This is achieved through CFS+, the CFSI program and the Connecting Families initiative.
In 2020–21, ISED continued to provide digital hardware to Canadian organizations via the CFS+ program. The Department distributed 70,591 computers to schools, libraries and non-profit organizations, among others, which is near our target of 72,000. Furthermore, ISED provided an additional 10,199 refurbished computers to low-income families through the Connecting Families initiative, bringing the total number of refurbished computers distributed over the life of the program to more than 1.8M. As of March 31, 2021, CFS+ had distributed devices to schools (62.3%), non-for-profit organizations (33%), other groups (3.4%), libraries (
ISED continues to invest in hardware and software solutions that help Canadians with disabilities. Investments through the Accessible Technology Program (ATP) helped Canadians overcome barriers that come in the way of their full participation in the workplace. In 2020–21, ISED launched two ATP calls for proposals, resulting in the selection of an additional five new technology development projects. ISED's ATP co-funds projects led by research institutes, private sector companies and not-for-profit organizations to develop innovative assistive and adaptive digital devices and technologies to remove barriers to employment faced by Canadians with disabilities. The ATP was first launched in 2017–18, and by March 31, 2021, it had 25 projects in development. The COVID‑19 pandemic impacted the funding recipients and their ability to test their innovative solutions with users. The funding recipients were creative in developing ways to test their technology remotely without compromising the health and safety of people living with disabilities and who are already vulnerable.
ISED continued to influence the modernization of related legislative and regulatory frameworks. For instance, ISED continued to modernize the Telecommunications Act for next generation telecommunication that supports competition, consumer privacy, trust, and business confidence in the Canadian marketplace.
Departmental Result: Canada's entrepreneurs represent all segments of Canadian society
Canadian entrepreneurs are key to the economic success of the country, and they make invaluable contributions to our communities. However, many entrepreneurs from vulnerable and minority groups still face unique and systemic barriers to starting and growing a business, and they remain under-represented in the economy.
ISED led efforts for the launch of the 50 – 30 Challenge, which asks Canadian companies, not-for-profit organizations and post-secondary institutions to commit to achieving gender parity (50%) and significant representation (30%) of other under-represented groups—including racialized persons, Indigenous people, people living with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ2+ community—on corporate boards and in senior management positions.
In 2020–21, ISED continued to support the Government's commitment to advance the economic empowerment of women. The Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES) is a whole-of-government strategy that works toward the goal of increasing the number of women-owned businesses in Canada. In 2020–21, efforts were focused on COVID‑19 response and recovery measures for Canadians, including women entrepreneurs. Work also continued on advancing the collection and tracking of gender and diversity data for business-facing programs. Through a $30M investment in the WES Women Entrepreneurship Fund, the Government provided funding for more than 320 women-owned and women-led businesses, with projects reflecting the regional, sectoral and demographic diversity of women entrepreneurs in Canada, including Indigenous women.
In response to the unique challenges faced by women entrepreneurs during the COVID‑19 crisis, the Government approved an additional $15M for the WES Ecosystem Fund in 2020–21.
This complemented investments in the WES Ecosystem Fund to enhance business advisory, mentoring and support services required to improve the likelihood of business survival and recovery through two not-for-profit organizations: the Northern Ontario Women program and the PARO Centre for Women's Enterprise.
The Northern Ontario Women program—supported through the WES Ecosystem Fund and administered through the LaCloche Manitoulin Business Assistance Corporation Community Small Business Loans & Resources as well as the Northern Ontario Community Fund Women in Business Enhancement Project—supported women-owned and women-led businesses in starting up and scaling up by increasing their access to business development supports throughout the region.
The PARO Centre for Women's Enterprise, with funding through the Regional Economic Growth Through Innovation (REGI) program, implemented a growth strategy to help women-owned companies further advance their productivity, competitiveness, business management, connections, and readiness to grow and export. The strategy included enhanced support for its Enterprising Indigenous Women project, with a focus on supporting Indigenous women in remote and rural communities in starting and scaling up their businesses.
The Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH) participated in, or co-sponsored, more than 1,400 events in 2020–21. This included 90 events related to the impacts of the COVID‑19 pandemic on women entrepreneurs as well as webinars on supports for women entrepreneurs during the pandemic. Responding to the emerging and changing needs of women entrepreneurs, in March 2020, WEKH partnered with the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE) and SheEO to launch the WEKH/FWE: Sharing Platform, an informal knowledge centre connecting women entrepreneurs and business support organizations. In 2020–21, the Sharing Platform had 930 active users.
WEKH hosted its second annual conference as a month-long event series beginning in late February 2021. The event series, presented in collaboration with Women's Enterprise Organizations of Canada, attracted over 1,300 attendees, covered a wide range of topics and showcased well-known speakers.
In March 2021, the "See It. Be It." database was launched on the WEKH website to help connect users to over 1,000 diverse, award-winning Canadian women entrepreneurs from a wide range of industries, sectors, stages of business and geographic regions.
With respect to Indigenous entrepreneurs, ISED continues to work with Indigenous Services Canada and with key business partners such as the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business and the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada to support economic development for Indigenous businesses and entrepreneurs.
The Black Entrepreneurship Program, launched in 2020, is being implemented over the coming years in collaboration with the RDAs and key partners such as the Business Development Bank of Canada and participating financial institutions interested in supporting the broader goal of increasing access to capital for Black-owned businesses and Black entrepreneurs. The Program is part of ongoing adjustments to ISED programming to encourage economic recovery.
The Department worked with Canada's RDAs to develop and successfully deliver a number of new relief programs announced in 2020–21, such as the RRRF of more than $2B. As part of Canada's COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, the RRRF provided assistance to businesses and communities that may require additional support to cope with and recover from the pandemic. Since the launch of the RRRF in April 2020, the six RDAs and nearly 270 Community Futures organizations have delivered over $1.7B, as of the end of 2020–21, to close to 23,700 businesses and organizations, helping to preserve over 188,000 jobs across the country. The RDAs have also been essential in implementing other programs that target economic recovery and growth, such as the REGI program and WES.
Prior to the pandemic, FedNor was making significant progress in implementing the Prosperity and Growth Strategy for Northern Ontario (PGSNO). In light of the new economic reality, the strategy's priorities—supporting innovation, growing companies and building stronger communities—remain highly relevant and are now even more critical to economic recovery and resiliency in Northern Ontario. Under the PGSNO, as part of Canada's regional approach to economic development, FedNor provided support to innovators and entrepreneurs in Northern Ontario through strategic REGI investments focused on cultivating innovation and technology to accelerate the development of new products and enhance the adoption of advanced manufacturing technology. In 2020–21, FedNor provided $24.5M in investments to SMEs and not-for-profit organizations through REGI's Business Scale-up and Productivity (BSP) and Regional Innovation Ecosystems streams. REGI funding through FedNor also leveraged over $166M through strategic partners to grow businesses and create the conditions for the development of strong, dynamic and inclusive regional innovation ecosystems in Northern Ontario.
In 2020–21, FedNor supported conferences focused on population growth strategies for Northern Ontario. These events attracted over 300 people representing 100 organizations and resulted in the production of a report and recommended action plan to implement a Come North strategy across Northern Ontario.
At the onset of the pandemic, ISED developed a new network of communication to and from the small business community. Its purpose was to inform and engage SMEs and the organizations that support pandemic relief programs and to ensure that their insights and reflections were captured and shared across government. Approximately 1,500 businesses and support organizations, as well as other business-facing government department representatives at the federal, provincial/territorial and municipal level, participate in these forums.
Gender-based Analysis Plus
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted marginalized groups more intensely in a variety of ways. ISED continued to refine its Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) framework to meet the challenges faced by these different groups as we learn from the experience of emergency measures to design more sustained policies and programs that reimagine an inclusive, post-pandemic economic recovery.
Work remains to narrow the gaps that exist not only between women and men but also among historically under-represented groups, such as Indigenous peoples, visible minorities and persons with disabilities.
Canada's diversity is a source of strength and a key driver of economic growth, and many of the programs at ISED work to positively impact marginalized groups, including but not limited to young Canadians, Indigenous peoples and people with disabilities.
For example, learning digital skills is extremely valuable to all Canadians but often can be challenging to access for members of marginalized groups. The CanCode program has given students from kindergarten to Grade 12, including those from traditionally under-represented groups, the opportunity to learn digital skills such as coding and digital content development.
Canadians with disabilities often experience additional challenges within an increasingly technology-focused world. ISED continues to invest in hardware and software solutions that help Canadians with disabilities, through the ATP.
Finally, Covid-19 has highlighted how important access to affordable and reliable broadband is to marginalized communities within Canada. For example, the Connecting Families initiative has provided 75,506 families with $10 Internet packages as of March 31, 2021.
Experimentation
ISED has continued to foster an environment of innovation and intelligent risk-taking, and laid the groundwork for more experimentation. With much of the world shifting to new realities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so did the Department. ISED changed its focus and adapted quickly to find ways to support and improve its services to businesses through evidence-based decision making. In addition to the Department growing its capacity and appetite for experimentation, foundational research done in 2020–21 is available to be used to inform future program and policy design.
With the varying impacts of COVID-19, the Department took the opportunity to experiment and better understand the digitalization needs and expectations of SMEs and discover why some adapt well while others continue to face challenges. In 2020–21, Phase 1 of the "Digital Adoption Journey of Canadian SMEs" research project was initiated, involving in-depth user interviews and follow-ups with businesses at various levels of digital adoption maturity. Results and insights contributed to a more robust definition of digital adoption and will serve as the foundation to help design and measure future experimentation interventions.
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Information supporting reporting on the 2020 Agenda for Sustainable Development is available as part of ISED's Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy (DSDS) ReportFootnote 1.
| Departmental results | Performance indicators (Note 1) | Target | Date to achieve target | 2018–19 Actual results | 2019–20 Actual results | 2020–21 Actual results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada has a highly skilled workforce that is equipped for jobs in an innovative and high-growth economy | Percentage of professional, science and technology-related jobs in Canada's economy | 40% | December 31, 2025 | 34% (2018) | 35% (2019) | 37% (2020) |
| Number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates in Canada | 175,000 | December 31, 2025 | 131,520 (2018) | Not available (Note 2) | Not available (Note 3) | |
| Number of Canadians that receive digital and coding skills training and development opportunities through ISED programs | 2,000,000 (Note 4) | March 31, 2021 | 1,750,000 | 1,347,363 | 1,449,071 (Note 5) | |
| Canadian communities are connected to and use digital infrastructure | Percentage of population with access to ultrafast broadband (1 GBPS) (Note 6) | 80% | December 31, 2020 | 65% (2018) | 61.1% (2019) (Note 7) | Not available (Note 8) |
| Percentage of households with an Internet connection (including across underserved individuals, such as low-income) | 100% | December 31, 2025 | 91% | 91% (Note 9) | 94% (Note 10) | |
| Canada's entrepreneurs represent all segments of Canadian society | Percentage of SMEs that are majority-owned by women (Note 11) | 25% | December 31, 2025 | Not available | Not available | Not available |
| Percentage of SMEs that are majority-owned by Indigenous people (Note 12) | 1.6% | December 31, 2025 | Not available | Not available | Not available | |
| Percentage of SMEs that are majority-owned by youth (Note 13) | 17% | December 31, 2025 | Not available | Not available | Not available | |
| Percentage of SMEs that are majority-owned by visible minorities (Note 14) | 14% | December 31, 2025 | Not available | Not available | Not available | |
| Percentage of SMEs that are majority-owned by persons with disabilities (Note 15) | 0.6% | December 31, 2025 | Not available | Not available | Not available | |
| Number of SMEs supported by ISED programs, including those that are majority-owned by women, Indigenous people, youth, visible minorities and persons with disabilities (Note 16) | Target not specified (Note 17) | Date not set | Total SMEs supported by ISED program: 804 (Futurpreneur only) (Note 18) | Total SMEs supported by ISED programs: 11,744 Majority-owned by women: 3,709 Majority-owned by Indigenous peoples: 405 Majority-owned by youth: 1,303 Majority-owned by visible minorities: 1,265 Majority-owned by persons with disabilities: 2 (Note 19) | Total SMEs supported by ISED programs: 20,832 (Note 20) Majority-owned by women: 13,254 Majority-owned by Indigenous peoples: 154 Majority-owned by youth: 1,549 Majority-owned by visible minorities: 905 Majority-owned by persons with disabilities: 21 (Note 21) | |
| ||||||
| 2020–21 Main Estimates | 2020–21 Planned spending | 2020–21 Total authorities available for use | 2020–21 Actual spending (authorities used) | 2020–21 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 470,190,113 | 470,190,113 | 714,602,707 | 551,479,827 | 81,289,714 |
Variance is a result of higher actual spending than planned due to additional funding received in-year ($244M) from Canada's COVID‑19 Economic Response Plan, Public Health Events of National Concern Act, and Budget 2019. Offsetting this is unused funding under the Connect to Innovate program, the Universal Broadband Fund, the Shop Local Initiative, and the Northern Ontario Development Program mostly due to various project delays encountered by recipients with signed contribution agreements in place or delays in the negotiation of new contribution agreements, mainly resulting from the economic slow down caused by COVID‑19. Unused funding will be brought forward to future years.
| 2020–21 Planned full‑time equivalents | 2020–21 Actual full‑time equivalents | 2020–21 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full‑time equivalents) |
|---|---|---|
| 188 | 216 | 28 |
Variances are due primarily to new salary funding received in-year under Canada's COVID‑19 Economic Response Plan (Shop Local Initiative), as well as for the UBF from Budget 2019.
Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to ISED's Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.Endnote v
Science, Technology, Research and Commercialization
Description:
Support and enable business-led investment and strategic collaborations for leading-edge technology development and commercialization; maintain and strengthen Canada's research excellence, including support for fundamental science, experimentation and exploration to address global challenges.
Results:
Departmental Result: World-leading superclusters are grown in Canada
ISED has continued to support the innovation and growth of Canadian businesses amidst the global pandemic, resulting in good quality jobs and economic support for Canadians. ISED continued to support the Innovation Superclusters Initiative (ISI)Endnote vi – an initiative of nearly $1B over 5 years aiming to encourage industry leaders, small and medium-sized companies and post-secondary institutions to collaborate on large-scale projects, in order to speed up growth in some of Canada's most promising industries. This initiative aims to foster and incentivize economic ecosystems in different sectors by empowering Canadian businesses to connect with collaborators, attract talent and capital, as well as grow and innovate. ISI accomplishes this through its efforts to grow clusters—dense areas of business activity containing large and small companies, as well as post-secondary and other research institutions—into business-led innovation superclusters.
In addition to delivering their regular programming, ISED's superclusters pivoted to support Canada's COVID‑19 response. This included more than 325 approved projects, worth over $1.42B, and over 80 projects related to COVID‑19. There were co-investments in innovation valued in excess of $1.42B, including more than $855M from industry and other partners, and over $565M in program funding. There were 1,330 project partners—over half of which were SMEs—leading to 6,100 jobs created and 6,000 member organizations supported through programming.
In 2020–21, ISED incentivized collaboration among large and small businesses as well as post-secondary and other research institutions. Over 670 Canadian SMEs supported by ISED's superclusters have found new opportunities for collaboration, enabling them to scale up and access new markets. The superclusters helped SMEs expand their networks, access expertise and business intelligence as well as connect with new customers and global supply chains.
ISED has continued to work with superclusters to identify opportunities to leverage the superclusters' innovation ecosystems to advance Canada's priorities and grow its competitive advantage, such as building Canadian electronic vehicle capacity to meet net-zero targets.
ISED connected federal officials and the superclusters in support of regulatory modernization and standards development. It identified international market opportunities for the superclusters to attract talent, investments and partnerships to strengthen Canadian ecosystems. For example, the Protein Industries Supercluster showcased Canadian plant protein opportunities in a virtual Japan–Taiwan trade mission in January 2021 on why to invest in Canada.
By incentivizing collaborative projects, ISED fostered new research partnerships between the private sector and post-secondary/research institutions. These collaborations deepened research and development investment in key areas of Canada, leading to competitive advantages in food technology, batteries and minerals, aerospace, digital health, and the plant protein sector, among others. An example of supporting competitive advantages is the Digital Technology Supercluster's program, dedicated to building and delivering digital solutions to address COVID‑19 issues. Industry, public sector and post-secondary partners came together quickly to respond and keep Canadians safe and healthy. It resulted in 33 projects with a total value of $89.6M ($60.1M in governmental funding and $29.5M in partner funding).
Furthermore, ISED boosted efforts to reinforce stakeholder collaboration in the field of science, research and technology. For example, ISED's superclusters pivoted to support Canada's COVID-19 response by investing in hundreds of innovative projects. Research and other scientific organizations part of ISED's Portfolio also continued their work and inclusive collaborative to nurture the Canadian research ecosystem.
Departmental Result: Canadian businesses invest more in research and development
The COVID‑19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of a strong and vibrant science and research ecosystem that can support cutting-edge developments. In 2020–21, ISED continued to nurture this ecosystem by supporting research and development (R&D) projects across sectors.
Business expenditure on research and development (BERD) shows private sector commitment to, and investment in, innovation. ISED continued to foster collaborations between the private sector and post-secondary institutions to grow BERD. The latest available Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) figures place Canadian BERD-to-GDP at 0.79%.
ISED created an atmosphere to support R&D spending in Canada. In 2019, Canadian businesses spent a record high of $21.7B on in-house R&D, which marked a 3.8% increase over 2018 spending. Preliminary estimates, which are typically conservative, seem to suggest that the pandemic had minimal impacts on in-house R&D expenditures in 2020, decreasing by 3.2% to $21B, and projected to stay at $21B in 2021.
Departmental Result: Canada has a world-leading research capacity
Supporting Canada's research capacity can help enable economic opportunities and enhance innovation and research. In 2020–21, ISED continued to support the Government of Canada's commitment to protecting the health and safety of all Canadians while ensuring economic resilience and contributing to the international response to COVID‑19.
Through the Canada Research Coordinating Committee (CRCC) and in partnership with the granting agenciesFootnote 1 and Statistics Canada, ISED continued to lead and participate in work to remove barriers to equitable and diverse participation in Canada's post-secondary research community. Notable accomplishments include finalizing a new version of the Tri-Agency on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action PlanFootnote vii; continuing implementation of the Dimensions: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Canada program to remove systemic barriers and improve equity, diversity and inclusion by providing a structure for universities and colleges to transform their research culture; and collecting and publishing better data on EDI through the Survey of Postsecondary Faculty and Researchers, in partnership with Statistics Canada. Further, a call for membership was launched for the Indigenous Leadership Circle in Research to advise funding organizations on the implementation of the CRCC's strategic plan, Setting New Directions to Support Indigenous Research and Research Training in Canada 2019–2022.Endnote viii
ISED continued to participate in a range of initiatives to support greater harmonization, integration and coordination of research-related programs and policies. ISED's work through the CRCC involved the three federal granting agencies and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), along with the National Research Council and the Chief Science Advisor. The CRCC played a role in coordinating the efforts of Canada's research funding agencies to respond to the COVID‑19 pandemic by providing strategic oversight of the Canada Research Continuity Emergency Fund to sustain research excellence at universities and health research institutions during the pandemic; by providing top-up funding and extensions to New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) Exploration grant recipients facing interruptions to their research; and by awarding $7M through the NFRF for 15 rapid response research projects examining and developing solutions to address issues related to COVID‑19 across a range of approaches.
ISED continued to pursue partnerships that will advance Canada's vision for science and research and support a thriving research ecosystem. Examples include supporting regular engagement with the provinces and territories, fostering international partnerships through bilateral and multilateral partnerships, and exploring possibilities for closer ties under Horizon Europe and with specific countries, such as the United States. ISED also continued to foster international research collaboration by supporting the participation of Canadian researchers in European Union Horizon 2020 projects.
ISED, in collaboration with Health Canada, has advanced the work on the design and establishment of the Strategic Science Fund, a fund aiming to mobilize the expertise and resources of independent, third-party science and research organizations to enhance Canada's science, technology and innovation excellence. This initiative takes into consideration the special role that thirdparty science research organizations play in the Canadian science and research ecosystem with a combination of expertise, skills and training. ISED has continued to engage with key federal partners and stakeholders to ensure that the fund design reflects a coherent, systematic approach that allows for prioritization of federal investments based on fair, transparent and evidence-based decisions.
Throughout 2020–21, ISED continued to implement and monitor contributions made to third-party science and research organizations to ensure effective delivery of research, commercialization and innovation-related activities across Canada, including rapid responses to the COVID‑19 pandemic.
Supporting Research for COVID‑19 Response
In addition to managing existing contributions, the Department supported Canadian research to help in the COVID‑19 response. In 2020–21, ISED has:
- Developed and implemented a contribution for Genome Canada to lead the Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network in response to the pandemic
- Managed the reassignment of a contribution from the Centre for Drug Research and Development to adMare BioInnovations to expand Canada's drug development and commercialization activities in the life sciences and biomanufacturing sectors
- Provided flexibility for Stem Cell Network (SCN) and Genome Canada to launch pandemic-focused funding initiatives
- Supported Genome Canada's partnering with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) on separate COVID-19-related funding competitions
- Supported CIFAR in convening global experts across the fields of AI, public health, epidemiology and infectious diseases to discuss measures to mitigate and stop the COVID‑19 pandemic and identify how AI can play a role in addressing some of the most pressing questions
ISED remains engaged in efforts to create world-class research capacity aiming to position Canada at the forefront of new discoveries, spark innovative ways of doing research and deliver on research priorities for Canadians. In 2020–21, ISED continued to support Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) in its work on the Laboratories Canada strategy, which aims to facilitate collaboration, reduce barriers, and provide the necessary infrastructure, equipment and information technology that federal scientists need to carry out the important work they do on behalf of Canadians.
ISED, through its contribution agreements with the CFI, continued to support the evolving needs for state-of-the-art equipment, laboratories and facilities at Canada's post-secondary institutions and research hospitals. In 2020–21, CFI funded over 100 projects in support of innovative research and technology development, over 300 projects to help institutions attract and retain world-leading researchers, and over 20 projects to help colleges foster strategic partnerships with the private sector. Additionally, the CFI was provided the flexibility to roll out two special competitions (one for universities and one for colleges) to support COVID‑19-related research. Nearly 80 projects, responding to urgent needs for equipment for ongoing research related to COVID‑19, were funded.
In 2020–21, ISED supported the Chief Science Advisor of Canada to double down in advancing the Department's COVID‑19 pandemic efforts. For example, the Department supported the Chief Science Advisor in leading a successful international collaboration to apply the principles of open science and open data to all COVID‑19-related research, past and present, in order to help speed the pace of discovery. Furthermore, ISED supported the Chief Science Advisor in increased public engagement to help Canadians understand the science behind COVID‑19 and the mitigation measures needed to slow its spread. ISED also created the CanCOVID network, a platform designed specifically for COVID‑19 researchers, clinical collaborators and health care stakeholders from across Canada to facilitate communication; assist in the research and measurement of COVID‑19 immunity; and share evidence-based tools with clinics on the front lines. This provided a line of communication between all these groups and government decision makers. The need for such a network was identified jointly by the Chief Science Advisor's Expert Panel on COVID‑19, the Departmental Science Advisors Network and the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities.
Over the course of 2020–21, ISED developed a science review framework to update and enhance the methods and integrity of the science used in decision making under the Impact Assessment Act (2019) based on feedback received from external institutions and implicated federal departments.
In 2020–21, ISED continued to implement the Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) Strategy to provide Canadian researchers, scientists and scholars with the digital tools and services they need to conduct world-leading research that supports innovation and the DRI ecosystem in Canada. ISED also continued to monitor and support the development of the New Digital Research Infrastructure Organization (NDRIO).
Under the advanced research computing expansion program, ISED continued to support infrastructure that increased available computing processing resources by approximately 37% and graphic processing capacities by 67%. As a result of installation delays caused by the COVID‑19 pandemic, ISED's contribution agreements with recipients were extended to March 31, 2022.
In 2020–21, ISED continued to safeguard, maintain and increase connectivity, including for Canadians in northern and rural areas. This included work done via CANARIE, which continues to operate and maintain the high-speed digital network that connects research institutions across the country. Through 2020–21, CANARIE deployed additional network capacity to support traffic growth, supported northern connectivity, improved core network reliability, and deployed software networking applications and support tools. CANARIE also continued to develop and implement its enhanced cybersecurity mandate by improving the overall security posture from the core of the network up to the end-user, and worked with security partners on providing integrated security solutions.
In 2020–21, ISED maintained support to expand Canada's strength in AI through the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy (PCAIS). Announced in Budget 2017 with funding of $125M, the PCAIS was launched to attract, retain and develop world-leading academic talent at universities across Canada and advance cutting-edge research at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), the Vector Institute, and the Mila Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute (Mila). Administered by CIFAR since 2017, the PCAIS has helped Canada secure a strong pool of talent and maintain a globally competitive position in AI research. In 2020–21, CIFAR announced the appointment of 29 top academics as PCAIS chairs affiliated with Amii, Mila and the Vector Institute, bringing the total number of national PCAIS chairs to over 100, including over 50 leading international researchers recruited to Canada. Since 2017, the national institutes have trained over 1,400 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, many of whom are international students.
In addition, the Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence (the Council), supported by ISED as the Secretariat, was created with a mandate to advise the federal government on how Canada can build on its strengths and global leadership in AI, create inclusive economic growth, and ensure that developments in AI reflect the values of Canadians. In 2020–21, the Council played a critical role in informing the renewal and expansion of the PCAIS as announced in Budget 2021.
Under the leadership of ISED, the Public Awareness Working Group, established under and reporting to the Council, undertook significant efforts to advance the conversation with the Canadian public on the social and economic impacts of AI. The working group began by launching a national survey to capture and assess the understanding and interest of Canadians in AI and its systems. Subsequently, the working group launched a national series of virtual workshops to discuss the ethical dilemmas posed by particular AI applications through exploring specific AI use case scenarios. As a part of this engagement, the working group also hosted dedicated youth workshops that drew on the experiences of over 140 secondary school students and asked them to share their views and offer advice on proceeding with ethical AI development.
ISED remains committed to supporting research partnerships and collaborations—specifically, the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI),Endnote ix a bilateral initiative announced by Prime Minister Trudeau and the President of FranceEndnote x on the margins of the 2018 G7 Summit and which has now been formalized as a multilateral initiative. Launched in June 2020, the GPAI has grown to 19 members (18 countries and the European Union) united by a shared commitment to the responsible development and use of artificial intelligence, grounded in human rights, inclusion, diversity, innovation and economic growth. GPAI brings together the world's leading experts from science, industry, civil society and government to support cutting-edge research and applied AI projects. GPAI experts collaborate across four working group themes: Responsible AI (including an ad hoc sub-group on AI and Pandemic Response), Data Governance, Future of Work, and Innovation and Commercialization.
As GPAI chair for 2020–21, Canada supported the International Centre of Expertise in Montréal in organizing the first annual GPAI Summit virtually from Montréal. The summit featured the inaugural GPAI Multi-stakeholder Expert Groups Plenary, which brought together over 200 leading AI experts from academia, civil society, industry, worker/trade unions, government and international organizations to review the progress made to date and provide feedback to guide their future work plans. Through 2021, GPAI working groups have worked to establish and begin work on their initial projects, the early results of which will be presented at the November 2021 GPAI Summit in Paris.
Gender-based Analysis Plus
The COVID‑19 pandemic impacted marginalized groups in very different ways—and ISED's GBA Plus framework was updated, and continues to be updated, to meet the challenges these different groups are faced with as we design policy to reopen the economy. Canadians and the global community greatly benefitted from the knowledge generated by Canada's post-secondary researchers, including knowledge that enabled rapid responses to the COVID‑19 pandemic. Diversity and inclusion in academia contributed to greater range of voices.
More work still needs to be done to narrow the gaps that exist in this field, not only between women and men but also among historically under-represented groups, such as Indigenous peoples, visible minorities and persons with disabilities. Making policy decisions and developing programs that provide support for marginalized groups to participate in academia and elsewhere in the science, technology, research and commercialization fields will continue to provide positive outcomes for all Canadians.
Experimentation
ISED has continued to foster an environment of innovation and intelligent risk-taking. With much of the world shifting to new realities due to the COVID‑19 pandemic, so did the Department. ISED changed its focus and adapted quickly to find ways to support and improve its services to businesses through evidence-based decision making. In addition to the Department growing its capacity and appetite for experimentation, foundational research done in 2020–21 is available to be used to inform future program and policy design.
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Information supporting reporting on the 2020 Agenda for Sustainable Development is available as part of ISED's DSDS ReportFootnote xi.
| Departmental results | Performance indicators (Note 1) | Target | Date to achieve target | 2018–19 Actual results | 2019–20 Actual results | 2020–21 Actual results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World-leading superclusters are grown in Canada | Number of new firms created (in targeted areas) (Note 2) | 150 | March 31, 2023 | New Program – data not available to report results | Not available | Not available (Note 3) |
| Number of anchor firms (in targeted areas) (Note 4) | 100 | March 31, 2023 | New Program – data not available to report results | 137 | Not available (Note 5) | |
| Value of investments leveraged to develop clusters as a result of ISED program funding (per dollar invested) (Note 6) | $1.20 | March 31, 2023 | New Program – data not available to report results | Not available (Note 7) | $1.80 for every ISI dollar invested for non-COVID related projects $1.40 for every ISI dollar invested in all projects, including those designated as COVID projects (Note 8) | |
| Canadian businesses invest more in research and development (R&D) | Business Expenditure in R&D in dollars | $30B | December 31, 2025 | $20.9B (2018) | $21.7B (2019) | Not available (Note 9) |
| Percentage of companies engaged in collaborations with higher education institutions (Note 10) | 6.0% | December 31, 2025 | 2.8% (2017-2019) | Not available (Note 11) | Not available (Note 12) | |
| Value of Business Expenditure in R&D by firms receiving Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada program funding (in dollars) (Note 13) | Target not specified | Date not set | $929.3M (2018) | Not available (Note 14) | Not available (Note 15) | |
| Canada has world leading-research capacity | Canada's rank among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations on the citation score of science research publications (Note 16) | 10 | December 31, 2025 | 18 (2018) | 16 (2019) | Not available (Note 17) |
| Number of co-authored publications between federal and non-federal scientists | 2,479 | December 31, 2020 | 2,444 (2018) | 2,598 (2019) | Not available (Note 18) | |
| Value of investments leveraged in science and research infrastructure as a result of ISED program funding (per dollar invested) (Note 19) | $1.00 | March 31, 2021 | $1.60 | $1.50 | $1.60 | |
| ||||||
| 2020–21 Main Estimates | 2020–21 Planned spending | 2020–21 Total authorities available for use | 2020–21 Actual spending (authorities used) | 2020–21 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 968,026,763 | 968,026,763 | 980,759,148 | 819,387,717 | negative (148,639,046) |
Variance is due to unused funding as a result of spending and project implementation delays related to COVID‑19 primarily under the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Digital Research Infrastructure Strategy, Innovation Superclusters Initiative and the Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund. Unused funding will be brought forward to future years. Offsetting the total unused funding is $12.8M received in-year under Canada's COVID‑19 Economic Response Plan for Genome.
| 2020–21 Planned full-time equivalents | 2020–21 Actual full-time equivalents | 2020–21 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full-time equivalents) |
|---|---|---|
| 121 | 131 | 10 |
Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to ISED's Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.Endnote xii
Companies, Investment and Growth
Description:
Provide support to help grow small, medium-sized and large Canadian businesses into globally competitive, high-impact firms; ensure a fair and competitive marketplace; promote the conditions that support competitive prices and product choices, including in the telecommunications sector; simplify government programming; promote efforts to reduce red tape for businesses, putting in place the right conditions for market-driven innovation and promoting inclusive growth and an economy that works for everyone; reduce barriers to the movement of goods, services, capital and labour; grow Canada's tourism sector.
Results
Departmental Result: Canada becomes a global leader in clean technologies
While addressing challenges rising from the COVID19 pandemic has been and continues to be the immediate priority for the Government of Canada, climate change remains a real threat to Canada's economy and to Canadians' health and well-being. Despite being one of the biggest threats of this era, and those to come, addressing climate change, and specifically the transition to a low-carbon economy, also presents key economic opportunities. Through actions to fight climate change and rebuild a more sustainable and resilient economy, new jobs and opportunities can be created for Canadians. ISED remains committed to supporting Canada in becoming a global leader in clean technologies.
In 2020–21, ISED continued to co-lead the Clean Growth Hub with Natural Resources Canada in partnership with 16 departments and agencies—to deliver on its mandate as the federal clean technology focal point by helping stakeholders navigate federal programs and supports that are the most relevant to their needs. In the past year, the Clean Growth Hub supported 633 clients through its single-window service, leveraging knowledge and expertise across the Government of Canada. ISED also undertook engagement, collaboration and consultation activities, including activities dedicated to understanding the impacts of COVID‑19 on clean technology firms and to inform the clean technology sector about government support measures through regular discussion with industry associations and proactive outreach to existing and new clients.
Clean technology development and adoption in Canada contributes to clean growth and the transition to a low-carbon economy. The environmental and economic impacts of the use of clean technologies can be challenging to measure. This is why ISED continues co-lead the Clean Technology Data Strategy, strengthening the federal capacity to track clean technology outcomes. In 2020–21, ISED, in collaboration with the Clean Growth Hub partners, developed a clean tech guidance document to improve data consistency across nine data areas and strengthened the capacity of federal programs to track and report on results from clean technology investments. Several federal programs have begun implementing this guidance in data areas such as greenhouse gas (GHG) estimation, diversity data collection and technology readiness level assessment.
ISED has also advanced environmental priorities through agreements to invest $1.2B in 33 SIF clean technology projects since 2017, including agreements to invest $263M in 6 projects announced in 2020–21. These projects will help advance Canada's clean tech innovation ecosystem and reduce Canadian GHG emissions.
ISED continues to invest in SDTC to identify and nurture Canadian entrepreneurs with transformative ideas and ambitions to meet the climate challenge. In 2020–21, SDTC invested $152M in 92 new projects from across Canada. This included 36 start-up and scale-up projects and 56 firms through SDTC's Seed Fund. The Seed Fund expands SDTC's reach by partnering with accelerators across Canada to provide grants of $50K to $100K through a streamlined application and approval process.
Since 2001, the Government of Canada has invested approximately $1.4B in almost 540 SDTC projects, creating 16,930 direct and indirect jobs. SDTC-funded companies have also reduced GHG emissions by an estimated 22.4 megatonnes annually, while also ensuring greater sustainability in areas such as water usage, agriculture and infrastructure development. SDTC continues to work closely with a network of federal and regional partners to help strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems and provide streamlined, one-window support to Canadian clean tech companies from seed to success.
Departmental Result: Canadian companies are globally competitive and achieve high growth
As the Government continues to address the health, societal and economic impacts of the COVID19 pandemic, efforts have been maintained to purchase and develop vaccines, treatments and related supplies to protect Canadians not just from COVID-19 but from potential future health crisis, and to support economic recovery. This includes investing in Canadian businesses and strengthening the country's life sciences sector.
The Department contributed to the Government's COVID-19 response by establishing support mechanisms and significant funding to rapidly mobilize Canada's industrial capacity. In March 2020, ISED launched the MCM initiative,Endnote xiii one part of which was to provide financial support to companies seeking to undertake COVID-19-related clinical trials of vaccine and therapy candidates, and/or build new critical vaccine or therapy manufacturing capacity in Canada. This initiative also aimed to fund manufacturing capacity at scale to build domestic resilience and improve Canada's long-term pandemic preparedness. As part of the Government of Canada's pandemic response, the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) have collaborated to fund 20 companies developing therapeutics and vaccines in Canada. Biomanufacturing investments made to date through the SIF include more than $984M in commitments to construct or expand large-scale biomanufacturing facilities to produce, fill, and finish vaccines and treatments in Canada, through agreements with Sanofi Pasteur Ltd, Novocol, KABS Laboratories, and Precision Nanosystems Inc. Due to the complex scientific and technical nature of vaccine, therapeutics, and biomanufacturing project proposals, ISED worked with the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force and the COVID-19 Therapeutics Task Force, composed of leading scientific and industry experts. During 2020–21, ISED funded nearly $1B in SIF contributions for the overall MCM Initiative.
To meet the immediate needs of the healthcare system, ISED challenged Canadian entrepreneurs to find innovative solutions. This led to work with the National Research Council, Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada and others to develop new COVID‑19 themed challenges. Collectively, these initiatives launched 20 challenges, secured 87 awards, committed $34M in funding and awarded 75 contracts valued at over $44M and ultimately supported the Canadian healthcare system in combatting COVID‑19 and other illnesses.
As a continuation of this effort, and in response to the 2020 Fall Economic Statement, ISED was called upon to further augment Canada's biomanufacturing and life sciences supply chain capacity by undertaking public consultations in the form of roundtable discussions led by members of Canada's Vaccine Task Force. In addition to the information gathered through the roundtables, ISED received 109 written submissions from a range of stakeholders in Canada's life sciences sector. The results of the consultations are outlined in a publicly available What We Heard Report.Endnote xiv This work is helping to inform additional investments in further developing Canada's future pandemic preparedness capacity, as well as how best to support a thriving life sciences sector across the country.
In 2021, one year after launching the Call to Action mobilizing industry to domestically produce critically needed personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essential commodities to support Canada's frontline healthcare workers, the Made in Canada ProjectEndnote xv has successfully established manufacturing for a range of critical commodities like surgical masks, ventilators, face shields, and chemicals and reagents for testing. With immediate PPE needs met, ISED continues work on policies that will support domestic production to bolster Canada's future national health security.
ISED also led the mobilization of Canadian businesses to better understand and determine impacts from the pandemic on key sectors, Canadian businesses and all Canadians. The Industry Stakeholders Engagement Committee (ISEC) provided a forum to strengthen industry stakeholder engagement related to COVID‑19 and to quickly disseminate tools, guidance and messages to industry to support a stable resumption of the economy guided by public health advice. As a co-chair of ISEC, ISED convened monthly meetings to share policy and communication materials on key COVID‑19 related issues and reached out to nearly 150 associations and companies to promote the use and implementation of the COVID-19 Alert App.
In May 2020, ISED announced the establishment of the Industry Strategy Council (the Council), a forum where experienced business leaders were able to share perspectives regarding the impact of COVID‑19 on key sectors of the Canadian economy and help shape Canada's economic competitiveness amidst new pressures sparked by the pandemic.
The Council undertook deep dives and extensive sectoral engagement, which included conducting nearly 100 consultations, representing more than 1,000 businesses, business associations, academic institutions, labour groups, Indigenous organizations, community organizations and youth groups. In 2020–21, ISED published the Council's final report, "Restart, Recover and Reimagine Prosperity for all Canadians – An Ambitious Growth Plan for Building a Digital, Sustainable and Innovative Economy.Endnote xvi" Through the report recommendations and ongoing discussions, ISED and the Council have helped inform a number of government commitments set out in the 2020 Speech from the Throne, the 2020 Fall Economic Statement and Budget 2021.
ISED continued to work to create opportunities for Canadians and strengthen Canadian industries amid the economic challenges brought on by the COVID‑19 pandemic. In 2020–21, ISED, in cooperation with the Canada Enterprise Emergency Funding Corporation and the Department of Finance, implemented the Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility. This program provides emergency funding support for large Canadian enterprises facing financial challenges in light of the economic impact of the global COVID‑19 pandemic. Further to this, in 2020–21, the SIF announced 18 new projects with $1.29B in federal government contributions, securing over $2.79B in total project investments for Canada. The projects require the recipients to create and maintain more than 71,000 jobs, invest more than $11B in R&D, and fill more than 11,000 co-op student positions across Canada.
ISED is supporting the Government's response to leveraging procurement in support of the growth and scale-up of innovative SMEs—including those owned by under-represented groups—via the implementation of ISC. The Department supports innovative Canadian SMEs by inviting them to solve pressing challenges through the creation of new intellectual property and by facilitating testing of their promising pre-commercial, late-stage R&D by federal departments and agencies.
Under Canada's Defence Procurement Strategy, ISED continued to apply the Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) Policy to leverage economic benefits from defence and major Canadian Coast Guard procurements. The investments made by prime contractors in respect of their obligations under the ITB Policy supported job creation and economic growth for Canadians with the addition of $2.6B in new obligations and the realization of $3.1B in investments in Canada by ITB obligors. As part of its regular enhancement of the ITB Policy, ISED continues to advance efforts toward the creation of a new online application that will allow companies to digitally report and track their ITB obligations.
ISED is responsible for establishing the parameters of permissible National Shipbuilding Strategy Value Proposition (NSS VP) activity. Under the NSS VP, Irving Shipbuilding Inc. and Seaspan's Vancouver Shipyards Ltd. have continued to identify and invest their own funding in projects amounting to 0.5% of the value of all large vessel contracts assigned to each respective shipyard. As of March 31, 2021, Irving Shipbuilding Inc. and Seaspan's Vancouver Shipyards Ltd. had identified $21.98M and $9.49M in NSS VP investment projects, respectively. The investments are directed by the shipyards and therefore represent their strategic vision for developing the domestic marine industry.
In 2020–21, the Department continued to help Canadian businesses that face economic challenges by supporting their growth. ISED continued to lead the AGS with 10 other federal organizations, increasing its capacity to help growth-oriented Canadian businesses expand by guiding them in accessing key government services. ISED's Innovation Advisors (IA) provided expert knowledge to local innovation ecosystems. As many Canadian SMEs pivoted to survive the dramatic shift in economic conditions, the Department continued to support Canadian businesses, in addition to leading the manufacturers' Call to Action and COVID‑19-related outreach. Given the need to provide services in virtual settings, significant advances were made in 2020–21 to improve and implement digital tools to better support these initiatives. In addition to supporting COVID‑19-related activities, the AGS program also onboarded 103 new clients.
In 2020–21, ISED continued to work collaboratively with the Standards Council of Canada and Communications Security Establishment to help SMEs protect themselves against cyber threats despite significant issues related to COVID‑19. More specifically, a national standard was developed, a public consultation was held, and outreach and engagement meetings were conducted, including with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and all of the RDAs. This work supported the empowerment of SMEs in addressing cyber threats as they arise.
ISED's cybersecurity certification program continued to help SMEs protect themselves, their clients and partners against cyber attacks in 2020–21. Due to delays caused by the pandemic, a total of 7 SMEs have been certified as of March 31, 2021, with over 50 SMEs signed on for certification in the future. ISED will continue to push messaging and communicate the importance of protection against cyber attacks.
Departmental Result: Canada is a location and destination of choice for investment, growth and tourism
The COVID19 pandemic has had significant economic impacts on businesses and organizations across the country. The tourism sector in particular has suffered with the shutdown of non-essential international travel and restrictions on movement within the country, with a reduction in business from local and regional travellers. The lack of air travel, which is recognized as a key enabler of economic development and opportunity, has created numerous economic issues within Canada. As part of Canada's COVID-19 emergency economic response, the Government took immediate, significant, and decisive actions to protect Canadians from the impacts of the pandemic, making resources available to help businesses survive the lockdowns and border closures. These actions helped to ensure that businesses could access credit, keep employees on the payroll, and pay rent. Businesses and non-profits in the tourism, arts, and culture sectors had received an estimated $15.4B in federal emergency support through the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS), Lockdown Support, and Business Account loans. The Government also initiated a program to provide government-guaranteed business loans of up to $1M per business to the hardest-hit sectors, including tourism, hospitality, arts, and entertainment. As of March 31, 2021, over $353M in loans were authorized by the Government, of which 43% went to the tourism sector. A quarter of the $2B RRRF has also been earmarked for tourism businesses to provide additional support to cope with and recover from the pandemic.
In 2020–21, ISED supported the continued development and implementation of Canada's Federal Tourism Growth Strategy. A key deliverable of this strategy aims to be the establishment of Tourism Investment Groups (TIG) in every region of the country. By creating TIGs, ISED offered an opportunity for increased coordination among key federal agencies to help inform tourism investment decisions and align resources. The launch of the TIGs was paused as the Government of Canada's efforts turned to supporting the tourism sector through the pandemic. As the government and tourism stakeholders began to look toward strategies to ensure the sector's recovery and to set forward a path for the TIGs' post-pandemic work, ISED, Destination Canada and the RDAs re-engaged on TIGs in early 2021 to resume activities.
ISED continued to work with the RDAs to deliver the Canadian Experiences Fund (CEF)Endnote xvii— a two-year, $58.5M investment to support communities across Canada as they create and enhance tourism products, facilities and experiences. To support the tourism sector through the COVID‑19 crisis, portions of the CEF were repurposed, including to support Indigenous tourism operators, who had been especially hard hit by the pandemic.
Furthermore, ISED has worked with BDC to provide access to financing for Canadian businesses in hard hit sectors, via HASCAP. The program has helped a high proportion of businesses in the tourism sector, and continues to work to increase access to funding for eligible businesses.
Additionally, ISED hosted the 2020 Canadian Council of Tourism Ministers meetingEndnote xviii virtually, which was co-chaired by ISED and the Northwest Territories. Ministers recognized the travel and tourism sectors as some of the most heavily impacted by the COVID19 pandemic and noted that the considerable uncertainty associated with the pandemic will continue to dampen structural demand for the tourism sector for some time. Ministers strongly endorsed the role of tourism as a key driver of inclusive community development and a contributor to economic recovery, and they committed to remaining in regular contact and to working together to support the tourism sector.
In 2020–21, ISED actively participated in Invest in Canada, along with other government departments, to contribute sectoral expertise and analysis to support Canada's foreign direct investment (FDI) efforts. This work was extremely important in supporting the manufacturing of personal protective equipment and the supply of such PPE to Canada and in targeting strategic investments aligned with health needs.
The Department also continued to administer the Investment Canada Act, monitoring and reviewing inbound foreign investments in Canada, and provided the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry with the information required to help determine the likely net benefit of investment proposals.
Furthermore, ISED supported efforts to implement trade agreement provisions including with respect to marketplace framework legislation such as amendments to the Patent Act, Trademarks Act and Copyright Act, as well as major agreements like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. ISED also undertook efforts to operationalize amendments to the Copyright Act, Trademarks Act and Investment Canada Act that were included in the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement Implementation Act (Bill C-4) (CUSMA) and supported the implementation of CUSMA through other activities such as a consultation on Copyright Act changes to extend the term of protection, which relates to future implementation of commitments under the Agreement.
ISED also continued to work closely with Global Affairs Canada and other departments to ensure Canada's negotiating positions were reflective and supportive of Canadian industry. The Department provided strategic advice in several key areas—notably the automotive industry's competitiveness and transformation, digital trade, steel and aluminum, textiles, food processing, competition and intellectual property—for a number of negotiations, including with trade blocs such as Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance.
ISED supported Canada's Export Diversification Strategy, including the Government's objective of making Canada a more globally connected economy and increasing Canada's overseas exports by 50% as of 2025 through the greater leveraging of Canada's trade agreements that are in force. As part of this strategy, the Government of Canada provided $10M in funding over a three-year period to help SMEs realize their export potential by supporting the delivery and expansion of the Trade Accelerator Program (TAP) to underserved regions across Canada. TAP is an export capacity–building program that provides Canadian SMEs with access to exporting advisors, resources, networks and contacts as well as the training they need to develop an export plan and become export ready.
Due to the COVID‑19 pandemic, the delivery model for TAP shifted from in-person to cohorts being delivered virtually. Exceptionally for 2020–21, a reduction in the minimum number of participating companies for each cohort was approved. From April 2020 to March 2021, 32 cohorts were held, including in British Colombia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. Of the 331 SMEs that participated, 207 (63%) were owned/led by under-represented groups, including women (127), youth (94), first-generation Canadians (32), visible minorities (42), official language minorities (8), Indigenous peoples (24) and persons with a disability (4).Footnote 2
ISED collaborated with federal department partners to pursue trade diversification and export promotion initiatives that provide a superior client experience. The Department adopted a whole-of-government approach to implement Canada's first-ever WES, helping Canadian women to start and grow their businesses and further build Canada's future competitiveness and overall prosperity. The ISED-led WES resulted in a number of initiatives including $10M over five years to enhance the Global Affairs Canada-led Trade Commissioner Service (TCS), including the Business Women in International TradeEndnote xix program that is offered to Canadian women exporters. This program offered opportunities to be part of woman-focused international business delegations and events (recent virtual trade missions to Korea and France included a significant number of women), assisted firms in becoming certified as a woman-owned business to unlock new opportunities (e.g. supplier diversity opportunities) in international markets, and facilitated access to federal and regional funding, among the other support it provides to women entrepreneurs and their companies. From April 2020 to March 2021, the TCS global network served 546 women-owned businesses and helped facilitate 7% more commercial agreements for women-owned, Indigenous-owned and youth-owned clients compared to the previous year.
Additionally, in spring 2020, 48 existing recipient organizations of the WES Ecosystem Fund were allocated $15M in additional funding to enhance support to women entrepreneurs impacted by the COVID‑19 pandemic and were able to increase women entrepreneurs' online and export promotion capacity. RDAs will report on specific results under the Ecosystem Fund.Endnote xx
ISED also worked with federal partners to advance other initiatives such as Invest in Canada to target foreign companies that plan to establish North American supply chains and manufacturing operations in Canada. This will strengthen the Canadian economy and provide access to global supply chains for Canadian SMEs. In addition, ISED supported export-oriented firms in navigating the full suite of export- and trade-related programs and services, including those offered by Global Affairs Canada and Export Development Canada.
In 2020–21, ISED helped Canadian businesses survive and grow by providing additional support in the face of economic challenges due to the pandemic. ISED maintained support via the Canada Small Business Financing Program (CSBFP), an important part of the Government's support for SMEs across Canada. In 2020–21, the Department facilitated access to 3,655 loans worth almost $864M in debt financing to small businesses. A slight decrease in program utilization can be attributed to the economic impacts of the COVID‑19 pandemic combined with the introduction and extensive use of emergency response business support programs, for example, the Canada Emergency Business AccountEndnote xxi and the Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program.Endnote xxii Throughout 2020–21, ISED continued its efforts to increase awareness of existing funding by hosting training sessions to lender stakeholders. In addition, the 2014–2019 Comprehensive Review Report,Endnote xxiii which outlined a number of recommendations to modify the CSBFP, was tabled in both houses of Parliament. These recommendations will require legislative and regulatory amendments to allow more small businesses to apply for financing in the amounts and types that better reflect their needs.
In 2020, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry tabled the Digital Charter Implementation Act, which includes the creation of the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA), replaces and modernizes Part 1 of the existing Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and creates the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act. These modernizations introduced a new Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal as part of a strengthened privacy enforcement regime.
ISED led the creation of the CPPA to provide Canadians with greater control over their personal information, establish clear rules for organizations in order to support innovation, and implement the Government's commitment to strengthen the enforcement powers of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
In parallel, ISED officials have pursued policy work to establish a new Data Commissioner to advance key principles of the Digital Charter, including the ethical use of data and the need to level the playing field and ensure fair competition in the online marketplace as noted in ISED's Minister's mandate letter of 2019.Endnote xxiv
In 2020–21, ISED granted funding to three Canadian law schools under the Intellectual Property Legal Clinics Program, one of the elements of Canada's Intellectual Property Strategy.Endnote xxv 2020–21 funding allowed recipient law schools to continue working on previously approved projects aimed at helping make free or low-cost intellectual property (IP) advisory services more accessible to Canadian businesses, entrepreneurs and innovators and fostering the development of future IP experts by increasing the exposure of university students to IP issues.
In addition, during 2020–21, ISED granted funding to the Innovation Asset Collective under the Patent Collective Pilot Program and launched the Patent Collective, a $30M contribution program aimed at assisting participating SMEs in the data-driven clean tech sector with their intellectual property needs. The collective brings together firms through a membership model to support SMEs in collaborating to facilitate better IP outcomes for collective members. In 2020–21, over 10 SMEs became members of the collective to benefit from collaborative IP services.
Despite the challenges created by COVID‑19, ISED continued to offer businesses, creators, entrepreneurs and innovators opportunities to discover the benefits of IP that could help launch the next big innovation via Canada's ExploreIP marketplace. The Department successfully completed over 100 outreach activities reaching 2,500 individuals; held discussions with stakeholders for public opinion research to inform Phase II development; onboarded 17 additional organizations to the platform, bringing the total to 56 for the year, with another 6 in progress; provided participants with access to over 3,800 inventions via the platform; entered into a data-sharing partnership with university organizations; and established a contract to convert patent abstracts to business-friendly language. In response to the pandemic, ISED added a COVID‑19 category to this marketplace to highlight public sector technologies that could help entrepreneurs more swiftly fight the pandemic. 59 COVID‑19 applicable technologies were added to this category, posted by 11 public sector institutions.
In 2020–21, ISED continued to modernize Canada's IP system, notably through regulatory changes in support of the patent term adjustment under CUSMA, and to operationalize the College of Patent Agents and Trademark Agents (the "College"). Also, ISED worked closely with the College to facilitate interim financing and draft regulations necessary to prepare for the coming into force of the College.
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office's (CIPO) recent implementation of five international IP treaties positions Canada as a full participant in the global IP system—making it faster, convenient and cost-effective for Canadians to acquire IP protection in multiple countries and expand their businesses in international markets. Canada's modernized IP framework has allowed for better alignment with international counterparts, enhanced e-services, lowered filing costs and reduced administrative burden for applicants. Businesses operating in multiple jurisdictions have greater certainty and predictability, thereby facilitating international competitiveness and trade.
To better support innovators in the context of COVID‑19, ISED pivoted its CIPO Intellectual Property Awareness and Education Program to digital approaches and expanded its digital offerings to better assist businesses, innovators and under-represented groups—such as women and Indigenous peoples—in unlocking the value of their IP by using it strategically when growing to scale.
Last fiscal year, it's been made more apparent that Canadians rely on wireless services for work, school, finances and health care, making access to high-quality and affordable services essential. ISED has advanced a number of initiatives to promote a more competitive wireless services market that offers consumers a wider range of choices at more affordable prices. For example, in 2020, the Government announced to Bell, TELUS and Rogers that they are expected to lower their prices by 25% over two years for mid-range wireless plans that offer 2 to 6 GB of data (across their brands). ISED publishes quarterly price reports to monitor the national carriers' progress. After more than one year of tracking, prices on most plans have declined between 9% and 25% compared to benchmark prices.
Furthermore, to encourage competition in the wireless services market, improve rural connectivity and support the effective deployment of 5G technologies, the Government of Canada is working to make spectrum more available. In 2020–21, ISED continued to support the deployment of next-generation telecommunication services, including 5G, and the awarding of spectrum based on commitments to consumer choice, affordability and broad access. ISED also continued implementing the Government's investment of $199M over five years to modernize spectrum management by identifying new equipment and vehicle requirements and continued preparing for the 3500 MHz spectrum auction, which included a 50 MHz set-aside for small and regional providers in areas where enough spectrum is available. This set-aside will provide the opportunity for smaller and regional competitors—competitors that have been shown to put downward pressure on prices—to acquire the spectrum they need to compete in the market for 5G services against the larger established national providers.
Although ISED had delayed the auction to allow telecommunication providers to focus on responding to the COVID‑19 pandemic, ISED began planning a new spectrum monitoring platform using cloud-based technologies and continued preparing to make spectrum available for 5G. A manual was developed for publication to guide the transition of the 3500 MHz spectrum band (a key band for 5G) to commercial mobile service.
In 2020–21, ISED published the consultation on repurposing the 3800 MHz spectrum band, the first of two consultations required to make this spectrum available for 5G services. ISED also continued to develop proposals for licensing millimetre wave spectrum and will publish a consultation on these issues in 2021–22. ISED also worked with the information and communications technology industry to exchange information on digital infrastructure resiliency issues related to the increase in online activities due to COVID‑19 and potential impacts of 5G deployments.
In 2020–21, research efforts at ISED's Communications Research Centre (CRC) focused on supporting the modernization of spectrum management and the provision of broadband services to Canadians in remote and rural communities, a Government of Canada priority. Big data analytics and high-performance cloud computing were applied to develop automation tools that could assist with licensing requests and interference detection, demonstrating how innovative methods could be used in future spectrum management practices. Geospatial analytic tools were developed to assess the performance of current and proposed deployments of wireless broadband Internet services to rural and remote locations in support of the UBF program, helping to get high-speed broadband services to communities more quickly.
ISED's CRC continued to work with other government departments, academia and industry in sharing and advancing research and development. This included working with industry toward commercializing 5G enabling technology invented at CRC, such as engineered electromagnetic surfaces, that improves the performance of millimetre wireless networks, and working with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) on the use of new tools such as mobile sensors and cloud technology to collect and analyze data on air quality. ISED continues to make the results of its research publicly available, contributing to Canada's wireless telecommunications knowledge and expertise.
Throughout 2020–21, ISED, through the Competition Bureau (the Bureau), continued to focus on the importance of safeguarding and promoting competitive markets in the digital economy. The Bureau hosted the Digital Enforcement Summit, where key partners shared best practices, advanced dialogue and tackled emerging issues related to competition enforcement in the digital economy.
In 2020–21, the Bureau also took a number of enforcement actions in the digital economy. In May 2020, Facebook Inc. paid a $9M penalty after the Bureau concluded that the company had made false or misleading claims about the privacy of Canadians' personal information online. In addition, in January 2021, Revive You Media was fined $15M after the Bureau concluded that the company was operating a subscription trap scam where it promoted deceptive free trial offers for health and dietary supplements that locked consumers into monthly subscriptions.
The Bureau's bid-rigging investigations led to $5.4M in payments by three engineering firms in Quebec, as well as multiple criminal charges against four companies and three individuals in Ontario, in connection with an alleged conspiracy to commit fraud and rig bids for condo refurbishment services. The Bureau's merger reviews preserved competition in the animal health product industry, and in data communication products and sought to safeguard competition and protect farmers from financial harm.
The pandemic highlighted how instrumental digital solutions are in meeting the health care needs of Canadians. In 2020–21, the Bureau launched a Digital Health Care Market Study to examine how Canada can support access to innovative digital health care services through pro-competitive policies. The Bureau also published the Competition Assessment Toolkit, a step-by-step guide to assist policymakers at all levels of government to adopt competition considerations when developing and updating policies and regulations.
Throughout 2020–21, ISED, through the Bureau, also continued to strengthen its relationships with partners, including its foreign counterparts, beginning a one-year term as President of the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network. The Bureau also signed a new international competition enforcement framework, the Multilateral Mutual Assistance and Cooperation Framework for Competition Authorities.
In 2020–21, ISED, through the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (OSB), continued to license and regulate the insolvency profession and ensured compliance using innovative tools and practices, including the introduction of artificial intelligence, for more efficient detection of non-compliance. The Department also ensured an efficient and effective insolvency system by providing necessary guidance and flexibility to stakeholders in light of restrictions arising from the COVID‑19 pandemic, including allowing debtors to miss additional payments in consumer proposals, providing for remote service delivery and enabling electronic payments to creditors. In 2020–21, the OSB consulted stakeholders to identify opportunities to modernize and streamline the insolvency regulatory framework. In addition, the OSB undertook research and completed a feasibility assessment in support of interactive online debt solution tools.
While COVID‑19 had an impact on certain activities at Measurement Canada, many services remained open while respecting public health guidance and restrictions. Measurement Canada shifted toward providing virtual auditing and surveillance activities with its clients and providing virtual training for its inspectors and Authorized Service providers. Measurement Canada continues to be a key player in the Clean Technology Regulatory Review through its initiatives to reduce regulatory barriers and introduce innovative measuring devices into the Canadian marketplace.
In 2020–21, ISED also expanded its core group of regulatory experts to include increased policy and analytical capacity and continued to participate actively in several Treasury Board Secretariat–led legislative and regulatory amendment initiatives, including the second annual Regulatory Modernization Bill and projects in the clean technology and digitalization regulatory reviews.
Departmental Result: Canadian innovators have simplified access to tools and support
ISED remains committed to making it easier for small businesses to interact with government and enable more efficient digital self-service. This was particularly important during the COVID‑19 pandemic when mobilizing Canadian businesses and connecting them to the support they need.
At the onset of the COVID‑19 pandemic, ISED rebranded the Innovation Canada platform as the Business Benefits Finder,Endnote xxvi in addition to adding a number of enhancements in order to respond to the crisis and serve Canadian businesses and entrepreneurs when they needed it most. The site was refocused and new content was added, capturing the 150+ COVID‑19 supports for business, including detailed descriptions of each program and service. More businesses were referred to the site than ever before, thanks to increased marketing efforts as well as the visibility of the site on Canada.ca/coronavirus, leading to a 22% increase in visits. Also, an online system was launched that allowed program owners to provide updates to ensure their program information on the Business Benefits Finder was always current.
Furthermore, ISED continued to work in collaboration with provincial and territorial partners on the Multi-jurisdictional Registry Access Service (MRAS), which enables Canada's business registries to share data for the benefit of corporations and entities supporting or working with corporations. The work continues to help support economic growth, particularly in a time of dire need for economic recovery. Through this service, ISED continues to support an online search service for business information, including information on limited partnerships, across business registries in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan.
ISED continues to support the adoption of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Business Number (BN) as a standard identifier for services to business across the Government of Canada. Using the BN government-wide can improve how government serves businesses by enhancing internal government processes, allowing access to validated business information and simplifying interactions with business. As of March 2021, 46 federal departments and agencies, including ISED, have signed agreements to access BN information from the CRA, with 36 departments and agencies and 3 provinces having made a system-to-system connection. In addition, 18 departments—including ISED—are using ISED's BN Validation Lookup Tool to validate BNs. ISED worked toward improving these BN information sharing services, allowing departments and agencies to search for business information when a BN is not known.
ISED continued to work with various levels of government in developing principles and standards to facilitate alignment, interoperability and confidence in the use of digital identities across jurisdictional boundaries that support more effective and efficient services to businesses. In collaboration with provinces and territories, ISED has also identified a common approach to mutually accept digital identities for verified organizations and verified relationships. This approach has been successfully integrated into the public consultation draft of the Public Sector Profile of the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework.
Gender-based Analysis Plus
The COVID‑19 pandemic impacted marginalized groups in very different ways—and ISED's GBA Plus framework was updated, and continues to be updated, to meet the challenges these different groups are faced with as we implement policies to safely reopen the economy.
One of the ways the COVID‑19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted women entrepreneurs is through affected sectors such as retail, hospitality and food services—sectors where women entrepreneurs are most present. On top of typically operating smaller businesses and having less access to capital, many women business owners also still bear a disproportionate share of domestic work, caregiving and childcare. It is important to recognize these impacts as economies reopen and Canadians return to work.
Experimentation
ISED has continued to foster an environment of innovation and intelligent risk-taking. With much of the world shifting to new realities due to the COVID‑19 pandemic, so did the Department. ISED changed its focus and adapted quickly to find ways to support and improve its services to businesses through evidence-based decision making. In addition to the Department growing its capacity and appetite for experimentation, foundational research done in 2020–21 is available to be used to inform future program and policy design.
Journey mapping, behavioural assessments and form simplification were all experiments conducted by ISED's Centre of Expertise on Experimentation to improve the way that businesses access information, services and programs from the federal government. Whether businesses were navigating the Canada.ca website for general information or consolidated information on health and safety and COVID‑19 emergency funding in one place, or whether they were using business-targeted surveys by the Government of Canada to evaluate the supply and demand of PPE to safely reopen, various experiments contributed to the implementation of simple yet effective changes to improve overall end-user experiences. An easy-to-fill form can result in a quicker turnaround to receive life-saving equipment.
Experiments aimed at supporting the traditional needs of businesses included an experiment that ensured newly incorporated Canadian businesses were receiving the right information through appropriate communication approaches as well as an experiment designed to help businesses better name their corporations. Results will be used to help create a better user experience and reduce the burden on application examiners.
A mixed methods research project designed to help Canadians access information about debt management provided evidence-driven recommendations to improve the experience of individuals seeking information and advice on the topic of insolvency. The overall increase in knowledge and research on financial habits, debt management strategies and service needs has guided the expansion of ISED services to include a Digital Debt Advisor. This tool is driven by the ethical use of AI and will be informed by behavioural best practices and user testing to ensure the optimal user experience.
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Information supporting reporting on the 2020 Agenda for Sustainable Development is available as part of ISED's DSDS ReportFootnote 1.
| Departmental results | Performance indicators (Note 1) | Target | Date to achieve target | 2018–19 Actual results | 2019–20 Actual results | 2020–21 Actual results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada becomes a global leader in clean technologies | Value of Canada's exports of clean technologies (in dollars) (Note 2) | $15B | December 31, 2025 | $6.21B | $7.05B | Not available (Note 3) |
| Clean technology employment in Canada (in numbers) (Note 4) | 190,000 | December 31, 2025 | 194,862 (2018) | 211,695 (2019) | Not available (Note 5) | |
| Value of investments leveraged in clean technologies as a result of ISED program funding (per dollar invested) (Note 6) | $2.00 | March 31, 2021 | $2.60 | $2.60 | $2.60 | |
| Canadian companies are globally competitive and achieve high growth | Number of high-growth firms | At least 28,000 (Note 7) | December 31, 2025 | 11,920 | Not available | Not available |
| Value of Canada's goods and services exports (in dollars) | $820B | December 31, 2025 | $722B (2018) | $737.5B (2019) | $638.45B (2020) | |
| Revenue growth rate of firms supported by ISED programs | ISED-supported firms grow faster than the national average (Note 8) | March 31, 2021 | 6.7% | Not available (Note 9) | Not available (Note 10) | |
| Canada is a location and destination of choice for investment, growth and tourism | Total Business Investment in Canada (in dollars) | $260B | December 31, 2025 | $222B (2018) | $223B (2019) | $196B (2020) |
| Spending by international visitors to Canada (in dollars) | $25B | December 31, 2021 | $23.09B (2018) | $22.2B (2019) | $3.65B (2020) (Note 11) | |
| Number of international overnight visitors to Canada | 25,973,134 | December 31, 2021 | 22,145,400 (2018) | 21,133,000 (2019) | 2,959,885 (2020) (Note 12) | |
| Turn-around times for patent applications filed in Canada, with a request for examination (in months) | 24 months (Note 13) | March 31, 2022 | 32 months | 31.1 months | 31.1 months | |
| Canadian innovators have simplified access to tools and support | Canada's ranking on the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index | 10 | December 31, 2025 | 22 (2018) | 23 (2019) | Not available (Note 14) |
| Percentage of ISED priority services that meet published service standards (Note 15) | 90% | December 31, 2020 | 81% | Not available (Note 16) | 68% (Note 17) | |
| ||||||
| 2020–21 Main Estimates | 2020–21 Planned spending | 2020–21 Total authorities available for use | 2020–21 Actual spending (authorities used) | 2020–21 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,448,751,618 | 1,448,751,618 | 2,132,491,320 | 1,294,565,498 | negative (154,186,119) |
Variances are due to unused funding as a result of delays in signing contribution agreements, recipient project implementation delays and lower than forecasted claims, primarily under the Strategic Innovation Fund and the Patent Collective Pilot Program. Also reflected in this Core Responsibility is the Accumulated Surplus under the Canadian Intellectual Property Office of $100.6M. Unused funding will be brought forward to future years. Offsetting the total unused funding is an increase in claims under the Canada Small Business Financing Act due to COVID‑19 ($20.3M).
| 2020–21 Planned full-time equivalents | 2020–21 Actual full-time equivalents | 2020–21 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full-time equivalents) |
|---|---|---|
| 3,476 | 3,527 | 51 |
Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to ISED's Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.Endnote xxviii
Internal Services
Description
Internal Services are those groups of related activities and resources that the federal government considers to be services in support of programs and/or required to meet corporate obligations of an organization. Internal Services refers to the activities and resources of the 10 distinct service categories that support program delivery in the organization, regardless of the Internal Services delivery model in a department. The 10 service categories are:
- Acquisition Management Services
- Communication Services
- Financial Management Services
- Human Resources Management Services
- Information Management Services
- Information Technology Services
- Legal Services
- Materials Management Services
- Management and Oversight Services
- Real Property Management Services
ISED continued to embrace its innovation identity: How we achieve results is fundamental to effectively serving Canadians. The Department's actions are centred on three areas of focus, known as Renewal at ISED: agile and purpose-driven, inclusive and healthy, and equipped and capable. Furthermore, similar to other departments, ISED had to react to the impacts of the pandemic; however, the Department was successful in ensuring continuous services and delivering on its mandate.
ISED continued to improve its work on renewal by building on the progress achieved in past years and by applying organizational growth strategies from high-performing organizations to pursue its path to success, as demonstrated by the recognition of ISED as one of Canada's Top 100 Employers in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and one of the National Capital Region's Top Employers for 2021, as well as one of Canada's Best Diversity Employers for 2021.
Agile and Purpose-Driven
In 2020–21, the COVID‑19 pandemic required government departments to pivot activities to support Canadians through an unprecedented time. For ISED, this also meant continuing to adapt organizational capacity to enable programs to provide the best help for Canadians across the country.
Early in the pandemic, new governance committees and processes were established and existing committees transitioned to a virtual context to support the transition to remote working and effective and efficient reallocation of resources. ISED quickly mobilized internal talent to the shift in departmental priorities, in order to meet critical needs of the departmental emergency response, including guiding redistribution of work and building surge capacity from across the country, and streamlining staffing options such as the COVID‑19 talent bank. ISED also pivoted the emphasis of its leadership and learning programs to help employees adapt to working and managing remotely, including expanding support and resources available to executives and managers to accelerate adoption of best practices when leading virtual teams. Furthermore, constant communications were maintained with all employees to share information as the situation evolved and to ensure awareness of available support and tools for mental health.
Similarly, the Department quickly established flexibility in its financial management to be ready to address emerging funding pressures (estimated at approximately $17M), for example, by delaying corporate investments and reallocating internal salary funding to build surge capacity. Furthermore, the Department advanced ongoing work to standardize financial management processes by developing, documenting, testing and monitoring a system of internal controls over financial management on all Grants and Contributions programs.
To ensure continued departmental readiness, departmental Business Continuity Plans were revised and re-distributed to Incident Management Team members. In addition, a COVID‑19 Preparedness Business Continuity tabletop exercise was held in March 2020 with ISED's Senior Officials to assess organizational posture early in the pandemic and support adjustment to systems and processes, as needed, given the ongoing uncertainty around business disruption.
In 2020–21, the Department continued to prepare for the future where digital and data literacy skills will be foundational for the workforce. ISED has been dedicated to modernizing skills and building agility by supporting employees' competency needs, including by partnering with the Canada School of Public Service Digital Academy.Endnote xxvix The Academy contributes to the knowledge, skills and mindsets needed in the digital age and supports the principles of Canada's Beyond2020 initiative for an agile, inclusive and equipped workforce.
To promote a culture of innovation and experimentation, the Department has successfully embedded experimentation in its departmental governance and established a centre of expertise to advance experimentation capabilities. Furthermore, the Department worked to leverage opportunities to use experimentation to support decision making and to inform processes as well as broader digital transformation and modernization initiatives, especially those aiming to provide better services to Canadians.
ISED continued to modernize and align its procurement and payment functions to the Government of Canada's Financial Management Transformation objective. In 2020–21, the Department completed the first two phases of the implementation of the Procurement Process Modernization Initiative, leading to all financial and contracting delegations being fully automated and paperless. Prior to the COVID‑19 pandemic, ISED's procure to pay business process was 100% reliant on physical signatures in the workplace for approval of financial and contractual documents. As a result of the pandemic, ISED showed its agility by adapting processes to the virtual context and implementing guidelines for the use of electronic signatures.
The Department continued its implementation of an Integrated Data Strategy, which is an approach to leveraging data to inform decision making and lead to better outcomes and services to Canadians. In 2020–21, ISED implemented its departmental data governance structure, which established data stewards and new structures to better manage and use data as a strategic asset across the Department.
To better align the Department's long-term desired outcomes with its legislative mandate, ISED updated its Departmental Results Framework (DRF). The DRF provides the frame for future Parliamentary reports and consists of the Department's core responsibilities, departmental results, departmental result indicators and program inventory. This update will allow ISED to better demonstrate and communicate results to Canadians in future years.
Inclusive and Healthy
Ensuring the workplace is inclusive, healthy and safe has been a primary concern over the course of the pandemic. Through its work on employment equity, diversity and inclusion, the Department continued to identify and remove barriers to opportunity so that every employee feels safe and respected and can contribute to their full potential.
Over the past year, ISED continued to work on increasing representation, recruitment and talent development of employment equity groups through initiatives such as the Federal Internship for Newcomers, Indigenous Advanced Policy Analyst Program, Aboriginal Leadership Development Initiative, as well as other inclusive hiring initiatives such as the #AbleTo networking event, LiveWorkPlay and the Federal Internship Program for Canadians with Disabilities.
During this same period, ISED received the call to actionEndnote xxx to combat racism and end discrimination. The Department continues to cultivate a workplace where everyone feels safe and welcome and has the same opportunities for fulfilment and advancement.
In 2020, ISED developed an interim action plan entitled "Building Greater Diversity at ISED," which outlined signature commitments to make leadership more diverse and inclusive; reduce barriers to recruitment, retention, hiring, and promotion; and create an inclusive culture. Furthermore, a number of targeted experiments were conducted to examine issues facing public servants. For example, the Department undertook an experiment to increase employee participation in self-identification to support diversity in recruitment. The Department also worked to promote inclusive behaviors, forming several diversity and inclusion governance committees. Talent profiles of external candidates who qualified in an equity employment process were shared with senior management to help identify external candidates that may be a good fit for ISED and who could also help to reduce our gaps in under-represented groups at senior levels. Larger modernization efforts on monitoring the progress of employment equity groups and reporting workforce representation figures by the Government of Canada are also under way.
The Department also launched a virtual Workplace Accommodation Centre, a dedicated one-stop shop to support employees with disabilities so they can further contribute and perform to their full potential in the workplace, as well as provide managers with information and tools to better support their employees with disabilities. ISED also established an Accessibility Secretariat that has set the conditions for identifying, preventing and removing workplace barriers to accessibility at ISED. It offered resources and training to help employees become more aware of accessibility requirements and tools to work in a more inclusive way.
Mental health and well-being services are essential—even more so during a pandemic. In 2020–21, ISED's Ombudsman for Mental Health and Employee Well-Being played a key role in supporting ISED employees and providing high-quality and confidential services, including consultation, coaching and mediation. Furthermore, the Office of ISED's Ombudsman for Mental Health and Employee Well-Being helped educate and create community around the concept of a healthy workplace.
In 2020–21, ISED's Corporate Mental Health and Employee Assistance Program offered virtual sessions to help ISED employees learn about the mental health resources that are available to them. Furthermore, ISED expanded its Employee Assistance Program offerings with additional functionalities for increased accessibility. ISED also adopted LifeSpeak, a confidential digital wellness platform focused on wellness and professional development. Through this platform, employees can access nearly 1,000 videos, podcasts and tip sheets and participate anonymously in monthly web chats with experts using any computer, smartphone or tablet.
In 2020–21, the Department has drastically reduced the number of employees with pay issues due to the Phoenix pay system, dropping from 35% on April 1, 2020 to 13% on March 31, 2021. ISED continues to provide support to employees in navigating pay-related issues and remains committed to getting as close as possible to a stable and accurate pay for all employees.
To ensure the continued health and safety of ISED employees, the Department rapidly shifted to a remote working environment and maintained minimal onsite presence, primarily for the critical support services personnel. ISED focused its efforts to applying COVID‑19 safety measures in ISED offices across the country. This included the installation of COVID‑19 signage, sanitation stations, the provision of masks and personal protective equipment, and a review of current health and safety practices. The Department's ISED COVID‑19 Tiger Team also developed an Easing of Workplace Restrictions Plan to anticipate how a gradual, phased return to the workplace would be managed, along with all COVID‑19 preparedness measures to ensure the health and safety of employees onsite.
Equipped and Capable
Given the unique challenges posed by the pandemic in ensuring continuous services to Canadians, ISED modernized and adapted to ensure employees were equipped, capable and productive. As with most organizations, the shift to working remotely created numerous challenges, but it subsequently provided opportunities to identify areas of improvement in providing better services to Canadians.
While ISED was well equipped to make the shift to the virtual context, the strain on bandwidth required close collaboration with Shared Services Canada in order to keep pace with demand. ISED was able to successfully increase bandwidth capacity and stability across its networks so that its employees could continue to provide necessary services to businesses and Canadians. Furthermore, ISED supported employees in navigating the virtual workplace by providing information, best practices, guidance and training on collaboration tools, information technology, information management, mental health, well-being, safety, leadership and engagement. During this period, the Department also progressed on developing organizational effectiveness in human resource processes and worked on increasing language proficiency.
In 2020–21, ISED continued to provide modern tools to ISED employees to do their jobs, all the while supporting greater mobility and reducing the impact on the environment. In addition to training employees on new digital workspaces that support enhanced digital collaboration, ISED started working to modernize the fleet of print devices to increase reliability and reduce the Department's carbon footprint as well as working to migrating employees to new online platforms. The Department also continued to equip employees with software to help optimize collaboration and enhance team cohesion.
ISED also continued to equip employees with the infrastructure, tools and skills to leverage the power of data and technology to foster a growing, competitive and knowledge-based economy. As part of its Integrated Data Strategy, ISED's Chief Data Office offered data-focused training opportunities to help employees better understand and explore ISED's role in the rapidly changing data environment. In 2020–21, ISED implemented the foundations—including AI, machine learning and data interoperability across many internal software platforms—to provide a stronger structure to the management and use of data across the Department.
In 2020–21, ISED started building the Digital and Data Platform (DDP), a foundation for implementing the Department's digital transformation. The DDP aims to support the implementation of new and emerging technologies to better enable employees to provide services tailored to the needs of Canadians, while being easy to use, comprehensive and cohesive. Furthermore, ISED continued to work to leverage client relationship management technology, including an integrated business number validation tool with the Canada Revenue Agency, to provide employees with shared access to common client profiles in order to seamlessly and effectively engage with clients.
ISED continued to modernize its office space to provide its employees with a modern and flexible workplace and fit-ups as part of the Department's Workplace Modernization projects. Due to the pandemic and budgetary constraints, ISED focused its efforts on applying COVID‑19 safety measures in ISED offices. This included preparations for the eventual return to the workplace, such as signage, sanitation stations and review of current health and safety practices.
| 2020–21 Main Estimates | 2020–21 Planned spending | 2020–21 Total authorities available for use | 2020–21 Actual spending (authorities used) | 2020–21 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 163,177,119 | 163,177,119 | 200,761,879 | 187,744,471 | 24,567,352 |
Variance is due primarily to funding received following the ratification of collective bargaining agreements in 2020–21 and through the Operating Budget Carry Forward government-wide exercise.
| 2020–21 Planned full-time equivalents | 2020–21 Actual full-time equivalents | 2020–21 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full-time equivalents) |
|---|---|---|
| 1,566 | 1,537 | negative (29) |
Analysis of trends in spending and human resources
Actual expenditures
Departmental spending trend graph
The following graph presents planned (voted and statutory) spending over time.
Description of graph
| Planned spending | 2018-19 | 2019–20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statutory | 159,064,841 | 161,958,552 | 206,662,581 | 291,537,863 | 217,899,042 | 189,313,733 |
| Voted | 2,116,936,230 | 2,224,149,032 | 2,646,514,933 | 3,442,572,979 | 2,841,147,185 | 1,926,918,268 |
| Total | 2,276,001,071 | 2,386,107,584 | 3,853,177,514 | 3,734,110,842 | 3,059,046,227 | 2,116,232,001 |
The variance in future years is primarily related to the variance in cashflow profiles of Grants and Contributions. The impact of sunsetting items in future years is not material.
| Core responsibilities and Internal Services | 2020–21 Main Estimates | 2020–21 Planned spending | 2021–22 Planned spending | 2022–23 Planned spending | 2020–21 Total authorities available for use | 2018–19 Actual spending (authorities used) | 2019–20 Actual spending (authorities used) | 2020–21 Actual spending (authorities used) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People Skills and Communities | 470,190,113 | 470,190,113 | 690,886,096 | 613,517,713 | 714,602,707 | 280,092,604 | 332,829,790 | 551,479,827 |
| Science, Technology, Research and Commercialization | 968,026,763 | 968,026,763 | 1,169,419,519 | 1,009,194,682 | 980,759,148 | 882,662,747 | 813,170,459 | 819,387,717 |
| Companies, Investment and Growth | 1,448,751,618 | 1,448,751,618 | 1,729,722,814 | 1,294,135,770 | 2,132,491,320 | 929,710,535 | 1,066,852,443 | 1,294,565,498 |
| Subtotal | 2,886,968,494 | 2,886,968,494 | 3,590,028,429 | 2,916,848,165 | 3,827,853,175 | 2,092,465,886 | 2,212,852,692 | 2,665,433,042 |
| Internal Services | 163,177,119 | 163,177,119 | 165,337,260 | 163,026,957 | 200,761,879 | 183,535,185 | 173,254,892 | 187,744,471 |
| Total | 3,050,145,613 | 3,050,145,613 | 3,755,365,689 | 3,079,875,122 | 4,028,615,053 | 2,276,001,071 | 2,386,107,584 | 2,853,177,513 |
Actual human resources
| Core responsibilities and Internal Services | 2018–19 Actual full‑time equivalents | 2019–20 Actual full‑time equivalents | 2020–21 Planned full‑time equivalents | 2020–21 Actual full‑time equivalents | 2021–22 Planned full‑time equivalents | 2022–23 Planned full‑time equivalents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People Skills and Communities | 171 | 187 | 188 | 216 | 314 | 288 |
| Science, Technology, Research and Commercialization | 117 | 127 | 121 | 131 | 121 | 121 |
| Companies, Investment and Growth | 3,301 | 3,471 | 3,476 | 3,527 | 3,523 | 3,504 |
| Subtotal | 3,589 | 3,784 | 3,785 | 3,874 | 3,958 | 3,913 |
| Internal Services | 1,543 | 1,554 | 1,566 | 1,537 | 1,558 | 1,557 |
| Total | 5,132 | 5,339 | 5,351 | 5,411 | 5,516 | 5,470 |
Expenditures by vote
For information on ISED's organizational voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada 2020–2021.Endnote xxxi
Government of Canada spending and activities
Information on the alignment of ISED's spending with the Government of Canada's spending and activities is available in GC InfoBase.Endnote xxxii
Financial statements and financial statements highlights
Financial statements
The financial highlights presented within this DRR are intended to serve as a general overview of ISED's financial position and operations and should be read in conjunction with the 2020–21 Departmental Financial Statements, which can be found on the ISED website.Endnote xxxiii
Summary of 2020–21 Financial Results
The financial results are shaped by the Department's programs and internal services that aim to help make Canada a world-leading centre for innovation, to help create better jobs, to strengthen and grow the middle class, and to provide better opportunities for all Canadians.
Financial statement highlights
| Financial information | 2020–21 Planned results (Note 1) | 2020–21 Actual results | 2019–20 Actual results | Difference (2020–21 Actual results minus 2020–21 Planned results) | Difference (2020–21 Actual results minus 2019–20 Actual results) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total expenses | 3,155,730,955 | 2,915,075,339 | 2,954,528,195 | negative (240,655,616) | negative (39,452,856) |
| Total net revenues | 263,759,364 | 222,218,781 | 228,048,716 | negative (41,540,583) | negative (5,829,935) |
| Net cost of operations before government funding and transfers | 2,891,971,591 | 2,692,856,558 | 2,726,479,479 | negative (199,115,033) | negative (33,622,921) |
As per the 2020–21 Future-Oriented Statement of Operations.
Planned Results
The $199M variance between the 2020–21 Planned Results and the 2020–21 actuals is primarily due to differences in transfer payments. ISED transferred some funding to future years via a reprofiling request for existing Grants and Contribution programs; in particular the SIF, Connect to Innovate, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. These reductions in actual expenses against the planned results are offset by increases to programs such as Digital Skills for Youth, Communities Futures North, Futurpreneur, and the Regional Economic Growth through Innovation initiative.
The variance in total net revenues is attributable to lower service revenues than planned. Some of this variance can be attributed to reduced productivity as a result of the pandemic.
Actuals – Expenses
Description of chart
| Transfer Payments | Salaries and Employee Benefits | Other Operating Expenditures |
|---|---|---|
| 68% | 23% | 9% |
Total expenses were $2.92B in 2020–21, an increase of $39.5M from 2019–20. This increase is mainly attributable to higher spending for transfer payment programs as described in the planned results section above. Operating expenses increased in salaries and professional services, representing funding received for pandemic related programs.
Actuals – Revenues
Description of chart
| Radio Spectrum Licenses earned on behalf of Government | Sales of services | Other revenues |
|---|---|---|
| 70% | 26% | 4% |
Total gross revenues were $1.3B in 2020–21, an increase of $44M compared to 2019–20, while net revenues of $222M in 2020–21 decreased by $6M compared to the previous fiscal year. An increase in revenue from radio spectrum licences, which represent the majority of gross reported revenue in the Departmental Financial Statements, accounts for the majority of the variance and is due to new long-term spectrum licence (600 MHz range) revenue recognition. Those revenues are reported as revenues earned on behalf of Government, as they cannot be accessed by the Department.
| Financial information | 2020–21 | 2019–20 | Difference (2020‑21 minus 2019‑20) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total net liabilities | 1,782,566,756 | 1,664,913,611 | 117,653,145 |
| Total net financial assets | 858,790,790 | 711,556,498 | 147,234,292 |
| Departmental net debt | 923,775,966 | 953,357,113 | negative (29,581,147) |
| Total non-financial assets | 152,234,275 | 159,238,593 | negative (7,004,318) |
| Departmental net financial position | negative (771,541,691) | negative (794,118,520) | 22,576,829 |
Actuals – Liabilities
Description of chart
| Deferred Revenue | Accounts payable and accrued liabilities | Allowance for loan guarantees | Other Liabilities |
|---|---|---|---|
| 84% | 8% | 7% | 1% |
Total gross liabilities were $10.7B for 2020–21, a decrease of $302M year-over-year, while net liabilities were $1.8B, an increase of $118M compared to 2019–20. The decrease in gross liabilities is mainly attributable to a decrease in deferred revenues related to the spectrum auctions, as an auction revenue is recognized on a straight-line basis; as well as a reduction to loan guarantee provision. As spectrum revenues are earned on behalf of Government, the associated deferred revenues are removed from the gross liabilities of the Department.
Actuals – Assets
Description of chart
| Due from CRF | Loans Receivable held on behalf of Government | Tangible Capital Assets | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| 33% | 58% | 6% | 3% |
Total gross financial assets amounted to $2.4B for 2020–21, an increase of $261M from 2019–20, while net financial assets were $859M, an increase of $147M year-over-year. Gross financial assets include loans made by the Department, which increased year-over-year by $93M. Loan revenues are not respendable by the Department and so are held on behalf of Government. The increase in net financial assets is primarily due to higher amounts due from the consolidated revenue fund. This asset account represents the Department's access to the consolidated revenue fund for discharging its liabilities.
Corporate Information
Organizational profile
Appropriate ministers:
Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry:
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Tourism, Associate Minister of Finance:
The Honourable Randy Boissonnault, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Rural Economic Development:
The Honourable Gudie Hutchings, P.C., M.P.
Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development:
The Honourable Mary Ng, P.C., M.P.
Institutional head:
Simon Kennedy
Ministerial portfolio:
Innovation, Science and Economic DevelopmentEndnote xxxiv
Enabling instrument[s]:
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's founding legislation is the Department of Industry Act,Endnote xxxv S.C. 1995, c.1.
Year of incorporation / commencement: 1982
Raison d'être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do
"Raison d'être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do" is available on Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's websiteFootnote 1.
For more information on the Department's organizational mandate letter commitments, see the Ministers' mandate letters.Endnote xxxvii
Operating context
The global economy is undergoing a significant transition—one that is redefining what it means for Canada to be competitive in an age of disruption. The global environment is becoming increasingly complex, demographic shifts are impacting labour markets, businesses and governments response to climate change is the defining challenge of our time, and the impact of all these forces is being compounded by how the digital and data-driven economy is changing all of the "rules of the game."
The digital economy is changing how business gets done around the globe. Advances in data analytics, automation and machine learning are transforming how we work and how consumers interact with businesses. No sector has gone untouched by the digital transformation, including traditional manufacturing and resource sectors.
Canada has a head start in this new economy thanks to early investments in fields such as AI and quantum science, and internationally renowned talent, ideas and innovative companies. As other global economies seek to capitalize in the digital economy, Canada can leverage its best-in-the-world strengths to be global leaders in its areas of real advantage.
For most of 2020–21, the COVID‑19 pandemic dramatically impacted the context within which ISED operates. The COVID‑19 pandemic is unlike other economic shocks we have seen to date—this economic retraction started as a "real-world" crisis and not one from the financial world. This means that ISED's work needed to pivot to help those sectors unable to operate at full capacity under public health measures; work with industry and science experts to bolster Canada's supply of medical countermeasures to the pandemic, and develop policies and programs that seek to support Canada's economic recovery through a period of lingering uncertainty.
ISED leveraged its existing policies and programs, which focus on a collaborative approach with industry, to continue to develop a longer-term rebuilding of the Canadian economy. This response recognized the unique needs and situations of Canada's varied industrial sectors and was informed by input and intelligence from industry leaders.
With its focused policy and program agenda, ISED aims to provide the support economic sectors need to react, adapt and, in some cases, re-invent themselves to survive and grow post-pandemic. This means building on existing innovation programming and taking a mixed industrial approach that provides the necessary crosscutting and sector-specific supports to address the uneven economic impacts of the pandemic on Canadians and Canadian businesses.
Reporting framework
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory of record for 2020–21 are shown below.
| Core Responsibilities | People, Skills and Communities | Science, Technology, Research and Commercialization | Companies, Investment and Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Results and Result Indicators | Canada has a highly skilled workforce that is equipped for jobs in an innovative and high-growth economy
Canadian communities are connected to and use digital infrastructure
Canada's entrepreneurs represent all segments of Canadian society
| World-leading superclusters are grown in Canada
Canadian businesses invest more in research and development
Canada has world-leading research capacity
| Canada becomes a global leader in clean technologies
Canadian companies are globally competitive and achieve high growth
Canada is a location and destination of choice for investment, growth and tourism
Canadian innovators have simplified access to tools and support
|
| Programs |
|
|
|
Supporting information on the program inventory
Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to ISED's Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.Endnote xxxviii
Supplementary information tables
The following supplementary information tables are available on ISED's websiteEndnote xxxix:
- Reporting on green procurement
- Details on transfer payment programs
- Gender-based Analysis Plus
- Response to parliamentary committees and external audits
- Up-front multi-year funding
Federal tax expenditures
The tax system can be used to achieve public policy objectives through the application of special measures such as low tax rates, exemptions, deductions, deferrals and credits. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures.Endnote xl This report also provides detailed background information on tax expenditures, including descriptions, objectives, historical information and references to related federal spending programs as well as evaluations and GBA Plus of tax expenditures.
Organizational contact information
Corporate Management Sector
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
235 Queen Street
2nd Floor, East Tower
Ottawa, ON K1A 0H5
Fax: 613-954-2340
Email: ic.info-info.ic@ised-isde.gc.ca
Website: Innovation, Science and Economic Development CanadaEndnote xli
Appendix: definitions
- appropriation (crédit)
- Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
- budgetary expenditures (dépenses budgétaires)
- Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, organizations or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.
- core responsibility (responsabilité essentielle)
- An enduring function or role performed by a department. The intentions of the department with respect to a core responsibility are reflected in one or more related departmental results that the department seeks to contribute to or influence.
- Departmental Plan (plan ministériel)
- A report on the plans and expected performance of an appropriated department over a 3-year period. Departmental Plans are usually tabled in Parliament each spring.
- departmental priority (priorité)
- A plan or project that a department has chosen to focus and report on during the planning period. Priorities represent the things that are most important or what must be done first to support the achievement of the desired departmental results.
- departmental result (résultat ministériel)
- A consequence or outcome that a department seeks to achieve. A departmental result is often outside departments' immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.
- departmental result indicator (indicateur de résultat ministériel)
- A quantitative measure of progress on a departmental result.
- departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)
- A framework that connects the department's core responsibilities to its departmental results and departmental result indicators.
- Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)
- A report on a department's actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Departmental Plan.
- experimentation (expérimentation)
- The conducting of activities that seek to first explore, then test and compare the effects and impacts of policies and interventions in order to inform evidence-based decision making and improve outcomes for Canadians, by learning what works, for whom and in what circumstances. Experimentation is related to, but distinct from innovation (the trying of new things), because it involves a rigorous comparison of results. For example, using a new website to communicate with Canadians can be an innovation; systematically testing the new website against existing outreach tools or an old website to see which one leads to more engagement, is experimentation.
- full-time equivalent (équivalent temps plein)
- A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person-year charge against a departmental budget. For a particular position, the full-time equivalent figure is the ratio of number of hours the person actually works divided by the standard number of hours set out in the person's collective agreement.
- Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS plus])
- An analytical process used to assess how diverse groups of women, men and gender-diverse people experience policies, programs and services based on multiple factors including race, ethnicity, religion, age, and mental or physical disability.
- government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)
- For the purpose of the 2020–21 Departmental Results Report, those high-level themes outlining the Government's agenda in the 2019 Speech from the Throne, namely: Fighting climate change; Strengthening the middle class; Walking the road of reconciliation; Keeping Canadians safe and healthy; and Positioning Canada for success in an uncertain world.
- horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)
- An initiative where two or more federal organizations are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.
- non-budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)
- Net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.
- performance (rendement)
- What an organization did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the organization intended to achieve, and how well lessons learned have been identified.
- performance indicator (indicateur de rendement)
- A qualitative or quantitative means of measuring an output or outcome, with the intention of gauging the performance of an organization, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.
- performance reporting (production de rapports sur le rendement)
- The process of communicating evidence-based performance information. Performance reporting supports decision making, accountability and transparency.
- plan (plan)
- The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how an organization intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally, a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead to the expected result.
- planned spending (dépenses prévues)
- For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in Main Estimates.
- A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.
- program (programme)
- Individual or groups of services, activities or combinations thereof that are managed together within the department and focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.
- program inventory (répertoire des programmes)
- Identifies all the department's programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department's core responsibilities and results.
- result (résultat)
- A consequence attributed, in part, to an organization, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single organization, policy, program or initiative; instead they are within the area of the organization's influence.
- statutory expenditures (dépenses législatives)
- Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.
- target (cible)
- A measurable performance or success level that an organization, program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period. Targets can be either quantitative or qualitative.
- voted expenditures (dépenses votées)
- Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an appropriation act. The vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.