Chapter 6, Transfer Payments to the Aerospace Industry—Industry Canada, of the Fall 2012 Report of the Auditor General of Canada.
Status Report (February 2013)
	OAG Recommendations	Department’s Response	Status
				Target Completion Date
Collecting performance information on individual projects
1	(§33) – Industry Canada should ensure that monitoring and reporting requirements set out in its contribution agreements are fully met and documented.	Agreed.  The Department will ensure that the monitoring and reporting requirements of contribution agreements are fully met and documented.	Reports are completed after site visits to SADI recipients in order to ensure consistency in documentation. From the outset of the program, the Department collected information on the three program objectives through quarterly progress reports and annual site visits.  Since 2010, we formalized this by asking recipients to complete an Annual Program Benefits Report (APBR).  We recently included additional metrics in the APBR to further improve reporting on results. An updated Performance Measurement Strategy with additional metrics to report against each of the program's objectives was posted on the Department's website in November 2012.  In addition, future Reports on Plans and Priorities will include program metrics for the three program objectives.	Ongoing Ongoing
			For the CSeries Program, the Department has clarified the contribution agreement monitoring and reporting requirements with the recipient and reiterated the importance of meeting these requirements.	Ongoing
2	(§34) Industry Canada should ensure that future contribution agreements it signs with recipients specify project specific objectives and identify anticipated outcomes and  benefits that are aligned with the SADI program objectives.	Agreed.  The Department will continue the practice, started in 2010, to include in its contribution agreements a section specifying project-specific objectives and identifying the anticipated outcomes and benefits of the project in order to demonstrate clearly their alignment with the SADI program objectives.	The Department has and will maintain its practice of including in all contribution agreements project-specific objectives and anticipated outcomes and benefits that are aligned with the SADI program objectives.	Ongoing
Measure progress against program objectives
3	(§42) – Industry Canada should ensure that its planned evaluations of Technology Partnerships Canada, the Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative, and the Bombardier CSeries Program are carried out to allow the Department to measure progress against program objectives. These evaluations should be reported within the timeframes the Department has committed to in its multi-year evaluation plan.	Agreed.  The Department will evaluate its transfer payment programs in accordance with its multi-year evaluation plan.	Transfer payment programs will be evaluated as planned.	Ongoing

Limited public reporting on SADI achievements
4	(§45) – Industry Canada should ensure that it meets its commitment to report publicly each year on how approved projects met the SADI assessment criteria, on contribution recipients, and on program results and accomplishments.	Agreed.  Industry Canada will augment the information already available on its website to include additional information in these areas, although the commercially sensitive nature of the projects will continue to limit the amount of information that can be lawfully released to the public. The Department will report this information by the end of December 2012 for all projects approved by 2011-12, and annually thereafter.	The 2011-12 SADI Program Highlights report was posted on the Department's website. It reports on program criteria, recipients and results to date (2007-2012).  In future, the Department will publish annual program highlight reports. In addition, as repayments are made by recipients they will be reported on the Department's website.	Ongoing
Monitoring and reporting requirements do not reflect the level of risk or amount of funding
5	(§58) – The Department should document its approach to risk management, specifying the appropriate levels of monitoring and reporting to be used proportionate to the risks of the project, the value of funding in relation to administrative costs, and the risk profile of the recipient.	Agreed.  The Department will document its risk management approach for SADI to demonstrate more clearly the rationale behind the specific approaches taken to manage the various risks inherent in funding aerospace R&D projects.  The Department will document its overall practices in this regard by the end of December 2012.	In December 2012, the Department developed and implemented a Guideline on Risk-Based Monitoring and Reporting to document and formalize the risk management practices in use in administering the program, reflecting increased project monitoring and reporting as the risk and size of projects increase.	Completed

Management control framework to support transfer payments
6	(§70) – IC should establish a plan with deadlines to ensure that its management control framework for transfer payments including its policies, procedures and electronic systems is consistent with requirements set out in the Policy on Transfer Payments and meeting the needs of the Department.	Agreed.  The Department will develop a plan with deadlines by November 2012.	The Department has developed a plan to ensure that its policies, procedures and processes meet the requirements of the Policy on Transfer Payments and are meeting the needs of the Department.  The plan is being implemented.	Completed
7	(§74) – IC should revisit its methodology to measure and report the achievement of service standards for the Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative, in particular the claims processing time standard, to ensure that the results reflect actual performance.	Agreed. Industry Canada will review the claims service standard for the SADI program by the end of December 2012.	The Department developed and implemented a new claim standard in December 2012.  It is monitoring claims performance under this new standard retroactive to April 2012 and will report publicly on results against this new standard at the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year.  The objective is to process all claims within 45 days 90-percent of the time, exclusive of the time required on the part of recipients to provide necessary information on unclear or incomplete claims.	Completed