Central Agencies Portfolio Evaluation

1. Introduction

The Central Agencies Portfolio (CAP or the Portfolio) is one of five portfolios within the Department of Justice Canada (Justice or the Department) dedicated to providing legal services to government departments and agencies. The CAP provides legal services to its client departments and agencies, and it manages horizontal legal policy and issues related to the central agency functions of the federal government. This document constitutes the final report for the evaluation of the Portfolio.

1.1. Scope and Objectives of the Evaluation

This is the first time that the CAP has been formally evaluated. This evaluation was completed in accordance with the Treasury Board Policy on Evaluation, which requires departments to evaluate all direct program spending on a five-year cycle.Footnote 3 The evaluation covers both the relevance of the services offered by the Portfolio and the extent to which the Portfolio has efficiently and effectively achieved its expected results.

The scope of the evaluation includes all activities undertaken by the Portfolio between 2010-11 and 2014-15.Footnote 4 This includes activities conducted by the departmental Legal Services Units (LSUs) included in the Portfolio, activities that regional offices of Justice carried out for the Portfolio’s client departments and agencies, and activities undertaken by the Assistant Deputy Minister’s Office (ADMO).Footnote 5

The evaluation was conducted between May 2015 and March 2016. The Department’s Evaluation Division directed the evaluation, with the support of a working group composed of representatives from the ADMO and some of the Portfolio’s LSUs.

1.2. Structure of the Report

This report contains six sections, including this introduction. Section 2 provides a description of the Portfolio. Section 3 describes the methodology used to address the set of evaluation issues and questions. Section 4 summarizes the key findings that have emerged from the data collection process, Section 5 provides the overall evaluation conclusions, and Section 6 provides the recommendations and the management response.