Departmental Governance and Risk Management

Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) is a federal department with 403 full-time equivalent staff, based in Western Canada and managed with five regions: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Ottawa office (Annex B). The department is headquartered in Edmonton. Each region and corporate unit, as well all individual senior leaders in the department, has a shared responsibility to ensure the Department, as a whole, achieves its mandate and objectives, as well as ensuring the specific needs and issues of the region are met and addressed.

The Governance Framework

The Deputy Minister chairs the Executive Committee, which is responsible for overall strategic direction and management of the department. WD’s Executive Committee is composed of the Deputy Minister, five Assistant Deputy Ministers, the Director General Corporate Finance and Programs, Director General Corporate Services, Director General Policy, and the Director Corporate Communications. There also is a series of other committees charged with specific components of the department’s planning, policy, reporting and evaluation responsibilities. 

At all levels of the organization, the plans and management strategies are framed by the following consistent components:

• All planning activities are framed by the departmental Strategic Outcomes.
• All plans and activities are informed by risk assessment/management strategies. 
• All plans are informed by, and responsive to, the results achieved and reporting on in the previous reporting period.

The regions within the department are critical in ensuring WD achieves its objectives and outcomes. Each region is led by an Assistant Deputy Minister, who is responsible for ensuring the region responds to regional and community diversity within Western Canada, and achieves the desired outcomes of the department.

Integrated Risk Management

WD’s Integrated Risk Management Framework has been developed to provide the department with tools to support the department’s governance responsibilities, accountabilities, analytical processes, and advice needed to ensure that risks are appropriately identified and mitigated. Our risk framework has been applied throughout the organization, from individual project assessment and management strategies, to the Corporate Business Plan. 

Executive Committee was instrumental in the development of the Strategic Risk Assessment for the department and approved a comprehensive Corporate Risk Profile (CRP) in December 2006. The CRP and mitigation strategies action plan assigns accountabilities for these mitigation strategies. They were developed in line with the department’s mandate and three Strategic Outcomes and are monitored at all levels within the organization. The department identified eight key risks as important to manage in the coming year(s). These eight key risks are included in Annex D. Each year, and more often as required, the department will refresh its assessment of key risks, and adjust its plans and responses (management strategies) accordingly.

At the highest level, this ensures the Corporate Business Plan, and in turn, the RPP responds to the risks identified. Once the departmental risk and management strategies are identified, the more detailed plans for the department are developed for the next fiscal year. These include the Department HR Plan, the Department IMT Plan, Department Financial Plan, the Official Languages Act (OLA) Plan, the Procurement Strategy, and Sustainable Development Strategy, as well as the individual Regional and Corporate Unit Plans. At this more detailed level, each plan is similarly and consistently framed against the Program Activity Architecture (PAA) and the risk management strategy. The reporting framework follows the same logic model, but lags by one year or reporting cycle.

The Strategic Planning and Reporting Framework for the department frames the content of each plan. It articulates WD’s contribution to the Government of Canada Outcome Areas, and links the three Strategic Outcomes, mandate and vision for the department with the Government of Canada performance and planning agenda.

Strategic Planning Framework

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