Fourth Meeting of the Joint Steering Committee (JSC)

March 1, 2004
12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Participants

Record of Discussion

Introductions/Opening Remarks

Susan Scotti introduced herself as the new government co-chair for the committee, as a result of the transfer of VSI from Canadian Heritage to Social Development Canada. She acknowledged the leadership shown by Eileen Sarkar and Suzanne Clément at Canadian Heritage. She also thanked Bill McCloskey for his long dedication to VSI and for helping to make the Accord happen. She welcomed Stephen Rigby, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) who is replacing Bill McCloskey.

Bill McCloskey expressed how much he had enjoyed his association with VSI.

Transfer of VSI from Canadian Heritage to Social Development Canada

Eileen Sarkar noted that the staff of the Voluntary Sector Affairs Directorate, formerly at Canadian Heritage, have been reporting to Debra Young, Director General, Social Development Directorate since mid-December. The two departments have been working closely to ensure a smooth transition. The Awareness Initiative will also be transferred to Social Development, but the Canada Volunteerism Initiative will remain at Canadian Heritage.

Susan Scotti stated she is very pleased to have VSI in the department of Social Development.

Monica Patten, voluntary sector co-chair debriefed the committee on the meeting she and other Voluntary Sector Forum members had with Minister Frulla at the end of January. The discussion at that meeting focused on the goals and vision of the Forum, and ways in which the minister could engage with the sector.

Marcel Lauzière confirmed that in his meeting with the Minister she was very interested in issues, including those related to the voluntary sector. She is a strong communicator and is likely to be a strong champion for the sector.

Monica also expressed the appreciation of the Forum for the work of Eileen Sarkar and the secretariat at Canadian Heritage for helping develop a new way of working together. She recognized Suzanne Clément as a passionate champion for the sector.

Susan Scotti assured the committee the transfer of VSI to Social Development Canada also means the Minister is the focal point in government for the voluntary sector broadly and is the champion for the sector around the cabinet table. She also noted the importance of continuing to engage other members of cabinet to build awareness of the government’s shared responsibility in matters related to the voluntary sector.

Speech From the Throne: Implications for the Voluntary Sector (Panel Discussion)

• Martha Nixon chaired the panel and set the context for the discussion by reading from the February 2004 Speech from the Throne (SFT) and the Prime Minister’s response, referencing sections on the social economy and the voluntary sector. The SFT made a commitment to further the work of the VSI under theme of A New Deal for Communities.

Members of the panel were:

• Nancy Neamtan of the Chantier de l’économie sociale. Ms Neamtan described the social economy as the promotion and development of collective forms of production of goods and services. She emphasized that it is a way to look at how social objectives can be integrated in economic development and vice versa. She felt there was an artificial barrier between the social economy and the voluntary sector, and that differences between them were a question of emphasis. She expressed hope that the two could work together.
  
• Patrick Johnston of the Walter and Gordon Duncan Foundation, talked about the value and accomplishments of the VSI and the importance of considering how best to build on this work within a new political context. He noted the importance of making public the benefits of the VSI, particularly as political leaders formerly engaged in the initiative have moved on.
  
• David Brook, a consultant formerly with the Public Policy Forum, introduced a model he has developed that integrates the social economy, social entrepreneurship, community economic development, and the voluntary sector. He posits one role for government as facilitating the process of community economic development. A challenge for government will be to determine how best to measure the return from social entrepreneurship and how to regulate organizations involved in this area.

The committee later discussed the merits of broadening the discussion to include the entire voluntary sector, including organizations for mutual benefit and cooperatives not tied to the definition of charity, while keeping the voluntary sector lens of citizen engagement and service that addresses a very broad range of needs.

VSI Evaluations

A draft of the VSI process evaluation was circulated to each member for factual review.
Susan Carter, on behalf of the Joint Evaluation Steering Committee, introduced Dr. Susan Phillips of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development, who led the team that conducted the VSI process evaluation. The evaluation focused on the two-year joint table phase of VSI between June 2000 and October 2002. A draft evaluation report was presented to JSC members.

Dr. Phillips indicated that the greatest success of the first two years of VSI was in the improved trust and understanding between the two sectors and the development of the Accord and Codes. Having a joint initiative was critical to its credibility. The challenge will be to translate the extensive learning that took place at the individual participant level to the institutional level.

Dr. Phillips noted that the joint table process was more successful for policy-oriented work than for operational issues.

She pointed out that for an initiative with such a broad mandate and that involved so many government and sector organizations in a horizontal manner, a strong governance model is critical.

ACTION: ADM Steering Committee members and voluntary sector members of the JSC will review the draft evaluation report and executive summary for factual accuracy. Following this, both documents will be sent to all members of the Voluntary Sector Forum, prior to their meeting of April 5-6. The publication target is the end of April 2004. The report will be posted on The VSI website

ACTION: The SDC secretariat will follow up with all committee members for the review process.

Accord and Codes Implementation

Monica Patten noted that this work is the bedrock for the rest of the work takes place within the context of the VSI.

Brenda Cameron Couch, Voluntary Sector Forum Secretariat, and Linda Savoie, Non-Profit and Voluntary Sector Affairs Division , SDC provided an overview of plans to meet priorities set out in the first report to Canadians on Accord implementation and recent work on implementing the Accord and Codes by both government and the voluntary sector.

This initial report focuses on awareness building activities by both sectors. The report sets out six joint priorities for action in the upcoming year. They are:

1. Identify, use and promote good practices and lessons learned -

   To date there have been two train the trainer sessions, one in New Brunswick and one in Alberta. Close to 200 government and sector attendees have been trained in the use of the Accord and Codes and will be training colleagues in these provinces. A third session is planned in Ottawa for March 24 and 25.

   A government working group on Progress Reporting has been established and will meet every two weeks over the next two months to determine how to bring best practices to light for future reporting.

   A government working group on Funding Practices is also meeting monthly to examine good practices in this area and ensure stories are widely circulated to promote practices that meet the principles outlined in the Code of Good Practice on Funding.

   The government and sector secretariats have also identified the need to report on exemplary results from SIDPD projects in exciting ways to promote their adoption by others.

   The Voluntary Sector Forum is conducting an electronic survey to find out how the Accord and Codes are working in the field.

2. Hold a regular meeting between the Ministerial Consultative Committee and voluntary sector representatives -

   The challenge to meeting this commitment is that there is no longer a Ministerial committee. Options will need to be explored.

3. Hold a meeting between voluntary sector representatives and departmental champions -

   A meeting between voluntary sector representatives and government departmental VSI champions is anticipated for early fall.

4. Continue to advance collaborative work with respect to regulation and taxation of charities, capacity building and strategic investment -

   The Charities Directorate at CRA is creating an advisory committee that will carry on a dialogue on the administrative policy agenda, emerging trends, and possible impacts of the sector’s views and concerns on CRA. The committee will have 12 members, with a government (DG Charities Directorate) and sector co-chair. CRA solicited applications from the voluntary sector and received 108 applications for review by joint nominating committee. Members will have 2, 3 and 4 year terms and 4 alternates will be named. A list of recommended members will be referred to the Minister of National Revenue. The confirmed committee membership will be announced in March and will have its first meeting that month.

   CRA was asked to comment on progress on the Joint Regulatory Table recommendations. Bill McCloskey indicated that work is taking place between CRA and the Department of Finance.

5. Continue to build the relationship -

   Collaborative work is continuing on capacity building in IM/IT, human resource and research activities, as well as related to awareness. Written updates were provided to the JSC by the Awareness, Capacity and IM/IT advisory bodies.

6. Collaborate to advance other commitments (including: agreement on next steps, voluntary sector lens, models for dispute resolution) -
   
   Privy Council Office is responsible for developing a voluntary sector policy lens. They have noted they will report to JSC when progress has been made.

   The government and sector secretariats have commissioned a study to explore possible models for dispute resolution.

   A proposal on improvements to future progress reporting will be put forward to JSC within the next two months.

Other Business/Wrap Up

The committee discussed the need to “take stock” as we enter the last year of the Voluntary Sector Initiative.

Members suggested items for the next agenda including:

• How to move on Accord and Codes implementation post-2005;
  
• Options for meetings between sector leaders and a Ministerial committee;
  
• What happens after 2005 for the initiative; and
  
• Sector work on the issue of liability.

The SDC secretariat will canvas members to set up a meeting in early June 2004.