Canadian Rural Partnership

The genesis of the Canadian Rural Partnership (CRP) was in the 1996 Throne Speech which called for the federal government to focus on the "economic renewal of rural Canada" and to "tailor programs and services" around the needs of rural citizens. Then, in 1998, CRP was launched with $20 million in new seed money (i.e. $5 million annually over four years).

From the outset, CRP was horizontal or cross-government in nature, involving about 28 federal departments and agencies. The direction to the responsible Minister (i.e. the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, assisted by the Secretary of State for Rural Development) was to coordinate across departments and to gain access for rural citizens to existing government programs. As stated in the case study:

"It was not a question of creating another program — this would simply exacerbate what already existed — a proliferation of not very well coordinated activities. The logic is simple, the execution more problematic. Organizations don't like to be coordinated."

Structures and processes have been very important to the management and delivery of CRP. For example:

1. An Inter-departmental Working Group (IWG) on Rural was established; it was to be the window into other departments and the forum in which a cross-government sharing of information would ultimately lead to the development of a common rural agenda for the federal government.
2. Rural Teams were created in all 13 provincial and territorial jurisdictions. These provide a forum at the local level for learning, collaborating and for aligning federal programs and services around the priorities of rural citizens and communities.
3. The Rural Dialogue was established to maintain an ongoing discussion with rural Canadians about the challenges, opportunities and issues facing them. The Rural Dialogue has provided a grass-roots base and legitimacy to the direction of the CRP.

The CRP has used four tools to help it achieve its objectives. The first is a "rural lens" that is used to make government decision-makers more aware of rural issues. The second is "rural research" that is handled across-government. The third tool is tied to "pilot projects" that produce learnings that can feed back into the policy planning for the future of the rural Canada agenda. Finally, there is the "communications and outreach" tool that distributes a great deal of information to rural Canadians.

There seems to be a fairly general view that the Canadian Rural Partnership is being effectively managed as a horizontal initiative.

Lessons Learned:

Canadian Rural Partnership

The Canadian Rural Partnership (CRP) has produced a number of important lessons in respect of the management of horizontal initiatives in the regions. Some of the key ones are:

• accountability is a key factor; each department has a vertical accountability which is very difficult to square with horizontal challenges, such as that posed by CRP; what is required are models of shared accountability which clearly delineate who is responsible for what
• the front-end policy making is crucial to the success of horizontal initiatives; "a learning from the CRP is that if the front-end policy making was integrated and coordinated, it would greatly facilitate the programmatic coordination..."; it is also important that the policy-making be inclusive of the key partners
• resources are required for coordination, both at the NHQ and regional levels; with horizontal initiatives, too often things are done "off the corner of the desks"; a good business case must be made so as to secure resources for coordination; in addition, someone has to be made accountable for coordination
• focus on outcomes; the need to focus on outcomes, supported by good performance measures, is accentuated with horizontal initiatives