Program directory · Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
Consumer Affairs
- Program code
- BNN05 (ISC)
- Core responsibility
- People, Skills and Communities
- In Departmental Plans
- 2018-19 – 2020-21 · Appeared and later dropped
What it does
The Consumer Affairs program protects and informs Canadian consumers, enabling them to be effective marketplace participants. It supports policy development and contributes to intergovernmental harmonization of consumer protection rules, both nationally and internationally (through, for example, the federal, provincial and territorial Consumer Measures Committee and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). The Program also identifies important consumer issues and develops and disseminates consumer information and awareness tools. The program works with consumer groups and delivers financial support to strengthen the consumer’s role in the marketplace through the promotion of timely and sound research and analysis. This program is provided under the People, Skills and Communities core responsibility and includes the following transfer payment: Contributions Program for Non-profit Consumer and Voluntary Organizations.
Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.
History and lineage
First appears in GC InfoBase's actual spending by program in 2018-19. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).
| Program | Relation | Years with data | Actual spending over those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer Affairs | This program | 2018-19 – 2022-23 | $13.6M |
No earlier or later program in the same department has a similar name.
Significant changes in scope and budget
Detected from the data: renames between plans, programs it appears to replace, merge with or split into (matched by name), year-over-year changes in spending of at least 25% and $5M, or in employees of at least 20% and 25 FTEs, linked budget measures, and results indicators added or dropped.
No significant changes detected.
Success criteria
The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.
Historical: targets against results
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | ≥ 1,200,000 | 2019 | 1,008,282 Removal of redundant, outdated and trivial content in preparation for move of websites to the Canada.ca common look and feel has reduced the number of pages, and by extension, web traffic to all web offerings managed by the Office of Consumer Affairs. The target was adjusted in ISED's 2019–20 Department Plan to reflect the decline in web traffic as a result of changes to related websites’ structu… | Not met |
| 2019-20 | ≥ 1,000,000 | 2020 | 589,326 In 2019-20, the Office of Consumer Affairs website traffic was significantly lower due to changes to the content and organization of the website. In addition, web metrics for February and March 2020 are unavailable due to a licensing issue with the web metrics tool used to compile data, reducing the actual result by an estimated 160,000 to 220,000. | Not met |
| 2020-21 | ≥ 1,000,000 | 2021 | 482,464 The promotion of OCA’s web offerings was halted during the first 9 months of the pandemic in FY 2020-2021, given the government’s focus on communicating with Canadians on pandemic-related priorities.. Social media and other promotional products are an important part of driving traffic to the OCA websites and this pause in promotion of content for consumers may have contributed, in part, to the lo… | Not met |
Current: the 2026-27 plan's targets
No indicators in the 2026-27 plan.
Future goals: targets due after 2026-27
No targets with a later due date.
Spending and employees: planned against actual
Spending
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | $4.2M | $3.4M |
| 2019-20 | $4.2M | $3.3M |
| 2020-21 | $4.1M | $6.9M |
| 2021-22 | $4.2M* | — |
| 2022-23 | $4.2M* | — |
Employees (FTEs)
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | 15 | 15 |
| 2019-20 | 15 | 13 |
| 2020-21 | 13 | 16 |
| 2021-22 | 13* | — |
| 2022-23 | 13* | — |
Planned spending, plan by plan
Each row is one year's Departmental Plan and its forecast for the next three fiscal years; read a column down to see how the forecast for one year changed. The last row is what was actually spent. Click an amount for its source. Biggest changes in federal spending plans
| Plan | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 plan | $4,153,187 | $4,153,187 | $4,153,187 | ||
| 2019-20 plan | $4,159,931 | $4,159,931 | $4,159,931 | ||
| 2020-21 plan | $4,145,209 | $4,158,140 | $4,161,125 | ||
| Actual | $3,434,745 | $3,295,445 | $6,863,605 |
Actual spending is from Departmental Results Reports and the Public Accounts, as published in GC InfoBase. FTEs are full-time equivalents.
