Advisory

The IFSD team has a deep and profound understanding of the Government of Canada’s budgetary decision-making process and expenditure management system coming from over 30 years of experience with budget preparation, the Memorandum to Cabinet process, the Treasury Board Submission process, strategic reviews/reallocation exercises, identifying sources of funds and performing oversight and due diligence on behalf of the Prime Minister, central agencies and Parliament.  This experience includes working with organizations that provide direct service delivery, delivery through the broader public sector, transfer payment partners and the provision of public services. 

Kevin Page and the IFSD team can help you unlock the black box of public finance and interact with the Centre using language they understand and addressing the Centre’s unique internal requirements and information needs.  Few organizations can match IFSD’s experience in the design, oversight or evaluation review exercises conducted by the Federal Government since the early 1980’s.

The IFSD team has conducted benchmarking exercises to construct counter factuals to test a variety of businesses cases brought forward to federal and provincial governments.  The benchmarking would highlight the major risks, key potential success factors and causes for major failure/project overruns/delays. The team has developed a consistent track record and set of global relationships to gather the data needed to establish benchmarks, particularly for projects spheres lacking them.

Within the typical Canadian Westminster government and expenditure management system, there are at least three points of assessment to ensure that programs are both effective and efficient: Memorandum to Cabinet; Budget and Treasury board submission; and, an internal review process (internal audit, periodic program and operational review and broader expenditure review).  Our team has a profound understanding of the evidence required for all three points of assessment.

The IFSD team is uniquely qualified to assist Line Departments in proactively providing the evidence and content to successfully navigate the intricacies and inner workings of the Government’s expenditure management system on the journey towards the realization of your intended outcomes.  Specifically, the IFSD team provides the following value-added services:

• Strategic advice and counsel on building a productive and effective relationship with Central Agencies towards the attainment of Line Department outcomes that is continuously updated to reflect ever changing political priorities and realities
• Detailed review of the allocation of resources to provide the evidence to inform a strategic review/reallocation exercise and demonstrate alignment to government priorities and value-for-money initiatives
• Financial oversight, due diligence, costing and benchmarking services
• Strategic and hands-on support of senior IFSD resources in the preparation of Memorandum to Cabinets and Treasury Board submissions.
• Training courses covering costing, financial oversight/due diligence, the expenditure management system and successfully dealing with the Centre