2019-20 Departmental results report

Minister's Message

As Canada’s Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion, and International Trade, I am tasked with strengthening the opportunities for Canadian businesses and creating an environment that enhances Canada’s competitive advantages to access global markets and opportunities while strengthening our supply chains and national security. By increasing and diversifying trade and attracting job-creating investment, Canada is positioned to continue to build on its impressive economic growth and enhance the standard of living of all Canadians.

Invest in Canada has worked collaboratively with the Trade Commissioner Service in addition to the provincial, territorial, and municipal governments to accelerate new investment and reinvestment opportunities. This collaboration helped remove potential barriers to foreign direct investment and led to an investment ecosystem with more jobs for Canadians through sustained growth of capital while expanding into innovative sectors.

With its concierge service, Invest in Canada offers direct access to programs and services from all levels of governments that allows foreign investors to enhance their decision-making processes and to investments communities across the country. This was especially important with continued foreign investor interest in Canada’s strong business case during the challenging last weeks of 2019-20 at the onset of the pandemic.

Over the past year, Invest in Canada scaled in size and capability to ensure it met the needs of its clients, and it was well equipped to fulfill its mandate. Its coordination of the Canadian efforts to attract foreign direct investment will continue to be important as the world’s economy changes and we position Canada to continue on its path of innovative growth, translating into positive results for Canadians.

It is my pleasure to present Invest in Canada’s 2019-20 Departmental Results Report, which provides a broad overview of the results achieved based on the plans and priorities outlined for the year.

The Honourable Mary Ng
Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and Internation Trade

Chair of the Board’s message

Reflecting on 2019-20 brings mixed sentiments as the year brought many successes to the Canadian economy and presented new challenges with the onset of a global pandemic.

On the positive side, we witnessed Canadian cities growing quickly as hubs for innovating technology and industries of the future, and foreign investors realizing the potential that exists in Canadian communities. Canada’s diverse and skilled workforce, global market access, welcoming business climate, and innovative business sectors made the country even more attractive to foreign investors.

Despite the set-back the world faces with COVID-19 disruptions, history and experience point to economic recovery. Canada is resilient and Invest in Canada can help to lead the way for global investments to support economic prosperity and stimulate innovative solutions to recovery.

Canada has a proven track record in sectors such as natural resources and manufacturing, and growing influence in new and exciting sectors, such as artificial intelligence, cleantech, and research and development. These are sectors where Canada’s advantage can set it apart from competitors as businesses around the world look to expand, diversify, and secure their supply chains.

My colleagues and I on the Invest in Canada Board of Directors are committed to supporting Invest in Canada by sharing our experience in international business, regulatory law, private sector equity investments, business development, finance, and operations to help promote, facilitate and accelerate investments into Canada.

Together, the Board is working to ensure that Invest in Canada is well positioned and managed to welcome and support more global companies that choose to expand their businesses in Canada. I am encouraged by the achievements that the organization has seen to date and the positive testimonials that I receive from partners, business leaders and investors across Canada. Invest in Canada’s commitment to success in its two short years of operation gives the Board confidence that Invest in Canada will continue to take a strong leadership role in furthering Canada’s capacity to compete on the global stage.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank Invest in Canada’s management team and the dedicated employees who contribute to improving Canada’s economic conditions through greater global investments. I look forward to continued success for the year ahead.

Mitch Garber
Chair of the Board of Directors

Chief Executive Officer’s Message

Last year was an unprecedented year in many respects. As the 2019-20 fiscal year came to a close, Canada was in a position of success from the perspective of global investments into Canada. At the end of 2019, the country saw an 18.6 percent increase of foreign direct investment inflows over 2018. This steady growth proved to be a promising sign of the strength and attractiveness of Canada as a premier investment destination.

Unfortunately, the latter part of the fiscal year also saw the global economy come to a standstill with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Invest in Canada has done its best to adapt to these challenging conditions and continue to promote investments into Canada as a source of economic growth. Operations have been realigned and staff have adjusted seamlessly to continue their work from home to maintain relationships with clients and partners. Whether participating in virtual industry events or continuing valuable investor engagement remotely, this spirited effort will be necessary to help Canada maintain its presence on the global stage.

At the time of writing, countries around the world continue to be affected by the pandemic, requiring that national governments’ attention and resources be focused on public health and economic recovery. Canada is not in a dissimilar scenario.

The next months and years will be a challenge, but Canada has laid a strong inward global investment foundation to continue to be an attractive investment destination to help the Canadian economy recover. Canadian business hubs around the country have drawn in leading global investors through Canada’s unparalleled talent, impressive global market access, and cost-saving programs and incentives the country has to offer. When combined, these benefits provide Canada with a competitive foreign investment proposition and investors have taken notice.

Throughout 2019-20, Invest in Canada continued to work with federal, provincial, territorial and municipal partners across Canada to promote Canada’s strengths, such as its sound banking system, its strong business environment, and the highly skilled, diverse, and well-educated workforce, that make Canada appealing to global companies.

The last year was also a year of growth for Invest in Canada. The organization grew the team of dedicated professionals to better serve investors and meet our mandate. Invest in Canada collaborated with all levels of government as well as our partners, working particularly closely with the Trade Commissioner Service, to provide a one-stop shop that provides a seamless business expansion service in Canada.

Recognizing that Canada and the world will continue to face challenges in the months and potentially years to come, as the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to unfold, Invest in Canada will continue to collaborate with its federal colleagues to ensure that we are delivering first-class services to ensure that Canada attracts and retains global investment opportunities that will be critical to support Canada’s economic recovery and grow the economy in the future. Amidst uncertainty and challenges, our team at Invest in Canada remains optimistic and poised to support investments into Canada.

I am proud of the work and commitment of Invest in Canada’s employees and Management Team through successful and challenging times, as they continue to support our significant mandate. I look forward to continued success for the year ahead.

Ian McKay
Chief Executive Officer

Results at a Glance and Operating Context

Fiscal year 2019-20 was a year of growth for Invest in Canada (IIC). Last year, IIC increased its staff complement to 56 full-time employees across the organization to support its three program areas: Marketing; Investor Services; and Partnerships and Strategy Development, and its internal services.

In 2019-20, Invest in Canada built on earlier progress to fulfill our mandate according to three guiding principles:

• Promote: presenting Canada as a premier investment destination; delivering polished, research-based, compelling, and consistent messaging; and developing products and marketing campaigns that reflect, increase and improve Canada’s brand abroad.
• Facilitate: supporting Canada’s foreign direct investment proponents, including provincial and territorial government’s, city-based economic development agencies across the country and Global Affairs Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service’s investment officers abroad to connect with prospective global investors; providing critical research and data to partners by collecting, curating and celebrating the positive investment stories across Canada; and
• Accelerate: advancing large-scale and transformative investments; speeding up problem-solving by allocating highly skilled staff resources, research materials, collateral products and introductions to assist clients in arriving at an expedited final investment decision; and accelerating the delivery of world class, operationally excellent service to our clients and successive large scale and transformative investments to Canada.

In 2019-20, IIC expanded its presence into regions across the country to offer decentralized support to be better able to meet the needs of investors looking to capitalize on the unique market benefits that exist across provinces, territories and municipalities and work more closely with partners.

Actual spending in 2019-20 was $26,096,450, which was in line with planned spending and approved authorities of $36,056,589 for 2019-20. The variance between planned spending and actual spending reflects the scale-up of Invest in Canada’s operations and build out of internal capacity following the launch of the organization in March 2018.

In 2019-20, IIC presented its Departmental Results Framework, including core responsibility, foreign direct investment attraction, and associated planned results to the Treasury Board. The core responsibility is to lead the Government of Canada’s FDI attraction efforts by making Canada top-of-mind for foreign investors and providing services in support of investor decisions to expand in Canada.

As IIC’s core responsibility and planned results were not yet approved at the time of the development of the IIC 2019-20 Departmental Plan, tentative core responsibilities (Partnership and Strategy Development, Marketing and Outreach and Investor Services) and planned results were included in the departmental plan. This departmental results report highlights the tentative results and reports out on some of the planned results that were approved in late 2019-20.

Key results achieved in 2019-20:

• 7.7% increase of Canada’s FDI stock, strengthening Canada’s position as a location and destination of choice for global investment;
• 0.33 point increase (representing a 17% increase from 2019 to 2020) in Canada’s score in the global foreign direct investment attractiveness index, highlighting the successful recognition of Canada’s brand as a global leader in investment attraction; and,
• 66 investment leads facilitated with partners (as measured from mid-year to fiscal year end), highlighting global investors’ ability to have simplified access to partners, services and tools to accelerate their investments.

Impact of COVID-19

As the fiscal year came to a close, IIC was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the same way as many other departments. As of March 12, 2020, Invest in Canada moved to a work-from-home state following guidance from public health officials. During the work-from-home state, IIC remained engaged with departments, including the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and Public Services and Procurement Canada, to ensure that the organization was up-to-date and coordinated with federal government procedures.

Since moving to remote work, Invest in Canada has continued actively engaging with investors and partners to better understand the impact COVID-19 on expansion plans and their business more broadly. IIC has also been strengthening its research activities to better understand the impact of the pandemic on investments and to provide information and data to partners and clients. In-person events and international conferences have been cancelled or postponed; however, IIC remains fully active and engaged as the organization transitioned from in-person participation at signature events to virtual event participation and online engagement with companies through video conferences.

For more information on Invest in Canada’s plans, priorities and results achieved, see the “Results: what we achieved” section of this report.

Results: what we achieved

Analysis of trends in spending and human resources

Actual expenditures

Departmental spending trend graph

The following graph presents planned (voted and statutory spending) over time.

Text Version

Fiscal Year	Total	Voted	Statutory
2017-18	3,114,302	3,055,718	58,584
2018-19	23,184,924	22,203,434	981,490
2019-20	36,056,589	36,056,589	0
2020-21	34,291,556	34,291,556	0
2021-22	34,271,556	34,271,556	0
2022-23	33,611,556	33,611,556	0

Invest in Canada’s funding profile has matched the maturation of the organization. When fully operational, IIC’s funding will stabilize. The organization is responsible for all employee benefits and pension contributions annually.

Budgetary performance summary for Core Responsibilities and Internal Services (dollars)

Core responsibilities and Internal Services	2019–20 Main Estimates	2019–20 Planned spending	2020–21 Planned spending	2021–22 Planned spending	2019–20 Total authorities available for use	2017–18 Actual spending (authorities used)	2018–19 Actual spending (authorities used)	2019–20 Actual spending (authorities used)
Partnership and Strategy Development Footnote *	NA	$6,438,000	NA	NA	6,438,000	425,000	726,406	4,736,356
Marketing and Outreach Footnote *	NA	$19,835,589	NA	NA	19,835,589	677,000	3,219,173	13,133,051
Investor Services Footnote *	NA	$3,321,000	NA	NA	3,321,000	27,000	939,388	2,066,276
Foreign Direct Investment Attraction Footnote **	$29,594,589	NA	$27,433,245	$27,417,245	NA	NA	NA	NA
Subtotal	$29,594,589	$29,594,589	$27,433,245	$27,417,245	29,594,589	1,129,000	4,884,967	19,935,683
Internal Services	$6,462,000	$6,462,000	$6,858,311	$6,854,311	6,462,000	903,683	5,833,968	6,160,767
Total	36,056,589	36,056,589	34,291,556	34,271,556	36,056,589	2,032,683	10,718,935	26,096,450

Footnotes

*

Tentative core responsibilities as presented in 2019-20 Departmental Plan for fiscal year 2019-20.

Return to footnote * referrer

**

Revised core responsibility as presented and approved in the Departmental Results Framework for 2020-21 and onward.

Return to footnote ** referrer

Additional information

Appendix: definitions

appropriation (crédit)

Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

budgetary expenditures (dépenses budgétaires)

Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, organizations or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.

Core Responsibility (responsabilité essentielle)

An enduring function or role performed by a department. The intentions of the department with respect to a Core Responsibility are reflected in one or more related Departmental Results that the department seeks to contribute to or influence.

Departmental Plan (plan ministériel)

A report on the plans and expected performance of an appropriated department over a three-year period. Departmental Plans are tabled in Parliament each spring.

Departmental Priority (priorité)

A plan or project that a department has chosen to focus and report on during the planning period. Priorities represent the things that are most important or what must be done first to support the achievement of the desired departmental results.

Departmental Result (résultat ministériel)

A Departmental Result represents the change or changes that the department seeks to influence. A Departmental Result is often outside departments’ immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.

Departmental Result Indicator (indicateur de résultat ministériel)

A factor or variable that provides a valid and reliable means to measure or describe progress on a Departmental Result.

Departmental Results Framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)

Consists of the department’s Core Responsibilities, Departmental Results and Departmental Result Indicators.

Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)

A report on an appropriated department’s actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Departmental Plan.

experimentation (expérimentation)

The conducting of activities that seek to first explore, then test and compare the effects and impacts of policies and interventions in order to inform evidence-based decision-making, and improve outcomes for Canadians, by learning what works, for whom and in what circumstances. Experimentation is related to, but distinct from innovation (the trying of new things), because it involves a rigorous comparison of results. For example, using a new website to communicate with Canadians can be an innovation; systematically testing the new website against existing outreach tools or an old website to see which one leads to more engagement, is experimentation.

full-time equivalent (équivalent temps plein)

A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person year charge against a departmental budget. For a particular position, the full time equivalent figure is the ratio of number of hours the person actually works divided by the standard number of hours set out in the person’s collective agreement.

gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS+])

An analytical process used to assess how diverse groups of women, men and gender-diverse people experience policies, programs and services based on multiple factors including race ethnicity, religion, age, and mental or physical disability.

government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)

For the purpose of the 2019–20 Departmental Results Report, those high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the 2019 Speech from the Throne, namely: Fighting climate change; Strengthening the Middle Class; Walking the road of reconciliation; Keeping Canadians safe and healthy; and Positioning Canada for success in an uncertain world.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

An initiative where two or more federal organizations are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.

non-budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)

Net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.

performance (rendement)

What an organization did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the organization intended to achieve, and how well lessons learned have been identified.

performance indicator (indicateur de rendement)

A qualitative or quantitative means of measuring an output or outcome, with the intention of gauging the performance of an organization, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.

performance reporting (production de rapports sur le rendement)

The process of communicating evidence based performance information. Performance reporting supports decision making, accountability and transparency.

plan (plan)

The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how an organization intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally, a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead to the expected result.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)

For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in Main Estimates.

A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.

program (programme)

Individual or groups of services, activities or combinations thereof that are managed together within the department and focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.

program inventory (répertoire des programmes)

Identifies all the department’s programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department’s core responsibilities and results.

result (résultat)

A consequence attributed, in part, to an organization, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single organization, policy, program or initiative; instead they are within the area of the organization’s influence.

statutory expenditures (dépenses législatives)

Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.

target (cible)

A measurable performance or success level that an organization, program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period. Targets can be either quantitative or qualitative.

voted expenditures (dépenses votées)

Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an appropriation act. The vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.