Responses to parliamentary committees and external audits
Response to parliamentary committees
6th Report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts – Student Financial Assistance
Summary
In the spring of 2020, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada released an audit that focused on whether Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and the Canada Revenue Agency efficiently managed various aspects of financial assistance to post-secondary students and the risks to the public purse, while helping students attend colleges and universities. The audit also focused on whether the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada collaborated with stakeholders to strengthen students’ financial literacy. On December 1, 2020, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts (PACP) held a hearing on this audit. The Committee made 6 recommendations to ESDC.
Read the full report.
ESDC’s response and corrective actions
The Government Response was tabled in the House of Commons on May 31, 2021. ESDC agreed with the 6 recommendations.
Read the full response.
On April 4, 2022, PACP requested a progress report on recommendation 4, which is related to ensuring that borrowers have easily accessible and comprehensive information about their student loans. ESDC submitted the report to the committee on April 29, 2022.
Read the progress report.
Response to audits conducted by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (including audits conducted by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development)
Report 1 – Implementing the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals
Summary
This audit focused on whether Employment and Social Development Canada and selected organizations were implementing a national approach for achieving the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and had made progress toward achieving selected national targets that would result in more inclusive and sustainable outcomes for Canadians. The Auditor General made 3 recommendations to ESDC.
Read the full report.
ESDC’s response and corrective actions
ESDC agreed with the recommendations. The department will continue to collaborate with other organizations to follow-up on these recommendations.
Read the recommendations and responses.
Report 13 – Health and Safety of Agricultural Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Summary
This audit focused on whether Employment and Social Development Canada managed the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to protect agricultural workers from COVID‑19 in 2020 and 2021. The audit focused particularly on the amended Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations and the department’s inspections, which were meant to verify whether employers followed the new COVID‑19 regulatory requirements. These new requirements came into force in April 2020 and were in place for the duration of our audit.
The Auditor General found that, overall, Employment and Social Development Canada’s inspections under its Temporary Foreign Worker Program provided little assurance of protection for the health and safety of temporary foreign workers in Canada’s agriculture sector during the 2020 and 2021 growing seasons. The Auditor General made 6 recommendations to ESDC.
Read the full report.
ESDC’s response and corrective actions
ESDC agreed with the recommendations. The department indicated the measures already taken to improve the situations highlighted by the audit, and committed to take other measures to follow-up on those recommendations.
Read the recommendations and responses.
Response to audits conducted by the Public Service Commission of Canada or the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
There were no audits in fiscal year 2021 to 2022, requiring a response.
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