Summary of the Thematic Evaluation of the Small Craft Harbours Program and DFO’s Jetties and Wharves

About the evaluation

The objective of the evaluation is to provide senior management with evidence-based information to support decision-making and the optimization of departmental resources related to small craft harbours, jetties and wharves. The evaluation examined the relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency of activities related to DFO's small craft harbours, jetties and wharves between 2016-17 to 2020-21. This includes elements of DFO's Small Craft Harbour (SCH) program and the departmental management of jetties and wharves by Real Property (RP). Perspectives from key departmental users were also included in the scope of the evaluation, such as the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG). Evidence was gathered through multiple lines of evidence including interviews, document and literature reviews, financial and administrative data analyses, documented examples and three surveys of SCH and RP staff, departmental users and harbour authorities.

About DFO's management of small craft harbours, jetties and wharves

DFO's networks of small craft harbours, jetties and wharves are operated across unique departmental contexts, meaning they serve distinct purposes and are managed by distinct departmental custodians: the Small Craft Harbours Program and Real Property. For this reason, custodial objectives and service delivery models differ with regards to custodian's asset portfolios, mandates, results, activities, users and partners, legislative obligations and funding and governance mechanisms. Small craft harbours, jetties and wharves nevertheless have similar engineering components that give rise to similarities with regards to the asset management processes and terminology that are used. These similarities provide an opportunity to share good practices and lessons learned among departmental custodians, where relevant, for their management.

The SCH program is a national program managed by DFO

Mandates: The SCH program maintains a critical and affordable national network of safe and accessible harbours that meets the principal needs of the commercial fishing industry

Users: Small craft harbours serve the commercial fishing & marine industry as well as the CCG. Services are delivered in partnership with Harbour Authorities.

Results: SCH program is an established program in DFO's Departmental Results Framework (DRF) and aligns directly departmental result that "The commercial fishing industry has access to safe harbours" under the Fisheries core responsibility.

RP is corporate real estate organization that manages jetties and wharves on behalf of DFO

Mandates: RP ensures the accommodation of departmental programs through the provision of the department's real property (including jetties and wharves among other assets) in each region.

Users: Jetties and wharves serve CCG programs (i.e., Fleet and Maritime Services, Search and Rescue) and DFO programs (i.e., Science; Conservation and Protection).

Results: As a corporate real estate organization that provides internal services, RP is not tied to a specific core responsibility or result in DFO's DRF. Rather, RP supports the results and objectives of their departmental clients as an internal service.

Key findings

Overall, the SCH program delivers services that are mostly reliable, meaning that key informants and survey respondents indicated they were mostly timely, accessible, and current.^{Footnote 1}

Overall, RP delivers jetty and wharf services that are somewhat reliable, meaning that key informants and survey respondents indicated they were somewhat timely, mostly accessible, and somewhat current.^{Footnote 1}

Ongoing needs among the SCH program's target user groups are being met; however, the demand for harbour services is increasing and creating pressures on the program that lie outside its mandate as a result of:

• diverse fisheries and aquaculture needs;
• recreational needs;
• increasing Indigenous participation in the SCH program; and
• needs for harbour development in the North.

In addition:

• Some HA respondents (47%) indicated the needs of the aquaculture industry were being met to a moderate and great extent;
• Some HA respondents (36%) indicated the needs of recreational fishers were being met to a moderate and great extent;
• Most HA respondents (53%) indicated the needs of non-commercial Indigenous fishers were being met to a moderate and great extent; and
• Most HA respondents (64%) indicated the needs of the local harbour communities were being met to a moderate and great extent.

Ongoing needs for DFO's jetties and wharves are driven by the operational requirements of departmental clients and user groups whose needs are evolving as a result of:

• increasing infrastructure needs as the number and size of vessels increases;
• increasing infrastructure needs related to fleet modularity; and
• needs for climate resilient infrastructure

In addition:

• Few CCG (20%) survey respondents indicated that their operational needs are evolving as a result of changing vessel strategies;
• Some CCG (28%) survey respondents indicated that their operational needs are evolving as a result of changing vessel requirements;
• Few CCG (16%) survey respondents indicated that their operational needs are evolving as a result of changing GoC priorities; and
• Few CCG (7%) survey respondents indicated that their operational needs are evolving as a result of changing DFO/CCG priorities.

The SCH program's reliance on temporary B-base funding creates significant challenges for planning lifecycle management in the long term. The program faces long-term funding shortfalls that will hinder future service delivery.

Only 45% of SCH program actual expenditures came from permanent A-base funding sources between 2016-17 and 2020-21 with the rest of the coming from B-base (55%).

RP faces significant funding shortfalls that hinder their ability to manage the lifecycle of jetties and wharves. In part, this is due to the design of RP's national portfolio strategy relative to the Vote 5 capital funds and long-term planning needed to maintain engineered assets of this kind.

Most RP expenditures came from Vote 1 authorities (61%) between 2016-17 and 2020-21 while 39% came from Vote 5 authorities.

SCH's information management capacity could be strengthened to meet evolving program needs for information to support decision-making. The program's capacity in information management is challenged because:

• historical data cannot be easily accessed to support decision-making;
• accurate program data is not readily available; and
• responding to increasingly frequent requests is a challenge.

There is a gap in jetty and wharf specific information available to support decision making. Jetty and wharf specific data is not collected because:

• condition assessment data is collected by functional area/site;
• marine infrastructure assessment expertise is lacking;
• methodologies for assessing marine infrastructure are under development; and
• specialized assessments for marine engineered infrastructure are costly.

Performance data for the SCH program indicates that the program is on track to achieve performance targets. However, there is a need for program results and indicators that can tell an accurate performance story with regards to the SCH asset portfolio in the long-term.

Performance data related to jetties and wharves is not collected by the department.

• RP and SCH custodians indicated that improvements could be made to centralized databases, data-management systems, and performance indicators

There are pressures on the SCH program that affect its ability to plan and prioritize projects for lifecycle management. These include:

• challenges with SCH staff retention; and
• challenges ensuring HA continuity planning.

Strategic and operational communication challenges exist between RP and departmental user groups that could be addressed to improve the prioritization process for jetties and wharves.

• There are opportunities to improve collaboration and communication with departmental user groups during planning and prioritization processes.

SCH's divestiture program advances the removal of non-core harbours from the program inventory. However, more than half of non-core harbours slated for divestiture have yet to commence.

Description

The figure depicts the 5 stages of the Small Craft Harbour program's divestiture process, as well as the proportion of assets at each stage. For instance, 52% of the small craft harbour program's assets are in stage 1: divestiture yet to commence; 27% are in stage 2: in negotiation; 5% are in stage 3: waiting for repairs; there are no assets in stage 4: in administration and legal process; and the remaining 9% are in stage 5: divestiture completed.

RP rarely divests and/or disposes of DFO's jetties and wharves due to their prohibitive cost.

Most SCH (61%) and a majority of RP (78%) survey respondents indicated that they either did not know how GBA+ considerations apply to the service delivery of small craft harbours, jetties and wharves, or that they were not applicable.

The appropriateness of custodial planning processes was rated to a moderate and great extent as follows:

• Most SCH respondents (72%) rated the appropriateness of custodial planning processes between a moderate and great extent in the present day, versus some (44%) who rated their appropriateness likewise in the future.
• Most RP respondents (67%) rated the appropriateness of custodial planning processes between a moderate and great extent in the present day, versus some (33%) who rated their appropriateness likewise in the future.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: Develop a strategic, transformative, and proactive approach to address user's evolving needs for DFO's small craft harbours, jetties and wharves

It is recommended that the department adapts to the evolving needs for small craft harbours, jetties and wharves, including the development of an inclusive, forward-thinking strategy across clients and users.

Recommendation 2: Strengthen custodial approaches to operational data management specific to DFO's small craft harbours, jetties and wharves

It is recommended that departmental approaches to operational information management related to small craft harbours, jetties and wharves are strengthened to support current and future decision-making.

Recommendation 3: Develop a forward-looking strategy for client and user engagement

It is recommended that custodians explore different avenues for engaging and collaborating with key stakeholders, clients and partners on whom the management of DFO's small craft harbours, jetties and wharves depends.

Recommendation 4: Seek opportunities to share departmental management tools as well as lessons learned to support decision-making

It is recommended that custodians seek opportunities to share departmental management tools (i.e., related to disposal and divestiture activities and the application of GBA+ principles) to support the management of DFO's small craft harbours, jetties and wharves, including sharing lessons learned across custodial groups as appropriate.