Executive summary

Introduction

This report presents the results of an evaluation of the Department of Justice Canada (Justice Canada) Canadian Family Justice Fund (CFJF). The evaluation covers the period from 2018-19 to 2021-22 and addresses issues related to relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency. The evaluation was conducted in accordance with the Treasury Board’s Policy on Results (2016), which requires departments to measure and evaluate performance and use the resulting information to manage and improve programs, policies, and services.

Program Description

Family law is an area of shared responsibility between the Federal Government and the provinces and territories (PTs). The Government of Canada is committed to improving access to justice for families experiencing separation and divorce. The CFJF’s ultimate outcome directly supports this commitment by fostering 1) an increased awareness of family justice issues, and 2) an increased capacity in the PTs to deliver family justice services.

The CFJF targets the following five priorities:

  1. Fostering federal, provincial, and territorial collaboration to make improvements to the Canadian family justice system;
  2. Supporting the well-being of family members engaging with the family justice system;
  3. Extending the reach of family justice programs, services, and information to meet the needs of diverse and underserved populations;
  4. Supporting alternatives to court for the resolution of family law matters; and,
  5. Improving and streamlining family justice system links/processes to support the simplification of family court processes, information sharing between courts and family justice services, and improved coordination with other parts of the justice system (e.g., criminal justice system).

The CFJF is made up of two components: the activities component and the projects component.

The activities component supports PT governments (and their designates) to develop and provide family justice services that assist families experiencing separation and divorce. Examples of these programs and services include parent education, mediation, support enforcement, and child support recalculation.

The projects component supports provincial and territorial governments, not-for-profit organizations, associations, academic institutions, and individuals through:

  1. the development, implementation, and evaluation of provincial and territorial innovative family justice services and programs;
  2. projects and activities that inform Canadians about family law issues such as parenting arrangements and child/spousal support; and
  3. the development of new strategies, models, and tools intended to improve access to family justice.

Changes to the Divorce Act came into force on March 1, 2021. The Divorce Act amendments related to: promoting the best interests of the child, addressing family violence, helping reduce child poverty, and making the family justice system more accessible and efficient. CFJF funding contributed to the implementation of these changes through funded activities and projects.

The total allocated resources to the CFJF during the years covered by the evaluation (2018-19 to 2021-22) is $69.5 million, including a transfer payment budget of $68.6 million.

Findings

Relevance

The evaluation found that there is a continued need to support the delivery of family justice services through the CFJF due to the high and increasing prevalence of family violence, high conflict families, self-represented litigants, and an ongoing need to expand support for out-of-court dispute resolution, child support recalculation, maintenance enforcement, and supervised access. There are also continued needs and gaps with respect to accessing family justice services for diverse and underserved groups, particularly Indigenous peoples, individuals living in rural and remote communities, newcomers, 2SLGBTQI+Footnote1 individuals, and persons with physical or mental disabilities. Nevertheless, the CFJF was generally responsive to the current and emerging needs. There is a low likelihood that many activities/projects would have proceeded as planned in the absence of the CFJF.

The CFJF is consistent with federal and PT government priorities, such as improving access to justice, addressing gender-based violence, and improving access for diverse and underserved groups. The fund is also consistent with federal roles and responsibilities since family law is a shared responsibility between the federal and PT governments.

Effectiveness

The CFJF was effective in contributing to its intended outcomes. The CFJF supported improved PT capacity to provide and deliver family justice services, particularly through enhanced funding to ongoing family justice services and funding pilot projects for new services. Where services were available, mediation services participants found the services useful in clarifying issues that need to be resolved, providing them with tools, and helping them to create their own solutions to resolve family law issues outside of court.

The CFJF supported increased awareness, knowledge, and understanding of family law and children’s law issues among targeted audiences. This was done through the development, update, and delivery of PLEI materials, particularly in response to Divorce Act amendments, the delivery of one-on-one engagements, and the delivery of parent education programs. Parent education programs contributed to increased awareness and understanding among parents experiencing separation or divorce, particularly with respect to the impact of separation and/or divorce on children.

The CFJF contributed to increased access to family justice for Canadians, particularly through mediation and recalculation services, as well as through PLEI resources and courses that have been developed to help families navigate the system. Further, the CFJF contributed to improved family justice services for diverse and underserved populations through innovative projects and activities which target Indigenous peoples, northern, rural, and remote populations, Official Language Minority Communities, newcomers, and 2SLGBTQI+ individuals. The CFJF is generally flexible in addressing the needs of diverse groups.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a shift towards offering more services virtually that were previously in-person. The shift online had both positive and negative impacts on effectiveness. For example, virtual delivery contributed to increased reach and access to services, but also limited the effectiveness of services for groups who may benefit more from in-person support (e.g., newcomers to Canada).

Efficiency

Overall, the CFJF is managed efficiently due to good working relationships and communication between funding recipients and CFJF staff, reasonable reporting, and multi-year funding. Some constraints were identified regarding communication, the availability and consistency of performance data, and the limited program budget. For example, there was a lack of awareness that the list of approved projects and funding amounts is published through quarterly proactive disclosure of grants and contributions. There is a need to more proactively engage PTs and NGOs to clarify priorities in calls for applications and address questions. With respect to performance reporting, although improvements have been noted since the last cycle, gaps remain in terms of the consistency and completeness of annually reported data by PTs and projects. The data is not always captured in a standardized manner to facilitate monitoring and reporting on outcomes.  

Several best practices and lessons learned were identified as part of the evaluation. For CFJF activities/projects, these included engaging diverse and underserved stakeholders when developing services for these groups, ensuring sufficient time for meaningful engagement and collaboration, implementing strategies to mitigate negative impacts of virtual service delivery, and ensuring services are accessible in both Official Languages (among others). For Justice Canada management of the CFJF, best practices consisted of maintaining flexibility in working with funding recipients and keeping reporting simple.

Best practices and lessons learned are well-communicated across PTs through the Coordinating Committee of Senior Officials – Family Justice (CCSO-FJ) and working groups. The most frequently made suggestions for improvement to the fund by key informants and case study participants included: To increase funding overall, modernize and clearly communicate priorities, extend funding and incorporate more flexibility into projects, and increase the transparency in the management of CFJF funding.

Recommendations

Based on the evaluation findings described in this report, the evaluation offers the following two recommendations:

Recommendation 1: Work with provincial and territorial partners to identify gaps and needs relating to family justice services.

Recommendation 2: In collaboration with partners, build on recent improvements to performance reporting by finding opportunities to further standardize and refine performance reporting mechanisms and information. The utility of performance data for program management should be a key consideration.