National Action Plan on Open Government Commitment

The final session of the first cohort of the Public Participation Maturity Model (PPMM) Pilot Program took place on June 17, 2026. Participating organizations completed an exit survey to gather information on the outcomes of the action projects undertaken as part of the program to strengthen public participation capacity and/or quality within their respective organizational contexts.

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) is currently working with the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University to develop a summary report highlighting key findings, including feedback on the maturity model, the pilot process, and observed impacts. The report will be co-authored and published on Simon Fraser University's website and Canada's Open Government Portal once finalized.

Throughout summer 2026, the TBS team is conducting outreach to departments and agencies to promote participation in the next cohort of the program, which is scheduled to begin in fall 2026. This includes targeted outreach to organizations involved in Canada's National Action Plan on Open Government that have been identified by the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue as strong candidates to benefit from the program based on their NAP commitments, as well as other organizations that have previously expressed interest in participating.

• Agendas and meeting materials from PPMM pilot program cohort sessions have been developed and are maintained internally by the TBS Open Government team.
• Survey results capturing participant feedback on pilot program implementation and progress have been collected and are stored internally. These findings will inform the final public report on program outcomes.

The first cohort of the Public Participation Maturity Model (PPMM) pilot program was launched in Fall 2025 and will conclude in June 2026.
This initial cohort included three cohort-wide workshops (two hours each), complemented by additional ad hoc, optional support sessions. Key milestones in the timeline included:

October 2025: Orientation session
November 2025 – February 2026: Cohort sessions and ongoing support
June 2026: Final cohort session and program wrap-up

Six federal departments are participating in the first cohort:
Canada Revenue Agency
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Health Canada
Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities Canada
Transport Canada
Justice Canada

In addition to attending cohort sessions, participating departments completed the following activities:

Engaged their broader teams in assessing public participation practices and capacity (using provided survey tools)
Identified 2–3 priority areas for improvement
Developed action plans outlining specific steps to enhance public participation practices and/or capacity
Participated in the PPMM program evaluation

The program evaluation will take place following the final cohort session in June 2026.
The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) Open Government team is currently recruiting organizations for the second cohort of the PPMM pilot program, scheduled to begin in Fall 2026.

In parallel to this pilot, outreach was conducted in Winter 2026 across various Government of Canada forums and communities to collect and document public participation best practices. This work has resulted in the creation of a repository, which is now live on GCwiki. The repository is intended to support peer exchange and promote a more consistent standard of high-quality public participation approaches across departments and agencies, and will continue to be updated on an ongoing basis.

• Agendas and meeting materials from PPMM pilot program cohort sessions have been developed and are maintained internally by the TBS Open Government team.
• Survey results capturing participant feedback on pilot program implementation and progress have been collected and are stored internally. These findings will inform the final public report on program outcomes.
• The TBS Open Government team launched Public Participation Guidance repository on the GCwiki platform (https://wiki.gccollab.ca/PublicParticipationGuidance) in Spring 2025 and will continue to update it on an ongoing basis.

Implementation of the PPMM pilot took place in a constrained operating environment, with departments facing reduced capacity due to resource pressures, the comprehensive expenditure review, and shifting priorities associated with a new administration. These factors made it challenging to identify teams able to participate. To address this, the pilot was positioned as a low-burden exercise, focused primarily on reflecting on existing or past public engagement activities—emphasizing its practical value in supporting future planning and strengthening public participation practices without requiring significant new resources.