Summary of the Evaluation of Public Safety's Support to Avalanche Canada's Long-Term Sustainability and Expansion of Services
About the program
Avalanche Canada is a not-for-profit non-government organization dedicated to improving avalanche awareness and safety. The organization provides avalanche forecasts, develops and delivers training programs and supports research on avalanche safety. To support Avalanche Canada's long-term sustainability and expansion of services, the Government of Canada announced a one-time endowment of $25M in the 2018 Fall Economic Statement. The grant is managed and administrated by the Avalanche Canada Foundation for the benefit of Avalanche Canada.
What we examined
The purpose of the evaluation was to determine the extent to which Public Safety's provision of grant funding to Avalanche Canada has supported the organization's long-term stability and expansion of services and to assess the degree to which Avalanche Canada has achieved its expected immediate and intermediate outcomes. The evaluation covered the period from 2019-20 to 2023-24 and was conducted in accordance with the Treasury Board Policy on Results and the Directive on Results.
Evaluation findings
- Public Safety's support has allowed Avalanche Canada to make progress in acquiring the required capacity to fulfill its mandate.
- Avalanche Canada made progress in providing their services and resources in both official languages. However, social media postings remain unilingual.
- Avalanche Canada's training courses, outreach activities, warning and forecast tools as well as resources have contributed to increased awareness of the risks posed by avalanches and of the safety measures in place in high-risk areas among a diverse audience.
- Avalanche Canada has established new field teams and made some progress in becoming a national organization in scope and reach.
- While Avalanche Canada has complied to agreed monitoring mechanisms and has the governance mechanism and decision-making processes necessary to ensure appropriate management of the endowment grant, it is unclear whether the funding mechanism was the most appropriate to meet the needs of Avalanche Canada.
- Date modified: