To pay tribute to all those who served Canada in its military efforts, the Commemoration Division of Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) organizes commemorative events in Canada and overseas as one element of its Canada Remembers Program. These events are led and organized by VAC with assistance from the Department of National Defence. There are a number of Memoranda of Understanding and/or Letters of Agreement with other government organizations, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canadian Heritage, Parks Canada, Global Affairs Canada and other levels of government and non-governmental organizations, both in Canada and abroad. The delegation which attends the events can consist of the Minister of Veterans Affairs, Veterans, caregivers, parliamentarians, media representatives, youth representatives and VAC employees.
In 2017, in addition to in-Canada events, VAC delivered commemorative events overseas to mark three major military milestones: the centennial of the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April (France), the 75th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid in August (France) and the centennial of the Battle of Passchendaele in November (Belgium). Given that overseas events had not been previously audited and that resources were allocated for the 2017 events with the understanding that an audit would be conducted, the present audit was included in VAC’s 2017-2018 Risk-Based Audit and Evaluation Plan approved by the Deputy Minister.
Commemorating three major military milestones within a relatively short period, between April and November, required considerable advance planning. For example, the Commemoration Division, which is responsible for all of VAC’s commemorative initiatives, developed and proposed business cases starting in 2012. The business cases outlined high level proposals for the commemorative approach to be taken, resources required, how the events would be planned and delivered, roles and responsibilities, objectives of the events, desired results, and risks.
All commemorative initiatives normally fall under the responsibility of the Commemoration Division but task forces have been used in the past for larger events. Due to the scale of the 2017 overseas events, a decision was made in 2016 to create the Overseas Commemorative Events 2017 Task Force (Task Force) to specifically undertake the planning and delivery of the 2017 overseas events. This allowed the Commemoration Division to focus on delivering the domestic events marking the three major milestones, in addition to managing all other commemorative initiatives. Note: To give a sense of the scale of the 2017 overseas events, the budgets were $10,125,000, $1,250,000 and $1,000,000 for Vimy, Dieppe and Passchendaele respectively, for a total of $12,375,000.
During the period starting in 2016, the Commemoration Division and the Task Force, which both reported to the Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy and Commemoration, worked together to facilitate the transition between the 2012-2015 planning undertaken by the Commemoration Division and the delivery of the 2017 overseas events by the Task Force. This collaboration was also required to ensure that the domestic and overseas events were delivered in a complementary fashion.
Furthermore, some experienced Commemoration Division staff were assigned to the Task Force and some aspects of overseas activities, such as youth engagement, were carried out by the Commemoration Division. The Task Force also recruited other departmental staff with skills and experience in event planning, communications, logistics, transportation, accommodations, security and procurement. SOMOS Consulting Group, through a procurement process led by Public Services and Procurement Canada, was awarded a contract on April 18, 2016, to help support the delivery of overseas events.
In 2018, the Task Force was disbanded. Once again, the Commemoration Division took full responsibility for all commemorative initiatives, including overseas events.