When the roadmap was adopted, we first prepared an internal discussion paper. In the spring of 2008, we took a good look at the question of how we were going to implement the program. We also developed a management framework for implementing it. Then we really focused on communication and developing an Internet and Intranet site to use for our initiative. We had meetings with members of senior management to explain our objectives and make sure that a sound strategy was developed and was supported by ACOA senior management. We developed an evaluation grid to use for evaluating projects.
Then we really tried to initiate a dialogue with the official language minority community, to be sure that the people there clearly understand how to access EDI funding. As well, as I mentioned earlier, we work closely with the ACOA-RDÉE committee. We also used that table to expand our thinking about the initiative, to make sure our strategy is sound and would be able to support the initiative.
We also did something else that we think is a best practice. For submitting proposals, rather than leaving it to the communities to develop proposals that may not correspond to the vision of the program, we invited them to submit brief proposals that we examined internally. Then we went back to the communities to let them know what we thought about the proposals, whether they were moving in the right direction, in order to guide the work people were doing so they would not waste time preparing proposals that might not necessarily have been accepted at the end of the day.
So I think that really was, for us, a best practice that enabled EDI to play a role as an engine for dialogue with the communities, to try to maximize their potential.