The concept of horizontal initiatives and managing in a more horizontal way is not a new phenomenon for us here in the government. In many respects, all programming in one form or another requires the leveraging of efforts and expertise across the public service.
The challenge for us is that resources are allocated vertically. They're allocated to ministers, ministers are accountable to Parliament, and departments are responsible for implementing programs.
In 2003 the Auditor General helped shed some light on the need to develop a more fulsome view of the way in which we work horizontally by identifying for the first time in departmental performance reports the need to distinguish between a vertical program in a department and something that is happening formally across the public service. Since that time, we have been on a continuous journey of improvement in terms of identifying the governance structures, the reporting mechanisms, and the ways in which to allocate resources and report on results.
At this time there are 29 initiatives across the government that are designated as formal horizontal initiatives.