I'll speak for a few seconds and then pass it over to my colleague. She led the Eyes on Evidence work specifically.
I mentioned off the top that since 2015, mandate letters have all stated a commitment to the use of science and evidence-based decision-making. We really appreciate these repeated signals, but what really spurred our interest in transparency was that, from our position, we think that if the public is to assess what progress is actually being made in this endeavour in evidence-informed decision-making, they must be given the opportunity to scrutinize the relationship between evidence and policy decisions that are impacting their lives. That kind of transparency gives citizens the chance to consider whether they agree with how evidence is being used to formulate public policy. This is why transparency is really mission-critical here to evidence-informed policy.
From this position, we undertook the Eyes on Evidence study to examine transparency specifically in the federal government. Put simply, can the evidence behind policy decisions be found by the lay public, or can someone from outside government understand what the government is proposing to do, and why?
I'll pass it over to my colleague. Farah actually led this work and can provide more specifics.