Published plans and annual reports 2024–2025: Cabinet Office

Ministry overview

Ministry’s vision

The Cabinet Office is the Premier’s ministry, providing essential strategic advice and analysis to support the Premier and Cabinet to achieve the government’s priorities.

The Cabinet Office takes pride in strengthening Ontario, its places, and its people as the central agency that supports the delivery of government priorities by developing, coordinating, and exercising controllership for policy and communications. The Cabinet Office also supports and monitors delivery and implementation of the government’s mandate and drives key initiatives including enterprise marketing services and internal communications to strengthen enterprise-wide culture and capacity to improve communication and engagement across the Ontario Public Service. The Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs within the Cabinet Office leads intergovernmental strategies, international relations, and protocol. The Ministry of Red Tape Reduction within the Cabinet Office leads the work to meaningfully reduce red tape and build a modern regulatory environment to help businesses and people thrive.

Key priorities

The Cabinet Office contributes to the following government priorities:

• Supports the implementation and delivery of policy priorities, including providing strategic advice to inform policy and fiscal decision-making.
• Provides internal controls and advice to ensure decision-makers are provided with high-quality materials and support throughout the decision-making process.
• Drives the delivery of priority transformation initiatives across government.
• Maintains the process of Cabinet decision-making and the machinery of government.
• Partners with ministries on priority strategies, policies, and programs to redesign systems, organizations, and services to simplify processes, improve efficiency, and achieve better outcomes through continuous improvement and innovation.
• Ensures modern and coordinated government communications that are clear and easy to understand and engage the people of Ontario.
• Provides timely communications to the public, which is monitored through the response times of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and compliance with correspondence response standards.
• Leads the creation of a purpose-driven workplace culture that attracts, develops, and retains skilled and diverse talent.
• Leads enterprise-wide communications to strengthen organization culture.
• Ensures coordinated, accountable, and consistent internal communications processes for memos that empower leaders and provide access to timely and relevant information to staff.
• Support the Secretary of the Cabinet by ensuring accountable and transparent communication from the head of the Ontario Public Service to staff. Communications aim to inspire a culture of unity and focus on shared goals and priorities within the organization.
• Leads the implementation of Ontario’s first-ever Provincial Emergency Management Strategy and Action Plan.
• Determines organization-wide human resource strategy through the People Plan to champion modern working, growth, and development.
• Provides support to advance Ontario’s intergovernmental and international relations priorities, including negotiations, building key relationships, and actively engaging other levels of government and foreign offices.
• Provides support to building a strong Ontario, including improving the quality of interactions with businesses, reducing administrative and regulatory burden, and ensuring a competitive business climate in the province. Costs and hours saved for businesses and the reduction in regulatory compliance requirements is monitored on an annual basis.

Ministry programs

Secretary of the Cabinet

As Deputy Minister to the Premier:

• Provides independent advice to the Premier on government policies, priorities, and oversees implementation of the government’s mandate by the Ontario Public Service.
• Recommends the appointment of Deputy Ministers for the Premier’s Order-In-Council appointments.

As Clerk of the Executive Council and Secretary of the Cabinet:

• Ensures effective public service support for the deliberations and decision-making of the Executive Council and its Committees.
• Provides advice on government and Crown matters.
• Responsible for overseeing the machinery of government, supporting Cabinet Office decision-making, and conveying the decisions of the Executive Council to the public service for implementation.

As Head of the Ontario Public Service:

• Leads the development and implementation of organizational transformation activities to achieve greater efficiencies and better outcomes.
• Fosters the development of a diverse, inclusive, collaborative, accountable, and talented senior executive leadership team.
• Champions the effective and efficient management of the public service.

Policy and Delivery

Policy and Delivery ensures the government operates effectively at implementing its priorities by working with ministries to provide objective, integrated, and strategic advice to the Office of the Premier, the Secretary of the Cabinet, and to Cabinet and its committees. Policy and Delivery is relied on to offer sound advice and ensure decision-makers receive the necessary materials and adequate time to review and understand the decisions they are making. This includes an important policy controllership function that ensures high-quality materials are provided in a timely manner. It supports the process of Cabinet decision-making, including the operation of Cabinet and Cabinet committees, the coordination of the development of policy and legal instruments, and the tracking of milestones and risks of government policy and delivery priorities. The division also provides policy and operational support for the machinery of government, such as swearing in the Cabinet, holding by-elections, and facilitating the relationship with the Lieutenant Governor. The ministry also supports partner ministries in delivering key government priorities through public sector innovation consulting, lean and continuous improvement capacity building, and project delivery to ensure government processes will improve the lives of Ontarians.

Communications

Communications provides direct communications and operational support for the Office of the Premier and the Secretary of the Cabinet. This includes corporate issues management and media monitoring, end-to-end marketing, digital communications through the province’s flagship website Ontario.ca, the government Newsroom, social media, writing and event support, correspondence, processing of Freedom of Information requests, public opinion research for government programs and initiatives, and strategic communications for the Secretary of the Cabinet. In addition, strategic decision-making support, cross-government communications, coordination, enterprise-wide capacity building, and culture strengthening including Communications executive talent management are led by Communications to assist in continuous improvement and service delivery across the Ontario Public Service’s communications community.

Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs

The Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs provides policy analysis, strategic advice, and operational support for Canadian intergovernmental relations, international relations and protocol, and democratic institutions of government. The ministry supports the Premier in First Ministers’ Meetings and the Council of the Federation, bilateral and multi-lateral engagements, as well as Cabinet ministers in international meetings and missions, and in state ceremonial events. The ministry also supports the Secretary of the Cabinet’s participation in national Clerks and Secretaries meetings, and works across the government on intergovernmental agreements, including funding arrangements with the federal government and other opportunities that align with Ontario’s strategic interests. The ministry also administers the province’s International Disaster Relief Program.

Ministry of Red Tape Reduction

The Ministry of Red Tape Reduction works to reduce burden on businesses and individuals to build a more efficient and competitive Ontario. Alongside ministry partners, it identifies opportunities, enables progress, and leads work to modernize legislation, regulations, and policies, making it easier to interact with government. The ministry informs this work through independent research, including by directly engaging and consulting with stakeholders to surface innovative ideas for meaningful red tape reduction.

2024–25 strategic plan

The Cabinet Office will continue to deliver strategic advice, analysis, and operational support to the Premier, the Cabinet, and its committees to enable the delivery of government priorities.

• Cabinet Office will continue to lead government policy and delivery by ensuring that ministries seeking direction from Cabinet on policy, legislation, or other key priorities obtain adequate and timely support and advice from the public service. In turn, Cabinet Office will continue to work with ministries to ensure high-quality materials are received in a timely manner to facilitate the decision-making process.
• Support for ministries to track and report on government commitments, service delivery, and organization priorities with enterprise-wide tools and reports.
• Opportunities and challenges will continue to be identified and addressed by providing in-house public sector innovation consulting services, which lowers the need for ministries to hire vendors, reduces risk, and improves outcomes for Ontarians.
• Behavioural insights will be leveraged to further improve outcomes by increasing channel switching from analog to digital service options, supporting the uptake of programs that promote economic and social inclusion and reducing sludge in user experiences.
• Services for citizens and businesses will continue to be simplified and streamlined by applying lean and continuous improvement principles and building practitioner capacity across the enterprise.
• Enterprise-wide communications will continue to be modernized through enhanced service delivery focused on client support, technology, and strengthening organizational culture.
• Paid marketing campaigns will continue to be developed efficiently, focused on achieving cost savings by delivering more in-house, reducing agency fees, and leveraging external agency vendors in a hybrid capacity.
• Communication with the public will continue to be delivered with attention to timelines and accessibility, including by the ongoing achievement of performance measures tied to service standards such as correspondence and Freedom of Information.
• The Ontario Public Service’ enterprise-wide communications capacity will be strengthened through efficient, community-targeted talent development strategies focused on learning, and performance.
• Enterprise-wide internal communications processes will be clarified and formalized through the development of a framework focused on empowering leaders to inspire pride, leadership, and accountability in the OPS through clarity on staff communication.
• Organizational design, workforce-centered delivery models and expenditure management strategies will continue to be refined to inform ongoing decision-making processes and to support prudent fiscal planning.
• Dedicated support will continue to be provided to the Office of the Premier, Secretary of the Cabinet, and Ministers’ Offices.

The Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs will continue to support the Premier, the Office of the Premier, the Secretary of the Cabinet, Cabinet Office, OPS ministries, and the Lieutenant Governor on intergovernmental and international relations and protocol, strategic planning, and policy coordination.

• Fiscal and program benefits will continue to be maximized across the government by engaging in intergovernmental agreements and ongoing negotiations with ministry partners across broad policy issues, including health and social policy, economics and justice, and federalism and institutions.
• Support for key activities, such as the Premier’s and ministers’ intergovernmental, international meetings and missions and the province’s state ceremonial events, will continue to be provided.
• International humanitarian aid will continue to be administered through the International Disaster Relief Program.
• Support for the Secretary of the Cabinet’s participation in national Clerks and Secretaries meetings and other bilateral engagements will continue.
• Methods to enhance intergovernmental capacity building across the enterprise and help OPS ministries build on their current negotiation skills — focusing on how to promote better outcomes for Ontario, prioritizing interests and developing principles for engagement — will continue.
• As Ontario assumes the role of chair in August 2024, the Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs will lead the work to support the Premier and Office of the Premier during Council of the Federation meetings.
• The Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs will continue to support the establishment of an Ottawa Office focused on intergovernmental relations, with a mandate to raise Ontario’s profile, advance and advocate Ontario’s position on priority issues (including infrastructure and housing) and strengthen relations with key contacts in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The Ministry of Red Tape Reduction will continue to deliver strategic advice and analysis, including:

• Regulatory impact analyses will be reviewed as part of the process for quantifying the impact of legislative and regulatory changes on businesses and enhancing policy development and decision-making.
• Outdated, redundant, or ineffective laws and regulations will be removed through the development of Red Tape Reduction packages, while important regulations that protect the health and safety of individuals and the environment will be maintained.
• Ideas that help drive and enable impactful red tape reduction proposals will be sourced through direct engagement that will build open lines of communication with stakeholders. Issues identified by stakeholders and the public will continue to be tracked, analyzed, and resolved.
• Public consultation on provincial policy instruments that affect regulated entities will be strengthened to improve policy decisions by leading Ontario’s Regulatory Registry.
• Hands-on regulatory modernization expertise will be provided to support collaboration efforts across government and support a culture of continuous regulatory modernization, including the launching of a mandatory Regulatory Review of regulations filed 10 or more years ago — a requirement stipulated in the Burden Reduction Directive.
• Enterprise-level work will be supported by the continued development of a digital platform (ONReg) that tracks progress reporting on red tape reduction.
• Regulatory impact analysis training will be provided to policy professionals across the Ontario Public Sector to support the reduction of red tape based on requirements from the Modernizing Ontario for People and Businesses Act.
• Public reports on reducing regulatory burden on individuals and businesses will be developed to support transparency of how the government is cutting red tape.
• Work to establish clear and tangible performance indicators to measure Ontario’s progress in reducing burden for individuals will begin.

Cabinet Office 2024–25 Allocation

The following charts depict the ministry’s 2024–25 allocation ($61.7M) by vote/item and standard account.

Operating Summary by Standard Account ($M)

Ministry Operating by Vote ($M)

Detailed financial information

Cabinet Office

Table 2: Combined Operating and Capital Summary by Vote

Historic trend table

Ministry organization chart

Cabinet Office
 

Executive Organizational Chart
 

As of April 1, 2024

• Premier and President of the Council — Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
  • Secretary of the Cabinet, Clerk of the Executive Council — Michelle DiEmanuele 
    • Senior Director and General Counsel — Don Fawcett
    • Director and Executive Assistant to the Secretary of the Cabinet — Kyle Brown
    • Deputy Minister, Intergovernmental Affairs — Alexandra Sutton
      • Executive Assistant — Amy Best
      • Assistant Deputy International Relations and Protocol — Christina Critelli
        • Director, Protocol and Operations — Kara Rawson
        • Director, International Relations and Missions — Jeffrey Walters
      • Assistant Deputy Minister, Canadian Intergovernmental Relations — Ragaven Sabaratnam
        • Director, Federalism and Institutions — Erich Hartmann
        • Director, Economics and Justice Policy — Stephen Laurent
        • Director, Health and Social Policy — Ivonne Mellozzi
        • Director, Council of Federation Lead — Sharanjeet Kaur
    • Deputy Minister, Communications and Associate Secretary of the Cabinet — Alexandra Sutton
      • Executive Assistant — Deepika Shewaramani
      • Assistant Deputy Minister, Enterprise Communications and Engagement — Catherine Pringle
        • Director, Enterprise Communications and Engagement — Veronica Panton
      • Assistant Deputy Minister, Health, Education, Social and Resources — Rebecca Morier
        • Director, Health, Education, Social and Resources — Jennifer Mitches
      • Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic, Justice and Central Agency Communications — Sofie DiMuzio
        • Director, Economic, Justice and Central Agency Communications — Michelle Lewis
      • Assistant Deputy Minister, Marketing, Enterprise Services and Insights — Kirsten Evans
        • Managing Director, Marketing and Creative Strategy — Ryan Huber
        • Director, Enterprise Capacity Building — Tannis Fenton
    • Deputy Minister, Policy and Delivery and Associate Secretary of the Cabinet — Shannon Fuller
      • Executive Assistant — Anna Boyden
      • Assistant Deputy Minister, Lean Strategy and Innovation — Vacant
        • Director, Lean Projects and Programs — Kelly Villenueve
        • Director, Strategy and Innovation — Ryan Boyd
      • Assistant Deputy Minister, Health, Social, Education and Children’s Policy — Sarah McQuarrie
        • Director, Education and Children’s Policy — Jenarra DeSouza
        • Director, Health and Social Policy — Stephanie (Rae) Whitton
      • Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic, Environmental, Justice and Intergovernmental Policy — Harrison (Sung-Ha) Moon
        • Director, Justice, Economic and Enterprise Policy — Radhika Uppal
        • Director, Transportation, Resource and Infrastructure Policy — Jeffrey Ong
      • Director, Executive Council Office — James Scott-Vickers
      • Director, Housing Priorities Secretariat — Zaynah Jamal
    • Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Administrative Officer, Corporate Planning and Services — Supriya Mahimkar-Patrick
      • Director Human Resources Strategies and Services — Yvonne Chan
      • Director, Finance, Operational Support and Services — Robert Foster
      • Director, Strategic Corporate Support — Garima Sharma
    • Deputy Minister, Red Tape Reduction — Maud Murray
      • Executive Assistant — Cameron Yu
      • Assistant Deputy Minister, Red Tape Reduction — Rakhi Lad
        • Director Lead, Regulatory Modernization — Tom Kaszaz
        • Director, Strategic Policy and Research — Morella Aguirre
  • Minister, Red Tape Reduction — Vacant

Annual report

The Cabinet Office

• Provided strategic advice, coordination, and operational/administrative support to the Office of the Premier, the Office of the Government House Leader, and all Ministers’ Offices to ensure achievement of government priorities.
• Continued to strive for service excellence and deliver the programs and services that Ontarians rely on by leading the public sector and enabling ministries to deliver on their mandates.

Policy and Delivery

• Provided objective, integrated, and strategic policy advice to support evidence-driven government decision-making and the development of the government’s policy agenda.
• Ensured a cohesive approach across government priorities and initiatives, which includes guiding ministries to effectively deliver and monitor progress of initiatives.
• Reoriented enterprise processes in convening and supporting Cabinet/Cabinet Committee meetings and providing sound advice to government to facilitate rapid decision-making in an uncertain environment.
• Maintained a modern Cabinet decision-making process by leveraging a digital platform for the distribution and publication of material for Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meetings and advancing development of an integrated application that supports agenda planning by centralizing information, providing digital scheduling tools, and tracking commitments.
• Embedded lean principles into the policy and program cycle while leading and supporting process improvement reviews of government initiatives.
• Supported ministries with the implementation or assessment of lean recommendations with the expected result of savings up to $53.8 million and 73,000 hours through streamlined and improved services.
• Continued to spread the adoption of lean through improvement projects, capacity-building initiatives, the development of lean management system tools, and the expansion of OPS practitioner training programs. Over 19,000 employees have been trained since 2019.
• Expert internal consulting services in public sector innovation helped ministries save over $7 million for comparable services from outside vendors on strategy and organizational design, service improvement, policy design, and public engagement, as well as training for over 1,600 employees.

Communications

• Delivered multi-phase, complex communications deliverables while improving compliance with legislated delivery and service standards for communications priorities such as correspondence.
• Coordinated and provided support for the development of integrated strategic communications and marketing plans and materials that effectively reached the public to drive awareness and understanding of government policies, programs, and initiatives.
• Centralized approvals within Communications for materials previously sent to Cabinet committee to support more effective and integrated evidence-driven government decision-making.
• Provided writing services, event support, and creative services for high-priority Premier-led government announcements.
• Improved the delivery of strategic advice by enhancing processes to anticipate issues and support issues management.
• Maintained centralized media monitoring agreements, which continue to reduce costs and gain efficiencies through centralized contract management.
• Developed and maintained digital products such as websites and multi-platform marketing campaigns, to ensure that the government is informing and directly connected to the citizens it serves while driving more modern communications.
• Established a lean Social Media Innovation team to manage the flagship ONgov/Ongov channels. Maintained 100% compliance with the government’s social media guidelines and response timelines.
• Oversaw, developed, and executed 35 best-in-class multi-channel and multi-lingual paid marketing strategies, which included in-house creative and media development.
• Further enhanced the province’s full-service marketing function by expanding and formalizing the hybrid media buying model to be leveraged for ministries’ campaigns in addition to continuing with the established in-house media buy model. Together, these efforts improved speed to market and delivered above cost avoidance targets.
• Continued to make government information easier to find, understand and use on Ontario.ca, including completing the consolidation of priority ministry content onto a single website.
• Built on a strong foundation of innovative, evidence-based, and bias free approaches to assess, develop, and support a strong and healthy workforce across the Ontario Public Service communications community.
• Exceeded OPS correspondence service standard by responding to 96% of correspondence within five days.
• Maintained a high level of compliance with Freedom of Information response standards, completing 95.6% of requests within deadline (an increase of 3.2% over 2022), by utilizing technology-driven solutions to streamline existing processes.
• Provided writing services, event support, and creative services for the head of the public service, and facilitated modern and coordinated leadership development sessions in partnership with TBS.
• Built an internal communication framework that adopts efficient, and innovative approaches to internal communications for the Ontario Public Service and responds to the communication needs of leaders.
• Undertook a Correspondence Style Guide modernization where a first draft has been developed and is in the early approvals stage. An updated style guide will result in greater quality and consistency in enterprise-wide correspondence and easier access through correspondence to the information the public needs/enhancing plain language.
• Further enhanced the province’s marketing function by expanding and formalizing the hybrid media buying model to be leveraged for ministries’ campaigns in addition to continuing with the established in-house media buy model.
• Repurposed redundant space in the basement of Whitney Block to create a multi-purpose space for the Premier’s Office, Secretary’s Office, and ministries to communicate important messages in-person and virtually to the media, the public and to other interested parties. This reduces reliance on private rental spaces and associated costs.

Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs

• Provided strategic advice, analysis, and support to partner ministries to promote Ontario’s national and international interests and objectives through intergovernmental and international engagement.
• Provided support for Ontario’s participation in key intergovernmental meetings, including First Ministers’ Meetings, and meetings with the Council of the Federation, the Steering Committee, Leaders of the National Indigenous Organizations, and Senior Officials. This included the development of meeting notes, provision of advice to the Premier and Office of the Premier, facilitation of consultation meetings and coordination of multi-ministry engagement to support responses to proposed federal legislative amendments.
• Provided support for Ontario’s international engagements and signing of agreements with key U.S. states (Michigan, Nevada, Indiana) as well as other collaborations with foreign governments.
• Delivered 13 major state ceremonial and protocol events including celebrations to mark the King’s Coronation (May 2023), Remembrance Day (November 2023) and the Farewell/Installation of a new Ontario Lieutenant Governor (November 2023).
• Supported 34 international missions for various ministries.
• Maintained effective relationships with the consular corps, including supporting over 200 international meetings and engagements in 2023–24.

Ministry of Red Tape Reduction

• Delivered two regulatory modernization packages following collaborations across government, including hosting multi-corner meetings with participating ministries to ensure statutory obligations were addressed and an inclusion lens was applied.
• Led the publication of the government’s annual Burden Reduction Report, which profiles notable burden reduction achievements for a 12-month period from June through May of the previous year.
• Improved and re-launched the Red Tape Reduction Surveys. The surveys provide a direct channel for businesses and individuals to communicate to the government regarding issues that they are facing with red tape and regulatory requirements. The ministry also established the service standard to respond to submissions provided with an email address within 14 business days.
• Developed and delivered several enterprise-wide training sessions on regulatory impact analysis. Trained more than 800 users on the use of Regulatory Impact Analysis and the Regulatory Cost Calculator tool and trained over 650 users representing 28 ministries on the use of the ONReg digital platform.
• Launched the ONReg digital platform to help ministries manage work relating to the regulatory impact analysis process and to support tracking and reporting progress on reducing red tape.
• Enhanced the tracking system to monitor all red tape issues and opportunities received from the public and stakeholders. To address the issues, the ministry engaged with specific areas to work towards potential short-term or longer-term solutions.

Key Performance Indicators

The Cabinet Office continues to demonstrate progress towards achieving strategic outcomes that are representative and reflective of the ministry’s mandate and key priorities. Included below are some examples of key performance indicators that help drive this progress.

Policy and Delivery

Policy and Delivery plays an essential role in ensuring timely material submission and facilitating numerous Cabinet and committee meetings and proposals. The ministry continues to lead government policy and delivery by ensuring that ministries seeking direction from Cabinet on policy, legislation, or other key priorities obtain adequate and timely support and advice from the public service. The Cabinet Office is relied on to offer sound advice and ensure decision-makers receive the necessary materials and adequate time to review and understand the decisions they are making. In 2023–24, the Cabinet Office and ministries exceeded the target of 80% for Cabinet materials being provided at least one day before the meeting. This is also a significant increase from the baseline established in 2019. Given the significant improvement in timelines in 2023–24, the ministry will continue current practices while looking for additional refinements based on feedback from decision-makers, stakeholders, and staff.

Communications

Communications emphasizes maintaining a high level of communication with the public, including by continuing to uphold compliance with timelines for Freedom of Information requests. Cabinet Office has continued to achieve notable improvements the past year, with 75.4% of requests completed within 30 days (up 2.3% from 2022), and an increased rate of 95.6% completed within timelines as required under legislation (an increase of 3.2 over 2022). Communications has also modernized its paper-based practices and implemented new systems to facilitate the electronic processing of requests. The ministry is also exploring options to streamline case management and statistical reporting, as well as tools to enhance data collection and analysis for identifying emerging trends.

Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs

The Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs advises and supports partner ministries in negotiating fiscal and program benefits across policy areas, including health and social policy, economics and justice, and federalism and institutions. The ministry oversees federal-provincial funding agreements and collaborates with other jurisdictions to provide strategic advice promoting Ontario’s strategic interests and intergovernmental priorities.

Ministry of Red Tape Reduction

Ministry of Red Tape Reduction works in collaboration with ministries to enable meaningful and tangible burden reduction across government while building a modern regulatory environment to help businesses and people thrive. This makes it easier for ministry partners to meet their red tape reduction obligations. Burden reduction indicators are used to help track this progress and drive meaningful burden reduction across government.

The government is committed to driving burden reduction goals under the Modernizing Ontario for People and Businesses Act, targeting regulated entities such as for-profit corporations, not-for profit organizations, and the broader public sector. Ministries report quarterly updates on progress to the Ministry of Red Tape and Reduction, showcasing the government’s dedication to advancing Ontario’s regulatory framework for business and individual success.

Table 3: Ministry Interim Actual Expenditures 2023–24