I am pleased to submit the Departmental Results Report for the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada (FJA) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023. This report provides parliamentarians and Canadians with information regarding what we accomplished and achieved in the last year.

During this past year, we continued to build on reintegrating in a post-pandemic period, and providing for optimal efficiency in a healthy workplace. This included ensuring open communications with our personnel, and developing new strategies for how we work in order to thrive in this hybrid environment.

On April 4, 2022, the Prime Minister announced a process to fill a seat on the Supreme Court of Canada to replace the Honourable Michael J. Moldaver upon his retirement on September 1, 2022. The Independent Advisory Board, chaired by the Honourable H. Wade MacLauchlan, assessed candidates and provided non-binding merit-based recommendations to the Prime Minister. Our office was responsible for administering the application process, including assessing the functional bilingualism of candidates, providing support to the Independent Advisory Board, as well as preparing the nominated candidate for their appearance before parliamentarians. On August 26, 2022, the Honourable Michelle O’Bonsawin was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Secretariat serving the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) focused efforts this past year on, amongst other things, preparations for the adoption of Bill C-9, which reformed the process through which the conduct of federally appointed judges is reviewed by the CJC.

We have been successful in achieving results due to the continued dedication and commitment of employees serving the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs and the Canadian Judicial Council. We have a small team of people undertaking a broad scope of activities. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to lead such a team, and I thank all members of our personnel for their efforts and support over the past year.

Marc A. Giroux
Commissioner

Top of Page

Results at a glance

What funds were used?

The department’s actual spending for 2022-23 was $712,161,752.

Who was involved?

The department’s actual full-time equivalents (FTEs) for 2022-23 were 62.

Key results

Provided support to the Independent Advisory Board for Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments, mandated with providing non-binding merit-based recommendations to the Prime Minister on Supreme Court of Canada appointments, and prepared the Honourable Michelle O’Bonsawin for her appearance before parliamentarians.
Piloted the Technical Assistance Partnership Project (TAP) in conjunction with Global Affairs Canada for missions in Columbia (National Gender Commission) and Mongolia.
As with all GC departments, investment priorities remained one our focuses to increase and maintain remote access capacities in response to a hybrid return to work model. The journey to the Cloud continued, focusing on securing the platforms on which several business functions, including e-learning and virtual committee meetings, are being hosted. Priority was given to the transition from the current server-based platform (JUDICOM) to a cloud-based platform (JUDICLOUD), which continued to be developed with the aim of enabling our judiciary and the judicial community we support to work from any mobile platform or device.

For more information on FJA’s plans, priorities and results achieved, see the “Results: what we achieved” section of this report.

Top of Page

Results: what we achieved

Core responsibility

Support to federally appointed judges

Description

To provide services and support to the federal judiciary in a manner which contributes to the independence of the judiciary and the confidence of Canadians in our judicial system.

Results

As we resume full activities in the areas of travel, in-person meetings and our regular service delivery, we are also in a mode of strategically realigning how we operate in a hybrid work model. This includes adapting processes and procedures and accounting for shifting priorities in a post-pandemic period. The results detailed in the ensuing sections will be reflective of these impacts and effects.

Federally appointed judges are provided with centralized services in a timely and effective manner

During fiscal year 2022-2023, we continued to restructure and reorganize to adapt to a hybrid work model and to handle files in dual digital and paper environments in the face of an increase in the volume of claims received. While we maintained our commitment to a 100% verification of all claims in relation to payments pursuant to the Judges Act, our service standard of a turnaround of 10 days was significantly impacted. We processed claims as follows:

10 days or less - 43%
11-15 days - 31%
16 days and over - 26%

FJA’s Judges’ Language Training Program continued to deliver individual training. While we continued to utilize virtual technology, we also resumed in-person immersion sessions. Bilingual capacity is essential to access to justice for all Canadians in that federally appointed judges are able to develop and maintain their second official language proficiency to preside over hearings, understand testimony, read legal texts (including broadening their scope of legal terminology), write decisions and participate in conferences making presentations. Our team assessed the functional bilingual capacity of candidates applying to the 2022 Supreme Court of Canada judicial appointments process as well as that of every candidate seeking nomination to superior courts who self-identify as bilingual.

The Federal Courts Reports (F.C.R.) increased the breadth of its coverage by resuming the publication of digests, which are summaries of individual decisions, on a regular basis. Additionally, F.C.R. implemented a new process for republishing older decisions found on the FJA website using its online web publication tool and thereby increasing the accuracy of its online collection

FJA has further solidified its role in international cooperation by enhancing the secretariat functions, ensuring comprehensive support for federally appointed judges in their international engagements. The tools developed will become pivotal in streamlining the international activities of Canadian judges, ensuring they navigate their roles with efficiency and security.

Additionally, in collaboration with members of the Canadian Judicial Council, FJA has been actively involved in updating and revamping the 2006 Council Policy on International Judicial Activities. This endeavour underscores our commitment to ensuring that the international engagements of Canadian judges are in line with the highest standards and best practices.

A cornerstone of our efforts this year has been the unwavering support provided to the Judicial Advisory Committee on International Engagement (JUDACIE). The committee's subcommittee on communications, in particular, has been active throughout the year, ensuring that the involvement of judges in international activities remains uncompromised and is communicated effectively to all stakeholders.

A significant highlight of the year was the collaboration with Global Affairs Canada (GAC) in the successful launch and implementation of the Technical Assistance Partnership Project (TAP-FJA). Building on the successes of its pilot phase in Colombia and Mongolia, this ambitious project aims to onboard three countries per year over a span of five years. By sharing Canadian judicial best practices and expertise, the project seeks to strengthen judicial systems in partner countries, fostering judicial independence, accountability, and public trust.

The judicial appointments process is managed efficiently

During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the Judicial Appointments Secretariat received 391 new applications for consideration for federal judicial appointment. During the same period, 264 applications, consisting of both new and outstanding submissions carried over from the previous fiscal year, were assessed, and five new Advisory Committees were appointed. New Committees were provided with orientation and training to ensure adherence to the judicial appointments process. As travel and physical distancing restrictions began to ease, in-person meetings were gradually reintroduced over the course of the year.

For each of the 75 appointments made during the 2022-2023 fiscal year, our staff prepared the necessary supporting order-in-council and ministerial recommendation documentation. Further information regarding these applications is available on FJA’s website ^[i].

On April 4, 2022, the Prime Minister launched the appointment process to select a justice for the Supreme Court of Canada, to fill the vacancy created by the upcoming retirement of Justice Michael J. Moldaver. The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs, mandated to provide support to the Independent Advisory Board in administering the application and assessment process, began the preliminary activities to accept candidate applications (due by May 13, 2022), provide the tools and resources required to support the Independent Advisory Board, and follow-on activities, including actions to prepare the nominated candidate for appearance before parliamentarians.

The judicial conduct review process is completed in a timely and effective manner

The Canadian Judicial Council and its Secretariat continued their work to ensure that all complaints made to the Council were consistently reviewed in a timely way.

The Council reports that from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023, it opened and reviewed 958 files, of which 94% were treated within 6 months.

The number of correspondence received was around 1,400. From that number, Council applied their old practice to group complaints that were about the same judge or event and 958 files were created. This way of proceeding underrepresents the real workload of Council as some files were comprised of anywhere from 3 to 387 complaints in one file. Under Bill C-9, every correspondence that is a complaint will count as one file as it implies a response from a first-level decision-maker.

The risks to achieving results is the lack of resources. To address this problem, Council started staffing processes to fill positions at various levels including legal and communication resources.

CJC ensures that federally appointed judges have access to relevant training and learning opportunities

In this reporting period, the Council and its key education partners, including the National Judicial Institute, the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, and others, delivered 108 educational programs which included national programs, court-requested programs, and other more informal sessions such as court-based lunch and learn lectures.

Results achieved

The following table shows, for support to federally appointed judges, the results achieved, the performance indicators, the targets and the target dates for 2022–23, and the actual results for the three most recent fiscal years for which actual results are available.

Departmental results	Performance indicators	Target	Date to achieve target	2020–21 Actual results	2021–22 Actual results	2022–2023 Actual results
Federally appointed judges are provided with centralized services in a timely and effective manner	% of judges’ allowances processed within the 10-day service standard	At least 90%	March 2023	83% of judges’ allowances were processed within the 10-day service standard	76% of judges’ allowances were processed within the 10-day service standard	43% of judges’ allowances were processed within the 10-day service standard
The judicial appointments process is managed efficiently	% of candidate applications ready to be evaluated within 3 months of reception	100%	March 2023	Over 95% of applications were screened and ready to be evaluated by Committees within 3 months of reception	Over 95% of applications were screened and ready to be evaluated by Committees within 3 months of reception	Over 95% of applications were screened and ready to be evaluated by Committees within 3 months of reception
The judicial conduct review process is completed in a timely and effective manner	% of complaints reviewed within six months	At least 80%	March 2023	97% of complaints were reviewed within six months	92% of complaints were reviewed within six months	94% of complaints were reviewed within six months
CJC ensures that federally appointed judges have access to relevant training and learning opportunities	% of judges who reported to the CJC that their training and learning needs were met	At least 90%	March 2023	90% of judges reported to the CJC that their training and learning needs were met	90% of judges reported to the CJC that their training and learning needs were met	90% of judges reported to the CJC that their training and learning needs were met

Financial, human resources and performance information for FJA’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase ^[ii].

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

The following table shows, for support to federally appointed judges, budgetary spending for 2022–23, as well as actual spending for that year.

2022–23 Main Estimates	2022–23 Planned spending	2022–23 Total authorities available for use	2022–23 Actual spending (authorities used)	2022–23 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending)
710,327,915	710,327,915	714,441,179	711,434,952	1,107,037

Financial, human resources and performance information for FJA’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase ^[iii].

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

The following table shows, in full‑time equivalents, the human resources the department needed to fulfill this core responsibility for 2022–23.

2022–23 Planned full-time equivalents	2022–23 Actual full-time equivalents	2022–23 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full-time equivalents)
60.5	56.5	(4)

Financial, human resources and performance information for FJA’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase ^[iv].

Top of Page

Internal services

Description

Internal services are those groups of related activities and resources that the federal government considers to be services in support of programs and/or required to meet corporate obligations of an organization. Internal services refers to the activities and resources of the 10 distinct service categories that support program delivery in the organization, regardless of the internal services delivery model in a department. The 10 service categories are:

acquisition management services
communication services
financial management services
human resources management services
information management services
information technology services
legal services
material management services
management and oversight services
real property management services

Results

In 2022-2023, FJA internal services continued to provide the necessary support to the organization meeting its core mandate objectives as well as staying abreast of Government of Canada-Wide initiatives in the areas of financial reporting, information management, IT and physical security and human resources.

FJA supported and modernized some of its processes and tools to ensure it could effectively support our judiciary and the judicial community. During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, FJA’s IT personnel commenced and continued in various aspects to assess, analyze and prioritize the need to upgrade and modernize our aging infrastructure (including in-house systems) with an aim to realize increased efficiencies and flexibilities in reporting requirements and overall how we do business. This included transitioning our disaster recovery site to a cloud platform, and enhancing the functionality of our complaints records management system in anticipation of the coming into effect of Bill C-9 and its increased reporting requirements. Additionally, in conjunction with our JUDICOM Advisory Board and its subcommittee, we made significant strides in developing and providing a proof of concept for what will become the new collaborative platform for federally appointed judges and other such stakeholders – work and roll-out will persist into the 2023-2024 fiscal year. The risks associated with information classification continued to be addressed. The department started reviewing with each of its division the information management policy suite which includes retention and disposition policies.

FJA pay services were not transferred to the Miramichi Pay Centre and as such is a direct-entry organization employing a team of on-site pay advisors to manage the pay functions for FJA employees, federally appointed judges, retired federal judges and their survivors, as well as compensation services to Judicial Advisory Committee members. The impact of the Phoenix pay issues has been relatively low compared to the rest of government. FJA and CJC managers are provided with advice and services in the areas of staffing, classification, labour relations, compensation, performance management and other human resources disciplines.

A key constraint for our offices is the system in place for administering the pensions of retired judges and their survivors. The Regional Pay System (RPS) platform is outdated and often subject to configuration issues for which support is limited as there are not enough resources at Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) that are subject matter experts. We continued discussion with PSPC personnel as we seek a viable solution to this issue.

Our compensation team continued to deliver services to our clients, FJA and CJC personnel and was able to maintain a 2-day service standard for 90% of pay and pension transactions. FJA continued to provide compensation, pension and benefits services to federal judges, retired federal judges and their survivors. During fiscal year 2022-2023, this included 75 new appointments, 73 retirements and 68 deaths (active judges, retired judges and survivors).

In addition to service delivery to FJA and CJC personnel as well as to active and retired judges and their survivors in the areas of compensation, pension and benefits, we continued to offer advice and services to FJA and CJC management and employees in the areas of staffing, classification, labour relations, compensation, performance management and other human resources disciplines. Preparations for the upcoming PA classification conversion exercise continued.

As with many organizations, a key HR risk is the possible loss of expertise and corporate memory due to employee departures. FJA continues to do succession and integrated HR planning to mitigate this risk.

Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

FJA is a Phase 3 organization and is aiming to achieve the minimum 5% target by the end of fiscal year 2024-25. As such, during the 2022-23 fiscal year, we started preliminary reviews of our documentation and updating of our procurement tools to facilitate the recording of contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses, including the identification of areas where opportunities could exist for increasing our departmental awarding of such contracts. Our employees involved in procurement also participated in the various information sessions offered, most specifically those providing additional guidance on implementation for small departments and agencies as our contracting is of low value and very specific to our mandate.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

The following table shows, for internal services, budgetary spending for 2022–23, as well as spending for that year.

2022–23 Main Estimates	2022–23 Planned spending	2022–23 Total authorities available for use	2022–23 Actual spending (authorities used)	2022–23 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending)
726,800	726,800	726,800	726,800	0

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

The following table shows, in full‑time equivalents, the human resources the department needed to carry out its internal services for 2022–23.

2022–23 Planned full-time equivalents	2022–23 Actual full-time equivalents	2022–23 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full-time equivalents)
5.5	5.5	0

Top of Page

Spending and human resources

Spending

Spending 2020-21 to 2025-26

The following graph presents planned (voted and statutory spending) over time.

The actual spending for the department shows a continual increase over the reporting periods resulting from the annual increase in judges’ salaries based on the Industrial Aggregate as provided for in the Judges Act, and an increase in the number of judges appointed to the bench and the number of pensioners receiving benefits under the Judges Act.

Budgetary performance summary for the core responsibility and internal services (dollars)

The “Budgetary performance summary for core responsibilities and internal services” table presents the budgetary financial resources allocated for FJA’s core responsibility and for internal services.

Core responsibility and internal services	2022–23 Main Estimates	2022–23 Planned spending	2023–24 Planned spending	2024–25 Planned spending	2022–23 Total authorities available for use	2020-21 Actual spending (authorities used)	2021-22 Actual spending (authorities used)	2022-23 Actual spending (authorities used)
Administrative support to federally appointed judges	710,327,915	710,327,915	733,024,075	758,678,517	714,441,179	626,389,832	670,056,134	711,434,952
Subtotal	710,327,915	710,327,915	733,024,075	758,678,517	714,441,179	626,389,832	670,056,134	711,434,952
Internal Services	726,800	726,800	726,800	726,800	726,800	726,800	726,800	726,800
Total	711,054,715	711,054,715	733,750,875	759,405,317	715,167,979	627,116,632	670,782,934	712,161,752

Top of Page

Human resources

The “Human resources summary for core responsibilities and internal services” table presents the full-time equivalents (FTEs) allocated to each of FJA’s core responsibilities and to internal services.

Human resources summary for the core responsibility and internal services

Core responsibility and internal services	2020–21 Actual full‑time equivalents	2021–22 Actual full‑time equivalents	2022–23 Planned full‑time equivalents	2022–23 Actual full‑time equivalents	2023–24 Planned full‑time equivalents	2024–25 Planned full‑time equivalents
Administrative support to federally appointed judges	57.5	60.5	60.5	56.5	60.5	60.5
Subtotal	57.5	60.5	60.5	56.5	60.5	60.5
Internal Services	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.5
Total	63	66	66	62	66	66

Top of Page

Expenditures by vote

For information on FJA’s organizational voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada ^[v].

Government of Canada spending and activities

Information on the alignment of FJA’s spending with the Government of Canada’s spending and activities is available in theGC InfoBase ^[vi].

Financial statements and financial statements highlights

Financial statements

FJA’s financial statements ^[vii] (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2023, are available on the departmental website.

Financial statements highlights

Condensed Statement of Operations (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2023 (dollars)

Financial information	2022–23 Planned results	2022–23 Actual results	2021–22 Actual results	Difference (2022–23 Actual results minus 2022–23 Planned results)	Difference (2022–23 Actual results minus 2021–22 Actual results)
Total expenses	709,014,000	713,784,623	672,330,765	4,770,623	41,453,858
Total revenues	19,572,000	19,343,822	19,112,880	(228,178)	230,942
Net cost of operations before government funding and transfers	689,442,000	694,440,801	653,217,885	4,998,801	41,222,916

The 2022–23 planned results information is provided in FJA’s Future-Oriented Statement of Operations and Notes 2022–23 ^[viii].

Condensed Statement of Financial Position (unaudited) as of March 31, 2023 (dollars)

Financial Information	2022–23	2021–22	Difference (2022–23 minus 2021–22)
Total net liabilities	294,801,137	277,870,289	16,930,848
Total net financial assets	5,637,399	4,004,579	1,632,820
Departmental net debt	289,163,738	273,865,710	15,298,030
Total non‑financial assets	74,610	125,610	(51,000)
Departmental net financial position	(289,089,128)	(273,740,100)	(15,349,028)

The 2022–23 planned results information is provided in FJA’s Future-Oriented Statement of Operations and Notes 2022–23 ^[ix].

Top of Page

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister: The Honourable Arif Virani, P.C., M.P.

Institutional head: Marc A. Giroux, Commissioner

Ministerial portfolio: Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Enabling instrument:Judges Act^[x] (R.S.C., 1985, c. J-1)

Year of incorporation / commencement: 1978

Other: Information about the Canadian Judicial Council, its mandate and programs are found at the Council’s website ^[xi].

Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do

Raison d’être

“Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do” is available onFJA’s website ^[xii].

Mandate and role

FJA was created in 1978 under an Act of the Parliament of Canada to safeguard the independence of the judiciary and put federally appointed judges at arm’s length from the Department of Justice. Our mandate extends to promoting the better administration of justice and providing support for the federal judiciary. The Judges Act ^[xiii] provides for the designation of an officer called the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs. One of the roles and responsibilities of the Commissioner is to act on behalf of the Minister of Justice in matters related to the administration of Part I of the Judges Act.

FJA’s judicial appointments secretariat administers 17 advisory committees across Canada that are responsible for evaluating candidates under the superior courts judicial appointments process for federal judicial appointments and administering and supporting the process for appointment of associate judges to the Federal Court and Tax Court of Canada. FJA also has the mandate to manage the Independent Advisory Board for Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments Process, established to assess candidates for appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada.

FJA provides and maintains a secure on-line system (JUDICOM) to facilitate communication and collaboration amongst members of the Canadian federal judiciary.

In order to support the courts, FJA’s Judges’ Language Training Program develops and maintains a tailored curriculum providing individual and group training services in both official languages, as well as conducting language assessments of candidates for appointment to the superior courts and the Supreme Court of Canada. This allows federally appointed judges to improve their second language proficiency and legal terminology, and ensures that Canadians have access to justice in the official language of their choice.

Additionally, FJA coordinates initiatives with various government and non-government stakeholders related to the federal Canadian judiciary’s role in international cooperation.

The Federal Courts Reports section of FJA is responsible for selecting and publishing Federal Court of Appeal and Federal Court decisions in both official languages. Selected decisions undergo a thorough editorial process that includes copy editing and citation verification, the preparation of headnotes and captions, and translation accuracy confirmation.

The Canadian Judicial Council has the power and duty to ensure the proper conduct of federally appointed judges. In turn, judges must feel confident to make decisions without fear of reprisal. To achieve this dual objective, the Council has the power to investigate the conduct - and not the decisions - of federally appointed judges when a complaint is made against one of them. The Council can make recommendations for certain actions, including the removal of a judge.

For more information on the department’s organizational mandate letter commitments, see the Minister’s mandate letter ^[xiv].

Top of Page

Operating context

FJA’s environment is complex due to the range of services it provides and the large number of clients served. Recognizing this context, FJA has developed a risk profile and actively monitors internal and external risks through its management team. Being a very small organization, the main human resources risk FJA has to face is the loss of expertise and corporate memory from the departure of experienced staff, and the lack of in-house expertise and backup in specialized areas unique to FJA. FJA continues to do succession and HR planning to mitigate this risk.

FJA continues to operate within its existing reference levels, which have remained relatively constant for several years. New funding received in the current and previous fiscal years has been provided to support growth in existing programs and cannot be readily allocated towards addressing gaps and deficiencies at the operating level. This has impacted FJA’s ability to make investments in new strategic priorities. FJA has responded to these challenges by identifying efficiencies and reallocating internal resources as required.

Further information on the operating context is available on FJA’s website ^[xv].

Reporting Framework

FJA’s Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory of record for 2022–23 are shown below.

Graphical presentation of Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory

Departmental Results Framework	Core Responsibility: Administrative Support to Federally Appointed Judges		Internal Services
	Departmental Result: Federally appointed judges are provided with centralized services in a timely and effective manner	Indicator: 90% of judges’ allowances processed within the 10-day service standard
	Departmental Result: The judicial appointments process is managed efficiently	Indicator: 100% of candidate applications ready to be evaluated within 3 months of reception
	Departmental Result: The judicial conduct review process is completed in a timely and effective manner	Indicator: 80% of complaints reviewed within six months
	Departmental Result: CJC ensures that federally appointed judges have access to relevant training and learning opportunities	Indicator: 90% of judges who reported to the CJC that their training and learning needs were met
	Program Inventory	Program: Payments pursuant to the Judges Act
		Program: Canadian Judicial Council
		Program: Federal Judicial Affairs

Top of Page

Supporting information on the Program Inventory

Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to the FJA’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase ^[xvi].

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on FJA’s website ^[xvii].

Reporting on green procurement
Gender-based analysis plus
Response to parliamentary committees and external audits

Federal tax expenditures

The tax system can be used to achieve public policy objectives through the application of special measures such as low tax rates, exemptions, deductions, deferrals and credits. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures ^[xviii]. This report also provides detailed background information on tax expenditures, including descriptions, objectives, historical information and references to related federal spending programs as well as evaluations and GBA Plus of tax expenditures.

Organizational contact information

Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada

99 Metcalfe Street, 8^th Floor

Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1E3

Canada

Telephone: (613) 995-5140

Facsimile: (613) 995-5615

Email: info@fja-cmf.gc.ca

Web site: http://www.fja-cmf.gc.ca

Top of Page

Appendix: definitions

appropriation (crédit)

Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

budgetary expenditures (dépenses budgétaires)

Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, organizations or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.

core responsibility (responsabilité essentielle)

An enduring function or role performed by a department. The intentions of the department with respect to a core responsibility are reflected in one or more related departmental results that the department seeks to contribute to or influence.

Departmental Plan (plan ministériel)

A report on the plans and expected performance of an appropriated department over a 3‑year period. Departmental Plans are usually tabled in Parliament each spring.

departmental priority (priorité)

A plan or project that a department has chosen to focus and report on during the planning period. Priorities represent the things that are most important or what must be done first to support the achievement of the desired departmental results.

departmental result (résultat ministériel)

A consequence or outcome that a department seeks to achieve. A departmental result is often outside departments’ immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.

departmental result indicator (indicateur de résultat ministériel)

A quantitative measure of progress on a departmental result.

departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)

A framework that connects the department’s core responsibilities to its departmental results and departmental result indicators.

Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)

A report on a department’s actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Departmental Plan.

experimentation (expérimentation)

The conducting of activities that seek to first explore, then test and compare the effects and impacts of policies and interventions in order to inform evidence-based decision-making, and improve outcomes for Canadians, by learning what works, for whom and in what circumstances. Experimentation is related to, but distinct from innovation (the trying of new things), because it involves a rigorous comparison of results. For example, using a new website to communicate with Canadians can be an innovation; systematically testing the new website against existing outreach tools or an old website to see which one leads to more engagement, is experimentation.

full‑time equivalent(équivalent temps plein)

A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person‑year charge against a departmental budget. For a particular position, the full‑time equivalent figure is the ratio of number of hours the person actually works divided by the standard number of hours set out in the person’s collective agreement.

gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS+])

An analytical process used to assess how diverse groups of women, men and gender-diverse people experience policies, programs and services based on multiple factors including race ethnicity, religion, age, and mental or physical disability.

government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)

For the purpose of the 2020–21 Departmental Results Report, those high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the 2019 Speech from the Throne, namely: Fighting climate change; Strengthening the Middle Class; Walking the road of reconciliation; Keeping Canadians safe and healthy; and Positioning Canada for success in an uncertain world.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

An initiative where two or more federal organizations are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.

non‑budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)

Net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.

performance (rendement)

What an organization did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the organization intended to achieve, and how well lessons learned have been identified.

performance indicator (indicateur de rendement)

A qualitative or quantitative means of measuring an output or outcome, with the intention of gauging the performance of an organization, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.

performance reporting (production de rapports sur le rendement)

The process of communicating evidence‑based performance information. Performance reporting supports decision making, accountability and transparency.

plan (plan)

The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how an organization intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally, a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead to the expected result.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)

For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in Main Estimates.

A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.

program (programme)

Individual or groups of services, activities or combinations thereof that are managed together within the department and focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.

program inventory (répertoire des programmes)

Identifies all the department’s programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department’s core responsibilities and results.

result (résultat)

A consequence attributed, in part, to an organization, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single organization, policy, program or initiative; instead they are within the area of the organization’s influence.

statutory expenditures (dépenses législatives)

Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.

target (cible)

A measurable performance or success level that an organization, program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period. Targets can be either quantitative or qualitative.

voted expenditures (dépenses votées)

Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an appropriation act. The vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.

Top of Page