2020-21 Departmental Results Report

Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada

The Honourable David Lametti, P.C., Q.C., M.P.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Caroline Maynard
Information Commissioner of Canada

Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
30 Victoria Street
Gatineau QC
K1A 1H3

Tel. (toll free): 1-800-267-0441
Fax: 819-994-1768
Email: general@ci-oic.gc.ca
Website: www.oic-ci.gc.ca/

© Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada 2020
Cat. No. IP1-8E-PDF
ISSN 2561-2697

November 19, 2021

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Table of Contents

• Commissioner’s message
• Results at a glance
• Results: what we achieved
  • Core responsibility
  • Internal Services
• Analysis of trends in spending and human resources
  • Actual expenditures
  • Actual human resources
  • Expenditures by vote
  • Government of Canada spending and activities
  • Financial statements and financial statements highlights
• Corporate Information
  • Organizational profile
  • Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do
  • Operating context
  • Reporting framework
  • Supporting information on the program inventory
  • Supplementary information tables
  • Federal tax expenditures
  • Organizational contact information
• Appendix: definitions
• Endnotes

Commissioner’s message

I am pleased to present the Office of the Information Commissioner’s Departmental Results Report for 2020–21. We started the year just as we finished the last – by working and adapting to the reality of living through a global pandemic. Through it all, my office has worked tirelessly to preserve and protect Canada’s Access to Information regime, thereby helping to ensure government institutions remain accountable to the citizens they serve.

The pandemic has forced the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) to undertake significant changes to the way we conduct investigations and the related work under our mandate. This included expanding the use of technology, ensuring health and safety measures were in place for those who were still required to work from the office, sharing information to help employees manage both their health and safety at home and maintain their overall physical and mental health.

In spite of the challenges we faced, the OIC had a very successful year in 2020–21, continuing to deliver on our mandate to conduct investigations. We set an ambitious goal of completing 4,000 files in 2020–21 and thanks to the hard work and commitment of our employees, the OIC achieved this goal, completing 4,060 complaints by March 31, 2021. Furthermore the OIC continued its effort to resolve older and complex files by working with complainants and institutions to bring these case to resolution more efficiently by assigning them to a dedicated team of experienced investigators.

Our investigators specialize in types and topics of complaints, particular complainants and specific institutions. In doing so, they build working relationships with stakeholders, become well versed in the subject matter that complaints frequently address, and develop a better understanding of the specific circumstances leading up to complaints. They work with complainants and institutions to prioritize bulk or longstanding complaints. In some cases, complainants may decide to group or discontinue some files, so that we can complete the cases of most importance to them more quickly.

The OIC completed four investigations on complaints I initiated as Commissioner, including three systemic investigations. Three of these key investigations resulted in special reports to Parliament as well as concrete changes to the way the investigated institutions are handling access requests and managing information.

In addition, this year, the Treasury Board of Canada approved an OIC request that temporary funding it had received for four years be made permanent. This ongoing funding has been allocated to stabilize our operations and ensure the OIC can continue to effectively play its oversight function. It allowed us to hire new investigators and invest into training them. We also reconfigured our Professional Development Program (PDP), initially designed to enable career progression for investigators. The PDP has been expanded to allow junior employees the opportunity to work on more complex files as they move through the program.

In the past year, the OIC also carried out surveys on employee mental health in order to gauge how employees were managing remote working. This included assessing the kind of support they required and hearing their views on returning to the workplace. The results of these surveys have helped guide us in supporting our employees as they adjust and adapt to our new work reality. They were also used to update the OIC’s 3-year Action Plan supporting employee mental health and wellness as well as asking managers to follow a mandatory training on this new reality at work. In addition, I issued a clear Statement in March 2021 on Action against Systemic Racism, Bias and Discrimination to all OIC employees.

As we work our way through the everyday challenges brought on by the pandemic, I will continue to build on the progress we have achieved to date, ensuring government transparency and fostering collaboration with institutions, all to facilitate investigations and ensure Canadians have a strong and trustworthy access to information system.

I know I can count on the support of the loyal and dedicated OIC staff as we build towards these goals during this upcoming year.

Caroline Maynard
Information Commissioner of Canada

Results at a glance

Two primary factors affected operations at the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) in 2020–21.

The first was the State of Access Regime and the second factor was the adaptation to a new reality resulting from COVID-19.

The OIC carried out its work in this context guided by three priorities:

Invest in and support resources:

In 2020–21, the OIC received $2.5 million to stabilize its operations. Incremental funding allowed OIC to hire investigators and invest into training them remotely. This funding was secured in August 2020 and it enabled the OIC to move quickly to increase its overall staffing complement, in spite of the ongoing remote work arrangements and the overall challenges of running hiring processes during a pandemic. In addition the funding permitted the OIC to revamp its IT infrastructure.

The OIC’s Professional Development Program (PDP), which was initially set up as a part of a retention strategy by enabling career progression for investigators, was reconfigured in response to increasing recruitment needs and expanded to more junior levels this year. As investigators move through the program, they are given more autonomy and assigned more complex files. The expanded PDP was launched on April 1, 2020, to enable career progression for investigators starting at the entry-level. Given the commitment to invest in our resources, staff received feedback and training necessary to progress through and graduate from the program.

Mental health was an important issue for the Commissioner before the pandemic, but even more so now. The OIC carried out two surveys in 2020–21 on employee mental health and wellness, in order to gauge how employees were managing to work remotely, assess and provide the required support; and hear their views on returning to the workplace. Results of these surveys informed the update of the 3-year Action Plan.

Innovate and transform our operations:

Portfolio approach

The OIC’s Investigations and Governance Sector took the opportunity to further bolster the portfolio approach introduced prior to the pandemic. This approach consolidates the management of both administrative and refusal complaints within each of the teams, giving each directorate overall responsibility for dealing with all types of complaints against their assigned institutions.

The fully implemented portfolio approach, coupled with the PDP, allows an investigator to develop an understanding of the type of information a particular grouping of institutions produces, as well as how the Access to Information Act applies to the records at issue. In addition, this approach allowed for increased consistency and efficiency in decision making.

Information Technology

With staff working remotely throughout the year, the OIC saw an immense increase in demand for network access. The sudden move to mostly electronic operations and investigations meant accelerating the introduction of online platforms, such as MS Teams and SharePoint to provide employees with the ability to share documents and collaborate in a virtual environment. This shift also required the testing and launching of videoconferencing software and the introduction of online surveys and training platforms. Chat platforms further enhanced the OIC’s ability to operate fully in a virtual space.

The measures introduced during this period, including all-electronic investigations (moving to a paperless environment and digitizing all steps of the investigation process), online collaboration, working remotely and other measures will continue to be central to the OIC’s operations in the future.

Maintain and enhance credibility:

Since June 2019, the Access to Information Act gives the Information Commissioner the authority to publish reports of her findings. The final reports of some of the key investigations the OIC completed in 2020–21, including those resulting from systemic investigations initiated by the Commissioner, provide guidance on the application of the Act as it allows institutions, complainants and the general public to understand the Commissioner’s position on various sections of the Act. Furthermore, the Commissioner engaged in communications including meeting with ministers of major departments. The OIC also invested in the development of various guides and other tools to better support the work of investigators and improve consistency in the investigation process.

In January 2021, the Commissioner provided the President of the Treasury Board with a written submission pertaining to the review of the access to information regime launched in June 2020. The submission was in two parts – the first outlining general observations on the state of the access regime and the second providing concrete solutions on how to improve the system without waiting for legislative changes. The submission synthesizes actions that can be taken now, without amending the legislation, to improve the system as a whole.

In order to improve access to Canada’s access to information system, the OIC litigates to advance compliance with the Act.  Currently, the OIC is involved in three consolidated applications before the Federal Court, seeking to obtain disclosure of information claimed by Health Canada to constitute personal information – the most commonly invoked exemption in the Act.  The main issue is whether disclosure of the second and third characters of postal code for certain individuals licensed to grow and/or use medical marijuana would make them identifiable, and therefore constitute their personal information. Issues of identifiability are becoming more common and growing in importance for the access to information system; clarity from the Court will therefore be of assistance.  

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

Results: what we achieved

Core responsibility

Description: There are two levels of independent review of government decisions relating to requests for access to information under the control of government institutions. The Information Commissioner is the first level of review. The Access to Information Act requires the Commissioner to investigate all the complaints she receives. (With the June 2019 amendments to the Act, the Commissioner may now decline or cease to investigate complaints she considers to be trivial, frivolous, vexatious, made in bad faith or otherwise an abuse of the right of access.) The second level of independent review is the Federal Court.

Results

The OIC succeeded in meeting the Commissioner’s three priorities for the year.

Invest in and support resources:

The first priority for the Commissioner was to invest in and support the organization’s resources in 2020–21 to secure the organizational capability to deliver on her mandate. 

This is one of the pillars of the OIC’s new five-year strategic plan, reflecting the organization’s long-term commitment to this priority. To this end, the OIC carried out two surveys on employee mental health, in order to gauge how staff were managing to work at home; assess the kind of support they required; and hear their views on returning to the workplace.

A three-year program of activities and resources to support employee mental health is being updated in accordance with feedback garnered through the staff surveys, with revised strategies and a detailed action plan to be launched in 2021–22. The OIC will also be working to foster diversity and inclusion in the workplace, welcoming and valuing the contributions of women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and members of racialized groups and LGBTQ2 communities.

In consultation with key stakeholders the OIC reviewed its telework directive and its code of values and ethics which will be launched in the upcoming months. The OIC also introduced programs and services through providers such as the Ombudsperson for Mental Health. Through a Memorandum of Understanding with Health Canada, the OIC’s capability to pursue external investigations of harassment complaints or wrongdoing has increased.

The success in securing permanent funding in August 2020 was pivotal for the organization and a key enabler in delivering the five year Strategic Plan. Funding provides both organizational stability and an environment favourable to maximizing the effectiveness of resources and efficiency in delivering results for Canadians. The OIC’s Professional Development Program (PDP), which was initially set up as a part of a retention strategy by enabling career progression for investigators, was reconfigured in response to increasing recruitment needs and expanded to more junior levels this year. As investigators move through the program, they are given more autonomy and assigned more complex files. The expanded PDP was launched on April 1, 2020, to enable career progression for investigators starting at the entry-level. Given the commitment to invest in our resources, staff received feedback, training and mentoring necessary to progress through and graduate from the program. The investigators hired as a result of the budget increased were successfully on-boarded with the support of our Legal services who also contributed to the development of tools and guidance documents designed to enhance consistency and efficiency in the investigation process.

Our workforce demonstrated remarkable resilience and agility in light of the pandemic. OIC employees moved to remote work and conduct investigations, which remained at full capacity, in spite of challenges brought on by external factors. Furthermore, colleagues came together and strengthened the sense of OIC community in spite of physical distance. This was supported with constant and consistent communications efforts throughout the organization including the monthly all-staff Commissioner’s Hour – a forum where information is exchanged in an informal and collegial manner allowing all employees to stay abreast with activities in all sectors.

These factors set a solid foundation for continuing towards our future vision of work; strengthening our workforce and innovating the way we deliver our core duties and corporate services.

Innovate and transform our operations:

During 2020–21 it was eminent to transform the way we operate as individuals and as organizations. The OIC was no different and this priority turned out to be crucial and nothing short of visionary in this year. An example of this transformation was moving primarily to electronic operations and working together in a virtual environment. OIC employees found a way to conduct investigations and fulfill its mandate with little to no interruptions, quickly adapting to new electronic processes. 

Throughout the year, the organization demonstrated its agility and openness to innovation. This included leveraging the implementation of epost Connect, a secure electronic platform to facilitate communication and information sharing between complainants, institutions and the OIC. Processes were standardized, digitalized and simplified and included the introduction of new templates to facilitate the processing of complaints when institutions apply for permission to decline to respond to access requests. Our legal services largely contributed to supporting the program in its application of the new provisions and amendments to the Act resulting from the coming into force of Bill C-58.

The key accomplishments in this area include:

Portfolio approach

This year, the Investigations and Governance Sector took the opportunity to further bolster the portfolio approach introduced prior to the pandemic. This approach consolidates the management of both administrative and refusal complaints within each team, giving individual directorates overall responsibility for dealing with all types of complaints against their assigned institutions.

The fully implemented portfolio approach, coupled with the PDP, allows an investigator to develop an understanding of the type of information a particular grouping of institutions produces, as well as the application of the Act to the records at issue.

Information Technology

With staff working remotely throughout the year, the OIC saw an immense increase in demand for network access. The sudden move to mostly electronic operations and investigations meant accelerating the introduction of online platforms, such as MS Teams and SharePoint, which provide employees with the ability to share documents and collaborate in a virtual environment. This shift also required the testing and launching of videoconferencing software and the introduction of online surveys and training platforms. Chat platforms further enhanced the OIC’s ability to operate fully in a virtual space.

The measures introduced during this period, including all-electronic investigations (moving to a paperless environment and digitizing all steps of the investigation process), online collaboration, flexibility, working remotely and others will continue to be central to the OIC’s operations in the future.

Governance

In 2020–21, the OIC implemented a new governance structure that formalizes how the OIC operates, based on the Commissioner’s priorities. For example, a new Web and Social Media Governance Committee now oversees the OIC’s intranet, internet and social media presence, with input from across the organization. The governance structure is also designed to permit the creation of new ad hoc bodies, as well as providing several forums for employee input and information sharing.

More than ever, this past year has made the well-being of the OIC’s employees’ front and center as a priority for the Commissioner and her management team. While the Senior Management Committee meets weekly, an engaged executive cadre is also well represented and fully engaged in the work of the various corporate committees, including in the Workplace Health, Safety and Wellness Committee.

Finally, a new Departmental Results Framework has been developed and published to better reflect the Commissioner’s priorities. Set to come into effect in 2021–22, it will also guide the development of key performance indicators and goals to achieve in investigations.

The pandemic has also jolted the process of adapting to technological advances, such as improving telework capacity for institutions and ATIP units across government. The use of electronic transmission of documents, e-signatures and the shift from paper to paperless are all helping the access system. It should be noted that best practices are being shared across institutions through various interdepartmental networks, which should continue to be encouraged and commended.

Maintain and enhance credibility:

Several key initiatives contributed to progress toward this goal. The legislative review that expanded the mandate of the organization (Bill C-58) and the subsequent Treasury Board review make a cornerstone that supports OIC work in this domain.

The June 2019 amendments to the Access to Information Act provide for a review of the Act within one year after which they came into force and every five years thereafter. Last summer, the president of the Treasury Board announced a review of the entire access to information regime. The scope of this review goes beyond the review required by the Act and is an excellent opportunity for the government to address what numerous stakeholders, as well as many former Commissioners have been requesting for a long time: a fundamental reform of the access to information regime.

The OIC demonstrated that the pandemic does not suspend Canadians’ right of access to information and conducted a high number of investigations as well as three systemic investigations. 

The OIC processed record high number of enquiries and managed to reduce the backlog from the previous years. The Commissioner appeared in front of the parliamentary committees reinforcing the importance of OIC mandate, demonstrating independence of the role and receiving support from Parliamentarians in conducting the mission.

Furthermore, the Commissioner engaged in communications including meeting with ministers of major departments.

The OIC increased transparency and continued leveraging on technology in order to standardize processes and further promote transparency such as implementation of epost Connect, a secure electronic platform to facilitate communication and information sharing between complainants, institutions and the OIC when institutions apply for permission to decline to respond to access requests.

Gender-based analysis plus

OIC investigations are guided by the requirements of the Access to Information Act, particularly with regard to confidentiality, the need to give all parties to a complaint the opportunity to present their position on the matter, and the way the Commissioner must present her findings to complainants and others, and report on her activities and investigations to Parliament. Within those parameters, the OIC continues to contribute directly to government transparency and—since complaints can focus on topics such as residential schools and First Nations, gender and transgender issues, gender-based analysis-plus, women, Indigenous women, discrimination and harassment— advancing inclusiveness in Canada.

Experimentation

Building upon the implementation of epost Connect, the OIC continued leveraging on technology in order to standardize its processes and further promote the transparency. Based on lessons learned from this experience, the OIC will continue to develop and take advantage of other tools to make its processes more efficient and aid its interactions with complainants and institutions.

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Originating from and building upon the work of the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Committee, Beyond 2020 working group was created and tasked with developing the OIC’s vision for its workplace of the future, along with guiding principles that would help chart a course for the organization during the months to come.

During 2020–21, Beyond 2020 helped ensure employees could work effectively at home by undertaking a survey of equipment needs. The group also issued a roadmap for the return to the workplace, setting out several stages for the return and the requirements for each. The roadmap was shared with all staff and bargaining agents, and followed up with communication from the Commissioner through her monthly virtual all-staff meeting.

Over time, the group increasingly turned its focus to setting a vision of the OIC’s future. The increase in hiring that permanent funding afforded had already led the OIC to begin considering whether its existing office space could be renovated, or whether additional space would be required in the future. However, the ongoing success of remote work has changed the focus to what the OIC’s true needs are in terms of physical space and how it will conduct business in the future.

Results achieved

*From the date complaints are assigned to an investigator

**Since the coming into force of Bill C-58, the Commissioner has the power to order institutions to release information. This, in combination with changes in internal processes related to reporting on investigations, makes it impossible to provide accurate information on the 2020–21 results in this category.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

The OIC received new funding to expand its investigators workforce in 2020–21. The staffing initiatives began mid-year and to offset the delays in staffing, temporary help services were hired.

Financial, human resources and performance information for the OIC’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase^{Footnote i}.

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 distinct services that support Program delivery in the organization, regardless of the Internal Services delivery model in a department. These services are: Management and Oversight Services; Communications Services; Human Resources Management Services; Financial Management Services; Information Management Services; Information Technology Services; Real Property Management Services; Materiel Management Services and Acquisition Management Services.

Results

The OIC’s internal services teams supported the program in meeting the Commissioner’s priorities, in particular securing permanent annual funding for the Commissioner’s core responsibilities.

The hiring of investigators with the new funding required significant support from the Human Resources team, in terms of staffing actions and other processes throughout the year. The team also resolved a number of Phoenix-related pay problems.

Among other important contributions, the IM/IT team developed policies and procedures, and obtained equipment for converting paper records to digital ones, and continued work to integrate new investigation reports with the OIC’s case management system. The IT team worked with the program to further modernize the program operating with the implementation of a new icloud infrastructure.

Over the year, the OIC invested in information management and information technology applications and infrastructure to transform operations in line with government direction and to enhance network and information security (cloud migration).

Following the threat risk and vulnerability assessments in 2019–20, measures were taken to help ensure the OIC’s security measures were robust and aligned with emerging threats. The OIC also invested in IT infrastructure as well as finalizing its Departmental Security Plan and updating its Business Continuity Plan, as part of ongoing work to reduce operational risks.

In 2020–21, the OIC reviewed its strategic plan core values and pillars, supported by a revamped governance structure and created a new Web and social media Committee that now oversees the OIC’s intranet, internet and social media presence, with input from across the organization. The governance structure is also designed to permit the creation of new ad hoc bodies, as well as provide several forums for employee input and information sharing. Employees were also actively involved in developing the OIC’s new intranet, which was launched during the year.

In consultation with several stakeholders (bargaining agents, occupational health and safety and well-being committee members), the OIC also reviewed and updated its telework directive and its code of values and ethics to ensure a smooth planned return to the office (originally planned in early April) now postponed to end of January 2022.

Several mandatory courses were provided to employees regarding harassment and violence in the workplace as well as the new diversity, inclusion and anti-racism practices at the employee and managers level.

In addition, through a Memorandum of Understanding with Health Canada, the OIC’s capability to pursue external investigations of harassment complaints or wrongdoing has increased.

On the governance front, two new sub-committees responsible to review the OIC three-year program of activities and resources supporting employee mental health and well-being along with diversity, inclusion and anti-racism impediments was created. These are designed to ensure that staff as well as managers could express themselves freely and provide feedback through different channels such as anonymous staff surveys, forums and committees to revise strategies and prepare a detailed action plan to be launched in 2021–22.

In order to facilitate remote work arrangements and foresee the transition back to a “normal” post pandemic work environment, the Beyond 2020 Committee was tasked with developing the OIC’s vision for its workplace of the future, along with guiding principles that would help chart a course for the organization during the months to come.  

The increase in hiring that the permanent funding afforded had already led the OIC to begin considering whether its existing office space could be renovated, or whether additional space would be required in the future, while factoring in the ongoing success of remote work.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

The increase in resources were required to support the program to hire new employees (new funding), to keep up with the ongoing workload, and to carry out projects to meet the organization’s key priorities and corporate obligations.

Analysis of trends in spending and human resources

Actual expenditures

Spending trend graph

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

Text version

Analysis of trends in spending and human resources

Fiscal year	Statutory	Voted	Total
2018–19	1,134,443	13,317,275	14,451,718
2019–20	1,229,844	13,146,703	14,376,547
2020–21	1,628,794	14,504,595	16,133,389
2021–22	1,881,270	14,940,085	16,821,355
2022–23	1,758,779	14,112,439	15,871,218
2023–24	1,758,779	14,112,439	15,871,218

The OIC spent $16.1 million in 2020–21 to carry out its program and meet its strategic outcome. The Commissioner is committed to ensuring that the OIC uses its financial resources in the most strategic and responsible manner to continue to improve service delivery and ensure that investigations and other activities aimed at enhancing government openness and transparency have the most impact.

The OIC received $2.9 million in temporary funding for 2018–19 for inventory reduction. In 2019–20, the OIC received $1.4 million in permanent annual funding to implement the Commissioner’s new powers and responsibilities under Bill C-58, and $2.6 million in temporary funding for inventory reduction. $0.69 million of the funds were reprofiled from 2019–20 to 2020–21 and $0.96 million from 2019–20 to 2021–22. In 2020–21, the OIC received $2.5 million in annual permanent funding under the OIC’s core responsibilities.

For 2020–21 and beyond, the spending graph includes the funding for collective agreements: $0.7 million for 2020–21 and $0.3 million for 2021–22 and ongoing.

In 2020–21, the additional funding received enabled the OIC to focus on expanding its workforce in order to better serve Canadians and resolve complaints more quickly. The vast majority of the OIC’s spending (80 percent) was for salaries and associated employee costs. The increased permanent funding in 2020–21 and beyond will help ensure the OIC’s investigations program is viable and sustainable, and can achieve maximum results for Canadians.

Budgetary performance summary for core responsibility and Internal Services (dollars)

Actual human resources

Human resources summary for core responsibility and Internal Services

Expenditures by vote

For information on the OIC’s organizational voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada 2020–2021.^{Footnote ii}

Government of Canada spending and activities

Information on the alignment of the OIC’s spending with the Government of Canada’s spending and activities is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote iii}

Financial statements and financial statements highlights

Financial statements

The OIC’s financial statements (audited) for the year ended March 31, 2021 are available on the departmental website.

Financial statement highlights

Condensed Statement of Operations (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2021 (dollars)

The actual net cost of operations in 2020–21 was higher than 2020–21 planned results due to the OIC’s securing additional funding after that year’s initial figures were published. 

The actual net cost of operations in 2020–21 was higher than in 2019–20 mostly due to the OIC’s securing more funding that, in turn, resulted in increased spending for salaries and outsourced services.

Condensed Statement of Financial Position (unaudited)
as of March 31, 2021 (dollars)

Total net liabilities for 2020–21 were $3.2 million, an increase of $0.76 million from 2019–20. This is mainly due to an increase in year-end accounts payable and vacation liability. The increase in non-financial assets largely resulted from the acquisition of tangible capital assets.

Corporate Information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister: Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Commissioner: Caroline Maynard, Information Commissioner of Canada

Ministerial portfolio: Department of Justice Canada

Enabling instrument[s]: Access to information Act (RSC, 1985, C-1)

Year of incorporation / commencement: 1983

Other: For administrative purposes, the Minister of Justice is responsible for submitting the organization’s Departmental Plan and Departmental Results Report.

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

“Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do” is available on the OIC’s website.

Operating context

Information on the operating context is available on the OIC’s website.

Reporting framework

The OIC’s Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory of record for 2020–21 are shown below.

Text version

Core Responsibility: Government Transparency

Departmental Results Framework

Departmental Result: Canadians receive timely resolution of complaints about how federal institutions process access to information requests

• Indicator: Median turnaround time for administrative cases
• Indicator: Median turnaround time for refusal cases

Departmental Result: Institutions meet their obligations under the Access to Information Act and adopt measures to address institutional and systemic issues affecting access to information

• Indicator: Percentage of recommendations from systemic investigations that are adopted
• Indicator: Percentage of recommendations from systemic investigations that are adopted

Program Inventory

Compliance with access to information obligations.

Internal services

Supporting information on the program inventory

Financial, human resources and performance information for OIC’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.^{Footnote iv}

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on the OIC’s website:

• Report on Green Procurement
• Gender-based analysis plus

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.^{Footnote v}

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

France Labine
Deputy Commissioner, Corporate Services, Strategic Planning
and Transformation Services
Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
30 Victoria Street
Gatineau QC  K1A 1H3

Tel.: 819-994-8181
cell: 613-462-4441
Email: france.labine@ci-oic.gc.ca
Website: www.oic-ci.gc.ca

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.