2021-22 Departmental Plan

Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada

Original signed by

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

Caroline Maynard
Information Commissioner of Canada

ISSN 2371-865X

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Table of contents

• From the Commissioner
• Plans at a glance
• Core responsibility: planned results and resources, and key risks
  • Government transparency
• Internal Services: planned results
• Spending and human resources
  • Planned spending
  • Planned human resources
  • Estimates by vote
  • Future-oriented condensed statement of operations
• 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

From the Commissioner

The Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) enters 2021–22 after a challenging year of strengthening the organization and finding new ways to work during the pandemic.

Despite having a workforce separated for so many months, a true spirit of collaboration has bloomed among my team, and a number of important pieces are falling into place, including additional permanent funding for investigations. I expect that the new year will see my team truly hit its stride.

I have set ambitious targets for completing investigations and improving turnaround times to ensure my office continues to improve its productivity. Approaching the work with a sense of urgency will be particularly important as Canadians use the access system to hold the government accountable for its decisions and actions in response to the pandemic.

At the same time, I will not be afraid to speak out about the importance of promptly overhauling the access to information regime, and the need for a modernized access system centered on innovation, leadership, new technology and adequately resourced access units in all institutions. During 2021–22, I will continue to send that message through my contributions to the review of the system launched in June of 2020 by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and through additional investigations I initiate.

My office will also continue to modernize its own operations. This will include moving its IT infrastructure to the cloud, rolling out enhanced collaboration tools and introducing a new vision for the workplace as part of the Beyond 2020 initiative my office launched last year.

Last but very far from least will be my office’s focus during the year on supporting employees—both the experienced team members and the many new people joining the organization. My team adapted very quickly to working remotely and was up to full capacity within days of alternative work arrangements coming into effect. Although employees report enjoying the flexibility that has come with working from home, there is an ongoing need to build resiliency and ensure employees are fully equipped to navigate these challenging times.

It is very important to me to position the organization in 2021–22 so employees can thrive in both their personal and work lives once again. Enhancing support to employees to ensure a healthy and engaged workforce, and a workplace that embraces diversity and inclusion, will mean my office can make the greatest possible contribution to government transparency.

Plans at a glance

The OIC plans to complete 4,000 investigations in 2021–22. This will include reducing the number of complaints registered before 2017 in the inventory, as part of overall efforts to make the OIC’s caseload more current and to minimize the number of open complaints dating from before the June 2019 amendments to the Access to Information Act.

Over the year, the OIC will focus on how to transition its operations to the new post-COVID-19 workplace. The OIC expects that all teams will work remotely at least part time once the pandemic is over. Among other planned activities, the modernization of the OIC’s case management system, the ongoing conversion of paper documents to digital formats, and the implementation of electronic templates and signatures will ensure the OIC’s ongoing effectiveness in a hybrid workplace.

The OIC will also carry out work under the second phase of its plan to migrate its IT infrastructure to the cloud. Specific activities in 2021–22 will include introducing new collaborative tools through MS Teams and cloud-based storage capacity via OneDrive.

Enhanced tools and support will help managers ensure the effectiveness of their teams, even when they cannot work together in person. The OIC will adjust its recruitment and training activities (including its professional development program for investigators), as needed, to ensure the organization can engage and retain the necessary staff, and that they can thrive and be effective in the new environment.

The OIC will implement a three-year mental health plan, with various activities for employees and a review of OIC policies and procedures to ensure they support employee mental health. Likewise, the OIC will work 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.

Finally, the Commissioner and the OIC will contribute, as appropriate, to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s review of the access system and Access to Information Act during 2021–22.

For more information on the OIC’s plans, priorities and planned results, see the “Core responsibilities: planned results and resources, and key risks” section of this report.

Core responsibility: planned results and resources, and key risks

This section contains detailed information on the OIC’s planned results and resources for its core responsibility. It also contains information on key risks related to achieving those results.

Government transparency

Description

The Information Commissioner is the first level of independent review of government decisions related to requests for access to information under the control of government institutions. The second level of independent review is performed by the Federal Court.

Planning highlights

The OIC enters 2021–22 poised to make notable advances in meeting its core responsibility.

The 2019 amendments to the Access to Information Act gave the Information Commissioner the power to publish her decisions and to make any orders related to a record, including requiring institutions to disclose information. Both of these are important factors in the OIC’s work to continue to improve its efficiency and effectiveness.

Government funding decisions in 2019 and 2020 have allowed the OIC to augment its investigative capacity so it can keep up with demand and significantly reduce its inventory of complaints. The OIC plans to spend $12,784,230 to meet its core responsibility in 2021–22 with 103 full-time equivalents. The OIC plans a further $4,037,125 spending, with 32 full-time equivalents in Internal Services.

The OIC plans to complete 4,000 investigations during the year. This will include reducing the number of complaints registered before 2017 that remain open, as part of overall efforts to minimize the portion of the inventory dating from before the amendments. Doing so will mean the OIC closes resource-intensive investigations that have been in progress for a number of years and can, therefore, devote more resources to newer complaints. As of mid-November 2020, the OIC had reduced the size of the inventory, which began the year at more than 3,500 files, by 13 percent.

As part of ongoing process and organizational improvements, the OIC will fully implement its portfolio approach to investigations, having all types of complaints against groups of related institutions investigated by a single dedicated team. The investigations sector will also finalize and roll out documented procedures associated with responsibilities stemming from the legislative amendments.

The Legal Services team will improve its training program for investigators and increase its support to investigations with regard to the Commissioner’s powers, including to make orders, publish her decisions and approve institutions’ requests to decline to act on requests.

The new fiscal year will see the OIC focussing on how to transition its investigations operations to the post-pandemic workplace. Traditionally, the OIC has required investigators, lawyers and other staff involved in investigations to be on site to carry out their work. However, the experience of 2020 showed that investigations can generally proceed normally with employees working remotely, as long as proper security precautions and electronic systems and solutions are in place. The OIC expects that investigations teams will work remotely at least part time once the pandemic is over. Helping make this possible will be the planned modernization of the OIC’s case management system, the ongoing conversion of paper documents to digital formats and the implementation of electronic templates and signatures.

In addition, the OIC will introduce enhanced tools and support for managers in the investigations sector to help them ensure the effectiveness of their teams, even when working remotely. Recruitment and training activities (including the OIC’s professional development program for investigators) will be adjusted, as needed, to ensure the OIC can engage and retain the necessary staff, and that they can thrive and be effective in the new environment.

Based on more than 35 years of unique experience investigating access-related complaints, the Commissioner and the OIC will contribute, as appropriate, to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s review of the access system and the Access to Information Act during 2021–22.

Gender-based analysis plus

The OIC will implement measures to response to the results of an all-staff survey on the impact on employees of the pandemic, including effects on GBA+ groups.

Experimentation

The OIC will launch and then assess the results of a pilot project to see whether employees can work securely and efficiently while teleworking from a location other than Ottawa-Gatineau (in Canada or elsewhere). During the pilot project, the OIC will also test a variety of collaborative technologies, including those yet to be mandated by the government, and review and adjust, as required, related OIC directives and procedures to reflect any new work arrangements.

Key risks

An important strategic priority for the Commissioner is to ensure that the OIC remains relevant. That means finding the right balance between old and new files, and those on matters of significant public interest, to investigate at any given time, and providing informed advice to Parliament and others on access matters.

It also means completing investigations promptly. To address the associated reputational risk that could result from the OIC not continuing to improve its response times, it will be reviewing and adjusting its file management approach. It will also be updating systems and processes, templates, guidance and training materials—within both investigations and enabling functions, such as Human Resources—to ensure all are conducive to efficiency.

However, the OIC must also be aware that, by increasing its efficiency and investigative capacity, it risks overwhelming institutions, to the detriment of its work and to institutions being able to respond to access requests. To mitigate this risk, the OIC engages institutions’ cooperation through ongoing communications with institutional officials at various levels and considers institutional workload when assigning files.

Finally, the OIC’s project to migrate its IT infrastructure to the cloud began before the pandemic, but its successful conclusion will be essential to the OIC being able to operate effectively in the post-pandemic work environment. The OIC will seek to mitigate the security risks associated with carrying out all its business electronically—including holding sensitive information on behalf of other institutions during investigations—by reviewing and updating its security threat and risk assessments and taking necessary corrective measures.

Planned results for government transparency

*The figures for 2019–20 only include administrative complaints (those about time extensions, delays and other matters such as official languages) closed outside the OIC’s Registry, which the OIC had set up the previous year to facilitate case management and close complaints not requiring a full investigation. The figure for the percentage of administrative complaints assigned to investigators within 30 days of being registered in 2019–20 is the result of a number of factors, including resourcing challenges that year. Moreover, the OIC could not assign the large volume of new administrative complaints it received during the year all at once without compromising investigators’ ability to work on other types of complaints and older files, and without overwhelming institutions’ capacity to respond to investigators’ queries.
**Refusal complaints (largely those about institutions’ application of exemptions and exclusions) completed with a finding of well founded, not well founded or resolved.

 

 

Financial, human resources and performance information for the OIC’s program inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.

 

 

Planned budgetary financial resources for government transparency

Financial, human resources and performance information for the OIC’s program inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.

Planned human resources for government transparency

Financial, human resources and performance information for the OIC’s program inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.

Internal Services: planned results

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.

Planning highlights

The OIC’s Internal Services teams provide direct and essential support to the OIC’s investigations program. In 2021–22, this will include overseeing an evaluation of the program, the first since 2014–15.

The Communications team will continue to support the program by capitalizing on the reach of the OIC’s website to publish guidance and final reports, and share other information about the OIC’s operations and decisions.

The Human Resources team will complete the numerous staffing actions required for the OIC to engage the full complement of investigators the recent increase in permanent funding is making possible.

The Human Resources team will also support OIC managers in performance and talent management activities for the growing workforce, with the goal of retaining and providing career development opportunities for top talent.

To provide further support to employees, the Finance and Human Resources teams will collaborate to implement a plan to enhance how the OIC handles employee’s compensation matters, including problems related to the Phoenix pay system. The Finance team will also present a plan to senior management for how the OIC should allocate its increased resources to best meet its vision, mission and strategic priorities.

To ensure the OIC is in full compliance with its policy and regulatory obligations, it will complete its comprehensive policy review and implement an updated governance structure.

As Canada emerges from the pandemic, as is expected over the course of 2021–22, the IM/IT team will continue to play an important support role for the OIC’s Beyond 2020 working group, which is guiding the organization’s eventual return to the workplace.

To that end, the IM/IT Team will implement tools to ensure the OIC can take a hybrid approach to operations, featuring both on-site work and telework. This will include carrying out activities under the second phase of the OIC’s plan to migrate its IT infrastructure to the cloud, such as introducing new collaborative tools through MS Teams and storage capacity via OneDrive.

Renovations to the OIC’s office will conclude in 2021–22 to allow flexibility and enhance collaboration within and among teams, regardless of where employees are located.

Finally, the OIC will implement a three-year mental health plan, with various activities for employees and a review of OIC policies and procedures to ensure they support employee mental health.

Likewise, the OIC will work to foster diversity and inclusion in the workplace, welcoming and valuing the contributions of members of the four employment equity groups (women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and visible minorities) and LGBTQ2 communities as integral parts of the overall OIC team.

Planned budgetary financial resources for Internal Services

Planned human resources for Internal Services

Spending and human resources

This section provides an overview of the OIC’s planned spending and human resources for the next three fiscal years and compares planned spending for the upcoming year with the current and previous years’ actual spending.

Planned spending

Organizational spending 2018–19 to 2023–24

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

Text version

Organizational spending 2018–19 to 2023–24

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	1,954,051	15,460,887	17,414,938
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

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

The following table shows actual, forecast and planned spending for the OIC’s core responsibility and Internal Services for the years relevant to the current planning year.

The figures for 2020–21 and 2021–22 in the above graph and table include $0.69 million and $0.96 million, respectively, re-profiled from 2019–20. The totals for 2019–20 to 2023–24 each include $1.4 million in permanent funding to implement the new responsibilities the Commissioner received as part of the June 2019 legislative amendments. The totals for 2020–21 to 2023–24 include $2.5 million in permanent funding for investigations under the OIC’s core responsibility. The increased permanent funding will help ensure the OIC’s investigations program is viable and sustainable, and can achieve maximum results for Canadians.

The graph and table also show the funding for collective agreements: $0.7 million for 2020–21 and $0.3 million for 2021–22 and ongoing.

The OIC plans to spend $16.8 million in 2021–22 and $15.9 million in 2022–23 and ongoing. The vast majority of the OIC’s spending (87 percent) is for salaries and associated employee costs.

Planned human resources

The following table shows actual, forecast and planned full-time equivalents (FTEs) for the OIC’s core responsibility and Internal Services for the years relevant to the current planning year.

Human resources planning summary for core responsibility and Internal Services

The increases in FTEs for the core responsibility after 2018–19 result from two injections of permanent funding. In 2019–20, the OIC received permanent funding for 15 FTEs to carry out the Commissioner’s new responsibilities. In 2020–21, the OIC received permanent funding for an additional 27 FTEs to carry out investigations.

Estimates by vote

Information on the OIC’s organizational appropriations is available in the 2021–22 Main Estimates.

Future-oriented condensed statement of operations

The future‑oriented condensed statement of operations provides an overview of the OIC’s operations for 2020–21 to 2021–22.

The amounts for forecast and planned results in this statement of operations were prepared on an accrual basis. The amounts for forecast and planned spending presented in other sections of the Departmental Plan were prepared on an expenditure basis. Amounts may therefore differ.

A more detailed future‑oriented statement of operations and associated notes, including a reconciliation of the net cost of operations to the requested authorities, are available on the OIC’s website.

Future‑oriented condensed statement of operations for the year ending March 31, 2022 (dollars)

The variance between the forecast results for 2020–21 and the planned results for 2021–22 is mainly due to payments related to expired collective agreements in 2020–21.

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister(s): David Lametti, P.C., Q.C., M.P., Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Institutional head: 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 approved departmental results framework and program inventory for 2020–21 are as follows.

In 2020, the OIC updated its departmental results and indicators for its core responsibility (unchanged). The new departmental results and indicators better reflect operations, allow the OIC to report more meaningfully on inventory reduction efforts and take into account the Commissioner’s new powers. In particular, under the first departmental result (unchanged), the OIC has added five indicators so it can report on ongoing improvements to various aspects of its complaint management and investigation processes. The OIC designed the second departmental result and the corresponding indicator to shed light on another important aspect of the effectiveness of investigations.

Changes to the approved reporting framework since 2019–20

The OIC’s core responsibility and program remain unchanged.

Supporting information on the program inventory

Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to the OIC’s program inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.

Supplementary information tables

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

• Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy
• Gender-based analysis plus

Federal tax expenditures

The OIC’s Departmental Plan does not include information on tax expenditures that relate to its planned results for 2021–22.

Tax expenditures are the responsibility of the Minister of Finance, and the Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for government‑wide tax expenditures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures. This report provides detailed information on tax expenditures, including objectives, historical background and references to related federal spending programs, as well as evaluations, research papers and gender-based analysis. The tax measures presented in this report are solely the responsibility of the Minister of Finance.

Organizational contact information

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

Telephone: 819-994-8181
Toll free: 1 800 267-0441
Fax: 819-994-1768

Email: general@ci-oic.gc.ca
Website(s): www.ci-oic.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 a department over a 3‑year period. Departmental Plans are tabled in Parliament each spring.

departmental priority (priorité ministérielle)

A plan or project that a department has chosen to focus and report on during the planning period. Departmental 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 factor or variable that provides a valid and reliable means to measure or describe progress on a departmental result.

departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)

A framework that consists of the department’s core responsibilities, 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 and what doesn’t. Experimentation is related to, but distinct form 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. Full‑time equivalents are calculated as a ratio of assigned hours of work to scheduled hours of work. Scheduled hours of work are set out in collective agreements.

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 2021–22 Departmental Plan, government-wide priorities refers to those high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the 2020 Speech from the Throne, namely: Protecting Canadians from COVID-19; Helping Canadians through the pandemic; Building back better – a resiliency agenda for the middle class; The Canada we’re fighting for. 

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

An initiative in which 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 up to the expected result.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)

For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in the 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 of the department’s programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department’s core responsibilities and results.

result (résultat)

An external 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.

strategic outcome (résultat stratégique)

A long-term and enduring benefit to Canadians that is linked to the organization’s mandate, vision and core functions.

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.