2024-2025 Departmental Plan

On this page:

• From the Commissioner
• Plans to deliver on core responsibilities and internal services
  • Core responsibility: Government Transparency
  • Internal services
• Planned spending and human resources
  • Spending
  • Funding
  • Future-oriented condensed statement of operations
  • Human resources
• Corporate information
• Supplementary information tables
• Federal tax expenditures
• Definitions

From the Commissioner

The renewal of my mandate as Canada’s Information Commissioner in November 2024 represents continuity for both the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) and the federal access to information system. It also enables me to confirm several of the priorities that will guide the OIC’s operations throughout fiscal year 2025-26 and beyond.

While my focus will continue to be on investigating complaints and providing advice to Parliament, I intend to build on the progress made during my initial mandate (2018-2025), with activities focused on promoting transparency, strengthening collaboration, ensuring compliance with the requirements of the Access to Information Act, fostering innovation and enhancing the efficiency of our operations.

First and foremost, I remain committed to promoting a culture of transparency within federal institutions, where “transparency by default” guides the design of programs, policies and services, ensuring information is made available proactively rather than only upon request. I affirmed this commitment, together with my provincial and territorial counterparts, in a joint resolution issued at the end of 2024. Whenever possible, I will engage with public servants of all levels to emphasize their responsibilities in the areas of transparency and access to information. By adopting the right mindset, we can reduce the strain on an access to information system that continues to be plagued by unacceptable delays and excessive redactions.

I will continue to provide guidance and ensure that institutions respect their statutory obligations when Canadian are requesting or obtaining access to documents, including issuing orders and taking any necessary legal action. In addition, I plan to undertake more systemic investigations, when I determine these are warranted, to identify and address root causes of dysfunction within the system, providing recommendations to improve overall performance.

With the review of the Access to Information Act on the horizon, I will advocate for the modernization of the federal access law to reflect current technological and societal realities. This includes addressing outdated provisions, incorporating new standards for transparency and accountability, and revisiting the funding mechanism for my office, which remains crucial to ensuring that the OIC has the necessary resources to operate effectively and independently.

Reducing the inventory of complaints submitted to my office remains a priority, with the goal of ensuring that this inventory consists only of complaints dating back no more than two years. In an environment of limited resources, assessing how artificial intelligence and other technological innovations can be leveraged to allow my team to further streamline our processes, automate routine tasks, and improve the efficiency of handling complaints, ensuring that new complaints are assigned and processed as quickly as possible to the benefit of Canadians.

I am convinced that by focusing on these priorities, my team and I can build on the progress made during my previous term and continue to uphold the right of access to information for all Canadians.

Plans to deliver on core responsibilities and internal services

Core responsibility and internal services

• Core responsibility: Government Transparency
• Internal services

Core responsibility: Government Transparency

In this section

• Description
• Quality of life impacts
• Indicators, results and targets
• Plans to achieve results
• Key risks
• Planned resources to achieve results
• Related government priorities
• Program inventory

Description

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

Quality of life impacts

This core responsibility contributes to the “Good Governance” theme of the Quality of Life Framework for Canada and, more specifically, “confidence in institutions,” through all activities associated with Government transparency.

Indicators, results and targets

This section presents details on the department’s indicators, the actual results from the three most recently reported fiscal years, the targets and target dates approved in 2025-26 for Government Transparency. Details are presented by departmental result.

Table 1: Canadians receive timely resolution of complaints on how federal institutions process access to information requests.

Table 1 provides a summary of the target and actual results for each indicator associated with the results under Canadians receive timely resolution of complaints on how federal institutions process access to information requests.

The OIC is working towards meeting all its targets but also remains committed to balancing the investigation of new complaints and resolving older complaints from its inventory, ensuring fairness and progress. By the end of 2024-25, a minimal number of complaints filed prior to 2023 will remain in the inventory. Maintaining a contemporary inventory will help the OIC in achieving its timeliness targets in future years. Various factors continue to influence the pace of investigations, including the complexity of cases, the sensitivity of information, and the workload of the institutions under review. The OIC continues to focus on streamlining its work processes to maximize productivity. The timely assignment of complaints also requires a skilled and adequately resourced team of investigators, capable of managing the workload effectively. The OIC also continues to invest in its resources, and actively backfills vacancies annually. However, budgetary constraints limit its ability to expand its investigative workforce beyond its current capacity.

Additional information on the detailed results and performance information for the OIC’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Plans to achieve results

The following section describes the planned results for Government Transparency in 2025-26.

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

The OIC does not control how many complaints will be made each year. It receives complaints for 2 to 4% of all access to information requests made, meaning that if the volume of requests grows, the volume of complaints will grow proportionally.

The existing inventory consists of a wide variety of complaints, from federal employees wishing to access their personal human resource records to complaints about immigration, tax records, or national security. Tackling the OIC’s inventory of complaints not only requires efficient processes, but also trained investigators with the capacity and security level to take on new work.

The Commissioner continues to be focussed on ensuring the OIC’s processes are efficient in order to investigate complaints in a timely manner by:

• reducing the amount of time the OIC takes to assign a complaint,
• reducing the time it takes to complete an investigation once assigned, and
• ensuring the alignment of legal resources with operational requirements.

When the OIC both assigns and concludes complaint investigations in a timely manner, it ensures Canadians receive the information to which they are entitled without undue delay. It also ensures that, if required, it also ensures that, if necessary, the second level of independent control, the Federal Court, is rapidly accessible.

To accomplish these goals, the OIC and institutions under complaint must be adequately funded. Currently, there are more complaints in the OIC inventory than can be assigned. An adequately funded OIC ensures a sufficient number of investigators to permit the assigning of complaint investigations in a timely manner. The Commissioner will continue to advocate for a funding model that provides the OIC with the resources needed to operate and which reflects her status as an independent agent of Parliament. The Commissioner will also continue to advocate for ATIP teams within institutions as they too must keep pace with an ever-increasing workload.

The Commissioner voiced her concerns about the Government’s Trust and Transparency Strategy issued in May 2024, and noted the lack of concrete commitments or measurable outcomes. The Access to Information Act, which came into force in 1983, no longer meets the needs of Canadians in the twenty-first century. Without legislative change, the access to information regime cannot be fully modernized. The government has set 2025 as the start date for the legislative review and the Commissioner looks forward to providing advice on amendments that are urgently needed.

The Commissioner will also increase the support she provides to institutions and complainants in the form of guidance, presentations, meetings and of course, through the publication of her decisions. 

The OIC publishes all of the Commissioner’s orders on delay complaints and all final reports on refusal complaints for which an order is made. The OIC also publishes summaries of the Commissioner’s decisions pursuant to subsection 6.1(1) (applications for the Commissioner’s approval to decline to act on an access request) and when the Commissioner deems them to be of value in providing guidance to both institutions and requesters. While this is a resource-intensive process, involving legal review, translation and web publishing, it is vital to ensuring decisions made by the Commissioner are transparent and contribute to a better understanding of how the Commissioner applies the Act. Increasingly, institutions and complainants refer to published decisions to frame their arguments and negotiate whenever possible, an informal resolution to the issue at hand.

While the informal resolution of complaints is by far the most efficient way to conclude an investigation, the Commissioner will not hesitate, when necessary, to use the full extent of her powers, including making orders.

Legal support is essential to both the investigative process and any litigation following the conclusion of a complaint. As the Commissioner continues to issue orders, ensuing litigation continues to increase accordingly. While only a small portion of complaints result in litigation before the Federal Court, the Commissioner’s ability to defend her orders, and seek strategic interventions when appropriate, is an integral part of her role of ensuring that the Act is properly applied by institutions. To that end, the OIC continues to work to increase its capacity in legal services through the recruitment and retention of experienced legal counsel to ensure the necessary legal support, both during investigations and before the courts.

The OIC will continue to balance the needs and preferences of its employees, as well as operational requirements to sustain a hybrid work environment that is inclusive, equitable, transparent and high-performing. The OIC is transforming operations by including a new centralized records management database and collaborative platform, as well as additional secure information technology equipment and software, and advancing migration to cloud computing.

Key risks

The OIC currently lacks an independent funding model to provide it with the necessary resources to operate fully and that reflects the Commissioner’s status as an independent agent of Parliament. Although the OIC has been successful in reducing its backlog of complaints, Canadians are still facing longer than necessary delays when seeking a timely resolution of their complaints due to insufficient funding. The OIC will continue to advocate for an independent funding model that ensures the OIC has the resources required to meet its mandate and that maintains Canadians confidence in the access to information system.

In spite of its small size, the OIC is wholly responsible for its own IT services and support, and must ensure that it keeps pace with an ever-changing and evolving IT landscape by continuously upgrading IT infrastructure and software. Although these investments will increase the efficiency of the OIC’s operations and improve cybersecurity, the cost and effort required by the IT team represents a significant burden on a small organization. The OIC’s mitigation strategy is to fund its technology infrastructure modernization projects by using carry-forward funds from one year to the next and extending the project over several years.

It is impossible to predict the number of complaints the OIC will receive each year, nor the number of orders which will be challenged in court. As a result, the OIC faces an operational risk due to this lack of predictability. Although the OIC’s funding and resources have remained stable from year to year, the number of complaints submitted to the OIC fluctuates annually, and the amount of litigation involving the Commissioner has drastically increased since 2021-22. While various factors may influence this volume, including the resources allocated to institutions’ ATIP units, the OIC has no control over the volume of complaints received and the corresponding workload. Similarly, because the Act requires that institutions apply for a review before the Federal Court when they do not intend to implement the Commissioner’s orders, the OIC has no control over the number of reviews brought before the courts. So far, the OIC has been managing this risk by temporarily reallocating resources internally. Should the volume of litigation remain high, this will require a reassessment of permanent funding for the OIC’s legal services unit.

Planned resources to achieve results

Table 2: Planned resources to achieve results for Government Transparency this year

Table 2 provides a summary of the planned spending and full-time equivalents required to achieve results.

Complete financial and human resources information for the OIC’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Gender-based analysis plus

The OIC helps Canadians obtain access to information about government activities and decisions, including gender based (GBA+) information. However, the confidentiality requirements of investigations conducted pursuant to the Access to Information Act hamper GBA+ data collection efforts. In 2023‐2024, the OIC completed a complainant consultation about its program delivery including the accessibility and inclusivity of its investigation processes. There were no significant barriers identified by complainants. Additional details on the impact of GPA+ at the OIC is presented in the GBA+ Supplementary Information Table.

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2022–2023, the OIC initialized the development of its sustainable development strategy and will make every effort to review the possibility of integrating certain key elements of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that align with its operating context. The OIC has only one mandate and program and operates as an independent agency. As such, key target and key goals are not directly related to any specific government initiative.

More information on the OIC’s contributions to Canada’s Federal Implementation Plan on the 2030 Agenda and the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy can be found in our Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy.

Innovation

The OIC plans to explore how artificial intelligence can be used in order to improve the efficiency of ATIP and complaint processes. Learning from others, applying an adequate risk management framework, and making the best use of modern technology all have the potential to transform the ATIP landscape. 

Translation is one area where the use of technology has already yielded considerable benefits for the organization. Thanks to the adoption of computer-assisted translation software and machine translation tools, the linguistic services unit has managed to keep pace with the increased volume of publication of final reports and guidance, all of which must be translated to comply with official languages requirements. Going forward, the OIC, which has already begun using artificial intelligence tools to support the drafting of texts, reports and various communications products, will build upon these promising early results by piloting AI-based tools with a view to fully integrating them. Adopting such powerful tools will increase drafting, editing, and translation capacity within the organization without resorting to additional human resources.

Program inventory

Government Transparency is supported by the following programs:

• Compliance with access to information obligations

Additional information related to the program inventory for Government Transparency is available on the Results page on GC InfoBase.

Internal services

In this section

• Description
• Plans to achieve results
• Planned resources to achieve results
• Planning for contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

Description

Internal services are the services that are provided within a department so that it can meet its corporate obligations and deliver its programs. There are 9 categories of internal services:

• 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
• acquisition management services

Plans to achieve results

In recent years the OIC has invested in new information management and information technology systems. These new systems are benefiting the OIC by providing the investigations program with more reliable and simpler technology that enhances collaboration. In 2025/26, the OIC will continue to make strategic investments in new technologies to make the OIC’s operations more efficient and enhance cybersecurity.

The OIC has established an innovation working group that is tasked with looking for ways to adopt emerging technologies that could lead to operational efficiencies. The OIC aims to launch pilot projects during the year with the potential to reduce the time and effort in certain areas of the OIC’s operations. These include moving more services to cloud computing with the planned adoption of SharePoint Online in the year. 

In 2025/26 the completion of the OIC’s work to reduce its office footprint will produce savings for the organization resulting from a decrease in the OIC’s office space.

The Strategic Planning team will work with the Commissioner as she develops her plans and priorities for her second term and will help update the OIC’s corporate risk profile.

The Finance team will support the Commissioner as she continues pursuing an independent funding mechanism for the OIC. The OIC with the help of its strategic partner, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, are planning to upgrade the financial management system in 2025/26.

The Public Affairs team will continue to support the Commissioner in her role as agent of Parliament and advocate for a strong federal access to information system, managing the Commissioner’s external relations with all stakeholders, including parliamentarians and leaders of institutions subject to the Act. The team will also support the program through the provision of linguistic services, strategic advice, developing internal and external communications products, conducting media relations, and leveraging the OIC’s digital presence on the web and social media to share information with various audiences.

Planned resources to achieve results

Table 3: Planned resources to achieve results for internal services this year

Table 3 provides a summary of the planned spending and full-time equivalents required to achieve results.

Complete financial and human resources information for the OIC’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Planning for contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

Government of Canada departments are to meet a target of awarding at least 5% of the total value of contracts to Indigenous businesses each year. This commitment is to be fully implemented by the end of 2024-25. The OIC reached this goal in 2022-23.

The measures that OIC has taken and will continue to take to achieve the 5% minimum target include:

• disseminating communiqués to inform OIC budget managers of this commitment;
• ensuring that necessary training is provided to budget managers and contracting specialists; and
• multi-year contract considerations

As a smaller organization, the OIC relies on the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) for procurement services, and will continue to work jointly with CHRC to continue to achieve this contracting target. The OIC plans to continue to achieve its 5% target by procuring IM/IT services from Indigenous firms, as this particular segment represents the highest operational expenditure for the organization.

Table 4: Percentage of contracts planned and awarded to Indigenous businesses

Table 4 presents the current, actual results with forecasted and planned results for the total percentage of contracts the department awarded to Indigenous businesses.

Planned 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 2025-26 with actual spending from previous years.

In this section

• Spending
• Funding
• Future-oriented condensed statement of operations
• Human resources

Spending

This section presents an overview of the department's planned expenditures from 2022-23 to 2027-28.

Table 5: Planned spending by core responsibility in 2025-26

Table 5 presents how much the department plans to spend in 2025-26 to carry out core responsibilities and internal services.

Budgetary performance summary

Table 6: Three-year spending summary for core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)

Table 6 presents how much money the OIC spent over the past three years to carry out its core responsibilities and for internal services. Amounts for the current fiscal year are forecasted based on spending to date.

Analysis of the past three years of spending

Actual expenditures in 2023–2024 are higher than previous years due to the new implementation of new collective agreements which resulted in retroactive payments and higher rates of pay for most employees. The OIC plans to spend $18.5M in 2024-25, a small increase over 2023-24 due again to the implementation of new collective agreements. 

More financial information from previous years is available on the Finances section of GC Infobase. 

Table 7: Planned three-year spending on core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)

Table 7 presents how much money the OIC’s plans to spend over the next three years to carry out its core responsibilities and for internal services.

Analysis of the next three years of spending

The OIC plans to spend $17.7 million in 2025–26 and $17.8M in ongoing years. The vast majority of the OIC’s spending is for salaries and associated employee costs.

More detailed financial information on planned spending is available on the Finances section of GC Infobase.

Funding

This section provides an overview of the department's voted and statutory funding for its core responsibilities and for internal services. For further information on funding authorities, consult the Government of Canada budgets and expenditures.

Graph 1: Approved funding (statutory and voted) over a six-year period

Graph 1 summarizes the department's approved voted and statutory funding from 2022-23 to 2027-28.

Text description of graph 1:

Analysis of statutory and voted funding over a six-year period

The OIC spent $16.5M in 2022-23 and $18.2 million in 2023–2024 to carry out its program and meet its strategic outcome. Spending was higher in 2023–2024 due to additional funding received for the implementation of new collective agreements.

The OIC plans to spend $18.5M in 2024-25, a small increase over 2023-24 due again to the implementation of new collective agreements. Spending in 2025–26 and ongoing is expected to be approximately $18M as funding returns to base levels. Planned spending in 2026-27 and later years does not include any additional funding for new collective agreements which will expire over the next several years. When these new collective agreements are signed, the OIC expects to receive additional funding from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat to cover the cost of these agreements.

The Commissioner is committed to ensuring that the OIC uses its financial resources in the most strategic and responsible manner to continually improve service delivery and ensure that investigations and other activities aimed at enhancing government openness and transparency have the most impact. The vast majority of the OIC’s spending (87 percent) was for salaries and associated employee costs. 

For further information on the OIC’s departmental appropriations, consult the 2025-26 Main Estimates.

Future-oriented condensed statement of operations

The future-oriented condensed statement of operations provides an overview of the OIC’s operations for 2024-25 to 2025-26.

Table 8: Future-oriented condensed statement of operations for the year ended March 31, 2026 (dollars)

Table 8 summarizes the expenses and revenues which net to the cost of operations before government funding and transfers for 2024-25 to 2025-26. The forecast and planned amounts in this statement of operations were prepared on an accrual basis. The forecast and planned amounts presented in other sections of the Departmental Plan were prepared on an expenditure basis. Amounts may therefore differ.

Analysis of forecasted and planned results

Planned spending in 2025-26 is expected to be lower than 2024-25 due to the additional costs associated with the implementation of new collective agreements in 2024-25. Spending in 2025-26 is expected to return to normal on-going funding levels. 

Parliamentary authorities

The OIC is financed by the Government of Canada through parliamentary authorities. Financial reporting of authorities provided to the OIC differs from financial reporting according to generally accepted accounting principles because authorities are based mainly on cash flow requirements. Items recognized in the Future-Oriented Statement of Operations in one year may be funded through parliamentary authorities in prior, current, or future years. Accordingly, the OIC has different net cost of operations for the year on a government funding basis than on an accrual accounting basis. The differences are reconciled in the following table.

Table 9: Reconciliation of net costs of operations to authorities forecast

Table 9 shows a reconciliation of the net cost of operations before government funding and transfers from the future-oriented condensed statement of operations to the authorities forecast.

Human resources

This section presents an overview of the department’s actual and planned human resources from 2022-23 to 2027-28. 

Table 10: Actual human resources for core responsibilities and internal services

Table 10 shows a summary of human resources, in full-time equivalents, for the OIC’s core responsibilities and for its internal services for the previous three fiscal years. Human resources for the current fiscal year are forecasted based on year to date. 

Analysis of human resources over the last three years

The decrease in actual FTEs in 2023–2024 was due to several departures in the year which resulted in

positions being vacant until a staffing action was completed. As of April 1, 2024, 98% of positions

were staffed.

Table 11: Human resources planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services

Table 11 shows information on human resources, in full-time equivalents, for each of the OIC’s core responsibilities and for its internal services planned for the next three years.

Analysis of human resources for the next three years

The OIC had originally planned for 129 FTEs for the next three years. Due to the unanticipated structural

deficit, resulting from the cost of covering unfunded salary increases under new collective agreements,the planned FTEs have been reduced to 124 FTEs.

Departmental contact information

Mailing address:
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
Telephone: 819-994-8181

Email: france.labine@ci-oic.gc.ca

Website(s): http://www.oic-ci.gc.ca/

Supplementary information tables

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

• Gender‑based analysis plus

Information on the OIC’s departmental sustainable development strategy can be found on OIC’s website.

Federal tax expenditures

The OIC’s Departmental Plan does not include information on 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.

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.

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, departments 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 3year period. Departmental Plans are usually tabled in Parliament each spring.

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.

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 Plus) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS Plus])

Is an analytical tool used to support the development of responsive and inclusive policies, programs, and other initiatives. GBA Plus is a process for understanding who is impacted by the issue or opportunity being addressed by the initiative; identifying how the initiative could be tailored to meet diverse needs of the people most impacted; and anticipating and mitigating any barriers to accessing or benefitting from the initiative. GBA Plus is an intersectional analysis that goes beyond biological (sex) and socio-cultural (gender) differences to consider other factors, such as age, disability, education, ethnicity, economic status, geography (including rurality), language, race, religion, and sexual orientation.

Using GBA Plus involves taking a gender- and diversity-sensitive approach to our work. Considering all intersecting identity factors as part of GBA Plus, not only sex and gender, is a Government of Canada commitment.

government priorities (priorités gouvernementales)

For the purpose of the 2025-26 Departmental Plan, government priorities are the high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the November 23, 2021, Speech from the Throne: building a healthier today and tomorrow; growing a more resilient economy; bolder climate action; fight harder for safer communities; standing up for diversity and inclusion; moving faster on the path to reconciliation; and fighting for a secure, just and equitable world.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

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

Indigenous business (entreprise autochtones)

For the purpose of the Directive on the Management of Procurement Appendix E: Mandatory Procedures for Contracts Awarded to Indigenous Businesses and the Government of Canada’s commitment that a mandatory minimum target of 5% of the total value of contracts is awarded to Indigenous businesses, a department that meets the definition and requirements as defined by the Indigenous Business Directory. 

non‑budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)

Non-budgetary authorities that comprise assets and liabilities transactions for loans, investments and advances, or specified purpose accounts, that have been established under specific statutes or under non-statutory authorities in the Estimates and elsewhere. Non-budgetary transactions are those expenditures and receipts related to the government's financial claims on, and obligations to, outside parties. These consist of transactions in loans, investments and advances; in cash and accounts receivable; in public money received or collected for specified purposes; and in all other assets and liabilities. Other assets and liabilities, not specifically defined in G to P authority codes are to be recorded to an R authority code, which is the residual authority code for all other assets and liabilities.

performance (rendement)

What a department did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the department 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 a department, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.

plan (plan)

The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how a department 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 a department, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single department, policy, program or initiative; instead they are within the area of the department’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 a department, 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.

Supplementary Information Tables:
2025-26 Departmental Plan

Gender-based analysis plus

Section 1: institutional GBA Plus governance and capacity

Governance

The OIC’s implementation of the GBA+ is supported by a strong organizational governance structure. The structure provides for direct reporting from the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee to the organizational head. The OIC covers full spectrum of GBA+ categories, and does not have a specific target group.

Capacity

The OIC will further strengthen organizational measures rooted in the GBA Plus framework, with a strategic focus on enhancing mental health support, accommodation practices, and fostering a deeply inclusive culture. These efforts are directly informed by recent employee survey insights, ensuring that initiatives are responsive to staff needs and conducive to a supportive workplace environment.

Section 2: Gender and diversity impacts, by program

Core responsibility: Government Transparency

Program name: Canadians receive timely resolution of complaints on how federal institutions process access to information requests.

Program goals: By giving Canadian’s access to information about government activities and decisions, the OIC has the potential to help the government meet all of the goals in its Gender Results Framework. As complainants remain anonymous, the privacy requirements hamper GBA+ data collection efforts to some extent, however, they ensure equal treatment and prevent discrimination in any form.