Law Commission of Canada’s 2024-25 Departmental results report

At a glance

This departmental results report details the Law Commission of Canada’s actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results outlined in its 2024–25 Departmental Plan.

• Vision, mission, raison d’être and operating context

Key priorities

The Law Commission of Canada identified the following key priorities for 2024-25:

• Developing and implementing a relevant and innovative research agenda that reflects current and emerging issues in law;
• Ensuring effective consultation and accessible information for relevant stakeholders in Canadian society;
• Establishing collaborative networks through productive partnerships with public and private organizations;
• Including and integrating approaches and sources across legal traditions, jurisdictions, and systems;
• Offering informed analysis and high quality recommendations that are timely and comprehensive.

Highlights for the Law Commission of Canada in 2024-25

• Total actual spending (including internal services): $4,040,229
• Total full-time equivalent staff (including internal services): 11

For complete information on the Law Commission of Canada’s total spending and human resources, read the Spending and human resources section of its full departmental results report.

Summary of results

The following provides a summary of the results the department achieved in 2024-25 under its main areas of activity, called “core responsibilities.”

Core responsibility 1: Law Review
Actual spending: $1,533,101
Actual full-time equivalent staff: 7

In 2024-25 the LCC worked diligently to advance its mandate through the commissioning, development and publication of 24 products and by engaging in-person with over 2,000 individuals in addition to social media outreach. This quantitative data is usefully supplemented with qualitative accounts of LCC activities set out in the Commission’s Annual Report and on its website.

For more information on the Law Commission of Canada’s Law Review read the ‘Results – what we achieved” section of its departmental results report.

From the President

The LCC’s work and accomplishments in this reporting year are the result of a combination of consultation, collaboration, development of research pathways and public engagement:

• Consultation with individuals and institutions from the spheres of legal practice, the judiciary, universities, public legal education, access to justice, community work, and policymaking (for example, Listen and Learn events across eight provinces and a wide range of Focus Circles linked to ongoing research projects).
• Collaboration with partners, stakeholders, and organizations interested in law and justice, including multi-pronged engagement with scholars and communities working on revitalization of Indigenous legal orders (for example, creation of the Law Commission of Canada – Canadian Bar Association Journalism Fellowship, establishment of a Law Commission of Canada Emerging Scholars program, and the launch of a program of support for law and justice conferences across Canada).
• Design of research-based pathways and projects characterized by outstanding quality, meaningful long-term impact, and ambitious scope, and developed with the contributions of “LCC Associates” (university scholars and legal practitioners acting as project advisors and report authors). These include publication of Recall to Reimagine: (Re)Creating the Law Commission of Canada, the development and launch of a first major collaborative project in Charity and Canadian Law, and the development and initiation of a Prison Law in Canada research series.
• Public engagement and community outreach as elements of all research-based projects (launch of Beyond Tomorrow Reports addressing law for Canada’s next generations), and as central to enriching general understanding of law’s complexity and human impact (creation of the LCC Obiter podcast aimed at the Canadian public; monthly “Letters from the President” distributed to a wide network of readers).

In addition, the 2024-2025 year included the following achievements and highlights. Two appointments were made through a process steered by the Privy Council such that the full complement of the Commission (President plus four part-time Commissioners) was reached by September 2024. Members of the inaugural Advisory Council of the Law Commission of Canada were formally appointed in June of 2024 and came together for their first semi-annual virtual meetings (spring and fall). The LCC’s website was launched, a summer student program was established, and regular What We Heard reports were created and disseminated. Across its projects and programs, the Commission committed to ensuring promise and potential for conversations and connections with Indigenous individuals, communities and organizations immersed in the evolution of rules, practices and systems. Finally, in February 2025, the Commission moved into appropriate and accessible permanent office space in downtown Ottawa.

For more details, readers are referred to the Law Commission of Canada’s Annual Report for the 2024-2025 year.

Young, small, and energized, the Law Commission of Canada has built solid foundations in this past year and looks forward with confidence to establishing a strong and sustainable place in Canada’s law and justice landscape. Less than four years ago, Parliament voted to re-establish the Commission based on the need for an independent, research-based, public-engaging agency dedicated to rule of law and justice issues for Canadians. Today, as we report on the 2024-2025 year, that need is perhaps even more evident.

Results – what we achieved

Core responsibilities and internal services

• Core responsibility 1: Law Review
• Internal Services

Core responsibility: Law Review

Description

Study and review the law of Canada and its effects to provide independent advice on improvements and reform to ensure a just legal system that meets the changing needs of Canadian society.

Quality of life impacts

This core responsibility contributes to the "Good Governance" domain of the Quality of Life Framework for Canada, and more specifically, "Confidence in institutions" through all the activities mentioned in the core responsibility description.

Progress on results

This section details the department’s performance against its targets for each departmental result under Core responsibility 1: Law Review.

Table [1]: To provide the people of Canada with independent leadership on contemporary issues in law and meaningful contributions to law reform projects.

Table [1] shows the target, the date to achieve the target and the actual result for each indicator under: [To provide the people of Canada with independent leadership on contemporary issues in law and meaningful contributions to law reform projects] in the last three fiscal years.

Departmental Result Indicator

Departmental Result Indicator	Target	Date to achieve target	Actual Result
Quality of a range of products developed to improve responsiveness, efficiency and accessibility of law and legal systems in Canada.	TBD	TBD	2022–23: N/A 2023–24: N/A 2024–25: N/A

Table [2]: The people of Canada have access to an open, independent forum about law and its operation throughout Canadian society.

Table [2] shows the target, the date to achieve the target and actual result for each indicator under:

[The people of Canada have access to an open, independent forum about law and its operation throughout Canadian society] in the last three fiscal years.

Departmental Result Indicator

Departmental Result Indicator	Target	Date to achieve target	Actual Result
Number of outreach activities with individuals, communities, and organisations responsible for or interested in law-related research, education, practice, and policy.	TBD	TBD	2022–23: N/A 2023–24: N/A 2024–25: N/A

The Results section of the Infographic for the Law Commission of Canada on GC Infobase page provides additional information on results and performance related to its program inventory.

Details on results

The following section describes the results for Law Review in 2024–25 compared with the planned results set out in the Law Commission of Canada’s departmental plan for the year.

In its 2024-2025 Departmental Plan, the Law Commission of Canada (the “LCC”) described “Core Responsibility 1: Law Review” as the “study and review of the law of Canada and its effects to provide independent advice on improvements and reform to ensure a just legal system that meets the changing needs of Canadian society.” Two elements in particular have been identified as key results allowing the LCC to meet this responsibility, namely, (1) providing Canadians with independent leadership on contemporary issues and contributing to law reform projects and (2) ensuring Canadians have access to an open and independent forum about law and its operation.

The LCC measures its progress with respect to leadership on contemporary issues and law reform projects by the quality and number of the products developed during the last reporting period. In 2024-2025, and as set out further in its Annual Report, the LCC has:

• Commissioned 15 research papers for the Charity and Law in Canada Project
• Commissioned 4 reports for the Prison Law in Canada Project
• Commissioned 1 report for the Beyond Tomorrow Reports initiative
• Released 3 episodes of the Obiter podcast

In addition, the LCC published “Recall to Reimagine: (Re)Creating the Law Commission of Canada”, a foundational discussion paper that reviews past law reform efforts at the federal level in Canada and sets out the guiding principles and purposes of the recreated Law Commission of Canada.

The LCC measures its results in terms of providing an open and accessible forum by reviewing the number and diversity of engagement activities with Canadians (and others). In 2024-2025, the LCC met with representatives of 90 organizations of which 11 were international. The LCC met with seven provincial law reform agencies, organized 12 “Listen and Learn” roundtables and 17 research-related dialogue sessions in 8 provinces and 11 cities and presented at 11 events across the country. The LCC partnered with the Canadian Bar Association to launch a Law and Journalism fellowship. Finally, the LCC provided financial support to 11 conferences. The LCC participated in 133 outreach activities during the reporting period reaching an estimated 2000 individuals directly and many more through social media and its website.

Since the Commission commenced operations in June 2023, the sequencing of procedures meant that the Commission’s initial Departmental Results Framework was approved in time only for the 2024-25 Departmental Plan. As a result, there are no departmental results or targets for the 2024-25 Departmental Results Report; however, reporting and analysis on spending, funding and human resources can be found throughout this report.

Key risks

In its 2024-25 Departmental Plan, the LCC identified increasing costs related to travel and engagement with stakeholders as a potential risk to meeting its responsibilities under its mandate. While travel costs continue to be a significant element in the LCC budget, travel costs during the 2024-25 reporting period did not exceed amounts budgeted and so the risk presented by these costs did not materialize. The LCC is committed to listening and learning from communities across Canada and while virtual meetings were used when necessary, they were not appropriate for all engagement activity. The LCC continues to exercise restraint and due diligence in the spending of public funds with respect to engagement activities and carefully considers how best to leverage travel in order to reach the most people and achieve the most impact for each dollar spent.

Resources required to achieve results

Table [3]: Snapshot of resources required for Law Review

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

Resource	Planned	Actual
Spending	2,645,894	1,533,101
Full-time equivalents	13	7

The Finances section of the Infographic for the Law Commission of Canada on GC Infobase page and the People section of the Infographic for the Law Commission of Canada on GC Infobase page provide complete financial and human resources information related to its program inventory.

Program inventory

Law Review is supported by the following programs:

• Law Review

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

Internal services

Description

Internal services refer to the activities and resources that support a department in its work to meet its corporate obligations and deliver its programs. The 10 categories of internal services are:

• Management and Oversight Services
• Communications Services
• Legal Services
• Human Resources Management
• Financial Management
• Information Management
• Information Technology
• Real Property
• Materiel
• Acquisitions

Progress on results

This section presents details on how the department performed to achieve results and meet targets for internal services. The Commission functions as a micro-organization and in 2024-25, the Commission continued building on its mandate. The Commission continued to focus on developing a cost-effective administration through making value for money decisions relating to professional services and travel expenditures amongst other expenditure items, while concurrently fulfilling the mandate of the Commission.

As a micro-organization, some of the internal services for the Commission were supplemented through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Justice allowing the Commission to preserve its independence and avoid redundant personnel cost while remaining committed to fulfilling its corporate responsibilities as stipulated by legislation for an independent federal organization.

In addition, during the 2024-25 fiscal year, the Commission moved into its permanent office space in downtown Ottawa. This was a significant and necessary accommodations project that was successfully completed both on time and under budget (approximately 30% lower than the initial projected costs). This new space reflects and supports the Commission’s approach to the evolution of law and incorporates areas for conversations and collaboration.

Resources required to achieve results

Table [4]: Resources required to achieve results for internal services this year

Table [4] provides a summary of the planned and actual spending and full-time equivalents required to achieve results.

Resource	Planned	Actual
Spending	1,229,701	2,507,128
Full-time equivalents	5	4

The Finances section of the Infographic for the Law Commission of Canada on GC Infobase and the People section of the Infographic for the Law Commission of Canada GC Infobase provide complete financial and human resources information related to its program inventory.

Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

Government of Canada departments are required to award at least 5% of the total value of contracts to Indigenous businesses every year.

Law Commission of Canada results for 2024-25:

Table [5]: Total value of contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses¹

As shown in Table [5], the Law Commission of Canada awarded 0% of the total value of all contracts to Indigenous businesses for the fiscal year.

Contracting performance indicators	2024-25 Results
Total value of contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses (A) Footnote 1	$0
Total value of contracts awarded to Indigenous and non‑Indigenous businesses (B)Footnote 2	$285,230
Value of exceptions approved by deputy head (C)	$0
Proportion of contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses [A / (B−C) × 100]	0%

In its 2025–26 Departmental Plan, the Law Commission of Canada estimated that it would award 5% of the total value of its contracts to Indigenous businesses by the end of 2024–25.

The majority of the Law Commission of Canada’s contracting activity is with academic authors for the provision of legal research and writing as well as for conference support. While several of those authors identify as Indigenous, they are not “Indigenous businesses” for the purpose of this reporting exercise. Similarly, several conferences were supported by the Law Commission that were either organized by people identifying as Indigenous or engaged with topics relevant to Indigenous people and communities. The Commission carries out very little contracting for its business or internal services needs, and in relatively small amounts, but commits to working towards the 5% target for the next fiscal reporting period.

Spending and human resources

Spending

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

Refocusing Government Spending

In Budget 2023, the government committed to reducing spending by $14.1 billion over five years, starting in 2023–24, and by $4.1 billion annually after that.

While not officially part of this spending reduction commitment, the Law Commission of Canada demonstrated respect for the spirit of the exercise by undertaking the following measures in 2024-25:

• The Commission continued to focus on developing a cost-effective administration;
• Making cost-effective decisions relating to professional services and travel expenditures while fulfilling the mandate of the Commission;
• As the Commission moved into its permanent office location, every effort was utilized to ensure savings were realized whenever possible – with costs for the new office coming in less than initially forecasted.

Budgetary performance summary

Table [6]: Actual three-year spending on core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)

Table [6] shows the money that the Law Commission of Canada spent in each of the past three years on its core responsibilities and on internal services.

Core responsibilities and internal services	2024–25 Main Estimates	2024–25 total authorities available for use	Actual spending over three years (authorities used)
Law Review	2,645,894	2,645,894	2022–23: 0 2023–24: 852,302 2024–25: 1,533,101
Subtotal	2,645,894	2,645,894	2022–23: 0 2023–24: 852,302 2024–25: 1,533,101
Internal services	1,229,701	2,226,130	2022–23: 0 2023–24: 933,845 2024–25: 2,507,128
Total	3,875,595	4,872,024	2022-23: 0 2023-24: 1,786,147 2024-25: 4,040,229

Human resources

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

Table [11]: Actual human resources for core responsibilities and internal services

Table [11] shows a summary in full-time equivalents of human resources for the Law Commission of Canada’s core responsibilities and for its internal services for the previous three fiscal years.

Core responsibilities and internal services	2022–23 actual full-time equivalents	2023–24 actual full-time equivalents	2024–25 actual full-time equivalents
Law Review	0	4	7
Subtotal	0	4	7
Internal services	0	3	4
Total	0	7	11

Table [12]: Human resources planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services

Table [12] shows the planned full-time equivalents for each of the Law Commission of Canada’s core responsibilities and for its internal services for the next three years. Human resources for the current fiscal year are forecast based on year to date.

Core responsibilities and internal services	2025–26 planned full-time equivalents	2026–27 planned full-time equivalents	2027–28 planned full-time equivalents
Law Review	13	13	13
Subtotal	13	13	13
Internal services	5	5	5
Total	18	18	18

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. 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.

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on the Law Commission of Canada’s website:

Gender‑based analysis plus