Military Grievances External Review Committee 2024-25 Departmental plan

Erratum

The explanation to table 5, located under Table 5: Budgetary planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services (dollars) has been corrected so that all amounts listed in the explanatory note are in thousands and not millions.

On this page

• From the Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer
• Plans to deliver on core responsibilities and internal services
  • Independent review of military grievances
  • 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 Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer

An organization is only as good as its diverse group of people. With significant hiring having already taken place and the expectation that a new Chairperson and new full-time Vice-Chairperson will be in place in shortly, training will be a significant endeavour this fiscal year. Retention remains just as important, especially for a micro-organization. To that end, senior management is committed to offering professional development opportunities and to ensuring the health and well-being of their people. This demands a definitive engagement plan that utilizes information sharing, events, consultation and much more.

The Clerk of the Privy Council’s Call to Action on Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion in the Federal Public Service asks Government of Canada organizations to do better. The Committee will continue to respond by developing concrete actions that will address accessibility and potential biases, and that will both promote and uphold inclusion.

Effectiveness and efficiency are two words said time and time again and with good reason. How we do our work and what we accomplish impacts greatly on our credibility. As such, the Committee will look to reviewing the template and writing principles it uses in drafting its Findings and Recommendations (F&R) reports to ensure clarity and ease of understanding.  Also, it will continue to further optimize its in-house case management system. We will complete our migration to the cloud and continue optimizing both our physical environment and the use of digital tools to support innovation, collaboration and excellence.

This year, perhaps more than in recent years, the Committee is sensitive to what people understand about our independent and impartial role within the Canadian Armed Forces Grievance System (CAFGS) and to the value that we add to the CAFGS by providing expert analysis and enhancing its credibility. As such, our website content and layout will be updated on a regular basis. Equally important is ensuring our partners and collaborators, specifically the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), understand the mandate, raison d’etre, mission, and vision of the Committee. Getting back to targeted face-to-face outreach will be a priority.

Finally, the Committee will seize the opportunity to review its departmental indicators. The rhetorical question most often ruminating in our hallways is “Are we measuring the right things and how does that feed into continuous improvement?” There may be no better time to reflect on the response than with a new Chairperson at the helm.

So it seems that 2024-25 has the makings of a vigorous yet reflective year. Anything is possible with the dedicated team of Committee Members and employees that make up this organization. Our resolutions are clear, our path determined, and our spirit ready.

(original signed by)

Vihar Joshi, OMM, MSM, K.C., CD, LSM, CIC.C
Interim Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer

Plans to deliver on core responsibilities and internal services

Core responsibilities and internal services:

• Independent review of military grievances
• Internal services

Independent review of military grievances

Description

The National Defence Act, Section 29.2 (1) and (2), requires the Military Grievances External Review Committee to review every grievance referred to it by the Final Authority (FA) and to provide Findings and Recommendations in writing to the FA and the officer or non-commissioned member who submitted the grievance.

Quality of life impacts

This core responsibility contributes to the “Good Governance” domain of the Quality of Life Framework for Canada, and more specifically, under the following Justice and human rights indicators: “Discrimination and unfair treatment” and “Access to fair and equal justice.” Indeed, the Committee concretely contributes by conducting an independent review of every grievance referred to it and by providing quality F&R reports to the FA and the CAF member who submitted the grievance. 

Results and targets

The following tables show, for each departmental result related to the Independent reveiw of military grievances, the indicators, the results from the three most recently reported fiscal years, the targets and target dates approved in 2024–25.

Table 1: Indicators, results and targets for departmental result

Findings and Recommendations on all referred military grievances are provided in a timely manner

Table 2: Indicators, results and targets for departmental result

The Committee provides Findings and Recommendations to the Final Authority (FA) that are clear, complete, and useful in the military grievances decision-making process.

The financial, human resources and performance information for the Military Grievances External Review Committee's program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Plans to achieve results

The Operations Team's (Ops) ultimate function is to review grievances referred to it by the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) as expeditiously and informally as is possible. This is the Committee's core business.

The focus in 2023-24 was hiring additional grievance officers and team leaders, as well as supporting the launch of the appointments for a new Chairperson and full-time Vice-Chairperson. The Committee completed its significant hiring and expects to have new leadership at the helm in early 2024. The next fiscal year brings its new goads and challenges.

First, training new leaders and employees will be essential. The goal is to continue providing training in the last quarter of 2023-24 so that all the grievance teams will be operational in 2024-25. After all, the additional hiring, made possible by additional temporary funding, served one purpose: amplify the Committee’s ability to deal with its existing caseload and effectively manage the volume of incoming referrals. With the collaboration of the CAF, the Committee was able to secure additional funding from the Department of National Defence (DND) for the next three years. This funding will enable the Committee to increase its capacity to produce F&R reports and ultimately reduce its backlog of files. The aim is for the Committee to be positioned in 2024-25 to again review a high volume of grievance files thoroughly and comprehensively. Fortuitously, the Committee was able to attract people with CAF and grievance experience, which will ultimately stand in good stead as we launch into 2024-25.

Second, the Committee will work on enhancing the reader’s experience of our F&R reports and making improvements to our in-house case management system. Our F&R reports represent the Committee’s thorough analysis and evidence-based recommendations on each grievance referred to us. Implementing a shift to plain, inclusive language and exploring a structure that pinpoints the issues with greater clarity to guide the CDS in their decision-making and providing a better understanding of the issues for the grievors is the Committee fulfilling its mandate and responding to Government of Canada priorities. Meanwhile, the search function of our case management system is in need of optimization so that searching for information is simple. This involves adapting the tools to meet the  needs of the grievance review teams.

Third, Ops will augment its outreach efforts. The last fiscal year brought to light the evident misconceptions or fragmented understanding of the Committee and what it does. Questions about our independence and impartiality, our internal grievance review process, and our role in the CAF grievance review process seem to have arisen. While we engage regularly with DND and the CAF as required, a more concerted effort to inform and secure a common understanding of our organization will be undertaken.

Finally, the intention is to re-assess our performance indicators included in our Departmental Results Framework and determine if we are measuring the right things. Any change to our performance indicators will also have an impact on how we assess performance and so this too will have to be examined more closely. It would seem the arrival of a new Chairperson may be the moment to have this fulsome discussion. The time might be ripe, perhaps, to address the questions that we at the Committee ask ourselves on a daily basis. 

Key risks

Retaining newly hired employees is a challenge for a micro-organization like the Committee, given the time and resources a fulsome onboarding process requires. That initial engagement period, which includes orientation, training, furnishing of proper equipment and tools and internal networking, is often the link that not only ensures their success within the organization but cements their place within it.

Working on change and improvements to systems, products and organizational indicators occupies a significant amount of capacity in several employees. It takes more than one person away from their regular duties, so to speak. Add on the training required to bring the entire team up to speed on the improvements and, all of a sudden, the Committee may not be able to review as many grievances and issue as many F&R reports. Maintaining high productivity while implementing changes is crucial and so the Committee balance these two objectives with caution. Any potential impact could be countered by the fact that there is an additional grievance team on board and by harnessing the advantages subject-matter experts bring to the grievance review process. 

Related government priorities

Program inventory

The independent review of military grievances is supported by the following program:

• Independent review of military grievances

Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to the Military Grievances External Review Committee's program inventory is available on GC Infobase.

Internal services

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 10 categories of internal services:

• management and oversight services
• communications services
• legal 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 2024-25, Internal Services will continue building on effectiveness, efficiencies and well-being by diving deeper into its three pillars: the people, the work and workspace, and the Committee’s reach. In order to advance past year achievements, the following activities will be the priority.

Recruitment, retention, accessibility and well-being

Recruiting based on need is standard practice, however, where and how you recruit has evolved over the last few years and the Committee will target functional communities and take advantage of established online spaces, such as LinkedIn, to discover new talent. Retaining talent is equally important. As such, learning opportunities and offering professional development, which is challenging for a micro-organization, to employees looking for growth or change will continue in the next fiscal year. The work to create a barrier-free workplace and services while identifying and removing potential biases will carry on. Lastly, the Committee will continue to invest in wellness. Ensuring that employees work in a healthy, respectful, and supportive environment is a must and all efforts to preserve and sustain the mental health and well-being of our staff is perhaps the most significant priority for senior management.

Effectiveness and security

First and foremost, as the result of a professional analysis, the Committee will implement an improved governance structure that clearly defines the organization's responsibilities and relationships to augment employee satisfaction. The Committee will continue its work on a safe, open-concept workplace that encourages knowledge sharing, innovation and creativity, as well as continue to modernize its library of work tools. This includes financial systems and processes, specifically workflow implementation for electronic authorization within the financial system. In the digital age and telework environment, security must be a priority. The Committee will have already tested the efficacy of its business continuity plan in 2023-24 and implement results and findings in 2024-25. The Committee will also complete its four-year plan of migrating to the cloud. The goal continues to be improving policies and procedures related to both physical and information security. 

Engagement and outreach

The benefits of employee engagement can not be understated. The Committee is dedicated to further enriching its internal communications plan with an end goal of motivating and staying closely connected with its employees. This includes a revamped intranet as well as meaningful events, blogging, polling, and regular town halls. The external website will continue to be updated with new content while its information architecture will be revised to better respond to user’s needs. Even for a micro-organization, outreach is required. As such, efforts to improve stakeholder awareness and understanding of the Committee’s work will be pursued.

Related government priorities

Planning for contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

In the spirit of economic reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, the Government of Canada established a mandatory minimum target of at least 5% of the value of federal contracts to be awarded to businesses owned and led by Indigenous peoples. As per the schedule prescribed by Indigenous Services Canada, the Committee is part of Phase 3, where it is required to meet the mandatory minimum target of 5% of its total contracts to Indigenous businesses annually by 2024-25.

The Committee will do its part in supporting the Indigenous community and has already adjusted its internal processes and procurement plan. A target of 5% has been set within the organization for fiscal year 2024-25.

Table 3: Planning for contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

The following table shows how the department plans to achieve awarding at least 5% of the total value of contracts to Indigenous businesses annually.

Planned spending and human resources

This section provides an overview of the Military Grievances External Review Committee’s planned spending and human resources for the next three fiscal years and compares planned spending for 2024–25 with actual spending from previous years.

Spending

Table 4: Actual spending summary for core responsibilities and internal services ($ dollars) 

The following table shows information on spending for each of the Military Grievances External Review Committee’s core responsibilities and for its internal services for the previous three fiscal years. Amounts for the current fiscal year are forecasted based on spending to date.

Table 5: Budgetary planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)

The following table shows information on spending for each of the Military Grievances External Review Committee’s core responsibilities and for its internal services for the upcoming three fiscal years.

Funding

Figure 1: Departmental spending 2021–22 to 2026–27

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

Estimates by vote

Information on the Military Grievances External Review Committee’s organizational appropriations is available in the 2024–25 Main Estimates.

Future-oriented condensed statement of operations

The future-oriented condensed statement of operations provides an overview of the Military Grievances External Review Committee’s operations for 2023–24 to 2024–25.

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.

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

Table 6: Future-oriented condensed statement of operations for the year ending March 31, 2025 (dollars)

Human resources

Table 7: Actual human resources for core responsibilities and internal services

The following table shows a summary of human resources, in full-time equivalents (FTEs), for the Military Grievances External Review Committee ’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.  

Table 8: Human resources planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services

The following table shows information on human resources, in FTEs, for each of the Military Grievances External Review Committee ’s core responsibilities and for its internal services planned for 2024–25 and future years.

Corporate information

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on the Military Grievances External Review Committee’s website:

• Gender-based analysis plus

Information on the Military Grievances External Review Committee’s departmental sustainable development strategy can be found on the Committee’s website.

Federal tax expenditures

The Military Grievances External Review Committee’s Departmental Plan does not include information on tax expenditures.

Tax expenditures are the responsibility of the Minister of Finance. 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 plus.

Definitions