National Film Board of Canada – 2020–2021 – Departmental Plan

The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, P.C., M.P.

Minister of Canadian Heritage

© National Film Board of Canada, 2020

Cat. No. NF1-4E-PDF

ISSN 2371-6479

From the Minister

From the Commissioner's

Plans at a glance

Produce works that reflect original perspectives on Canadian realities while building a strong bond with the Canadian public

• Maintain the NFB’s leadership in innovation by exploring new narrative forms and formats and experimenting with new technologies.
• Continue to nurture talent by providing support for emerging filmmakers.
• Intensify strategic partnerships to support production and engage audiences.

Reach larger audiences and broaden access to NFB productions

• Continue to develop online audiences across a variety of digital and social media platforms and increase the NFB’s interaction with them.
• Attract members of the public to the new NFB Public Space located on the ground floor of its headquarters in Montreal and facilitate encounters between them and NFB creators.
• Launch a new educational platform and new online digital-learning programs.

Implement the NFB's new technology plan

• Submit the NFB’s new five-year technology plan.
• Lay the technological foundations and plan the development phases of the next generation of NFB digital platforms.
• Experiment with audiovisual collaboration tools in production and post-production.

Ensure that the NFB reflects the richness and diversity of Canada

• Uphold the NFB’s commitments to gender parity and renewed relationships with Indigenous peoples.
• Implement the 2020–2023 NFB strategy on official languages and its vision for diversity and inclusion.

Leverage the collective strength of the NFB

• Continue implementing the new organizational structure and the governance structure adapted to this new reality.
• Implement the recommendations made by an internal committee for optimizing processes and increasing employee productivity and autonomy.
• Roll out the talent-management-strategy activities.

Finalize the move of NFB headquarters and the conservation room

• Complete the process of relocating the NFB’s headquarters and the conservation room.
• Improve the security of the NFB’s technology infrastructure and apply new measures to ensure the safety of employees and the integrity of the NFB’s new office.

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

Core responsibilities: planned results and resources, and key risks

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

Audiovisual Programming and Production

Description

The National Film Board’s mandate is to create relevant and innovative audiovisual content that interprets Canada and its diversity to Canadians and people around the world. The National Film Board works with filmmakers and artists from every region of Canada to produce exceptional documentaries, animated films, and interactive/immersive works rooted in Canadian experiences and realities. The National Film Board has long been a champion of technological and film innovation, both nationally and internationally. The National Film Board seeks to reflect the perspectives and experiences of communities that are systematically under-represented in the media and to develop innovative new storytelling forms and approaches.

Planning highlights

Produce works that reflect original perspectives on Canadian realities while building a
strong bond with the Canadian public

From St. John’s to Vancouver, the NFB’s 10 production studios will work with talented artists to produce works that reflect and represent the various voices and cultures that make Canada what it is. The NFB will be releasing major projects in the coming year, such as Michelle Latimer’s feature documentary Inconvenient Indian, which takes viewers on a journey into the mind of Thomas King, one of Canada’s greatest Indigenous storytellers, and Jennifer Abbott’s The Magnitude of All Things, which explores the themes of grief and hope in a time of personal and planetary upheavals.

In the same spirit, the NFB will continue to nurture talent by providing support for emerging filmmakers. Thus, next year the NFB will be releasing Seuls à plusieurs by Audrey Nantel-Gagnon, a film produced through the NFB’s Repêchage initiative, in which students are selected to work together to produce their first professional film. In 2020–2021, the NFB will also be organizing the fourth edition of the Jeunes pousses interactive apprenticeship in collaboration with the UQAM. This program enables the NFB to add the perspectives of emerging filmmakers between the ages of 18 and 25 to its programming.

Maintain the NFB’s leadership in innovation 

The NFB will continue to innovate by exploring new narrative forms and formats to meet audience expectations. Far Away From Far Away, an interactive experience for mobile devices, by creative directors Bruce Alcock and Jeremy Mendes, combines elements of interactive storytelling and audio podcasting to offer a contemporary interpretation of the transformation of Fogo Island. This is the NFB’s most recent project with Fogo Island, and part of a commitment that dates back more than 50 years. Another interactive work, Agence, by Pietro Gagliano, explores the relationship between human beings and artificial intelligence.

Intensify strategic partnerships to support production and engage audiences

The year 2020–2021 will see many innovative partnerships that leverage new forms of storytelling and interacting with audiences. In partnership with Global Affairs Canada, the NFB will be presenting an immersive art installation entitled Traces at the Canada Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, a World Expo taking place from October 20, 2020, to April 10, 2021. By participating in this international event, the NFB will be carrying on its rich tradition of showcasing Canadian innovation in the audiovisual field. Designed by architectural firm Kanva in collaboration with artist Étienne Paquette, Traces is a meditation on how ecosystems are being altered by climate change. Another project, Virtual Parliament, produced in partnership with the Library of Parliament, will allow audiences to visit the main rooms of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill in virtual reality while the real Centre Block is being restored over the next 10 years. This work will be presented to the general public and in Canadian schools starting in 2020 and will have two components: an interactive application and an immersive experience for virtual reality (VR) headsets.

Lastly, Second souffle, the third work produced by the NFB in partnership with Espace pour la vie, will be in production in 2020–2021. This immersive interactive work, conceptualized by Mélanie Crespin and Alexandre Burton, will be presented starting in June at the Pathway to Phytotechnologies, an ambitious showcase project at the Montreal Botanical Garden.

Gender-based analysis plus (GBA+)

The NFB aims to give a voice to communities that are systematically under-represented in the media landscape, both in front of and behind the camera, such as women filmmakers, Indigenous peoples, official-language minority communities, ethnocultural communities, sexual minorities (LGBTQ2) and people living with disabilities. The NFB’s programming bears witness to Canadian diversity and contributes to the country’s social cohesion.

In recent years, the NFB has taken additional steps to support gender parity and official-language minority communities and to redefine its relationship with Indigenous peoples. Needless to say, GBA+ is an integral part of these efforts.

United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The NFB subscribes to the principles and goals of the United Nations’ Agenda for Sustainable Development. As a public producer and distributor, the NFB helps to promote social harmony in Canada. The goal of the institution is to give a voice to communities that are systematically under-represented in the media landscape and to deal with subjects that resonate strongly with Canadian society. As a public organization, the NFB also believes that, through its works, it can act as a catalyst for change and help with the pursuit of the common good and the wellbeing of society¹.

Over the past few years, the NFB has laid the foundations for new approaches and made firm commitments to put the spotlight on this country’s incredible diversity, promoting gender equity² and encouraging a broader range of perspectives. The NFB has also begun to redefine its relationship with Indigenous peoples by adopting an action plan containing 33 commitments based on best practices in production, distribution and organizational change³.

Lastly, the NFB has been a trustworthy resource for Canada’s educators for the past 80 years, and has been providing Canadian schools with audiovisual content in both official languages. Its media portal for the education sector, CAMPUS, gives educators from all regions across the country access to a rich collection of films, interactive productions and educational material that help promote media literacy and global citizenship⁴.

Experimentation

The NFB has long championed innovative storytelling by using new technologies and pushing the boundaries of narrative forms and filmmaking formats, often through experimentation and genre hybrids. In collaboration with the NFB’s research and development unit, its production teams are currently experimenting with the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence. They will continue to do so in 2020–2021, working, for example, with neural-network-assisted production methods to apply artistic styles to works and with algorithms that can enhance low-quality archival images.

Key risk(s)

The risk of lagging behind in terms of technological tools and systems is directly proportional to the speed with which today’s technologies evolve. If the NFB is to remain an environment that’s conducive to innovation, then a flexible, modern infrastructure is required, one that can support emerging methods of production and distribution (e.g., 4K, high dynamic-range imaging [HDR], virtual reality, etc.). One of the ways that the NFB will manage this risk is by implementing its new 2020–2025 Technology Plan. The purpose of this plan is to renew the NFB’s audiovisual-technology infrastructure to support innovation, develop Canadian creators’ expertise in the technologies used in the industry, and ensure the distribution of the NFB’s works through the various existing channels.

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

Main estimates and planned spending for 2020–2021 include adjustments of $2.7 million for statutory salary revisions as confirmed in the Annual Reference Level Update. Fiscal 2020–2021 also includes a reduction of $1.2 million to repay funds advanced for the relocation of the NFB’s headquarters in Montreal. This amount of $1.2 million will be deducted every year for 12 years, for a total repayment amount of $14.4 million.

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

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

Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement

Description

The National Film Board strives to ensure that Canadians from all regions have access to its works across a range of formats. Understanding audiences and their consumption habits, making content available on a variety of platforms, and calling attention to National Film Board productions are thus intrinsic to the organization’s mandate. The National Film Board has a rich collection of over 13,000 titles that constitutes an essential component of Canada’s cultural heritage. Preserving these works for the enjoyment of Canadians and people around the world, both today and in the future, falls under the mandate conferred to the National Film Board under the National Film Act.

Planning highlights

Reaching larger audiences and broadening access to NFB productions

In order to better engage with audiences in Canada and around the world, the NFB must continually adapt to viewers’ changing content-consumption habits while ensuring its works are more easily and rapidly available online. The NFB’s upcoming strategic plan, which will be launched in 2020–2021, will reiterate how important it is for the institution to adopt innovative distribution and marketing activities in order to broaden the accessibility of it works, attract larger audiences and interact with them more meaningfully.

In 2020–2021, the NFB will focus on continuing to develop online audiences across a variety of digital and social media platforms and increasing its interaction with them. It will also maintain its presence at festivals, industry events and public screenings and other outlets, partnering with many communities to promote its films and reach a wide segment of the population.

The NFB’s renewed engagement strategy also includes a plan to attract the public and facilitate encounters between them and NFB creators at our recently relocated headquarters in Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles. The NFB Public Space, situated on the ground floor of the building, will be ready to welcome visitors in the coming fiscal year. The scenography for this space will be implemented in 2020–2021, when the space becomes fully operational and ready for inauguration.

The NFB’s new educational offer

In the coming year, the NFB will gradually be rolling out a renewal of its digital platforms. A key highlight of this core responsibility will be the release of a new educational platform and content whose key components will be inquiry-based learning and NFB storytelling expertise. Two new online digital-learning programs will be launched in early 2020–2021: Media School/Digital Storytelling and The Learning Lodge Thematic Learning Program (formerly called Indigenous Voices and Reconciliation).

The NFB’s Educator Network, a community of practice created in 2019 and composed of 70 dynamic teachers from across Canada, will also continue to engage with NFB content, helping to shape its development and promote it within their networks and communities.

These educational resources are part of the strategic vision the NFB is implementing to ensure it continues to be a leader in the Education sector.

Conserving and preserving the NFB’s collection

In 2020–2021, the NFB will finish relocating the conservation room (“vaults”) that house the organization’s visual archives as well as its digitization and conservation operations. This primarily includes finalizing the installation of the NFB’s collection of audiovisual works in accordance with existing conservation standards and ensuring that the new state-of-the-art equipment is working. The digitization of the active collection was completed in time for the relocation of NFB headquarters and its conservation room. The NFB will be working on restoring the works in its inactive collection in 2020–2021 to ensure that they are preserved and available to future generations.

Gender-based analysis plus (GBA+)

At the NFB, the breadth and variety of our productions reflect the strengths and diversity of our teams. Created by artists and technicians who embody Canada’s diversity, including groups that are often under-represented, these works ensure that voices and stories from across the country get heard. This core responsibility was created to make Canadian content accessible and discoverable from anywhere in Canada, particularly in remote and/or underserved communities. In recent years, the NFB has adopted additional measures to support gender parity and minority-language communities as well as redefine its relationship with Indigenous peoples, in terms of both audiovisual production and distribution. GBA+, of course, is integral to these measures.

United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The NFB subscribes to the principles and goals of the United Nations’ Agenda for Sustainable Development. As a public producer and distributor, the NFB helps to promote social harmony in Canada. The goal of the institution is to give a voice to communities that are systematically under-represented in the media landscape and to deal with subjects that resonate strongly with Canadian society. As a public organization, the NFB also believes that, through its works, it can act as a catalyst for change and help with the pursuit of the common good and the wellbeing of society⁷.

Over the past few years, the NFB has laid the foundations for new approaches and made firm commitments to put the spotlight on this country’s incredible diversity, promoting gender equity⁸ and encouraging a broader range of perspectives. The NFB has also begun to redefine its relationship with Indigenous peoples by adopting an action plan containing 33 commitments based on best practices in production, distribution and organizational change⁹.

Lastly, the NFB has been a trustworthy resource for Canada’s educators for the past 80 years, and has been providing Canadian schools with audiovisual content in both official languages. Its media portal for the education sector, CAMPUS, gives educators from all regions across the country access to a rich collection of films, interactive productions and educational material that help promote media literacy and global citizenship¹⁰.

Experimentation

The NFB continually strives to find innovative ways to create and distribute its works, to better engage with Canadian audiences that are younger, more diverse, and more connected to the world. It must adapt to their changing consumption habits while ensuring its works are more easily and rapidly available online. A necessary step in this direction is the ongoing experimentation of new distribution and marketing strategies to attract larger audiences. For example, some films will be made available on online platforms in the shortest timeframe possible after their festival screenings or theatrical releases. The organisation’s upcoming strategic plan will support this approach.

Key risk(s)

The NFB’s Corporate Risk Profile¹¹ identifies the inability to reach audiences as a key risk affecting the implementation of this Core responsibility. The potential failure of NFB-produced content to find its audiences, the proliferation of distribution channels and availability of a near-infinite array of content are some of the challenges that affect the NFB’s ability to fulfil this objective. The NFB needs to adapt and innovate in terms of how it produces, promotes and makes content accessible to different audiences. As a mitigating measure, the NFB is pursuing audience-development initiatives across the country, backed by a distinctive and bold programming plan to boost the NFB’s presence on digital platforms are key to reaching more viewers.

Another measure to mitigate this risk and ensure the organization can operate in a fully digital ecosystem, is the completion in 2018-2019 of the digitization of the NFB’s active film collection

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

Main estimates and planned spending for 2020–2021 include adjustments of $2.7 million for statutory salary revisions as confirmed in the Annual Reference Level Update. Fiscal 2020–2021 also includes a reduction of $1.2 million to repay funds advanced for the relocation of the NFB’s headquarters in Montreal. This amount of $1.2 million will be deducted every year for 12 years, for a total repayment amount of $14.4 million.

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

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

Internal Services

Description

Internal Services are those groups of related activities and resources that the federal government considers to be services in support of Programs and/or required to meet corporate obligations of an organization. Internal Services refers to the activities and resources of the 10 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
• 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

Planning highlights

The NFB’s internal services support the organization’s two core responsibilities: audiovisual programming and production; and content accessibility and audience engagement. The year 2020–2021 will see the launch of the NFB’s new strategic plan, which will set out the NFB’s vision for the coming years. Here are the main priorities for the NFB’s internal services for 2020–2021.

Completing the moves of the NFB’s headquarters and its conservation room

The NFB has finished moving its headquarters to the Balmoral building and its conservation room to Cousens Street, and its employees will be able to complete the process of settling in during the 2020–2021 year. In order to adapt to the realities of its new headquarters in the heart of downtown Montreal, the NFB will be putting new measures in place to ensure the security of its staff and the integrity of its facilities. The NFB also plans to improve the security of its technology infrastructure by drawing on the measures recommended by the Canadian Centre for Cybersecurity and in the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. The NFB will also provide training and conduct an awareness campaign on the secure, appropriate use of its new systems.

Diversity and inclusion: values inscribed in the NFB’s DNA

In recent years, the NFB has taken concrete, measurable steps to meet its commitments to achieve gender parity, redefine its relationship with Indigenous peoples and support diversity and inclusion. The NFB wants to ensure that in the coming years these commitments become an integral part of its culture and its way of doing things. Accordingly, the NFB will be implementing its 2020–2023 strategy on official languages, comprising measures to apply parts IV, V, VI and VII of the Official Languages Act, along with its vision on diversity and inclusion, to better reflect Canadian reality. The NFB will also be taking steps to maintain its platinum-level Women in Governance¹² Parity Certification.

The NFB, an agent for change

The NFB has committed to reducing administrative barriers and leveraging the talents of its managers and employees. To do so, the NFB will continue to implement the new organizational structure that it announced in December 2019, as well as the governance mechanisms geared towards this new reality. The recommendations made by the Operation Reboot committee, whose goals are to optimize processes and enhance staff productivity and autonomy, will also be applied throughout the organization. In 2020–2021, the NFB will also begin deploying activities related to its talent-management strategy, a process that will be spread out over a few years.

The NFB is committed to promoting steps to help its employees balance their professional, personal and family commitments. To this end, the NFB has established a committee on quality of life and mental health in the workplace. In 2020–2021, the NFB will continue to carry out the recommendations that have been made to ensure uniformity and equity in the application and maintenance of management practices related to flexible work arrangements.

Technological innovation

In 2020–2021, the NFB will be taking active steps to implement its new Technology Plan, which has a five-year time horizon. The goal of this plan is to maintain a productive technological ecosystem by providing creators throughout Canada with a stimulating, innovative environment in which to work. One of the major projects will consist in laying the technological foundations and planning the development phases for the next generation of digital platforms for NFB.ca, NFB Archives, NFB Education and NFB Distribution. In addition, the NFB’s research and development team will do the experimenting needed to implement tools for collaboration in audiovisual production and post-production. These tools will be essential for enhancing synergy and strengthening collaborative relationships among the NFB’s partners, artists and experts throughout every stage of production of the audiovisual projects created across Canada.

Main estimates and planned spending for 2020–2021 include adjustments of $2.7 million for statutory salary revisions as confirmed in the Annual Reference Level Update. Fiscal 2020–2021 also includes a reduction of $1.2 million to repay funds advanced for the relocation of the NFB’s headquarters in Montreal. This amount of $1.2 million will be deducted every year for 12 years, for a total repayment amount of $14.4 million.

Spending and human resources

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

Planned spending

Departmental spending 2017–18 to 2022–23

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

The NFB received financing for the relocation of its headquarters in Montreal in the amount of $14.4 million, of which $7.4 million was received in 2018–2019 and $4.6 million was received in 2019–2020. The amount will be reimbursed via a reduction in the annual allocation to the NFB in the amount of $1.2 million every year for 12 years, starting in 2020–2021. The NFB also received funding to complete the migration of its financial and material resource management systems to the SAP platform ($1.8 million in 2017–2018 and $0.6M in 2018–2019 for a total of $2.4 million). Planned spending for 2020–2021 and upcoming years includes adjustments for statutory salary revisions as confirmed in the Annual Reference Level Update.

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

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

The NFB is estimating budgetary expenditures of $64.9 million in 2020–2021, to be approved by Parliament. In comparison with 2019–2020, planned spending has decreased by $3.5 million, the net result of:

• a decrease of $4.6 million related to funds spent on the headquarters’ move to the Quartier des Spectacles, which will be completed by March 31, 2020;
• a decrease of $1.2 million for the repayment of funds dedicated to the Montreal headquarters’ move. This annual decrease of $1.2 million per year for 12 years starting in 2020–2021 represents a total reimbursement of $14.4 million;
• an increase of $2.7 million related to the allocation for statutory salary revisions; and a decrease of $0.3 million related to the revision of rates for the Employee Benefit Plan (EBP).

The NFB is currently preparing its 2020–2023 Strategic Plan, which includes the continuity of its digitization efforts and the implementation of a technology-infrastructure investment plan.

Financing for the relocation of the NFB’s headquarters in Montreal amounted to $4.6 million in 2019–2020, $7.4 million in 2018–2019, $2 million in 2016–2017 and $400,000 in 2014–2015, for a total of $14.4 million. This amount will be reimbursed via a reduction to the NFB’s annual allocation in the amount of $1.2 million for 12 years, starting in 2020–2021.

In 2017–2018, funds in the amount of $3 million were allocated by Parliament to support audiovisual production, audience development, and digitization of the heritage collection. The NFB also received funding to complete the migration of its financial and material resource management systems to the SAP platform ($1.8 million in 2017–2018 and $0.6M in 2018–2019, for a total of $2.4 million).

Planned human resources

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

Additional resources for internal services in 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 are dedicated to a review of administrative processes as part of the implementation of the new integrated SAP financial system.

Estimates by vote

Information on the NFB’s organizational appropriations is available in the 2020–21 Main Estimates.

Condensed future-oriented statement of operations

The condensed future-oriented statement of operations provides an overview of the NFB’s operations for 2019–20 to 2020–21.

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 NFB’s website.

Planned operating expenditures in 2020–2021 are estimated at $74,310,000 and are higher than the expenditures forecasted for 2019–2020 estimated at $71,928,000. This increase of $2,382,000 is the result of provisions for statutory salary revisions based on the most recent collective bargaining agreements, as well as full-year rent and amortization of costs for the relocation of the Montreal headquarters. In terms of revenues, the variation between 2020–2021 and 2019–2020 is mainly due to partnership agreements that are known at this time. The net cost of operations has therefore increased by $2,450,000 from 2019–2020 and 2020–2021.

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate Minister: The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, P.C., M.P., Minister of Canadian Heritage

Institutional Head: Claude Joli-Coeur, Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Film Board

Ministerial Portfolio: Canadian Heritage

Enabling Instrument:  National Film Act, R.S.C., c. N-8

Year of Incorporation / Commencement: 1939

Other: The NFB Board of Trustees is composed of eight members: the Government Film Commissioner, who acts as the Board’s chairperson, the Executive Director of Telefilm Canada (ex-officio member) and six other members appointed by the Governor in Council. With the exception of the Commissioner and Executive Director of Telefilm Canada, Board members serve three-year terms. The Board’s primary role is to define the NFB’s broad strategic directions and monitor its results. It approves its strategic plans and budgets, among other items.

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 NFB’s website.

For more information on the department’s organizational mandate letter commitments, see the “Minister’s mandate letter”.

Operating context

Information on the operating context is available on the  NFB’s website

Reporting framework

The NFB’s approved departmental results framework and program inventory for 2020–21 are as follows.

Supporting information on the program inventory

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

Supplementary information tables

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

• Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy
• Gender-based analysis plus

Federal tax expenditures

NFB’s Departmental Plan does not include information on tax expenditures that relate to its planned results for 2020–21.

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

National Film Board of Canada

1501 De Bleury Street

Montreal, Quebec H3A 0H3

Canada

Email: reports@onf-nfb.gc.ca

Websites

www.nfb.ca

http://onf-nfb.gc.ca

Social Media

https://www.facebook.com/nfb.ca

http://www.twitter.com/thenfb/

https://vimeo.com/thenfb

https://www.youtube.com/user/nfb

https://www.instagram.com/onf_nfb/

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 2020–21 Departmental Plan, government-wide priorities refers to those high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the 2015 Speech from the Throne, namely: Growth for the Middle Class; Open and Transparent Government; A Clean Environment and a Strong Economy; Diversity is Canada’s Strength; and Security and Opportunity.

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.

Ending notes