Date: March 26, 2009
Ottawa – The Honourable Vic Toews, President of the Treasury Board, today tabled the 2009-10 Reports on Plans and Priorities (RPPs) in the House of Commons on behalf of 95 federal departments and agencies.
Reports on Plans and Priorities are forward looking documents that provide expenditure plans over a 3 year period.
"Providing information to Parliamentarians and Canadians on how departments plan to spend public funds ensures an open and accountable process,' said Minister Toews. "Our Government continues taking measures to improve this reporting process to ensure that Canadians have access to information about how their hard-earned tax-dollars are being managed."
This year, accrual accounting information has been added to the RPPs of ten departments as a pilot project. This allows Parliamentarians to compare RPP information with other budget documents presented on an accrual accounting basis, thereby improving clarity and accuracy. This change reflects requests made by Parliamentarians and the Auditor General for increased accrual-based accounting in departmental budgeting.
As in previous years, the 2009-10 Reports on Plans and Priorities primarily reflect priorities set out in the previous government Budget (Budget 2008). The reports do not reflect all Economic Action Plan initiatives since details were unavailable at the time of publication due to the timelines involved.
Please refer to the attached backgrounder for more details on the 2009-10 Reports on Plans and Priorities. The reports and related documents are posted on the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat Web site.
For more information, contact:
Christine Csversko
Director of Communications
Office of the President of the Treasury Board
(613) 957-2666
Robert Makichuk
Chief, Media Relations
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
(613) 957-2391
If there is a discrepancy between any printed version and the electronic version of this news release, the electronic version will prevail.
TTY (Telecommunications device for the hearing impaired) - (613) 957-9090
Reports on Plans and Priorities (RPPs) are individual expenditure plans for each department and agency (excluding Crown corporations). They describe departmental priorities, expected results and the associated resource requirements covering a three-year period. This information supplements information contained in the Main Estimates.
These documents are normally tabled by the President of the Treasury Board on behalf of the Government of Canada, on or before March 31 each year.
Reporting to Parliament through RPPsinforms parliamentarians and Canadians of departmental plans. Efforts are continuously being made to improve these reports. This year, in response to requests made by the Auditor General and parliamentarians to extend accrual accounting to departmental budgeting and appropriations, 10 pilot departments have included in their report their department's annual business plan on an accrual accounting basis.
The 10 pilot departments are:
- Canada Revenue Agency
- Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada
- Health Canada
- Industry Canada
- Public Health Agency of Canada
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police
- Public Works and Government Services Canada
- Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
- Veterans Affairs Canada
What is accrual accounting?
Accrual accounting refers to a method of accounting that records transactions to reflect revenue in the period in which it is earned and the consumption or use of goods and services rather than when cash is received or paid as it is in accounting on a cash basis.
One of the main benefits of accrual accounting is that it recognizes the life-cycle costs associated with assets.
For example, a department purchases a fleet of trucks for $1.2 million. The trucks have a useful service life of six years. Under the cash method, the full $1.2 million would be reported as expenditure in the first year, and nothing in the subsequent five years. However, under the accrual method, the accounts would record the same purchase much differently. The $1.2 million would be reported as an asset in the first year and, for each of the six years the trucks are in service, $200,000 in expense would be reported to reflect the use of the trucks.
Accrual information clearly presents a very different—but more accurate—picture of the organization's financial results and situation.
By providing RPP financial information on an accrual basis, parliamentarians are better able to compare departmental plans and priorities with the information in the Government's budget, in end-of-year results outlined in the Government's financial statements in Public Accounts and in Departmental Performance Reports, all of which are also presented on an accrual basis.
All RPPs will include financial information on accrual basis in two years.
It is important for parliamentarians—and by extension all Canadians—to understand what the government is doing, why it is doing it, and what results are being achieved. That is why the Government tables in Parliament a number of key documents that explain the Government's objectives and then reports on progress against those stated aims. This is known as the Estimates process.
RPPs are part III of the Estimates process. They provide further details on the information provided through the Main Estimates. Once the fiscal year is over, Departmental Performance Reports provide individual department and agency accounts of accomplishments against plans and expected results set out in their RPPs. These are normally tabled in the fall.
