2021-2022 Departmental Plan

Table of Contents

• From the President
• Plans at a glance
• Core responsibility: planned results and resources, and key risks
• Public Service Hiring and Non-partisanship
• Internal Services: planned results
• Spending and human resources
• Planned spending
• Planned human resources
• Estimates by vote
• Future-oriented Condensed statement of operations
• Corporate information
• Organizational profile
• Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do
• Operating context
• Reporting framework
• Supporting information on the program inventory
• Supplementary information tables
• Federal tax expenditures
• Organizational contact information
• Appendix: definitions
• Endnotes

From the President

I am pleased to present Parliament and Canadians with the 2021–22 Departmental Plan for the Public Service Commission of Canada.

We are mandated to promote and safeguard a non-partisan, merit‑based public service that is representative of all Canadians.

In 2021–22, we will focus on government-wide priorities related to diversity and inclusion, and on supporting departments and agencies as the federal public service adapts to staffing challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chief among these priorities will be to advance technological solutions, including modernizing the federal public service’s recruitment platform. These priorities build on progress made in 2020–21, and take into account our operating environment in the year to come.

Specifically our focus will be to work with partners to:

• promote diversity and inclusion in public service appointments
• enable effective and efficient hiring processes across the federal public service
• support departments and agencies in hiring the people they need in order to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic

To achieve these goals, we will champion leadership, innovation and best practices across our policies, programs and services. We will also establish new government-wide talent-sourcing approaches for recruiting employment equity groups, and offer services and programs that reduce barriers to hiring diverse individuals into and within the public service.

The pandemic has led to rapid changes in recruitment and staffing assessment needs and expectations across federal organizations. These shifts have forced us to rethink the way we work and to renew some of our programs and service delivery.

We are committed to delivering on our priorities in a changing context. We look forward to maintaining an open dialogue with Parliamentarians and Canadians on our progress and results over the coming year.

Patrick Borbey
President
Public Service Commission of Canada

Plans at a glance

As a federal institution reporting independently to Parliament on its mandate, the Public Service Commission of Canada is responsible for promoting and safeguarding a merit-based, representative and non-partisan public service that serves all Canadians. Working with departments and agencies across the country, we will focus on hiring a workforce that is reflective of Canada’s diversity and ready to deliver results.

In 2021–22, we will concentrate on government-wide priorities related to diversity and inclusion, and supporting departments and agencies as the public service adapts to staffing challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This will involve advancing important digital solutions, including modernizing the federal public service’s recruitment platform. These priorities build on progress we made in 2020–21, and take into account our operating environment for the year to come.

To deliver on our priorities and planned results that measure progress across the federal government, we will need to lead, influence and support departments and agencies to change staffing processes and behaviours that fall under their responsibility.

1. Promoting diversity and inclusion in public service appointments

Building on momentum across the country to increase diversity and inclusion, we will lead several initiatives to identify and eliminate biases and systemic obstacles that Canadians with different realities may face when seeking to join, or be promoted within, the federal public service. These efforts will shape public service policies, programs and services to reflect the needs, experiences and perspectives of all Canadians. Efforts will include:

• providing government-wide staffing and assessment guidance, products, services, systems and programs to reduce barriers to hiring diverse individuals
• delivering targeted recruitment initiatives, and creating new and leveraging existing inventories, to:
• attract talented professionals from employment equity groups such as Indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities
• help hiring managers quickly and easily source qualified candidates with diverse backgrounds and profiles

2. Enabling effective and efficient hiring processes across the federal public service

We will help departments and agencies staff public service jobs efficiently and effectively, and thus have a workforce that is capable and ready to deliver results for Canadians. To support this priority, we will focus on:

• piloting a new digital recruitment platform and advancing virtual assessment services to respond to the emerging needs and expectations of users
• modernizing key recruitment programs to better attract and hire qualified students, graduates and job seekers
• sharing information about the staffing system, including through our 2021 Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey
• the survey will shed light on staffing dynamics across the federal public service during the pandemic, and on the perceived inclusiveness and accessibility of appointment processes

We will also draw on our recruitment expertise to help departments and agencies hire the people they need to support and protect Canadians during the pandemic. For example, we will continue to support Health Canada, as needed, in helping provinces and territories find urgently required expertise and resources to respond to the pandemic.

As we work on these important priorities, we will continue to safeguard the integrity of the staffing system and the non-partisan nature of the federal public service by conducting audits and investigations. We will strengthen the renewed and shared accountability model with other departments and agencies through audit projects, and make our oversight approach, including investigations, more efficient, while preserving the high standards of this function.

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

Core responsibility: 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 responsibility. It also contains information on key risks related to achieving those results.

Public Service Hiring and Non-partisanship

Description

The Public Service Commission promotes and safeguards a merit-based, representative and non-partisan public service that delivers results for all Canadians.

Through policy direction and guidance, it supports departments and agencies in the hiring of qualified individuals into and within the public service, helping to shape a workforce reflecting Canada’s diversity. It delivers recruitment programs and assessment services supporting the strategic recruitment priorities of the Government of Canada and the renewal of the public service, leveraging modern tools to reduce barriers for Canadians accessing public service jobs.

It oversees public service hiring, ensuring the integrity of the hiring process. It provides guidance to employees regarding their legal rights and responsibilities related to political activities and renders decisions on political candidacy, respecting employees’ rights to participate in political activities, while protecting the non-partisan nature of the public service.

Planning highlights

Making public service hiring processes more effective and diverse has long been a priority for the Public Service Commission. Achieving it requires a collective effort; recruitment practices in departments and agencies will need to change to reduce the gaps in the planned results table of this report. We are committed to providing leadership and timely programs and services to enable the federal public service to achieve our 3 expected results^{Footnote 1} for 2021–22, outlined below.

1. The federal public service efficiently hires a workforce of the future that is capable and ready to deliver results for Canadians

In 2021–22, we will strive to deliver responsive, flexible and relevant staffing guidance, programs and services that effectively contribute to hiring a competent, diverse and professional public service. We will offer timely support and guidance to help departments and agencies respond to their ongoing and emerging staffing needs in a rapidly changing context.

We plan to achieve key milestones in our transformation of the federal public service’s recruitment platform, known as GC Jobs.^{Footnote 2} Our end goal is to implement an intuitive and inclusive solution that provides all Canadians with an easier and more accessible way to search for and apply to government jobs. By the end of this year, we intend to have completed the planning of the foundation for the new recruitment platform, as we prepare for its implementation.

The pandemic has increased demands and expectations from federal organizations and Canadians for modern staffing solutions and approaches that meet the needs of all users in remote work settings. In 2021–22, we will make second language evaluations more accessible online, while ensuring they have the rigour, reliability and inclusivity of our in-person services. We will also improve accessibility for persons with disabilities when they take these tests remotely, by developing accommodation measures that meet their needs.

In 2021–22, we aim to make our targeted recruitment programs and candidate inventories a stronger driver for effective public service hiring across Canada. Continuing to modernize our graduate and student recruitment programs will improve the experience of candidates and hiring managers alike.

The public service needs to take full advantage of the benefits of hiring skilled employees and veterans. The priority entitlements help people cope with career transitions due to various life and work-related events. Along with our partners (Veterans Affairs Canada, the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces), we will continue to work on increasing veteran support and hiring across the federal public service.

Finally, we will share the results of our 2021 Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey, which gathers the views of public servants, hiring managers and staffing advisors on staffing-related topics such as merit, fairness and transparency. This work will help us:

• strengthen and support evidence-based decision-making across the federal public service and identify opportunities for improvements in the staffing system
• oversee the staffing environment and the intended outcomes of the Public Service Employment Act

This year’s survey findings will shed light on areas needing attention in the post-COVID environment and on perceptions related to the inclusiveness and accessibility of hiring.

2. The federal public service reflects Canada’s diversity

In 2021–22, we will further public service renewal by recruiting people who reflect Canada’s diversity through a range of initiatives, programs and services. This will include:

• drawing on new talent-sourcing approaches to attract and recruit people from a wide range of backgrounds, for example:
• we will collaborate with our partners from across government and with community-based associations to develop options, such as the creation of a candidate inventory, that will facilitate hiring persons with disabilities
• we will conduct targeted outreach activities with members of official language minority communities and employment equity groups, to encourage them to apply to public service jobs
• building on targeted recruitment initiatives for students to increase placement and help retain employment equity group members
• for example, we will provide support, training and networking for Indigenous students and students with disabilities

As well, we will offer government-wide staffing and assessment products, services, systems and programs that reduce barriers to hiring diverse individuals into and within the public service. Implementing a government-wide network of Assessment Accommodation Ambassadors will help job applicants with disabilities receive the accommodation they need when being assessed in staffing processes.

From a policy standpoint, we will provide guidance to departments and agencies to build capacity and knowledge in hiring for diversity. We will also support them as they review their employment systems to identify and eliminate barriers, and we will introduce a requirement for unconscious bias training for hiring managers.

Whether we are delivering targeted recruitment programs, identifying areas of innovation in staffing, or managing the federal priority management system, we will apply an inclusive, equity-based lens to help shape a workforce that reflects Canada’s diversity. Building on lessons learned since we started implementing gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) in 2018, we will ensure that potential impacts for diverse groups of Canadians are systematically identified and meaningfully addressed in our key activities and initiatives.

3. Canadians are served by a politically impartial public service

In light of the increase in founded investigations related to political activities in 2019–20, we plan to continue to target areas for improvement, and to carry out new awareness activities to reach more public servants. We will use the results of the Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey to identify areas in organizations that require more attention and plan outreach activities accordingly. Balancing the rights of employees to engage in political activities with their ability to perform their duties in a politically impartial manner, we will render decisions on requests from public servants for permission to be a candidate in an election, and will investigate allegations of improper political activities.

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

Our planned activities under our public service hiring and non-partisanship core responsibility support Canada’s efforts to address the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development^{Footnote 4} and its sustainable development goals.^{Footnote 5} Our initiatives to reduce barriers for Canadians in accessing public service jobs and to ensure that federal public service hiring reflects Canada’s diversity will contribute to:

• achieving gender equality (UN sustainable development goal 5)
• promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all (UN sustainable development goal 8)
• reducing inequality within and among countries (UN sustainable development goal 10)
• promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels (UN sustainable development goal 16)

Experimentation

In 2021–22, we will champion leadership, innovation and best practices across our policies, programs and services, both as we establish new government-wide talent-sourcing approaches for recruiting employment equity groups and in our internal staffing. We will continue to experiment with ways to evaluate the second language proficiency of current and future public servants. This will include testing different administrative options to assess oral proficiency in remote work settings to determine the most reliable and efficient approach. We will also partner with departments on ways to streamline hiring while protecting merit and increasing diversity across the staffing system, including collaborating with Employment and Social Development Canada on a research study on artificial intelligence functions. Because we will be facing financial constraints in the aftermath of the pandemic, we will need to focus our financial and information technology (IT) resources on delivering core initiatives to address pressing needs. This means we will continue to look for opportunities to improve and optimize our service delivery, with modest undertakings in experimentation in 2021–22.

Key risks

Our plans are developed with a clear understanding of our operating context, including the external factors and internal vulnerabilities that could affect our expected results. Mitigation strategies to address each of the more important risks are explained below.

Digital transformation. Over the last decade, new recruitment practices and technologies have led job applicants and hiring managers to expect faster and more accessible staffing. In light of the sudden transition to a remote operating context brought about by the pandemic, demand for digital assessment and recruitment solutions has increased significantly. There is a risk that our IT and business transformation capacity may not be sufficient to implement necessary assessment and recruitment platforms, and this could limit the federal public service’s ability to attract and recruit a skilled and diverse workforce. Strategies to mitigate this risk include ensuring our resources are strategically directed to business transformation initiatives that address the most pressing needs in our environment. These needs include modernizing our GC Jobs and language assessment platforms, while also equipping teams working on key initiatives with the support and skill sets to successfully lead the organization toward digital transformation. Since having the right number of people with the right skill sets will also be critical to our success, we will increase organization-wide alignment of talent and address skills gaps.

Program and service delivery. The pandemic has led to rapid changes in recruitment and staffing assessment needs, and in expectations across federal organizations. These shifts have forced us to rethink the way we work and to renew some of our programs and service delivery. As we adjust our activities to be more responsive amid financial constraints caused by reduced uptake of our professional assessment products and services, we may not be able to fully seize opportunities to deliver effective programs and services. Our ability to drive changes in staffing processes and behaviours across the public service will be curbed if we cannot keep pace with rapidly changing needs and expectations. Strategies to mitigate this risk in 2021–22 include enhancing our ability to ensure that our priorities and activities remain aligned with our capacity and expected results in a rapidly changing environment. We will provide additional resource management guidance and advice across our organization to ensure that funding is optimally aligned with our core activities and the priorities listed in the planning highlights section of this document. As relevant, we will also adjust our business lines to ensure sustainability in effective delivery in a changing pandemic context.

More information on the external and internal factors that may impact our planned results in 2021–22 is provided in the operating context section of this report.

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Public Service Commission’s Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 6}

Planned budgetary financial resources for Public Service Hiring and Non-partisanship

2021–22 budgetary spending (as indicated in Main Estimates)	2021–22 planned spending	2022–23 planned spending	2023–24 planned spending
57,903,175	57,903,175	58,037,514	57,937,532

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Public Service Commission’s Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 6}

Planned human resources for Public Service Hiring and Non-partisanship

2021–22 planned full-time equivalents	2022–23 planned full-time equivalents	2023–24 planned full-time equivalents
553	552	552

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Public Service Commission’s Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 6}

Internal Services: planned results

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

In 2021–22, we will support the Public Service Commission’s workforce by providing the resources, leadership and support needed to deliver on our commitments. We will achieve this by:

1. Ensuring optimal implementation of government-wide Information Technology (IT) initiatives

We will align with Government of Canada priorities and policy to evolve and strengthen our digital foundation to deliver consistent and responsive IT services. This will include working with Shared Services Canada to migrate email services to the cloud, as well as work to keep employees connected remotely within a more secure and collaborative environment. Technical debt will be targeted through initiatives that strengthen our infrastructure with a view to better supporting digital service delivery and operations. Managing technical debt is essential to mitigating risks associated with an aging infrastructure, which could impact reliability, security and enhancement of service delivery or operations.

In parallel, we will advance IT-enabled business projects related to government-wide initiatives and our digital services. For example, we will finalize our work with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, as one of the first departments to implement the federal government’s new modern and reliable solution for financial and materiel management system. Our IT services will also support the transformation of the federal public service’s recruitment platform and the incremental implementation of virtual solutions for second language evaluation, among other digital organizational projects.

2. Demonstrating leadership in effective people management

In 2021–22, we will focus on maintaining a healthy, safe and inclusive work environment that enables timely hiring, onboarding, development and retention of our employees. Targeted efforts to increase diversity and foster more inclusion will help us to deliver policies, programs and services that reflect the Canadians we serve. These efforts will include:

• promoting hiring practices that are timely, barrier-free and accessible to all, to effectively attract the right talent to our organization
• making our human resources tools, programs and processes accessible by default
• developing managers’ and employees’ competencies to build an accessibility-confident^{Footnote 7} organization
• holding internal consultations with members of employment equity groups across the organization on their lived experience to identify and address potential barriers and issues 

3. Providing internal services that effectively equip and support the Public Service Commission’s workforce in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic

As the impact of COVID-19 is expected to continue into 2021–22, we plan to ensure that our workforce is fully equipped and supported at each stage, whether it be the status quo or an easing of restrictions, which would involve preparing for and coordinating a return to the workplace. This will include modernizing approaches to quickly adapt to evolving circumstances, and providing tools and communications to help our employees thrive as they work remotely or at the workplace. In collaboration with our Human Resources Management Directorate, our Ombudsman and our organizational coach will provide wellness resources and support employees in navigating the challenges associated with this unprecedented situation.

4. Providing effective resource management guidance and advice across the Public Service Commission to support its priorities in a context of financial restraint

Given the significant reduction in vote-netted revenues in 2020–21 and the uncertainties of a changing pandemic context, we will ensure that funding is optimally aligned with our core activities and priorities. We will rebalance material resources by reviewing current requirements, and look for ways to transform the way we work to adapt to the future, in keeping with GCworkplace.^{Footnote 8}

Planned budgetary financial resources for Internal Services

2021–22 budgetary spending (as indicated in Main Estimates)	2021–22 planned spending	2022–23 planned spending	2023–24 planned spending
33,955,377	33,955,377	34,018,595	33,971,545

Planned human resources for Internal Services

2021–22 planned full-time equivalents	2022–23 planned full-time equivalents	2023–24 planned full-time equivalents
300	300	300

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 2018–19 to 2023–24

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

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

The following table shows actual, forecast and planned spending for the Public Service Commission’s core responsibility and for Internal Services for the years relevant to the current planning year.

Spending increased from $86.6 million in 2018–19 to $93.6 million in 2019–20. The increase of $7.0 million primarily reflects new funding received to support a healthy, diverse, inclusive and accessible public service, as well as retroactive salary payments and higher salary rates following the implementation of new collective agreements and increased staffing.

Spending is expected to decrease from $93.2 million in 2020–21 to $91.9 million in 2021–22 due to the absence of the retroactive salary payments.

Planned human resources

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

Human resources planning summary for core responsibility and Internal Services

Full-time equivalents increased from 797 in 2018–19 to 857 in 2019–20. The increase of 60 full-time equivalents is the result of increased staffing in various areas of the organization, including IT projects and national recruitment.

Estimates by vote

Information on the Public Service Commission’s organizational appropriations is available in the 2021-22 Main Estimates.^{Footnote 9}

Future-oriented Condensed statement of operations

The future-oriented condensed statement of operations provides an overview of the Public Service Commission’s operations for 2020–21 to 2021–22.

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 Public Service Commission’s website.^{Footnote 10}

Future-oriented Condensed statement of operations for the year ending March 31, 2022 (dollars)

Financial information	2020–21 forecast results	2021–22 planned results	Difference (2021–22 planned results minus 2020–21 forecast results)
Total expenses	117,201,690	127,643,180	10,441,490
Total revenues	-4,024,296	-14,262,755	-10,238,459
Net cost of operations before government funding and transfers	113,177,394	113,380,425	203,031

Expenses:
Total expenses for 2021–22 are planned at $127.6 million, representing a $10.4 million increase from the previous year’s forecasted total expenses of $117.2 million.

Revenues:
Total revenues for 2021–22 are planned at $14.3 million, representing a $10.2 million increase over the previous year’s total revenues of $4.0 million.

Significant variances:
Variances of $0.203 million between the planned results for 2021–22 at $113.4 million and the 2020–21 forecast results at $113.2 million are largely attributable to the planned results for 2021–22, as they are based on the overall Main Estimates for the year, and the 2020–21 figures are based on the projected spending against the available authorities. The forecasted revenues for 2020–21 are significantly lower than previous years’ trends due to the decreased uptake in revenues generated by assessment and counselling services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister(s): The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, P.C., Q.C., MP

Institutional head: Patrick Borbey, President

Ministerial portfolio: The Public Service Commission of Canada is part of the Privy Council Office portfolio

Enabling instrument(s): Public Service Employment Act (S.C. 2003, c.22. 12, 13)

Year of incorporation / commencement: 1908

Other: Public Service Commission of Canada website

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 Public Service Commission’s website .^{Footnote 11}

Operating context

The Government of Canada is the country’s largest employer, with almost 288 000 employees from coast to coast to coast, representing about 0.76% of the Canadian population. These professionals serve as climate scientists, nurses in Northern regions, fisheries officers, policy advisors and in thousands of other roles that help shape the country. The policies, programs and services delivered by the federal government rely heavily on the competency of this workforce. They also depend on a diverse public service that reflects the range of backgrounds and worldviews that make up Canadian society.

The Public Service Commission of Canada is responsible for promoting and safeguarding a merit-based, representative and non-partisan public service that serves all Canadians. It holds the legal authority to appoint public servants. To give departments and agencies the flexibility to build staffing systems adapted to their needs, we have delegated many of our appointment authorities to deputy heads across government. We also provide deputy heads with guidance and support to help them respect legislative and policy requirements. We rely on the actions and leadership of all hiring managers, human resource professionals and deputy heads to ensure the federal public service efficiently and effectively hires a workforce of the future that is capable and ready to deliver results for Canadians, and that reflects Canada’s diversity.

As an enabler of public service staffing, we provide an online recruitment platform, known as GC Jobs,^{Footnote 12} which is used by 115 federal departments and agencies. Last year, over one million job applications were submitted through this platform, for over 7 000 job postings. We also deliver targeted recruitment programs and professional assessment services that help departments and agencies hire qualified individuals into and within the public service. For example, every year we administer over 100 000 standardized French and English second language tests for reading, writing and oral proficiency. Mandatory for staffing bilingual positions in the federal public service, these tests ensure that Canadians can be served, and federal public servants can work, in the official language of their choice.

Today’s labour market is characterized by increased expectations from job seekers and hiring managers for timely and innovative approaches to hiring. Yet the median time it takes to staff an externally advertised position in the federal public service is 203 calendar days. Long wait times to fill a position can cause the federal public service to miss out on high-quality candidates, who may be recruited more quickly by other employers. Our main recruitment and assessment platforms are also outdated, and fail to offer an intuitive and fully responsive experience. The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the demand for digital recruitment and assessment solutions that can be accessed remotely. Higher unemployment rates may also have contributed to expectations for public service jobs to be externally advertised on an accessible online platform and staffed quickly. Modernizing these systems is one of our main priorities, and will need special attention in 2021–22. During this same period, we will catch up on the work backlog stemming from our pandemic response, during which key resources were redirected to sustain business continuity and to help Health Canada recruit for provincial and territorial governments to respond to COVID-19.

Appointment processes must be effective and inclusive. We have always worked to ensure that the public service is representative of Canada’s diversity, drawn from across the country and reflective of a variety of profiles and backgrounds. This work has included increasing the representation of employment equity groups in hiring and appointment decisions. However, more than ever, we are committed to promoting diversity and inclusion based on a wider range of factors, and to ensuring that hiring processes are free from unintended bias and systemic barriers. These efforts will contribute to more diverse and inclusive teams that deliver better results to Canadians.

Since 2016, we have modernized, simplified and streamlined staffing to enable departments and agencies to attract talented employees and to customize their approach to their unique needs. The pandemic required us to adapt to working remotely and to grant new, temporary flexibilities to departments and agencies so that they could continue their staffing. We balance these flexibilities, which are essential to achieving public service results, with our responsibility to safeguard a non-partisan and merit-based public service. We do this by proactively overseeing and ensuring the integrity of public service hiring, through audits, surveys and targeted studies. We also investigate alleged irregularities into appointment processes, as well as allegations of improper political activities. As we carry out our oversight functions, we engage with departments and agencies to ensure that they fully understand the shared responsibilities related to their delegated staffing authorities.

In 2021–22, we will work to deliver on our expected results in an internal context of limited resources. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on our vote-netted revenue due to reduced uptake of our professional assessment products and services. To achieve our priorities, we will need to be especially responsive to a continually changing and uncertain context. We may adjust our planned initiatives throughout the year to meet the needs of federal departments and agencies as well as Canadians, in light of our own internal capacity. As we do so, the health, safety and well-being of our teams will remain at the forefront of our decisions.

Reporting framework

The Public Service Commission’s approved departmental results framework and program inventory for 2021–22 are as follows.

Supporting information on the program inventory

Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to the Public Service Commission’s Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.^{Footnote 6}

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on the Public Service Commission’s website:^{Footnote 10}

• Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy
• Gender-based analysis plus

Federal tax expenditures

The Public Service Commission’s Departmental Plan does not include information on tax expenditures that relate to its planned results for 2021–22.

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.^{Footnote 13} 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

Mailing address
Public Service Commission of Canada
22 Eddy Street
Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0M7
Email: cfp.infocom.psc@cfp-psc.gc.ca
Website(s): Public Service Commission’s website^{Footnote 10}

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 from 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 2021–22 Departmental Plan, government-wide priorities refers to those high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the 2020 Speech from the Throne, namely: Protecting Canadians from COVID-19; Helping Canadians through the pandemic; Building back better – a resiliency agenda for the middle class; The Canada we’re fighting for.

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.