Departmental Results Report 2020-2021

Table of Contents

• From the president
• Results at a glance
• Results: what we achieved
• Core Responsibility
• Internal Services
• Analysis of trends in spending and human resources
• Actual expenditures
• Actual human resources
• Expenditures by vote
• Government of Canada spending and activities
• Financial statements and financial statements highlights
• 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

From the president

I am pleased to present the 2020–21 Departmental Results Report for the Public Service Commission of Canada. This report provides an overview of our results over the past fiscal year regarding:

• efficiently hiring a workforce for the future that is capable and ready to deliver results for Canadians
• reflecting Canada’s diversity throughout the federal public service
• strengthening political impartiality in the public service

The 2020–21 fiscal year began following the onset of a global health pandemic. We demonstrated innovation and resilience by quickly transforming how we did business, while most of our employees transitioned to working remotely to protect their health and safety and the well-being of the people we serve.

We shifted our plans and priorities to enable departments and agencies to conduct urgent staffing, while continuing to safeguard a merit-based, representative and non-partisan public service. We also launched a recruitment campaign to source and refer candidates to provinces and territories for the federal government’s response to the pandemic.

The pandemic increased the demand for digital recruitment solutions that can be accessed remotely; in response, we developed innovative measures and transformed services to support organizations in their hiring activities.

Also, this year, events around the world and here in Canada have shone a spotlight on systemic racism and discrimination, highlighting the need for improvement in the public service. Our Audit of Employment Equity Representation in Recruitment showed that representation rates varied by employment equity group and did not remain proportionate from the job application to the appointment stage. We are already taking actions to address these findings.

I encourage everyone to read this report to learn about our achievements during this challenging time. I look forward to building on our commitment to increase diversity, equity and inclusion within the federal public service.

Patrick Borbey
President
Public Service Commission of Canada

Results at a glance

In 2020–21, the Public Service Commission of Canada supported federal departments and agencies in hiring a workforce that reflects Canada’s diversity and delivers results for Canadians. We responded to a continually changing and uncertain context caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We adapted our plans, tackled new priorities and advanced initiatives to ensure a diverse and inclusive public service and to meet the needs of departments and agencies as well as Canadians.

One of our most important achievements this year was developing and launching a recruitment inventory to support Health Canada’s response to the pandemic. This enabled timely referrals of candidates to provinces and territories, enabling them to address urgent and unforeseen needs to deliver crucial services to Canadians.

During a year of great change and uncertainty, we were nimble and responsive in supporting the federal government’s response to the pandemic. We quickly adapted our digital recruitment and assessment services to meet the needs of departments and job applicants by:

• granting temporary flexibilities to assess language qualifications
• implementing remote assessment tools

At the same time, we expedited all COVID-19 related staffing requests.

Building a representative workforce that reflects Canada’s diversity remained one of our key priorities. We published the Audit of Employment Equity Representation in Recruitment ^{Footnote 1} , which concluded that despite efforts across departments and agencies to advance diversity, work remains to achieve inclusive hiring in the public service. To increase the representation of persons with disabilities and Indigenous people in the federal public service, we improved our recruitment programs, based on consultations with stakeholders, and made our recruitment activities more inclusive. We also made progress in transforming the GC Jobs recruitment platform to provide a more user-friendly and accessible system for job applicants.

Upholding our commitment to hiring persons with disabilities, we worked with government departments to nearly double the number of interns hired for the second cohort of our Federal Internship Program for Canadians with Disabilities ^{Footnote 2}. We also launched the second Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey, adding new questions to better define areas of focus and to explore the effects of the pandemic on staffing. Increased gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus) research was conducted to better understand other identity factors and their intersectionality.

In working to achieve our results in 2020–21, our total actual spending was $93,561,358 and our workforce totalled 828 full-time equivalents.

For more information on the Public Service Commission’s plans, priorities and results achieved, see the “Results: what we achieved” section of this report.

Results: what we achieved

Core Responsibility

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.

Results

In 2020–21, we set ambitious targets to achieve these 3 key results under our core responsibility:

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

2020–21 was an unprecedented year, with the pandemic impacting federal organizations’ plans and priorities. Throughout the year, we remained flexible, adapting to the ever-changing environment by shifting our priorities to take on new ones. In 2020–21, the median time to staff public service positions open to the public increased by 47 days to 250 calendar days. While the pandemic slowed staffing as departments and agencies faced uncertainty and adapted to virtual hiring, time to staff was already increasing before the pandemic, and this trend remains a deep concern. Several factors continue to affect the time it takes to staff, including delayed security clearances and process requirements to ensure prompt and accurate pay, but hiring managers continue to have the greatest influence. As managers adapt to virtual staffing, staffing should pick up speed, but addressing this issue will require a joint effort across government.

The pandemic forced us to step up our efforts to digitize reliable and inclusive second language testing. We developed a new approach and tools for remote second language testing, focusing on accessibility and ease of use for managers who urgently needed to hire as part of the pandemic response. This included granting temporary exceptions and flexibilities in assessing language qualifications. We also provided toolkits with advice for hiring managers on conducting tests for oral proficiency, written expression and reading comprehension. While no in-person operations were delivered in 2020–21 at our test centres in Gatineau, Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver, in-person testing at our test centre in Halifax resumed in November 2020.

Modernizing the public service recruitment platform, also known as GC Jobs Transformation, remained a top priority throughout the year. We completed the discovery phase as well as proof-of-concept testing, which confirmed that a cloud-based software-as-a-service solution could satisfy most public service recruiting needs.

We worked with the Department of National Defence, the Canadian Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Canada to make headway on our response to the Joint Evaluation of the Implementation of the Veterans Hiring Act. This included establishing a joint steering committee and governance to promote an integrated approach. We launched a new toolkit for hiring managers and human resources professionals and updated our guidance on the preference and mobility provisions for veterans. Work will continue on this front in 2021–22.

2. The public service reflects Canada’s diversity

We have been working with the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, the Office of Public Service Accessibility, and other partners to improve diversity and inclusion in staffing processes, considering the barriers and biases that exist.

We published our Audit of Employment Equity Representation in Recruitment^{Footnote 1}, which explored whether employment equity groups experienced changes in representation at key stages of the recruitment process, and examined these stages for factors that may have influenced their representation.While the data showed that progress is being made, it also showed that employment equity groups experienced varying levels of representation throughout the recruitment process. In response to the audit’s conclusions, we developed a comprehensive action plan that includes strengthening employment equity obligations in our appointment delegation instrument, and promoting systems, tools, guidance and training that support inclusive hiring, with a focus on developing barrier-free assessment approaches. Implementation of these deliverables will span the next 2 years.

We implemented the second year of the Federal Internship Program for Canadians with Disabilities, which drew on high interest from 28 participating departments to hire 55 interns through the second cohort of the program, more than double the number of interns hired in the first year. We also formalized collaboration agreements with the Canadian Association of Supported Employment and 21 local supported employment agencies to support interns and managers throughout the 2-year internships.

We provided consultation services and developed training materials and tools for the Assessment Accessibility Ambassadors Network to improve expertise in assessment and accommodation across the public service.

We launched targeted inventories for persons with disabilities, specific to occupational groups where they are currently under-represented. We also promoted and supported the goal of hiring 5 000 persons with disabilities to the public service by 2025, including by launching a toolkit for managers & human resources professionals.

We held virtual welcome and mentoring events for the Employment Opportunity for Students with Disabilities and the Indigenous Student Employment Opportunity, national initiatives for students who self-declare under the Federal Student Work Experience Program. In 2020–21, through the inventory, departments hired:

• 370 Indigenous students
• 411 students with disabilities 

To retain and promote persons with disabilities, we launched the Virtual Door to Talent with Disabilities, an inventory of graduates who participated in the Employment Opportunity for Students with Disabilities and who are ready to be hired in a public service job. We also supported the Canada School of Public Service in developing an inclusive hiring course by sharing our materials for in-house training on unconscious bias. These inventories and tools will help departments and agencies decrease time to staff by giving them quick access to resourcing options; they will also increase diversity and inclusion in the public service.

Finally, to reduce employment barriers for French-speaking Canadians, since French generally requires more wording than corresponding English, we eliminated the applicant word maximums in our recruiting platform.

Gender-Based Analysis Plus

In 2020–21, under our Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) Action Plan ^{Footnote 3}, we applied a gender and diversity lens to our activities and decision-making processes, including in designing and adapting products and services to respond to the pandemic. We provided our employees with a new tool to integrate GBA Plus into their work and to promote our commitment to its integration. We championed the use of disaggregated data, as a vital tool to support a more detailed understanding of GBA Plus and its evidence-based integration. Research plans, audits, surveys, and staffing and recruitment programs proactively included GBA Plus from the development phase onward. The GBA Plus responsibility center increased its understanding of how various groups see and use our services and programs, including as a function of gender, other identity factors and their intersectionality.

3. Canadians are served by a politically impartial public service

This year there were far fewer founded investigations related to political activities. Most cases of improper political activities are caused by public servants who seek candidacy or begin campaign activities before getting permission from the Public Service Commission, particularly at the municipal level. Clear references to the requirement for obtaining permission before engaging in these activities, including at the municipal level, have been added to our awareness materials. Our outreach activities aim to inform public servants of their rights and responsibilities, through our website, social media platforms and our network of departmental designated political activities representatives. To reach more employees, we have also tested out a new cross-organization approach in our awareness sessions, asking for attendees’ views on merit, fairness, and transparency in staffing actions.

We also added new questions in the second cycle of the Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey about awareness of responsibilities when seeking nomination in elections and the impact that posting political views on social media might have on the ability to remain impartial. This will provide more insight on public servants’ understanding of their legal rights and responsibilities related to political activities and non-partisanship.

Results achieved

Departmental results	Performance indicators	Target	Date to achieve target	2018–19 Actual results	2019–20 Actual results	2020–21 Actual results
The public service efficiently hires the workforce of the future that is capable and ready to deliver results for Canadians	Number of days to complete an external staffing process	At most 167 days a	March 2021	186 days	203 days	250 days
	Percentage of managers who say they have the flexibility to fulfill their hiring needs	At least 65%	March 2021	60%	Not available b	Not available b
	Percentage of managers who believe that appointees meet the performance expectations of the position	At least 90%	March 2021	91.8%	Not available b	Not available b
	Percentage of new hires and internal promotions who fully meet the qualifications of the position (based on merit)	At least 98%	March 2022	98.3%	Not available c	Not available c
The public service reflects Canada’s diversity	Percentage of employees who are women	At least 52.7% d	March 2021	54.8%	55.0%	Not available e
	Percentage of employees who are an aboriginal person	At least 4.0% d	March 2021	5.1%	5.1%	Not available e
	Percentage of employees who are members of visible minority groups	At least 15.3% d	March 2021	16.7%	17.8%	Not available e
	Percentage of employees who are persons with disabilities	At least 9.0% d	March 2021	5.2%	5.2%	Not available e
	Percentage of new hires under the age of 35	At least 53%	March 2021	54.8%	55.9%	53.9%
	Percentage of Official Language Minority applicants (French-speaking applicants outside of Quebec and English-speaking applicants within Quebec)	At least 6.9%	March 2021	11.4%	10.8%	10.1%
	Percentage of new hires who applied from outside the National Capital Region	At least 75%	March 2021	73%	72.1%	78.7%
Canadians are served by a politically impartial public service	Number of founded investigations related to political activities	Exactly 0	March 2021	7	20	7
	Percentage of employees who are aware of their legal rights and responsibilities regarding engaging in political activities	At least 80%	March 2021	80.1%	Not available b	Not available b

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Note a:
This indicator measures the median number of calendar days between the date the job poster was published and the first external hire (from outside of organizations subject to the Public Service Employment Act) based on the pay system.

Note b:
Data for this indicator is collected through a biennial survey (Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey); the first year of available data is 2018–19. Results were Not available at the time of production of the 2020–21 Departmental Results Report since the survey was only launched in 2021 instead of 2020 due to the pandemic.

Note c:
The data for this indicator is collected through the System-Wide Staffing Audit and should be available every 2 years beginning 2022–23.

Note d:
The target for each designated group is to meet or exceed workforce availability. For 3 of the groups, workforce availability is based on 2016 Census data. Workforce availability for persons with disabilities is derived from data, also collected by Statistics Canada, in the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability.

Note e:
These results were Not available when the 2020–21 Departmental Results Report was being written.

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Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

2020–21 Main Estimates	2020–21 Planned spending	2020–21 Total authorities available for use	2020–21 Actual spending (authorities used)	2020–21 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending)
56,505,179	56,505,179	60,797,300	57,848,891	1,343,712

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

2020–21 Planned full-time equivalents	2020–21 Actual full-time equivalents	2020–21 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full-time equivalents)
570	535	-35

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Public Service Commission’s Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase^{Footnote 4}.

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:

• Acquisition Management Services
• Communication Services
• Financial Management Services
• Human Resources Management Services
• Information Management Services
• Information Technology Services
• Legal Services
• Material Management Services
• Management and Oversight Services
• Real Property Management Services

Results

1. Lead people management to support a healthy, safe and inclusive workplace

Throughout the year, we shifted from crisis-response mode to resuming elements of regular business and planning for a return to worksites. We created and shared several well-being and wellness initiatives with employees, including a COVID-19 resource page, training for managers on how to support employees, and information sessions for employees and managers. We prepared all workspaces to make them safe for critical employees returning to the office. Plans considered the health, safety and wellness of all employees and clients, transparency and flexibility based on operational requirements, and the accommodation needs of our employees, as well as all applicable public health guidance. We also consulted on the future of work and considered the GCworkplace initiative as a solution.

Although our internal time to staff did not decrease this year, despite all organizational challenges resulting from the pandemic, we strove to ensure accurate and timely pay and benefits, and improved collaborations with Public Services and Procurement Canada and Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. Improvements this year included:

• more accurate pay transactions, with a 98% accuracy rate this year
• more timely pay (timeliness rate increased by 10%)
• a decrease in pay backlog (by 38%)

To reduce time to staff within our own organization, we:

• added functions to our internal human resources systems to streamline data entry and manage requests
• developed and launched a post-appointment process survey to support ongoing monitoring in staffing
• clarified stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities in staffing processes
• introduced changes to our internal staffing compass

We also adapted internal policies and practices to comply with new Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat policies on people management; this included revising our delegation of human resources authorities instrument. We also experimented with pilot projects and initiatives (such as pre-recorded video interviewing) to increase efficiency in human resources management.

2. Advance diversity, inclusion and accessibility

We included accessibility in our internal HR tools, programs, and processes, as well as information on barrier-free staffing processes, and added Duty to Accommodate to our mandatory training. We also supported the HR component of an organizational accessibility action plan and identified actions to address issues raised in the Public Service Employee Survey and internal surveys and consulted stakeholders to make the most of existing initiatives. We created pools of candidates to address specific organizational needs, with a focus on persons with disabilities to help meet employment equity gaps. We promoted virtual learning opportunities, including the Accessibility Learning Series to support diversity and inclusion within our organization. We also continued our work to gather the lived experiences of our employees who are members of equity-seeking groups to address any remaining issues. Our efforts led to a decrease in the representation gap for persons with a disability (from 18 to 6 under target).

3. Manage information technology operations

We focused on important connectivity improvements for operational success and to continue to deliver our programs and services for departments and agencies, given the unforeseen transition to a remote workforce. We quickly and successfully delivered Microsoft Teams in a protected B security environment for all equipment, allowing us to develop a new approach to oral second language testing in record time. We executed email migration and developed a whole-of-organization cloud strategy, which will be deployed in 2021–22. These changes allow for more accessible and efficient information technology services.

We continued to prepare our systems and procedures ahead of the implementation of a new federal Finance and Material Solution.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

2020–21 Main Estimates	2020–21 Planned spending	2020–21 Total authorities available for use	2020–21 Actual spending (authorities used)	2020–21 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending)
33,297,496	33,297,496	35,712,798	35,712,467	2,414,971

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

2020–21 Planned full-time equivalents	2020–21 Actual full-time equivalents	2020–21 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full-time equivalents)
293	293	0

Analysis of trends in spending and human resources

Actual expenditures

Departmental spending trend graph

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

Budgetary performance summary for Core Responsibilities and Internal Services (dollars)

Core responsibilities and Internal Services	2020–21 Main Estimates	2020–21 Planned spending	2021–22 Planned spending	2022–23 Planned spending	2020–21 Total authorities available for use	2018–19 Actual spending (authorities used)	2019–20 Actual spending (authorities used)	2020–21 Actual spending (authorities used)
Public Service Hiring and Non-partisanship	56,505,179	56,505,179	62,110,423	56,896,497	60,797,300	55,789,506	60,195,978	57,848,891
Internal Services	33,297,496	33,297,496	31,116,949	33,955,377	35,712,798	30,776,126	33,415,852	35,712,467
Total	89,802,675	89,802,675	93,277,327	91,858,552	96,510,098	86,565,632	93,611,830	93,561,358

Actual human resources

Human resources summary for Core Responsibilities and Internal Services (full time equivalents)

Core responsibilities and Internal Services	2018–19 Actual full-time equivalents	2019–20 Actual full-time equivalents	2020–21 Planned full-time equivalents	2020–21 Actual full-time equivalents	2021–22 Planned full-time equivalents	2022–23 Planned full-time equivalents
Public Service Hiring and Non-partisanship	527	566	553	535	553	552
Internal Services	270	291	300	293	300	300
Total	797	857	853	828	853	852

Spending remained steady across all sectors to help the Public Service Commission remain within the allocated budgets and to compensate for the loss in revenue.

Full-time equivalents decreased from 857 in 2019–20 to 828 in 2020–21. The decrease of 29 full-time equivalents is the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which planned staffing was pushed back and departures were not replaced.

Expenditures by vote

For information on the Public Service Commission’s organizational voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada 2020–2021 ^{Footnote 5}.

Government of Canada spending and activities

Information on the alignment of the Public Service Commission’s spending with the Government of Canada’s spending and activities is available in the GC InfoBase ^{Footnote 4}.

Financial statements and financial statements highlights

Financial statements

The Public Service Commission’s financial statements (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2021, are available on the Public Service Commission website^{Footnote 6}.

Financial statements highlights

Condensed Statement of Operations (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2021 (dollars)

Financial information	2020–21 Planned results	2020–21 Actual results	2019–20 Actual results	Difference (2020–21 Actual results minus 2020–21 Planned results)	Difference (2020–21 Actual results minus 2019–20 Actual results)
Total expenses	125,790,921	118,768,527	123,019,035	-7,022,394	-4,250,508
Total revenues	14,263,918	5,264,040	9,419,594	-8,999,878	-4,155,554
Net cost of operations before government funding and transfers	111,527,003	113,504,487	113,599,441	1,977,484	-94,954

For 2020–21, there was a decrease in expenses, resulting mainly from a decrease in indeterminate employees and retroactive salary pay. Revenue decrease is mainly due to the pandemic, during which there was a lower demand for assessment products, as well as limited capacity to provide remote services.

Condensed Statement of Financial Position (unaudited) as of March 31, 2021 (dollars)

Financial information	2020–21	2019–20	Difference (2020–21 minus 2019–20)
Total net liabilities	17,516,359	22,955,092	-5,438,733
Total net financial assets	8,585,758	15,694,198	-7,108,440
Departmental net debt	8,930,601	7,260,894	1,669,707
Total non-financial assets	8,562,960	6,114,520	2,448,441
Departmental net financial position	-367,640	-1,146,374	778,734

The $5.4M (24%) decrease in total net financial liabilities is mainly due to the following decreases:

• Accounts Payable and Accrued Liabilities:
• amounts to pay other government departments and agencies for employee transfers into the Public Service Commission, as well as management consulting services
• Employee future benefits:
• amounts owed to employees for severance pay decreases due to lower severance percentage factor

The $7.1M (45%) decrease in total net financial assets is mainly due to the following decrease:

• due from the Consolidated Revenue Fund:
• result of timely treatment of accounts payable and receivable before the year-end; there were less accounts receivable in fiscal year 2020–21 for employees transferring to other government departments
• accounts receivable and advances:
  • result of timely treatment of accounts payable and receivable before year-end

The $2.4M (40%) increase in total non-financial assets is due to the following:

• tangible capital assets:
• mainly the capitalization of software development costs

Corporate Information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister: The Honourable Bill Blair, P.C., C.O.M., MP
Institutional head: Patrick Borbey, President
Ministerial portfolio: The Public Service Commission of Canada is part of the Privy Council Office portfolio
Enabling instrument: 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 of Canada website.

Operating context

The federal public service is Canada’s largest employer, with almost 288 000 employees representing about 0.76% of the population. These professionals serve as climate scientists, nurses in Northern regions, fisheries officers, policy advisors and in thousands of other roles that shape the country. The federal government relies heavily on this workforce’s competency. It also depends 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 safeguarding a merit-based, representative and non-partisan public service that serves all Canadians. 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. We guide and support deputy heads in respecting legislative and policy requirements. We rely on the actions and leadership of all hiring managers, human resources professionals and deputy heads to ensure the federal public service hires a diverse and professional workforce. 

We run GC Jobs, an online recruitment platform used by 94 federal departments and agencies. In 2020–21, over one million job applications were submitted through this platform, for over 10 000 job postings. We also deliver recruitment programs and assessment services to help public service hiring managers hire qualified individuals. This includes French and English second language tests for reading, writing and oral proficiency to ensure that Canadians can be served, and federal public servants can work, in the official language of their choice.

In today’s labour market, job seekers and hiring managers increasingly expect timely and innovative approaches to hiring. Long wait times can cause the federal public service to miss out on high-quality candidates, who may be recruited more quickly by other employers. The pandemic has heightened the demand for online recruitment and assessment solutions. Modernizing our outdated recruitment and assessment tools and platforms is essential to our ability to effectively support public service staffing; it remains one of our top priorities.

Appointment processes must be effective and inclusive. We have always worked to achieve a public service that reflects Canada’s diversity. However, we are now looking beyond employment equity group, geographic and official language representation, at a wider range of socio-demographic and intersecting identity factors, to ensure hiring processes are free from bias and systemic barriers.

Since the implementation of the New Direction in Staffing in 2016, we have been simplifying staffing to help departments and agencies attract talented employees and meet their unique hiring needs. The pandemic required us to adapt to working remotely and to grant new, temporary flexibilities to hiring managers so that they could continue their staffing. We worked closely with departments and agencies to help them hire and deliver services to Canadians. We did this while safeguarding a non-partisan and merit-based public service through audits, surveys and targeted studies, as well as through investigations of alleged staffing irregularities and allegations of improper political activities.

The suspension of our in-person assessment products and services had a significant impact on our vote-netted revenues. Changes to our enabling legislation, the Public Service Employment Act, were introduced to remove barriers and biases in the hiring process for all equity-seeking groups. We are examining potential business impacts to guide and support departments in implementing these changes. We will continue to work with departments and agencies to remove barriers and biases in the staffing system.

Reporting framework

The Public Service Commission’s Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory of record for 2020–21 are shown below.

Departmental Results Framework	Core Responsibility Public Service Hiring and Non-partisanship		Internal Services
	Departmental Result 1: The public service efficiently hires the workforce of the future that is capable and ready to deliver results for Canadians	Indicator 1 Number of days to complete an external staffing process
		Indicator 2 Percentage of managers who say they have the flexibility to fulfill their hiring needs
		Indicator 3 Percentage of managers who believe that appointees meet the performance expectations of the position
		Indicator 4 Percentage of new hires and internal promotions who fully meet the qualifications of the position (i.e., based on merit)
	Departmental Result 2: The public service reflects Canada’s diversity	Indicator 5 Percentage of employees who are women
		Indicator 6 Percentage of employees who are an Indigenous person
		Indicator 7 Percentage of employees who are members of visible minority groups
		Indicator 8 Percentage of employees who are persons with disabilities
		Indicator 9 Percentage of new hires under the age of 35
		Indicator 10 Percentage of Official Language Minority applicants (French-speaking applicants outside of Quebec and English-speaking applicants within Quebec)
		Indicator 11 Percentage of new hires who applied from outside the National Capital Region
	Departmental Result 3: Canadians are served by a politically impartial public service	Indicator 12 Number of founded investigations related to political activities
		Indicator 13 Percentage of employees who are aware of their rights and obligations regarding engaging in political activities
Program Inventory	Program 1 Policy Direction and Support
	Program 2 Recruitment and Assessment Services
	Program 3 Oversight and Monitoring

Supporting information on the program inventory

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Public Service Commission’s Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase ^{Footnote 4}.

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on the Public Service Commission’s website ^{Footnote 6} .

• Reporting on Green Procurement
• Gender-based analysis Plus

Federal tax expenditures

The tax system can be used to achieve public policy objectives through the application of special measures such as low tax rates, exemptions, deductions, deferrals and credits. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures ^{Footnote 7} . This report also provides detailed background information on tax expenditures, including descriptions, objectives, historical information and references to related federal spending programs. The tax measures presented in this report are the responsibility of the Minister of Finance.

Organizational contact information

Mailing address:
Public Service Commission
22 Eddy Street
Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0M7

Email address: cfp.infocom.psc@cfp-psc.gc.ca
Website(s): Public Service Commission’s website

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 an appropriated department over a 3 year period. Departmental Plans are usually tabled in Parliament each spring.

departmental priority (priorité)

A plan or project that a department has chosen to focus and report on during the planning period. 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 quantitative measure of progress on a departmental result.

departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)

A framework that connects the department’s core responsibilities to its 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, for whom and in what circumstances. 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. For a particular position, the full time equivalent figure is the ratio of number of hours the person actually works divided by the standard number of hours set out in the person’s collective agreement.

gender-based analysis Plus (GBA Plus) (analyse comparative entre les sexes Plus [ACSPlus])

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 2019–20 Departmental Results Report, those high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the 2019 Speech from the Throne, namely: Fighting climate change; Strengthening the Middle Class; Walking the road of reconciliation; Keeping Canadians safe and healthy; and Positioning Canada for success in an uncertain world.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

An initiative where 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 to the expected result.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)

For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in 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 the department’s programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department’s core responsibilities and results.

result (résultat)

A 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.

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.