2020 to 2021 Departmental Results Report and 2022 to 2023 Departmental Plan: Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates—March 4, 2022
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2020 to 2021 Departmental Results Report
Key messages
- Among many accomplishments last year, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) successfully negotiated purchase agreements with vaccine suppliers to secure needed COVID-19 vaccine doses for Canadians and purchased more than 2.5 billion articles of personal protective equipment (PPE) and over 54 million rapid tests
- PSPC also continued modernizing procurement practices to reduce barriers for the participation of under-represented groups in federal procurement and to ensure that federal procurement achieves value for money
- In support of the government’s priority to fight climate change, PSPC is taking several steps to reduce its carbon footprint including establishing clean energy contracts with provinces, adopting measures to reduce waste, and supporting the conversion of government fleets to zero-emission vehicles
Key data points
- Expenses were $379 million higher than planned (from $6,480.5B to $6,859.4B), due to:
- expenditures related to COVID-19
- efforts to stabilize pay system and eliminate backlog
- investments in information technology (IT) infrastructure and licensing costs
- expenses were partially offset due to project and procurement delays due to COVID-19
- Revenues were $221M less than planned mainly due to COVID-19 impacts on PSPC’s business volume
Background
Public Services and Procurement Canada’s departmental results report is prepared annually to report on how the department has fulfilled the expectations outlined in the corresponding departmental plan. The report was tabled on February 1, 2022, by the president of the Treasury Board. Parliamentary committees have an opportunity to review and question departmental spending and achieved results.
Priority 2020 to 2021 activities
In 2020 to 2021, PSPC made significant progress in the implementation of the priorities identified in the 2020 to 2021 Departmental Plan.
In addition, PSPC continued to play a key role in supporting Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic by procuring essential medical supplies, equipment, and services to keep our front line health care workers, public servants, essential workers and Canadians safe. PSPC took an aggressive procurement approach to fulfill emergent and immediate, as well as long-term, medical supply requirements.
PSPC also several steps to reduce its carbon footprint. For example, the department has been able to utilize clean electricity in 91.4% of the Crown-owned building portfolio in 2020 to 2021, which is up from the starting point of 80% in 2018 to 2019.
Key financial information
The departmental results report shows an increase of $398.6 million between the 2020 to 2021 planned spending and the actual spending, from $4.05B to $4.45B. This is not unusual since planned spending is determined prior to the year and does not include changes in funding approved throughout 2020 to 2021, including in relation to COVID-19 response and pay operations.
Key performance information
In 2020 to 2021, where results were available and targets were set, 72.9% of PSPC’s departmental results indicators (DRIs) met their targets. This is lower than the department’s performance in 2019 to 2020 (86%), but this difference is largely attributable to pandemic-related impacts on some programs.
Doubling of spending and full-time equivalents for “payments and accounting”
- The difference between planned and actual spending for payments and accounting was largely due to the timing of authorities to continue our efforts to stabilize pay operations and eliminate the backlog
- This additional funding was included in the supplementary estimates and was not, therefore, captured in the planned spending at the beginning of the year
Results for Public Services and Procurement Canada service standards met and/or overall client satisfaction
- Due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and the high volume of demand for PSPC’s essential services, PSPC did not achieve its standard timelines for delivery of certain services
- To address client feedback, the department is working to improve timeliness and the availability of online information, and to simplify processes
Results for participation of Indigenous and women‑led businesses in procurement
- The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on non-traditional suppliers, including Indigenous and women-led businesses
- Procurement Assistance Canada is strengthening its outreach and engagement in support of broader efforts across the Government of Canada to increase the diversity of bidders on government contracts
Additional background: Public Services and Procurement Canada 2020 to 2021 Departmental Results Report
Background
The departmental results report presents the department’s actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding departmental plan. The report was tabled in Parliament on February 1, 2022.
Priority activities
The activities identified below summarize PSPC’s key accomplishments in the 2020 to 2021 year.
Purchase of goods and services
- Successfully negotiated purchase agreements with vaccine suppliers to secure needed COVID-19 vaccine doses for Canadians and led the delivery of more than 2.5 billion articles of personal protective equipment and over 54 million rapid tests.(as of March 23, 2021)
- Advanced the phased deployment of the electronic procurement solution
- Advanced major defence procurements, including the delivery of the first of 16 “Kingfisher” fixed-wing search and rescue CC295 aircraft, the release of the request for proposals and receipt of bids for the replacement of Canada's CF-18 fighter jets, as well as the start of production on the armoured combat support vehicles
Payments and accounting
- Achieved considerable progress in eliminating the backlog of outstanding pay issues for public servants. The department reduced the number of financial transactions waiting to be processed at the Public Service Pay Centre from 166,000 to 94,000, a reduction of 72,000 transactions. The department also improved its performance in meeting service standards and implemented new collective agreements
- All service standards for pension service delivery to plan members were met during the year
Property and infrastructure
- In alignment with the Greening Government Strategy, completed the roadmap to low-carbon operations in the National Capital Region, which presents a pathway to achieve net-zero carbon operations for the Government of Canada
- Collaborated with the National Capital Commission, the governments of Quebec and Ontario, the cities of Gatineau and Ottawa and Indigenous partners, to develop a long-term integrated interprovincial crossing plan
- Continued to advance its office long term plan, which contains notional targets designed to right-size, recapitalize and modernize the Government of Canada’s office portfolio over a 25-year planning horizon
Government-wide support
- Continued to provide translation and interpretation services to the Parliament of Canada and the Government of Canada in official, foreign, Indigenous and sign languages during the global COVID-19 pandemic
- PSPC continued to apply the Integrity Regime to help ensure the Government of Canada conducts business with ethical suppliers and to protect the integrity of procurement and real property transactions in an evolving marketplace. The department continued to assess and refine potential options to better address new and emerging risks to the integrity of federal procurement and this work is ongoing. Working collaboratively with provincial and territorial partners, PSPC participated in the establishment of a Federal, Provincial and Territories Integrity Working Group focused on risk mitigation for procurement in times of crisis. The mandate of this working group is to identify areas of risks and share mitigation strategies within public procurement across Canadian jurisdictions
Performance results
For 2020 to 2021, as displayed on GC InfoBase, (which is a public facing web page that provides performance information—results and indicators—for federal organizations) PSPC reports information on 36 results, measured by 67 indicators.
For 59 of the 67 these indicatorsFootnote 1:
- 43 (72.9%) met their target
- 15 (25.4%) did not meet their target
- 1 (1.7%) has no result available
Where results were available and targets were set, 72.9% of PSPC’s departmental results indicators met their targets. This is lower than the department’s performance in 2019 to 2020 (86%Footnote 2), but this difference is largely attributable to pandemic-related impacts on some programs. Footnote 3It should be noted that 37 of 45 (82%) of PSPC’s departmental results indicators have a target and a result in 2020 to 2021, compared to 28 of 48 DRIs (58%) in 2019 to 2020, which is a significant improvement.
Key performance trends by core responsibility
Purchase of goods and services
- No result is available for the indicator “Percentage of contracts awarded through PSPC standing offers and/or supply arrangements”
- data supporting this indicator is provided by departments after the close of the calendar year and is expected to be available in early 2022. The data source for this indicator is the Purchasing Activity Report, which is completed by calendar year, and is only made available 1.5 years after the end of the calendar year in question
- The indicator “Percentage of original contracts of level 1 (basic) complexity awarded within established timeframes” did not meet its target of 85%
- PSPC is analyzing various trends in federal procurement that have potentially impacted its processing times for basic complexity contracts
- The following 2 indicators did not meet their targets to a large extent due to the COVID-19 pandemic:
- “Percentage of dollar value awarded through competitive contracting processes”: PSPC procured a high volume of critical goods and supporting services on an urgent basis. Non-competitive procurements related to the COVID-19 response accounted for approximately 24% of the total value of PSPC procurement activity
- “Percentage of competitive procurement processes versus sole source”: PSPC procured a high volume of critical goods and supporting services on an urgent basis. Non-competitive procurements accounted for approximately 6% of COVID-19 processes undertaken by PSPC
- 5 indicators were without a target:
- “Percentage of complex competitive procurement processes for which at least 2 bids were received (level 3 to 5)”: A full fiscal year of data was not available for this indicator in time to include a target in the 2020 to 2021 Departmental Plan. The target for 2021 to 2022 is at least 80%
- “Average number of qualified bidders on complex competitive procurement processes”: A full fiscal year of data was not available for this indicator in time to include a target in the 2020 to 2021 Departmental Plan. The target for 2021 to 2022 is an average of 2.5
- “Percentage of suppliers that rate the purchasing process as fair and transparent”: At the beginning of 2020 to 2021, PSPC was reviewing the methodology to measure this indicator so that a target could be established for 2021 to 2022. The target for 2021 to 2022 is at least 80%
- “Percentage increase in participation to procurement processes by businesses owned by Indigenous peoples”: This indicator is being modified to “Percentage of participation in procurement processes by Indigenous suppliers” as part of the 2022 to 2023 Departmental Results Framework (DRF) amendment process and a target of 11% is being set for the 2022 to 2023 Departmental Plan
- “Percentage increase in participation to procurement processes by businesses owned by women”: This indicator is being modified to “Percentage of participation in procurement processes by suppliers who are women” as part of the 2022 to 2023 DRF amendment process and a target of 15% is being set for the 2022 to 2023 Departmental Plan
Payments and accounting
- The performance indicator “Percentage of pay transactions processed that are accurate and on time” did not meet its target of 95%, at 73%
- gradual improvement from the 2018 to 2019 and 2019 to 20 results, that were 55% and 68% respectively, is being achieved
Property and infrastructure
- The indicator “Percentage of PSPC-managed office space that is modernized each year to meet the current Government of Canada workplace fit-up standards” did not meet its target of ≥4%, with a result of 3.32%
- this was largely due to the increased costs of materials and construction delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
- 2 indicators were without a target:
- “Percentage of Crown-owned heritage buildings that are in fair or better condition”: A target was not available as this indicator was being revised and the methodology remained under development. A target of “At least 53%” has been set starting in 2021 to 2022
- “Percentage of PSPC owned and lease purchase buildings that provide features to support accessibility in the built environment”: The methodology and target were still under development in 2019 to 2020 and a target was not available for the 2020 to 2021 Departmental Plan. The target for 2020 to 2021 has since been set at 15%. In PSPC Crown-owned and lease-purchased portfolio, a total of 64 technical accessibility assessments against the Canadian standards were conducted in 2020 to 2021. This represents 17% of the target to complete technical accessibility assessments of the department’s 371 Crown-owned and lease-purchased buildings by 2024 to 2025
Government-wide support
- The indicator “Percentage of overall user satisfaction with the Translation Bureau’s language tools and services” slightly missed its 90% target, at 89.8%, as per the results of the survey
- The indicator “Percentage of overall client satisfaction with PSPC support services and tools” did not meet its target of 87% with a result of 76%
- client feedback identified opportunities for improvement concerning timeliness, availability of online information and the need for simplified processes. In response, an engagement plan has been developed and is currently being delivered across PSPC
- The indicator “Percentage of PSPC service standards met” did not meet its target of 87%, at 65%
- due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on service delivery and the high volume of demand on services, there were more services compared to last year that did not meet their service standard targets
- The following 2 indicators did not meet their targets to a large extent due to the COVID-19 pandemic:
- “Percentage of linguistic services that comply with established quality standards”: 2020 to 2021 was the first year that the Translation Bureau had the actual results for all 3 of its business lines (translation, interpretation and terminology). The slight variance between the indicator’s target and actual results is due to the sudden and significant increase of demand for parliamentary interpretation services as a result of COVID-19
- “Percentage of security screenings processed within 7 business days for contractors and sub-contractors requiring access to protected information”: The result slightly missed the target of 85%, at 84%, due to challenges presented during the first 2 months of the fiscal year when the pandemic started. Program performance was negatively impacted by network limitations and the demand to allocate all available resources toward managing urgent requests related to the government’s COVID-19 response
Key financial information
| Purpose of funding | 2020 to 2021 Main Estimates | 2020 to 2021 planned spending | 2020 to 2021 actual spending |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core responsibilities | 3,766,548,082 | 3,766,548,082 | 4,066,626,015 |
| Internal services | 281,723,937 | 281,723,937 | 380,244,932 |
| Totals | 4,048,272,019 | 4,048,272,019 | 4,446,870,947 |
- The net increase of $398.6 million between the 2020 to 2021 actual spending and the 2020 to 2021 planned spending is mainly due to:
- expenditures to provide supplies for the health system, support the Government of Canada's evolving response to the COVID-19 pandemic and provide the necessary funding for the Safe Restart Agreement
- expenditures to support the stabilization of pay operations and eliminate the backlog of pay issues
- investments in information technology infrastructure and licensing costs related to teleworking
- partially offset by a reduction in federal infrastructure projects due to the COVID-19 pandemic and delays in tendering contracts and the procurement of materials
2022 to 2023 Departmental Plan
In this section
Key messages
- In 2022 to 2023, PSPC’s work will deliver on broad government commitments related to diversity and inclusion, greening of government operations and procurement, and reconciliation
- One of PSPC’s top priorities is to continue to support the government’s response to COVID-19
- As we emerge from the pandemic, PSPC, in collaboration with partner departments, will seize opportunities to make better use of office space across federal workplaces, reducing operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions
- We will also continue efforts to modernize procurement and use federal purchasing to support inclusive economic growth, with a particular focus on providing procurement opportunities for underrepresented supplier groups
- The department will also deliver on key procurements to support the Armed Forces, including awarding a contract to replace the fighter aircraft fleet, as well as renewing Canada’s federal fleet of combat and non-combat vessels
Key data points
- For 2024 to 2025, the department plans to spend $1,097 million less than in 2022 to 2023. The decrease is due to the end or the winding down of funding in a broad suite of initiatives
- All 43 (100%) departmental results indicators have a target for 2022 to 2023, a significant incremental improvement since 2019 to 2020 when 33% of DRIs were without a target
Background
The departmental plan is a mechanism of ministerial accountability, communicating departmental expenditure plans for the next 3 years, as well as an organization’s priorities, resource requirements and expected results. The plan is tabled annually in Parliament by the President of the Treasury Board on behalf of all departments and published for all Canadians.
Priority activities
In 2022 to 2023, PSPC will deliver on a broad range of priority activities supporting the 5 core responsibilities under its mandate:
- purchase of goods and services
- payments and accounting
- property and infrastructure
- government-wide support
- Procurement Ombudsman
These priority activities include:
- continuing to support government’s response to COVID-19 pandemic
- advancing the implementation of various initiatives to modernize procurement, increase the diversity of bidders and increase the Indigenous participation to government procurement
- delivering on key procurements in support of Canada's defence policy
- working with other government departments and industry to implement the National Shipbuilding Strategy
Work will also be done to:
- resolve outstanding pay issues for public servants
- advance sustainability, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and greening initiatives for PSPC real property and infrastructure assets
- make progress on the definition of the post-pandemic work environment
- continue the rehabilitation of the Parliamentary Precinct
Efforts will be invested to enhance government-wide services and solutions by providing agile and digitally enabled environments and to improve programs related to contract security and controlled goods to respond to evolving external threat environment.
Departmental Results Report 2020 to 2021
Key messages
- Shared Services Canada (SSC) accomplished much over the last fiscal year, playing a key role in the rapid transition to remote work for thousands of government employees and supporting multiple departments on the front lines of the pandemic response
- At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, SSC was well-positioned to focus service delivery through an enterprise lens. Examples of key accomplishments to support the Government of Canada in response to the COVID-19 pandemic include:
- rapidly deploying Microsoft 365, a cloud-based suite of business and collaboration tools
- increasing remote work capacity
- maintaining efficient service delivery
- SSC’s work with partners across the Government of Canada allowed them to rely on a secure and efficient digital infrastructure to deliver critical online services to Canadians. Two key examples include:
- SSC quadrupled bandwidth and tripled remote connections to support the Canada Revenue Agency’s delivery of Canada Emergency Response Benefit CERB) and other emergency benefit programs
- SSC helped develop the ArriveCAN application to support border controls, contact tracing and ensure travellers arriving in Canada receive timely and accurate information
If pressed on cybersecurity:
- increased traffic due to remote work related to the pandemic resulted in pressure on the network and on the internet security architecture. The enterprise perimeter security system was successfully deployed in 2020 to 2021 to increase the visibility of cyber threats targeting the Government of Canada Network
- as an integral part of the cyber security tripartite, SSC continues to invest in tools to detect vulnerabilities across the enterprise and monitor compliance. Enterprise Vulnerability and Compliance Management identifies weaknesses in IT devices and infrastructure based on cyber threats and informs the IT infrastructure by testing existing security compliance when updates are introduced
If pressed on cloud services:
- Shared Services Canada has improved its current cloud governance and oversight to provide more support to customers and its service lines as they move to a cloud approach and has established a Cloud Centre of Excellence
- SSC established an enterprise approach to cloud services to address associated risks, including weakened Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT) security, lack of speed and scale, and lack of enterprise management capability
- leveraging the features and functionality of the operating model also enabled the release of the National Vaccination Management Information Platform by the Public Health Agency of Canada, which helped manage the vaccine rollout, administration, and reporting
If pressed on cloud brokering:
- in 2020 to 2021, the significant increase in demand for cloud brokering requests (from approximately $10M in consumption to over $112M) impacted Shared Services Canada’s ability to fulfill requests within established service level standards. Additional dedicated resources have been assigned to this function to meet the growing demand
If pressed on procurement:
- in 2020 to 2021, Shared Services Canada continued to evolve its agile procurement process to encourage increased industry participation and simplify the procure-to-pay system which will streamline the delivery of the Government of Canada IT
- SSC has also simplified procurement by continuing to enhance the procure-to-pay (P2P) system. P2P streamlines the delivery of government IT services by electronically administering procurement from initiation to payment. In 2020 to 2021, improvements were made to business processes, functionality and user experience, which resulted in a more efficient procurement process for partners using the system
If pressed on telecommunications:
- SSC enabled modern telecommunications and features like Wi-Fi calling on smartphones, allowing employees living in remote areas with unreliable cellular service to continue working. SSC also provided support for conferencing services in response to a 3-fold increase in usage due to the pandemic response and remote working conditions, including dedicated operator support to ensure essential communications were maintained
- SSC worked with telecommunication vendors to increase network capacity by implementing massive upgrades to bandwidth and remote access capacity. SSC accelerated bandwidth improvements to maintain the quality of service and upgraded network performance to compensate for the extra internet traffic load
Key data points
- Expenses were $257 million higher than planned (planned: $2,055 million; actual: $2,312 million) mainly due to:
- additional IT expenditures related to the COVID-19 pandemic and expenditures for the replacement and repair of ageing IT equipment
- Revenues were $272.3 million more than planned (planned: $595.3 million; actual: $867.6 million) mainly due to:
- increased demand for SSC’s IT services in part due to the COVID-19 response, which accelerated the importance of modernizing information technology infrastructure, digitalizing services and platforms, while ensuring they are secure, reliable and accessible
Background
The departmental results report informs parliamentarians and Canadians of the results achieved by Shared Services Canada for Canadians, and the resources used to achieve those results. A retrospective view is provided for 2020 to 2021 against the plans, priorities and expected results that were set out in the departmental plan for the year. The departmental results report is based on the Departmental Results Framework and program inventory approved for 2020 to 2021.
The 2020 to 2021 Departmental Results Report focuses on Shared Services Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic while also moving digital government forward, and coordinating a government-wide corporate approach to information technology.
Shared Services Canada delivered on responsibilities over the past year by providing modern, secure and reliable services to government organizations so they could deliver digital programs and services that Canadians need.
Departmental Plan 2022 to 2023
Key messages
- SSC is responsible for operating and modernizing the Government of Canada’s IT infrastructure, which is the backbone of digital government. It works with its partner departments to keep networks safe, secure, and accessible for Canadians
- The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way the government operates as Canadians expect to access government benefits and services from anywhere, at any time, from any device
- With the pandemic evolving, and the demand for SSC’s services increasing, the department is preparing the infrastructure for a post pandemic work environment that supports both remote and onsite work
- SSC will support a digital government by expanding and improving the scope of digital service capacity, accelerating the pace of digital modernization, and, strengthening the ongoing support for digital tools, systems and networks government-wide
- SSC has identified 4 strategic priorities for 2022to 2023 that will build on its enterprise approach, reflect continuous technological advances, and support the ongoing transformation of the Government of Canada’s IT infrastructure and service to meet current and future needs. These strategic priorities are:
- networks and security
- enterprise tools
- modern application platforms
- enabling the enterprise
- SSC is fulfilling its mandate commitment by advancing work on the Next Generation Pay and Human Resources System. When completed, this will provide a robust, flexible, modern and integrated human resources (HR) and pay solution that will meet the Government of Canada’s needs now and in the future
If pressed on Next Generation Human Resources and Pay System:
- as an enterprise initiative, next generation (NextGen) HR and pay aims to have the right information required to make informed and appropriate recommendations towards a user-centric, sustainable and efficient digital HR and pay solution for the Government of Canada. SSC’s focus is to complete iterative testing of a solution to support a well-informed final decision
If pressed on the hybrid network model:
- as part of network modernization efforts, SSC is exploring the adoption of an increasingly hybrid network model, where network improvements will incorporate network resources that are readily available in the private sector and scalable on demand in order to efficiently support partner departments. This will increase bandwidth availability and broaden network resilience
If pressed on Zero Trust Architecture:
- Zero Trust Architecture ensures that appropriate users can have access to the right applications and data under the right circumstances while limiting what a user can access and how long they can access it, which reduces impact of any potential security breaches and loss of valuable information. SSC will develop and test solutions to advance components within a zero trust network, using science departments as a pilot case in defining Government of Canada-wide solutions
If pressed on procurement:
- SSC will qualify telecom vendors in specific services areas and will establish the appropriate procurement vehicles and contracts in these areas. The Government of Canada is encouraging interested vendors to include in their response a socio-economic strategy to increase the participation of Canada’s priority groups in this procurement process
Key data points
- SSC’s planned spending for 2022 to 2023 is $2,618,895,615
- The increase from 2021 to 2022 forecast spending to 2022 to 2023 planned spending is mainly due to the department’s implementation of the IT enterprise service model, and initiatives from Budget 2021, offset by the sunsetting of Budget 2018 funding and other projects and initiatives
- SSC’s planned full time equivalents (FTE) for 2022 to 2023 is 7,867
- the FTE increases throughout the fiscal years are mainly due to additional FTEs that were approved by SSC’s senior management to address the increased demand for SSC’s services and to support service delivery improvements
Background
The departmental plan provides parliamentarians and Canadians with information on Shared Services Canada’s mandate, priorities and resources for the upcoming year. It describes Shared Services Canada’s core responsibility and departmental results, departmental priorities for 2022 to 2023, and how the work of the department will support the government’s mandate, commitments and priorities.
Shared Services Canada’s Departmental Plan acknowledges the important role the department will play in the Government of Canada’s digital transformation and the post pandemic work environment. The departmental plan has been structured to reflect the close alignment between the SSC’s strategic priorities and the department’s core responsibility, results and initiatives.
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