RCMP External Review Committee’s 2023-24 Departmental results report

ISSN 2561-083X

Cat. Number PS20-7E-PDF

• Description
• Progress on results
• Resources required to achieve results
• Related government-wide priorities
• Program inventory

Results achieved: 

• The ERC is an independent quasi-judicial statutory tribunal established under the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act that operates independently from the RCMP. Its role is to impartially review appeals of certain decisions made within internal RCMP labor relations processes and to provide Findings and Recommendations to the Commissioner of the RCMP. Although, under the Act, the Commissioner is not required to support the issued Findings and Recommendations (F&Rs), they must provide a written justification in the event where ERC recommendations are not followed.  
• During 2023-24, the Commissioner made final decisions on 33 cases: 88% (29) of which they were in agreement; 3% (1) in partial agreement; and 9% (3) in disagreement with the ERC issued recommendations.  

Results achieved: 

• The ERC adjusted its service standards in April of 2022; making 2022-23 its first year of reporting. Although this Departmental Results Report (DRR) is for the 2023-24 reporting period, the ERC’s established one year service standard assessing timeliness of the F&Rs issuance often spans over two reporting cycles. As a results, for accuracy and completeness of data, the results used to report against this indicator will be based for the information from the previous fiscal year, in this case 2022-23.
• In 2022-23, the ERC received 31 cases. The organization issued F&R summaries for 11 out of the 31 cases within the same fiscal year, which represented achieving 100% of the set service standard reported in the DRR 2022-23.
• Out of the remaining 20 cases received in 2022-23, F&Rs were issued within the one year service standard for an additional 13 cases.
• This represents a total of 24 out of the 31 cases received (or 77%) for which F&Rs were issued within the service standard. As established in the revised services standards, the organizations aim is to ensure that 75% of all files are reviewed and associated F&R is issued within 12 months; resulting in ERC meeting its 100% target for this reporting period. 
• During the fiscal year 2023-24, the ERC received 20 new cases for which is will report on in the 2024-25 DRR.

Results achieved: 

• During this reporting period, the ERC issues 96 F&Rs.
• 100% of the issued F&R summaries were posted on the ERC Website within two months following the end of the quarter.

More information on the ERC’s contributions to Canada’s Federal Implementation Plan on the 2030 Agenda and the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy can be found in our Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy. 

• Description
• Progress on results
• Resources required to achieve results
• Contracts awarded to Indigenous business

• Spending
• Funding
• Financial statement highlights
• Human resources

The 2009-10 granted exemption from reporting separately on Internal Services resulted in ERC’s financial information being consolidated under the sole Core Responsibility, namely the Independent review of RCMP employment matters. While this exemption was still applied in the 2023-24 Main Estimates, the ERC had started making adjustments to initiate respective program and internal services financial reporting. This adjustment allowed ERC to have Total Authorities available for 2023-24 divided between Independent review of RCMP employment matters and Internal Services. This also provided the organization with the ability to report on Actual Spending for the Core Responsibility and the Internal Services separately.

While recruitment of specialized personnel and successful succession continue to present a challenge for the ERC as a micro-organization, over the last three years, the ERC was successful in staffing key positions to support the delivery of its mandate. This success is demonstrated in the progressive increase of ERC’s total spending over the last three fiscal years presented in the table above. 

More financial information from previous years is available on the Finances section of GC Infobase.

The ERC does not anticipate any program changes over the next three years. Any changes to the funding requirements will result from the negotiated salary increases led by Treasury Board.

More detailed financial information from previous years available on the Finances section of GC Infobase.

Graph 1 demonstrates ERC’s increased funding from 2021-22 to 2023-24. This progressive increase is explained by the approval of the Program Integrity Treasury Board Submission as well as some negotiated salary increases during that period. The approved funding increase has allowed the organization to staff several key positions to support the delivery of the ERC mandate as well as ensure continuity through sound succession planning.

The ERC does not anticipate any program changes over the next three years. The organization’s focus is slowly transitioning from a growth approach to retention of its current capacity and optimization of its processes. Any changes to the funding requirements will result from the newly negotiated salary increases affecting ERC’s available resources.

For further information on the RCMP External Review Committee’s departmental voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada.

As clarified earlier, ERC’s data specific to Internal Services was segregated and became available in 2023-24. Aligned with the previously presented financial information, Table 9 presents a progressive increase of the total actual FTE count over the last three years, rising from 22.3 in 2021-22 to 27.3 in 2023-24. This increase reflects ERC’s commitment to enhancing its capacity to reduce the backlog, to deliver on its mandate more effectively, and to optimize its workforce. 

The previous table demonstrates ERC’s increase in FTEs due to its successful recruitment of certain key positions supporting the delivery of its mandate. Nevertheless staffing and retention of specialized personnel, and maintenance of a successful succession plan continue to pose a challenge for the ERC as a micro-organization. This challenge has prevented the ERC in reaching the total of 33 FTEs indicated in the above Table 10. 

Appropriate minister(s): The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, P.C., K.C., M.P.

Institutional head: Charles Randall Smith, Chairperson

Ministerial portfolio: Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs

Enabling instrument(s): Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. R-10

Year of incorporation / commencement: 1986

Mailing address

Mailing address:

RCMP External Review Committee
P.O. Box 1159, Station B
Ottawa,Ontario K1P 5R2

Canada

Telephone: 613-998-2134

Fax: 613-990-8969

Email: org@erc-cee.gc.ca

Website: https://www.canada.ca/en/rcmp-external-review-committee.html

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, departments 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 3year 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.

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 [ACS Plus])

An analytical tool used to assess support the development of responsive and inclusive how different groups of women, men and gender-diverse people experience policies, programs and policies, programs, and other initiatives. GBA Plus is a process for understanding who is impacted by the issue or opportunity being addressed by the initiative; identifying how the initiative could be tailored to meet diverse needs of the people most impacted; and anticipating and mitigating any barriers to accessing or benefitting from the initiative. GBA Plus is an intersectional analysis that goes beyond biological (sex) and socio-cultural (gender) differences to consider other factors, such as age, disability, education, ethnicity, economic status, geography (including rurality), language, race, religion, and sexual orientation.

government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)

For the purpose of the 2022–23 Departmental Results Report, government-wide priorities are the high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the November 23, 2021, Speech from the Throne: building a healthier today and tomorrow; growing a more resilient economy; bolder climate action; fight harder for safer communities; standing up for diversity and inclusion; moving faster on the path to reconciliation; and fighting for a secure, just and equitable world.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

An initiative where two or more federal departments 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 a department did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the department 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 department, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.

plan (plan)

The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how a department 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 department, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single department, policy, program or initiative; instead they are within the area of the department’s influence.

Indigenous business (entreprise autochtones)

For the purpose of the Directive on the Management of Procurement Appendix E: Mandatory Procedures for Contracts Awarded to Indigenous Businesses and the Government of Canada’s commitment that a mandatory minimum target of 5% of the total value of contracts is awarded to Indigenous businesses, a department that meets the definition and requirements as defined by the Indigenous Business Directory. 

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 a department, 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.