Report on Plans and Priorities 2014-15

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ISSN 2292-3225

Reports on Plans and Priorities (RPP) are individual expenditure plans for each department and agency. These reports provide increased levels of detail over a three-year period on an organization's main priorities by strategic outcome, program and planned/expected results, including links to related resource requirements presented in the Main Estimates. In conjunction with the Main Estimates, Reports on Plans and Priorities serve to inform members of Parliament on planned expenditures of departments and agencies, and support Parliament's consideration of supply bills. The RPPs are typically tabled soon after the Main Estimates by the President of the Treasury Board.

The Estimates are comprised of three parts:

Part I - Government Expenditure Plan - provides an overview of the Government's requirements and changes in estimated expenditures from previous fiscal years.

Part II - Main Estimates - supports the appropriation acts with detailed information on the estimated spending and authorities being sought by each federal organization requesting appropriations.

In accordance with Standing Orders of the House of Commons, Parts I and II must be tabled on or before March 1.

Part III - Departmental Expenditure Plans - consists of two components:

• Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP)
• Departmental Performance Report (DPR)

DPRs are individual department and agency accounts of results achieved against planned performance expectations as set out in respective RPPs.

The DPRs for the most recently completed fiscal year are tabled in the fall by the President of the Treasury Board.

Supplementary Estimates support Appropriation Acts presented later in the fiscal year. Supplementary Estimates present information on spending requirements that were either not sufficiently developed in time for inclusion in the Main Estimates or have subsequently been refined to account for developments in particular programs and services. Supplementary Estimates also provide information on changes to expenditure forecasts of major statutory items as well as on such items as: transfers of funds between votes; debt deletion; loan guarantees; and new or increased grants. For more information on the Estimates, please consult the Treasury Board Secretariat website.

As shown above, RPPs make up part of the Part III of the Estimates documents. Whereas Part II emphasizes the financial aspect of the Estimates, Part III focuses on financial and non-financial performance information, both from a planning and priorities standpoint (RPP), and an achievements and results perspective (DPR).

The Management Resources and Results Structure (MRRS) establishes a structure for display of financial information in the Estimates and reporting to Parliament via RPPs and DPRs. When displaying planned spending, RPPs rely on the Estimates as a basic source of financial information.

Main Estimates expenditure figures are based on the Annual Reference Level Update which is prepared in the fall. In comparison, planned spending found in RPPs includes the Estimates as well as any other amounts that have been approved through a Treasury Board submission up to February 1st (See Definitions section). This readjusting of the financial figures allows for a more up-to-date portrait of planned spending by program.

Several changes have been made to the presentation of the RPP partially to respond to a number of requests - from the House of Commons Standing Committees on Public Accounts (PAC - Report 15), in 2010; and on Government and Operations Estimates (OGGO - Report 7), in 2012 - to provide more detailed financial and non-financial performance information about programs within RPPs and DPRs, thus improving the ease of their study to support appropriations approval.

• In Section II, financial, human resources and performance information is now presented at the Program and Sub-program levels for more granularity.
• The report's general format and terminology have been reviewed for clarity and consistency purposes.
• Other efforts aimed at making the report more intuitive and focused on Estimates information were made to strengthen alignment with the Main Estimates.

RPPs are divided into four sections:

Section I: Organizational Expenditure Overview

This Organizational Expenditure Overview allows the reader to get a general glance at the organization. It provides a description of the organization's purpose, as well as basic financial and human resources information. This section opens with the new Organizational Profile, which displays general information about the department, including the names of the minister and the deputy head, the ministerial portfolio, the year the department was established, and the main legislative authorities. This subsection is followed by a new subsection entitled Organizational Context, which includes the Raison d'être, the Responsibilities, the Strategic Outcomes and Program Alignment Architecture, the Organizational Priorities and the Risk Analysis. This section ends with the Planned Expenditures, the Alignment to Government of Canada Outcomes, the Estimates by Votes and the Contribution to the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy. It should be noted that this section does not display any non-financial performance information related to programs (please see Section II).

Section II: Analysis of Program(s) by Strategic Outcome(s)

This Section provides detailed financial and non-financial performance information for strategic outcomes, Programs and sub-programs. This section allows the reader to learn more about programs by reading their respective description and narrative entitled “Planning Highlights”. This narrative speaks to key services or initiatives which support the plans and priorities presented in Section I; it also describes how performance information supports the department's strategic outcome or parent program.

Section III: Supplementary Information

This section provides supporting information related to departmental plans and priorities. In this section, the reader will find future-oriented statement of operations and a link to supplementary information tables regarding transfer payments, as well as information related to the greening government operations, internal audits and evaluations, horizontal initiatives, user fees, major crown and transformational projects, and up-front multi-year funding, where applicable to individual organizations. The reader will also find a link to the Tax Expenditures and Evaluations publication, produced annually by the Minister of Finance, which provides estimates and projections of the revenue impacts of federal tax measures designed to support the economic and social priorities of the Government of Canada.

Section IV: Organizational Contact Information

In this last section, the reader will have access to organizational contact information.

The RCMP External Review Committee (ERC), established within the RCMP Act, is an independent and impartial agency that aims to promote fair and equitable labour relations within the RCMP. It reviews appeals in disciplinary, and discharge and demotion matters, as well as certain categories of grievances. Upon completing its review of a case, the ERC presents findings and recommendations to the Commissioner of the RCMP for a final decision.

This 2014-15 Report on Plans and Priorities provides an overview of the ERC's plans for the upcoming fiscal year, as it continues to fulfil its mandate.

Exciting changes are on the horizon. On June 19, 2013, the Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act S.C. 2013, c. 18 received Royal Assent. This new legislation modernizes discipline, grievance and human resource management processes for RCMP members. The ERC has a vested interest in the mechanisms which are being developed to implement that legislation, and is pleased to contribute as an expert and a stakeholder in the consultation processes. Once these changes are finalized, the ERC looks forward to developing internal procedures to effectively manage cases referred under the original RCMP Act as well as those which will begin to arrive under the new legislation.

The ERC will continue to perform its impartial and independent case review in a sound and timely manner. It will also develop standards with respect to time limits for dealing with its cases, as required under the new legislation.

Sincerely,

David Paradiso
Interim Chair

January 28, 2014

Minister: The Honourable Steven Blaney, P.C., M.P.

Deputy head: David Paradiso, Interim Chair

Ministerial portfolio: Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Year established: 1986

Main legislative authorities: Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. R-10

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee (ERC) is an independent and impartial agency that aims to promote fair and equitable labour relations within the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), in accordance with applicable principles of law. To this end, the ERC conducts an independent review of appeals in disciplinary, and discharge and demotion matters, as well as certain categories of grievances that are referred to it pursuant to s. 33 of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act and s. 36 of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Regulations. The ERC reports directly to Parliament through the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. The ERC's jurisdiction is restricted to employment and labour matters that relate to regular members and civilian members of the RCMP only. In carrying out its mandate, the ERC ensures that its recommendations are solidly grounded in law and that members of the RCMP are treated in a fair and equitable manner, in keeping with the public interest.

The ERC has one sole member, the Chair, who is appointed by an Order in Council, and is supported by an Executive Director and a small staff. The role of the ERC in the Force's labour/management resolution process is a crucial one. Over the years, the RCMP has made changes in a variety of areas based on recommendations made by the ERC.

As one of two oversight/review bodies over the RCMP, the ERC plays an important role in maintaining public confidence in the RCMP and ensures that it respects the law and human rights.

The ERC is within the Public Safety Portfolio whose Minister is the appropriate Minister responsible for the purposes of the Financial Administration Act. The ERC's mandate is simply put: the independent and impartial review of grievances as well as appeals that involve the discipline, discharge or demotion of RCMP members. Upon completing its review of a case, the ERC presents findings and recommendations to the Commissioner of the RCMP for a final decision. The Commissioner is not bound to follow the recommendations of the ERC, but he must provide reasons when there is disagreement with the recommendations of the ERC.

1 Strategic Outcome: Independent, impartial and thorough analysis, findings and recommendations for transparency in Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) grievances and appeals.

1.1 Program: Independent and impartial case review

Internal Services

Key Risks

In the past decade, the ERC has struggled with a growing number of outstanding cases and with the demand for increased corporate reporting. The ERC's small size, and the need for staff to sometimes be reassigned to deal with these corporate reporting pressures, have contributed to delays in the case review process. Temporary funding was secured over the course of several years since then to help alleviate its critical backlog of cases and address corporate management pressures. The last of these funding envelopes closed in 2011-12. For 2012-13 and 2013-14, the RCMP transferred, in each year, $710,001 in O&M expenditures from its appropriations in support of Public Safety Canada's transitional measures to support the ERC's operations following the signing of the new RCMP policing service agreements.

The ERC's base budget has thus been regularly augmented by a series of temporary funds to allow it to meet the obligations of its mandate and to ensure the accountability of its operations. This fluctuation in funding is deemed to be a significant risk. The ERC is in discussions with Public Safety Canada in efforts to stabilize its funding.

The Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act S.C. 2013, c. 18, received Royal Assent on June 19, 2013. It modifies the RCMP's internal discipline and grievance systems. The ERC has a vested interest in the processes that are being developed under this new legislation, and therefore has stayed in close communication with senior policy officials in Public Safety Canada. Further, the ERC has participated in Working Groups formed to review related processes, and it will continue to offer its input as a stakeholder. The ERC is eager to develop its own procedures to accord with these new mechanisms. These will include service standards, as required under the new Act, once grievance and appeals processes are finalized, and once the ERC's funding situation becomes clearer.

In order to support the quality and efficiency of its case review function, the ERC also continues to monitor the evolution of caselaw, particularly of cases before the Federal Court which could be relevant to issues before the ERC and the Commissioner of the RCMP.

For the last several years the ERC's budgetary planning trend has been relatively consistent, as follows: it bases its budget on the Annual Reference Level Update, which represents its base funding, and at various points in the fiscal year it receives confirmation of a significant grant of short-term funding. The amount has remained somewhat consistent, accounting for expenditure reductions as a result of Budget 2012 in the federal public service generally. However, the inconsistencies in the timing and the sources of the allocations present challenges for expenditure planning. The ERC's strategy is to avoid making long-term spending commitments and favouring short-term, flexible arrangements. This allows the ERC to plan for spending arrangements to coincide with the end of the fiscal year and to curtail spending sooner if necessary.

For this reason there is a consistent pattern of setting initial budgets for lower planned spending, then total authorities are augmented mid-year and actual spending is increased to meet the authority. The risk to the ERC's operation is that long term planning is compromised as is continuity of expertise and functional capacity.

In the preceding graph, each column represents the ERC's expenditures for relevant fiscal years. The first two columns represent actual spending in 2011-12 and 2012-13. The third column represents forecast spending for 2013-14. The last three columns represent planned spending for the next three fiscal years. Read together, the columns reveal the ERC's spending trend.

Actual spending in 2011-12 includes temporary funding from an envelope approved in the 2009-10 fiscal year which closed in 2011-12, as well as a Treasury Board Management Reserve Funding Envelope secured in 2006-07 which closed in 2011-12. The 2011-12 column also includes a transfer of funding received from contract policing partners in support of the ERC's operations. This funding ended in 2011-12. The 2012-13 and 2013-14 columns include successive transfers of $710,001 in O&M expenditures from the RCMP's appropriations in support of Public Safety Canada's transitional measures to support the ERC's operations following the signing of the new RCMP policing service agreements.

The ERC has been seeking to secure permanent funding for 2014-15 and onwards to accommodate the continuing effort to stay current with the rate of cases referred to the ERC and to further reduce the waiting time linked to pending cases. Permanent funding would also provide stability as new processes affecting the ERC's case review function are implemented under the Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act S.C. 2013, c. 18, and as the ERC develops the service standards required under that legislation.

For information on the ERC's organizational appropriations, please see the 2014-15 Main Estimates publication.

The ERC also ensures that its decision-making process includes a consideration of the FSDS goals and targets through the strategic environmental assessment (SEA). An SEA for policy, plan or program proposals includes an analysis of the impacts of the proposal on the environment, including on the FSDS goals and targets. The results of SEAs are made public when an initiative is announced or approved, demonstrating that environmental factors were integrated into the decision-making process.

Description: The ERC conducts an independent review of appeals in disciplinary, and discharge and demotion matters, as well as certain categories of grievances that are referred to it by the Commissioner of the RCMP pursuant to s. 33 of the RCMP Act and s. 36 of the RCMP Regulations. The ERC ensures that the principles of administrative and labour law are respected and that the remedial approach indicated by the Act is followed. The ERC issues reports of its findings and recommendations in each case to the Commissioner of the RCMP and to the parties. Access to the ERC's reports is made available to all stakeholders (including the parties, RCMP adjudicators, supervisors, members' representatives, staff relations representatives, and labour and employment experts in other jurisdictions) by means of its website, publications and presentations.

Planning Highlights

The strategic outcome of the ERC is the “Independent, impartial and thorough analysis, findings and recommendations for transparency in Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) grievances and appeals.” The ERC, as an independent arms-length agency created under the RCMP Act, focusses on the impartial, independent and timely review of RCMP labour relations cases referred to it and the timely issuance of recommendations to the Commissioner of the RCMP.

The cases that must be referred are described in the RCMP Act and include disciplinary appeals, discharge and demotion appeals and certain categories of grievances. When applicable Enhancing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Accountability Act S.C. 2013, c. 18 provisions come into force, the ERC will review cases under two parallel systems. Grievances and appeals referred under new processes will, for some time, be administered by the ERC concurrently with cases that are captured by the existing RCMP Act, until this latter category of cases is exhausted.

The ERC will attempt to achieve timeliness while maintaining quality in its recommendations. It will strive to ensure that the principles of administrative and labour law are respected and that the remedial approach indicated by the RCMP Act is followed. In each case, the ERC will consider the public interest and ensure that members of the RCMP are treated in a fair and equitable manner. The expeditious handling of cases referred to the ERC is fundamental to maintaining its integrity and credibility in carrying out its statutory mandate. The ERC has adopted a number of case management practices to ensure that its review process is as expeditious as possible and to support the quality of its findings and recommendations.

The ERC will continue to ensure that its findings and recommendations in each case are clearly explained for the concerned parties and the Commissioner of the RCMP. The ERC will continue its outreach function through various timely and accessible communication and outreach tools. The ERC widely distributes summaries of the findings and recommendations in each case, as well as articles of interest on the role of the ERC, relevant legal principles and information on related issues.

The ERC's focus on effectiveness and efficiency in both its case review process and management functions will assist it to achieve these results. The statutory mandate of the ERC in the RCMP Act is case review. It is in this respect that this Program contributes to the Strategic Outcome.

Description: Internal Services are groups of related activities and resources that are administered to support the needs of programs and other corporate obligations of an organization. These groups are: Management and Oversight Services; Communications Services; Legal Services; Human Resources Management Services; Financial Management Services; Information Management Services; Information Technology Services; Real Property Services; Materiel Services; Acquisition Services; and Other Administrative Services. Internal Services include only those activities and resources that apply across an organization and not to those provided specifically to a program.

In an agency as uniquely small as the ERC, staff members' duties span programs and they routinely overlap with varying regularity. Similarly, supplies and equipment are shared by both its sole program and Internal Services on a routine basis. The related expenditures could not be reliably apportioned between programs without an ongoing inordinate expenditure of resources. Any other reporting of this would be inaccurate. As explained in the ERC's 2013-14 Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP), due to the impracticability of tracking Internal Services separately from the rest on an ongoing basis, the ERC has been granted an exemption from ongoing reporting on financial commitments to Internal Services as a separate program.

Since the years 2009-10 and 2010-11 when the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat granted the ERC an exemption from reporting on financial commitments to Internal Services as a separate program, the ERC's circumstances remain largely unchanged. Therefore this Report will continue to present information indicating that the ERC has a single, distinct program.

The future-oriented condensed statement of operations presented in this subsection is intended to serve as a general overview of the ERC's operations. The forecasted financial information on expenses and revenues are prepared on an accrual accounting basis to strengthen accountability and to improve transparency and financial management.

Because the future-oriented statement of operations is prepared on an accrual accounting basis and the forecast and planned spending amounts presented in other sections of this report are prepared on an expenditure basis, amounts will differ.

A more detailed future-oriented statement of operations and associated notes, including a reconciliation of the net costs of operations to the requested authorities, can be found on the ERC's website.

The ERC's Risk Analysis revolves primarily around its fluctuating funding level. This poses a challenge for long term forecasting and planning. Until such stability is achieved, the variances in actual expenditures per quarter from one year to the next will continue to be relatively considerable. The ERC will continue to pursue a permanent increase in its reference level.

The supplementary information table listed in the 2014-15 Report on Plans and Priorities can be found on the ERC's website.

1. Upcoming Internal Audits over the next three fiscal years.

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 publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures annually in the Tax Expenditures and Evaluations publication. The tax measures presented in the Tax Expenditures and Evaluations publication are the sole responsibility of the Minister of Finance.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee
PO Box 1159, Station B
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5R2
Canada

Telephone: 613-998-2134
Fax: 613-990-8969
E-mail: org@erc-cee.gc.ca
Web: http://www.erc-cee.gc.ca

1. 1

   Type is defined as follows: previously committed to—committed to in the first or second fiscal year prior to the subject year of the report; ongoing—committed to at least three fiscal years prior to the subject year of the report; and new—newly committed to in the reporting year of the RPP or DPR. If another type that is specific to the department is introduced, an explanation of its meaning must be provided.