Report on Plans and Priorities 2016-17

Appendix: Definitions

Appropriation

Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

Budgetary Expenditures

Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, organizations or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.

Departmental Performance Report

Reports on an appropriated organization's actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Reports on Plans and Priorities. These reports are tabled in Parliament in the fall.

Full-Time Equivalent

A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person year charge against a departmental budget. Full time equivalents are calculated as a ratio of assigned hours of work to scheduled hours of work. Scheduled hours of work are set out in collective agreements.

Government of Canada outcomes

A set of 16 high level objectives defined for the government as a whole, grouped in four spending areas: economic affairs, social affairs, international affairs and government affairs.

Management, Resources and Results Structure

A comprehensive framework that consists of an organization's inventory of programs, resources, results, performance indicators and governance information. Programs and results are depicted in their hierarchical relationship to each other and to the Strategic Outcome(s) to which they contribute. The Management, Resources and Results Structure is developed from the Program Alignment Architecture.

Non-Budgetary Expenditures

Net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.

Performance

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

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

The process of communicating evidence based performance information. Performance reporting supports decision making, accountability and transparency.

Planned Spending

For Reports on Plans and Priorities (RPPs) and Departmental Performance Reports (DPRs), planned spending refers to those amounts that receive Treasury Board approval by February 1. Therefore, planned spending may include amounts incremental to planned expenditures presented in the Main Estimates. A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their RPPs and DPRs.

Plans

The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how an organization intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead up to the expected result.

Priorities

Plans or projects that an organization 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 Strategic Outcome(s).

Program

A group of related resource inputs and activities that are managed to meet specific needs and to achieve intended results and that are treated as a budgetary unit.

Program Alignment Architecture

A structured inventory of an organization's programs depicting the hierarchical relationship between programs and the Strategic Outcome(s) to which they contribute.

Report on Plans and Priorities

Provides information on the plans and expected performance of appropriated organizations over a three year period. These reports are tabled in Parliament each spring.

Results

An external consequence attributed, in part, to an organization, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single organization, policy, program or initiative; instead they are within the area of the organization's influence.

Statutory Expenditures

Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.

Strategic Outcome

A long term and enduring benefit to Canadians that is linked to the organization's mandate, vision and core functions.

Sunset Program

A time limited program that does not have an ongoing funding and policy authority. When the program is set to expire, a decision must be made whether to continue the program. In the case of a renewal, the decision specifies the scope, funding level and duration.

Target

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

Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an Appropriation Act. The Vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.

Whole of Government Framework

Maps the financial contributions of federal organizations receiving appropriations by aligning their Programs to a set of 16 government wide, high level outcome areas, grouped under four spending areas.

Endnotes

i.     Copyright information, www.cra-arc.gc.ca/cpyrght-eng.html

ii.    Canada Revenue Agency Act, www.laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-10.11/

iii.   Prime Minister of Canada’s website, pm.gc.ca/eng/ministerial-mandate-letters

iv.   Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project, www.oecd.org/ctp/beps.htm

v.    Whole-of-Government Framework, www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/ems-sgd/wgf-ipp-eng.asp

vi.   2016-17 Main Estimates,  www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/hgw-cgf/finances/pgs-pdg/gepme-pdgbpd/index-eng.asp

vii.  Open Government, open.canada.ca/en

viii. Canada Revenue Agency, www.cra-arc.gc.ca

ix.   Tax Expenditures and Evaluations, www.fin.gc.ca/purl/taxexp-eng.asp

Page details

Date modified: