Supplementary Information: 2014–15 to 2019–20 budgetary and human resources planning summaries based on the Departmental Results Framework

Introduction

The following supplementary information restates the Secretariat’s budgetary and human resources planning summaries and explanations according to the most recent reporting structure of the four Core Responsibilities and Internal Services of the Secretariat’s new Departmental Results Framework as if this reporting structure had been in place since 2014. This enables direct year-to-year comparisons of the planning information.

The table “Budgetary planning summary for Core Responsibilities and Internal Services” outlines the following:

• actual spending for fiscal years 2014–15 and 2015–16, as reported in the Public Accounts of Canada
• forecast spending for fiscal year 2016–17
• planned spending for fiscal years 2017–18, 2018–19 and 2019–20

For details on planned spending, see the section “Planned results: what we want to achieve this year and beyond.”

The Secretariat delivers on its Core Responsibilities and funds its Internal Services through its operating budget, which is funded through Vote 1. In addition, as part of its Core Responsibility of Spending Oversight, the Secretariat holds funds in Central Votes 5, 10, 15, 25, 30 and 33 and transfers them to other federal departments and agencies throughout the year. These funds are used to address government contingencies, government-wide initiatives, compensation requirements, operating and capital budget carry forward, and paylist expenditures. Furthermore, as part of its Core Responsibility of Employer, the Secretariat manages funds held in Vote 20 and statutory votes to pay the employer’s share of contributions to employee insurance and benefits plans, as well as to the Public Service Pension Plan.

The Secretariat’s operating budget accounts for 4% of total planned spending; Public Service Employer Payments and statutory items account for 42%; and Government-Wide Funds held in the Secretariat’s central votes account for 54%.

Explanation of variances by fiscal year

Actual spending increased by $906 million from 2014–15 to 2015–16. Most of that increase, $718 million, relates to a one-time actuarial adjustment made to ensure the financial sustainability of the Public Service Pension Plan, which is offered under the Public Service Superannuation Act. The rest of the increase relates to a one-time payment of $236 million in 2015 to restore the financial health of the Service Income Security Insurance Plan to ensure that this plan can provide benefits to an increased number of medically released Canadian Armed Forces members who served in the Afghanistan mission.

These increases were offset by a $48 million decrease in the Secretariat’s operating expenditures in relation to:

• the sunsetting of funding received in 2014–15 for the payout of an out-of-court settlement to eligible medically released RCMP officers in the White class action suit, which was launched against the Crown in 2014
• the close out of the Secretariat’s Workspace Renewal Project (Phase I), because more than 1,500 employees have been moved to 90 Elgin
• the savings returned to the Fiscal Framework for the National Managers’ Community, the Regional Federal Councils
• a transfer from the Secretariat to Public Services and Procurement Canada for the consolidation of pay services in Miramichi, New Brunswick

Total forecast spending for 2016–17 is expected to be $2.4 billion higher than actual spending reported in 2015–16, largely as a result of funding in Government-Wide Funds that the Treasury Board has not yet allocated to other departments and agencies. As indicated above, funds are allocated to the Secretariat’s Central Votes 5, 10, 15, 25, 30 and 33 at the beginning of the fiscal year. Throughout the year, the funds are reduced by the amounts that are transferred to other departments and agencies.

The expected increase in forecast spending is offset by an overall decrease in statutory funding to implement the actuarial adjustments required to ensure the financial health of the Public Service Pension Plan. In addition, the one-time funding required in 2015–16 to top up the Service Income Security Insurance Plan to ensure that the plan was in a healthy financial position is not required in 2016–17, which further offsets the increase. However, funding to address shortfalls in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Disability Income Insurance Plan increased the forecast for 2016–17.

Spending in 2016–17 is also forecasted to increase in the Secretariat’s Core Responsibility of Administrative Leadership, under which the Secretariat is responsible for implementing the Government’s Budget 2016 initiatives to accelerate the transformation of the back office, to enhance access to information, to develop a client-first service strategy, to expand open data and to establish a Centre for Greening Government at the Secretariat. The transfer of the Regulatory Cooperation Council Secretariat from the Privy Council Office to the Secretariat accounts for the increase in planned expenditures to deliver on the Core Responsibility of Regulatory Oversight.

Planned spending is expected to decrease by $16.8 million from 2017–18 to 2019–20, mostly due to the sunsetting of funding allocated to the following:

• the Internal Services program to implement Phase II of the Secretariat’s Workplace Renewal Initiative because it is expected that more than 800 Secretariat employees will have already moved to their new workspace at 219 Laurier by winter 2018
• the Administrative Leadership program to enhance the processing of access to information requests across government, because it is expected that most of the planned enhancements will have been implemented.

The decrease of 28 full-time equivalents between 2014–15 and 2015–16 relates mostly to the return of funding to the Fiscal Framework for the National Managers’ Community and the Regional Federal Councils and to the transfer of administration of the National Managers’ Community to the Canada School of Public Service, and the full time equivalents related to the funding transferred from the Secretariat to Public Services and Procurement Canada for the consolidation of pay services in Miramichi, New Brunswick.

The increase of 90 full-time equivalents between 2015–16 and 2016–17 relates primarily to the new staff hired to implement the Government-Wide Back Office Transformation, expand open data, enhance access to information and develop a client-first service strategy. Full-time equivalents at the Secretariat also increased because staff who worked in the Regulatory Cooperation Council Secretariat at the Privy Council Office and in the Centre for Greening Government at Public Services and Procurement Canada were transferred to the Secretariat in 2016.

Planned full time equivalents are expected to decrease by 32 between 2017–18 and 2019–20. This decrease is mostly attributable to the full-time equivalents related to the sunsetting of funding to:

• implement the Secretariat’s Workplace Renewal Initiative (Phase- II) as employees will have already moved to their new workspace at 219 Laurier by winter 2018
• enhance access to information, because it is expected that most of the planned enhancements will have been implemented.