Organizational Expenditure Overview - 2016–17 Report on Plans and Priorities - Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

Organizational Profile

Appropriate Minister: The Honourable Scott Brison, President of the Treasury Board

Institutional Head: Yaprak Baltacioglu, Secretary of the Treasury Board

Ministerial Portfolio: The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and the Canada School of Public Service. Operating at arm's length and reporting to Parliament through the President of the Treasury Board are the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada and the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada.

Enabling Instrument: Financial Administration Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. F-11

Year Established: 1966

Organizational Context

Planned Expenditures

In 2015–16, the Secretariat revised its Program Alignment Architecture to better reflect core business activities and support the achievement of expected results. Due to significant differences between the Secretariat's previous and current program architectures, the historical spending trend has not been restated in the 2013–14 and 2014–15 expenditure columns.

The table above outlines:

• Actual spending for 2013–14 and 2014–15, as reported in the Public Accounts;
• Forecast spending for 2015–16, which reflects the authorities received to date, including in-year contributions from other government departments for the Secretariat-led Government-Wide Back Office Transformation Initiative; and
• Planned spending for 2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19, which aligns with government commitments as set out in ministerial mandate letters.

Additional details regarding planned spending are provided in Section II: Analysis of Programs by Strategic Outcome.

The Government-Wide Funds and Public Service Employer Payments program is the largest portion of the Secretariat's planned spending. On average, the Treasury Board approves approximately 56 per cent of this program's spending to transfer to other federal organizations for items such as government contingencies, government-wide initiatives, compensation requirements, operating and capital budget carry forward, and paylist expenditures (Central Votes 5, 10, 15, 25, 30 and 33). The Secretariat's total funding available for use is reduced accordingly. The remaining 44 per cent pertains to public service employer payments, used to pay the employer's share of contributions to employee pensions and benefits plans, including statutory payments.

Actual spending increased by $329 million from 2013–14 to 2014–15. This was primarily to address a funding shortfall within the Service Income Security Insurance Plan (SISIP) to provide benefits for the increased number of medically released Canadian Armed Forces members following the Afghanistan mission, and to implement approved benefit changes to the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP) totalling $269 million. In addition, there was an increase of $61.6 million, mostly attributable to new funding received for the payout of an out-of-court settlement to eligible claimants under the White class action lawsuit launched against the Crown in Buote Estate v. Canada, 2014 FC 773 (CanLII), which involved the elimination of the Pension Act offset provision under the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Long Term Disability Insurance Plan.

Forecast spending for 2015–16 is expected to increase by $2.5 billion, as compared with 2014–15 actual spending. Approximately $2.3 billion is largely a result of funding in Central Votes not yet allocated by the Treasury Board to other organizations. The total amount is included in the Secretariat's reference levels at the beginning of the fiscal year; as amounts are requested by organizations and eventually allocated to them, the total amount is reduced accordingly. The remaining $0.2 billion is attributable mostly to funding received in 2015–16 to help restore the SISIP to a healthy financial position and to contingency funding for the PSHCP.

Planned spending is expected to increase by $867 million in 2016–17 compared with forecast spending for 2015–16, primarily to reflect funding in the Central Votes at full reference levels, offset by the 2015–16 SISIP and PSHCP funding noted above.

Planned spending is expected to decrease by $6.5 million from 2016–17 to 2018–19, mostly due to the sunsetting of the Workspace Renewal Initiative and the reprofiling of the Workplace Wellness and Productivity Strategy to accommodate project timelines impacted by ongoing collective bargaining.

Alignment of Spending With the Whole-of-Government Framework

Departmental Spending Trend

Figure 1. 2016–17 Planned Spending Total $6.6 billion - Text version

Central Votes	Public Service Employer Payments and Statutory Votes	Management Policies Development and Monitoring	Internal services	Government-Wide Programs Design and Delivery	Decision Making Support and Oversight
54.08%	42.31%	1.04%	1.00%	0.81%	0.77%

The Secretariat's total planned spending is $6.6 billion for fiscal year 2016–17. This includes $3.6 billion, or 54.1 per cent, in Central Votes (on approval of the Treasury Board) to supplement the appropriations of departments. Most of the remaining balance, $2.8 billion, or 42.31 per cent, is related to the Secretariat's role in supporting the Treasury Board as employer of the core public administration.

These funds are used for:

• public service pension, benefits, and insurance plans, including payment of the employer's share of health, income maintenance, and life insurance premiums;
• payments in respect of provincial health insurance;
• payments of provincial payroll taxes and the Québec sales tax on insurance premiums; and
• funding to address actuarial deficits in the Public Service Pension Fund.

The remaining amount, $0.2 billion or 3.6 per cent, is directly related to the operations of the Secretariat and its four other programs: Decision-Making Support and Oversight, Management Policies Development and Monitoring, Government-Wide Program Design and Delivery, and Internal Services.

Figure 2. Departmental Spending Trend for Program Expenditures (Vote 1) - Text version

	2013–14	2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18	2018–19
Sunset Programs – Anticipated	0	0	0	0	0	0
Statutory	29,075,263	27,477,862	27,662,650	28,020,193	27,981,239	27,895,587
Voted	234,224,053	295,850,911	260,551,184	209,531,439	211,951,180	203,150,710
Total	263,299,316	323,328,773	288,173,834	237,551,632	239,932,419	231,046,297

The Secretariat's operating expenditures include salaries, non-salary costs to deliver programs, and statutory items related to the employer's contributions to the Secretariat's employee benefit plans.

Total program expenditures increased by $60 million between 2013–14 and 2014–15, mostly attributable to new funding received for the payout of an out-of-court settlement to eligible claimants under the White class action lawsuit. The subsequent decrease between 2014–15 actual spending and 2015–16 forecast spending was mostly related to the payout of the same out-of-court settlement, offset by contributions received from other government departments for the Government-Wide Back Office Transformation Initiative.

The decrease of $51 million between 2015–16 and 2016–17 is largely attributable to contributions received for the Government-Wide Back Office Transformation Initiative; new funding received for the same out-of-court settlement to the remaining eligible claimants under the White class action lawsuit; and operating budget carry forward (eligible lapsing funds from the previous fiscal year).

Program expenditures are expected to decrease by $6.5 million from 2016–17 to 2018–19, mostly due to the sunsetting of the Workspace Renewal Initiative and the reprofiling of the Workplace Wellness and Productivity Strategy to accommodate project timelines that have been impacted by ongoing collective bargaining.

Figure 3. Public Service Employer Payments (Vote 20) and Various Statutory Items – Spending Trend Graph - Text version

	2013–14	2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18	2018–19
Sunset Programs – Anticipated	0	0	0	0	0	0
Statutory	443,088,925	444,049,205	443,000,000	443,000,000	443,000,000	443,000,000
Voted	2,186,132,708	2,454,311,704	2,719,270,604	2,337,061,397	2,337,061,397	2,337,061,397
Total	2,629,221,633	2,898,360,909	3,162,270,604	2,780,061,397	2,780,061,397	2,780,061,397

Expenditures for public service employer payments and statutory items represent the employer's share of contributions required by the insurance plans sponsored by the Government of Canada. These amounts also include statutory items for payments under the Public Service Pension Adjustment Act (PSPAA) and employer contributions made under the Public Service Superannuation Act (PSSA), the Employment Insurance Act and related acts.

Public service employer payments increased by $269 million from 2013–14 to 2014–15. This increase was mostly to address a funding shortfall within the Service Income Security Insurance Plan (SISIP) to provide benefits to the increased number of medically released Canadian Armed Forces members following the Afghanistan mission. It was also due to the implementation of benefit changes to the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP) negotiated in 2014, which included increased premiums for pensioners with a view to achieving a 50-50 cost-sharing ratio with pensioners by April 1, 2018.

Planned expenditures for public service employer payments are anticipated to increase by $264 million from 2014–15 to 2015–16. The planned increase addresses an existing funding deficit to restore the Service Income Security Insurance Plan (SISIP) to a surplus position; puts in place contingency funding for the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP) in the event of increases in the volume of claims or the cost per claim of the plan; and allows for resultant increases in payroll taxes from the eventual renewal of collective bargaining agreements. These increases are partially offset by an expenditure decrease under the Public Service Management Insurance Plan following implementation of the Premium Rate Holiday, which took effect on January 1, 2015, and was extended on January 1, 2016.

Subsequent planned expenditures for 2016–17 are anticipated to decrease by $382 million from 2015–16. This decrease represents the lump sum payment under SISIP in 2015–16 that returned the plan to a surplus position, and the contingency funding for Vote 20.

Planned spending between 2016–17 and 2018–19 is expected to remain unchanged.

Estimates by Vote

For information on the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat's organizational appropriations, consult the 2016–17 Main Estimates.