2022–23 Departmental Plan

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Printable version (1 ​MB)PDF

​On this page

• From the Chairperson
• Plans at a glance
• ​ Core responsibility: planned results and resources, and key risks
• Internal services: planned results
• Planned spending and human resources
• Planned spending
• Planned human resources
• Estimates by vote
• Future-oriented condensed statement of operations
• Corporate information
• Organizational profile
• Raison d’être, mandate, and role: who we are and what we do
• Operating context
• Reporting framework
• Supporting information on the program inventory
• Supplementary information tables
• Federal tax expenditures
• Organizational contact information
• Annex: definitions

From the Chairperson

I am pleased to present the 2022–23 Departmental Plan for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. The work we do at the Board as presented in this Plan is intended to maximize access to justice for those appearing before the Board’s four tribunals (divisions), as well as support Canadians’ confidence in our immigration and refugee determination system more generally.

As was the case over the past two fiscal years, the Board’s top priority in 2022–23 will remain the safe and effective management of our operations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Having responded and recovered from the operational disruptions of COVID-19, the Board will be ready to implement plans in support of our future work model as soon as health conditions allow. These plans will introduce a “hybrid” hearings operating model and a “hybrid” workplace model. They will leverage lessons learned during the pandemic, as well as recommendations from third‑party reviews of the Board’s remote hearings operating model introduced last year, and feedback received from both staff and stakeholders. This transition to a re-imagined future of work will seize new opportunities, be done thoughtfully in consultation with our employees, and will continue to prioritize health and safety as well as operational effectiveness.

We will also continue to implement our multi-year Growth and Transformation Agenda​, with a particular focus on stabilizing the Board’s budget and workforce, as well as becoming an increasingly high performing, digital and healthy organization.

Temporary investments over the past few years have enabled the Board to finalize record levels of refugee decisions and appeals, strengthening access to justice. As a result of these investments as well as other measures, the Board has been able to significantly reduce case inventories and wait times across all divisions to their lowest levels in many years. However, these investments were temporary in nature and are currently scheduled to expire at the end of 2022–23 at the same time as intake of refugee claims is projected to increase and return to pre-pandemic levels. Recognizing that on-going funding aligned with projected intake of claims is essential to maintaining timely access to justice, our growth agenda this year will be focussed on securing a permanent source of funds to fully stabilize the Board’s workforce and ensuring timely Governor-in-Council appointments of our growing cadre of decision-makers.

With our transformation agenda, we will remain focused on our three strategic objectives: improved productivity in support of access to justice, enhanced quality in decision-making, and strengthened management, elements of which are detailed in the pages of this Departmental Plan.

I am proud of our employees in meeting the challenges that the pandemic has presented and all that has been accomplished as part of our Growth and Transformation Agenda​ in response to our challenging operating context. I am also excited for the opportunities that lie ahead, confident that we are building a more stable and resilient organization able to support increased access to justice and public confidence.

Richard Wex
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer

Plans at a glance

The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB or the Board) is Canada’s largest independent administrative tribunal. It is responsible for making well‑reasoned decisions on immigration and refugee matters efficiently, fairly and in accordance with the law.

Fiscal year 2022–23 marks the fourth year of the IRB’s Growth and Transformation Agenda, which was launched in 2019–20 in response to the Board’s operating context, which included refugee claim intake far exceeding decision-making capacity leading to large claim and appeal inventories and wait times. The three strategic objectives of the Growth and Transformation Agenda are: improved productivity and efficiency in support of greater access to justice for those appearing before the Board; enhanced quality and consistency in decision‑making; and strengthened management, with a focus, internally, on supporting a healthy organizational culture, and a focus, externally, on adopting a more coordinated approach with other delivery providers and stakeholders in support of an effective refugee and immigration determination system.

In addition to the Board’s Growth and Transformation Agenda, much like all private and public organizations around the world, the IRB has been pre-occupied over the past two fiscal years with effectively managing its operations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the start of the pandemic, the Board has focused on protecting the health and safety of employees and those who appear before the Board while maintaining access to justice. These dual objectives will continue to guide the IRB’s work in 2022–23, and the Board will respond to the challenges presented by the pandemic by continuing to innovate its practices and meaningfully advance its digital strategy as it truly becomes a digital organization.

Growth

A sustained increase in refugee protection claims, beginning in 2017, led to significant but temporary investments in the Board’s operations in Budgets 2018 and 2019, which were extended in the Economic and Fiscal Snapshot 2020. These investments have enabled the IRB to undertake the largest period of growth in its history, doubling in size in three years and adjudicating a record number of cases across its divisions. While the volume of cases decreased significantly as a result of the pandemic, intake has been on an upward trend since August 2021 and is expected to continue to increase. As such, the Board will work to extend current investments and seek a permanent source of funding before current authorities expire at the end of 2022–23.

In 2022–23, the Board will also continue to recruit, train, and support decision‑makers and employees supporting adjudication to meet its performance targets across all divisions, including deciding up to 50,000 refugee protection claims and up to 13,500 refugee appeals.

Transformation

Sustain and improve productivity

Strong productivity enables the Board to provide access to justice to as many people as possible.

In 2022–23, the Board will continue to foster a culture of operational awareness by regularly monitoring and reporting on productivity results against operational plans and performance targets developed for each division, identifying challenges as they arise and adjusting practices as required.

In addition, the Board will work closely with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency in pursuing system-wide strategies to maximize productivity across the decision‑making continuum, including optimizing the triaging and scheduling of refugee claims in order to maximize case inventory management objectives and the number of cases decided in a given fiscal year.

The IRB will also build upon recent gains associated with adopting a remote-by-default operating model in 2021–22 by further advancing its digital strategy towards becoming a fully digital tribunal. In 2022–23, the Board will introduce a range of new benefits associated with its digital strategy, identified by staff and stakeholders alike. These benefits include improving information and document sharing with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada as well as the Canada Border Services Agency; digitizing all case inventories and new hearing files and piloting a new case management system for members so that they may operate with a fully digitized e-file; enhancing functionality of the Board’s recently launched digital portal, so that those appearing before the Board may interact with it in an increasingly more digital, easier and quicker manner; optimizing hearing room capability for all participants to improve the user experience; maximizing productivity through increased automation of various routine activities freeing up time to work on higher value activities; and offering greater choice for employees and those appearing before the Board by way of additional videoconferencing capability in support of increasingly flexible hybrid workplace and hybrid hearings operating models.

Enhance the quality of and consistency in decision-making

Focusing on quality and consistency in decision-making ensures that the Board is providing meaningful and fair access to justice. This is fundamental to maintaining public confidence in Canada’s refugee and immigration determination systems.

In fiscal year 2022–23, the IRB will build on the quality assurance measures already in place, guided by its Quality Assurance Framework. This will include a focus on training and support for members and management, including strengthened guidance to decision-makers with updated Chairperson Guidelines, a review of new member training, and on-going evaluations of decisions across divisions to identify and address areas requiring attention. There will be an increased focus on access to justice for certain populations appearing before the Board, including vulnerable populations. Further, the Board will focus on maintaining respectful and competent proceedings by all parties to a hearing by implementing recommendations from third-party reviews of the IRB’s member complaints process as well as launching policy work to better address counsel conduct before the IRB.

Strengthen management with a focus on people management

The Board’s continued success is a result of the efforts of its employees across the country who are dedicated to achieving its mandate.

The Board will leverage lessons learned, and new infrastructure deployed, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Once health conditions stabilize, the Board will evolve its work model, based on both a hybrid hearings operating model and a hybrid workplace model. The principles that will drive its future work models will continue to include prioritizing health and safety and will be based on operational requirements, while enabling increased employee flexibility and choice of workplace to the extent possible.

In addition, the Board will build on recent collaborative efforts and continue to work with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada as well as the Canada Border Services Agency by adopting a systems-wide approach to identifying common challenges and opportunities for efficiencies across the immigration and refugee determination system. It will do so as a part of the executive arm of government, while respecting the adjudicative independence of the Board and its decision-makers.

Lastly, the IRB remains committed to fostering an organizational culture in which all employees contribute to the success of the organization, feel included and are treated with respect. In 2022–23, the IRB will prioritize its ongoing commitment to building an organizational culture based on civility, respect, diversity, and inclusion. The Board will continue to implement its diversity and inclusion strategy and will continue to implement its Strategy for Psychological Safety and Mental Health in the IRB Workplace, which supports key wellness activities and provides tools and information about support mechanisms for all employees while helping to create a safe and healthy workplace.

For more information on the IRB’s plans, see the “Core responsibility: planned results and resources, and key risks” section of this plan.

Core responsibility: planned results and resources, and key risks

This section contains information on the IRB’s planned results and resources for its core responsibility. It also contains information on key risks related to achieving those results.

Adjudication of immigration and refugee cases

Description

The IRB renders quality decisions and resolves cases in a timely manner regarding immigration and refugee protection cases. This includes determining refugee protection claims and appeals and applications to vacate or cease refugee protection. It also includes making decisions in admissibility hearings and detention reviews, and on appeals on certain immigration cases (e.g., family sponsorship applications, certain removal orders, applications based on meeting residency obligations and admissibility hearings).

Planning highlights

In accordance with its Departmental Results Framework, the IRB’s departmental result is: the fair and timely adjudication of immigration and refugee cases. For 2022–23, the IRB revised its indicators to measure this result to introduce clear and detailed indicators around timeliness to enhance its performance story. This will provide flexibility in updating targets to reflect the operating context within which the Board works, which is impacted by the global environment, changing migration patterns, and the number and complexity of refugee cases received in Canada.

The plans outlined in the following section are intended to support the IRB in meeting its mandate and the adjudicative performance targets set for fiscal year 2022–23. The plans, articulated against the three strategic objectives of the Growth and Transformation Agenda, also contribute to the Agenda’s two strategic outcomes of providing meaningful and fair access to justice for those appearing before the Board, and maintaining public confidence.

Sustaining And Improving Productivity

Productivity remains a priority for the IRB as it embraces an organizational culture of operational awareness, performance, and results. To ensure continued timely access to justice, the Board will refine its virtual hearings model, further to a review of virtual hearings completed in 2021–22. In 2022–23, the Board will continue to make efforts to optimize the scheduling and reduce postponement rates of refugee case files, and to increase file preparation efforts to ensure files are ready for hearings. It will expand on the practice of managing its inventory and scheduling files on a national level rather than regionally. The IRB will also advance its use of data insights and explore machine learning to assist in triaging case files and to support decision‑makers and management.

A range of tools will be implemented to promote consistency and efficiency in decision‑making. For example, the Refugee Protection Division continues to develop its comprehensive online repository of tools and resources, such as databases of country conditions, jurisprudence and similar decisions, with the use of modern technology such as text mining, predictive analytics, and natural language processing. 

Building on the momentum gained in past years, the IRB will pursue its digital strategy by leveraging technology to gain operational efficiencies and enhance user experience. Further progress towards electronic case management is expected to result in additional efficiency gains by improving the speed with which information is shared, increasing the flexibility with which information can be moved, and reducing the higher cost and burden of paper-based files. Having completed the scanning all of its inventories, the IRB will focus on an end-to-end electronic file management system, enabled by a new cloud-based case management solution. The Board will further collaborate with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency to improve data and document exchanges between the organizations.

The Board will also continue to enhance its business intelligence monitoring and reporting capabilities to regularly review operational insights and make necessary adjustments to divisional operational plans.

Enhancing the quality of and consistency in decision-making

As the IRB grows, it is essential that it maintain its reputation for high-quality and fair decisions. The Board’s quality agenda, which is guided by its Quality Assurance Framework, will continue to support and enhance the quality of and consistency in its decision‑making. The Framework provides an overview of the activities, processes, strategies, and structures that contribute to quality adjudicative decision-making. It is based on a model of continuous quality improvement to help inform areas for refinement and future priorities, and is recognized as an international best practice and a model for administrative tribunals in Canada and abroad.

Focus on training and support for members and management

Building on the work undertaken in 2021–22, the Refugee Protection Division and the Refugee Appeal Division will focus on increasing the capacity of their quality centres – a leading edge innovation across administrative tribunals – which were established to monitor the real‑time quality of decision-making. The Refugee Appeal Division will focus on an enhanced and disciplined approach to monitoring decisions and improving its data collection and analyses to support quality and consistency in decision-making. This includes reviewing Refugee Appeal Division decisions overturned by the higher courts to inform training, which contributes to quality decision-making.  

The Board will also continue to provide ongoing training, professional development sessions, and mentorship and will initiate a review of new member training. In 2022–23, it will expand the National Mentorship Program for the Refugee Protection Division, including the recruitment of new qualified mentors, in line with the IRB’s future resourcing plans. The IRB will also focus on management training and support for managers who supervise Board members. To complement the continued efforts in training, professional development, and mentorship, the Board will focus on its performance management and decision-monitoring initiatives. This includes developing feedback processes within and across divisions, in order to integrate information from internal monitoring strategies, stakeholders’ feedback, complaints, evaluations and higher court decisions.

Focus on increased access to justice for certain populations appearing before the Board

In 2022–23, the IRB will further improve access to justice through quality initiatives aimed to make proceedings more responsive and adaptive to the needs of those appearing before the Board. Further to this, the Board will continue to update its forms to ensure they are current, clear, and accessible. The Immigration Division is reviewing and building on work already in place to put forth recommendations to support the needs of persons with mental health issues appearing before the Board. The desired outcome is the adoption of best practices for proceedings that involve individuals living with mental illness.

The IRB will also pursue its recent efforts of updating guidance to decision-makers, continuing its recent and concerted effort to renew its Chairperson Guidelines. This fiscal year, the IRB intends to revise Chairperson’s Guideline 8: Procedures with Respect to Vulnerable Persons Appearing Before the IRB and Chairperson’s Guideline 3: Child Refugee Claimants: Procedural and Evidentiary Issues. In an effort to strengthen decision-making in respect of claims based on sexual orientation, gender as well as gender identity and expression – areas known to be challenging from an adjudicative perspective – the Board will also finalize and implement the revised Chairperson’s Guideline 4 – Women Refugee Claimants Fearing Gender‑Related Persecution and implement changes to Chairperson’s Guideline 9 – Proceedings Before the IRB Involving Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics.

Also, in support of improved access to justice, the IRB will:

• Continue its review of the Immigration Division’s Rules of Practice and finalize changes to the Immigration Appeal Division’s Rules of Practice.
• Continue to implement enhancements to the designated representative and interpreter programs.
• Develop recommendations to support unrepresented appellants in the Refugee Appeal Division and continue to implement the recommendations made in the review of the support offered to unrepresented appellants in the Immigration Appeal Division.
• Increase the number of admissibility hearing decisions available to the public, thereby increasing access to justice in this area by increasing transparency and expectations for persons and counsel appearing before the Board.

Focus on hearing conduct

The IRB will fully implement the recommendations from its third-party review of the IRB’s member complaints process, including the publication of the revised Procedures for Making a Complaint About a Member and the revised Code of Conduct for Members of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. To further ensure quality hearings, the Board will also focus on counsel conduct, in reviewing processes for collecting, analyzing, and addressing concerns. This focus on conduct of members and counsel representing individuals appearing before the Board contributes both to the IRB’s strategic outcomes and to its core responsibility of providing real access to justice and fair hearings for those who appear before it.

Experimentation

Innovation has been key to achieving and sustaining the mandate and goals of the IRB. In 2022–23, the IRB will pilot and introduce experiments using advanced technology, including predictive analytics, robotic process automation, and machine learning to make the best use of available resources and to support efficient and effective decision-making. The Board will continue to refine the implementation of an innovation program to collect, oversee, and prioritize experimentation activities.

Key risks

The following corporate risks could impact the planned results.

Planned results for adjudication of immigration and refugee cases

The following table shows, for adjudication of immigration and refugee cases, the planned results, the result indicators, the targets, and the target dates for 2022–23, and the actual results for the three most recent fiscal years for which actual results are available.

The financial, human resources and performance information for the IRB’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Planned budgetary spending for adjudication of immigration and refugee cases

The following table shows, for adjudication of immigration and refugee cases, budgetary spending for 2022–23, as well as planned spending for that year and for each of the next two fiscal years.

Financial, human resources and performance information for the IRB’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Planned human resources for adjudication of immigration and refugee cases

The following table shows, in full‑time equivalents, the planned human resources for this core responsibility for 2022–23 and for each of the next two fiscal years.

Financial, human resources and performance information for the IRB’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Internal services: planned results

Description

Internal services are the services that are provided within a department so that it can meet its corporate obligations and deliver its programs. There are 10 categories of internal services: management and oversight services; communications services; legal services; human resources management services; financial management services; information management services; information technology services; real property management services; materiel management services; and acquisition management services.

Planning highlights

In 2022–23, the IRB’s internal service priorities, including those described below, will play a key supporting role in the Board achieving its mandate. These priorities will also support the Board’s continued focus on delivering client-centric services that are accessible, effective, and responsive to clients' needs and supported by clear service standards.

Strengthened management, including people management

The IRB will continue to evolve its future work model based on prioritizing the health and safety of staff and those appearing before the Board, while maximizing access to justice. Since early 2021, IRB hearings have been held based on a remote-by-default operating model with few in‑person hearings held at IRB offices. Third party reviews, stakeholder feedback and post‑hearing surveys have confirmed that this has been an effective model. However, the Board is aware of important issues, including those involving privacy and access to technology, that can be better addressed with in-person hearings for certain individuals in certain circumstances. As such, and as health conditions improve, access to justice considerations will require more on-site hearings to address these issues. As the Board adopts a hybrid hearing model, in-person hearings will increase, and more employees will be required to be on site to provide support for critical services.

In response to the impact of the pandemic, the Board, through its investments in technology and operational procedures, will continue to plan, execute, and monitor Information Management/ Information Technology services, in support of its digital strategy, and with a focus on the following:

• It will work with Shared Services Canada to enhance systems and applications, including hearing room audio and video conferencing services. Further to this, it will improve tools and technology available to staff to support virtual hearings.
• It will implement the Information Management Strategy to leverage new internal collaboration tools and cloud‑based storage solutions put in place during the pandemic and improve how the Board manages information.

The IRB sets a high standard for promoting organizational culture that is based on values of civility, respect, diversity, and inclusion. The Board remains committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce free from harassment and discrimination and ensuring that all employees have equal and just opportunities. In 2022–23, as part of its Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan, the Board will focus on the following:

• It will analyze its workforce against Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat workforce availability estimates to identify gaps related to employment equity group representation and establish clear targets and plans to increase representation, where required.
• It will develop an accessibility action plan to comply with the Accessible Canada Act.
• It will provide tools for employees to respond to micro-aggressions in the workplace.
• It will conduct a review to examine how the organization undertakes human resource activities to identify and address systemic racism and barriers to accessibility.
• It will provide professional development and leadership training for employees from underrepresented groups to help create more diverse and inclusive teams.

The Chairperson’s Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, a forum for employees of diverse backgrounds to provide advice to the Chairperson with a focus on strengthening diversity and inclusion, will continue to inform the development of the Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan, and help hold the Board accountable for its implementation.

The Board will also focus on implementing actions that support its Vision for Psychological Safety outlined in the Strategy for Psychological Safety and Mental Health in the IRB Workplace, including expanding the suite of tools for managers and supervisors to support mental health and wellness, as well as investing in additional support for employees and providing engagement activities.

Finally, the IRB will continue to address employee pay-related issues within its control and work with the Public Service Pay Centre on issues outside of its control.

Planned budgetary spending for internal services

The following table shows, for internal services, budgetary spending for 2022–23, as well as planned spending for that year and for each of the next two fiscal years.

Planned human resources for internal services

The following table shows, in full‑time equivalents, the planned human resources for internal services for 2022–23 and for each of the next two fiscal years.

Planned spending and human resources

This section provides an overview of the department’s planned spending and human resources for the next three fiscal years and compares planned spending for 2022–23 with actual spending for the current year and the previous year.

Planned spending

Departmental spending 2019–20 to 2024–25

The following graph presents planned spending (voted and statutory expenditures) over time.

Budget 2018 and Budget 2019 provided the IRB with temporary funding through 2020–21 to increase the number of refugee protection claims and appeals being finalized. In the Economic Fiscal Snapshot 2020, the Government extended this temporary funding through 2022–23. Increased spending over the planning period reflects this temporary funding.

The scheduled decline in spending in 2023–24 is due to the sunsetting of temporary funding in 2022–23. Starting in 2024–25, funding levels are currently scheduled to return to levels prior to 2018–19 when capacity to complete finalizations was significantly lower. The IRB is working with the Government to extend funding.

Budgetary planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)

The following table shows information on spending for each of the IRB’s core responsibilities and for its internal services for 2022–23 and other relevant fiscal years.

Increased spending through 2022–23 reflects the IRB’s efforts to augment capacity to process and finalize an increased number of refugee protection claims. As previously noted, temporary funding is currently scheduled to sunset in 2022–23. The IRB will continue to leverage this temporary funding to increase capacity and the number of finalizations. Should the temporary funding sunset as currently planned, financial resources and capacity to finalize claims and appeals will begin to decline significantly in fiscal year 2023–24. The IRB is working with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Government to address the IRB’s long‑term funding needs.

Planned human resources

The following table shows information on human resources, in full-time equivalents, for each of the IRB’s core responsibility and for its internal services for 2022–23 and the other relevant years.

Human resources planning summary for the core responsibility and internal services

The growth in the IRB’s employee complement through 2022–23 is primarily the result of additional resources required to increase the number of refugee protection claims being finalized.

Estimates by vote

Information on the IRB’s organizational appropriations is available in the 2022–23 Main Estimates.

Future-oriented condensed statement of operations

The future‑oriented condensed statement of operations provides an overview of the IRB’s operations for 2021–22 to 2022–23.

The forecast and planned amounts in this statement of operations were prepared on an accrual basis. The forecast and planned amounts presented in other sections of the Departmental Plan were prepared on an expenditure basis. Amounts may therefore differ.

A more detailed future‑oriented statement of operations and associated notes, including a reconciliation of the net cost of operations with the requested authorities, are available on the IRB’s website.

Future‑oriented condensed statement of operations for the year ending March 31, 2023 (dollars)

The year-over-year stability in expenditures is due to funding carried over from previous years to maintain the IRB’s capacity to process and finalize refugee protection claims and appeals.

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister: The Honourable Sean Fraser
Institutional head: Richard Wex, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer
Ministerial portfolio: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Enabling instrument: Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
Year of incorporation / commencement: 1989

Raison d’être, mandate, and role: who we are and what we do

Information on the IRB’s raison d’être, mandate, and role is available on the IRB’s website.

Operating context

Information on the operating context is available on the IRB’s website.

Reporting framework

The IRB’s approved departmental results framework and program inventory for 2022–23 are as follows.

Supporting information on the program inventory

Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to the IRB’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on the IRB’s website:

• Reporting on Green Procurement
• Gender-based Analysis Plus​

Federal tax expenditures

The IRB’s Departmental Plan does not include information on tax expenditures.

Tax expenditures are the responsibility of the Minister of Finance. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for government‑wide tax expenditures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures. This report provides detailed information on tax expenditures, including objectives, historical background, and references to related federal spending programs, as well as evaluations, research papers and gender-based analysis plus.

Organizational contact information

Mailing address

Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Minto Place, Canada Building
344 Slater Street, 12th floor
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0K1

For more contact information, visit Contact Us.

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Annex: definitions

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, organizations, 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 document that sets out a department’s priorities, programs, expected results and associated resource requirements, covering a three‑year period beginning with the year indicated in the title of the report. Departmental Plans are tabled in Parliament each spring.

departmental result (résultat ministériel)
A change that a department seeks to influence. 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 factor or variable that provides a valid and reliable means to measure or describe progress on a departmental result.

departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)
A framework that consists of the department’s core responsibilities, departmental results, and departmental result indicators.

Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)
A report on a department’s actual performance in a fiscal year against its plans, priorities and expected results set out in its Departmental Plan for that year. Departmental Results Reports are usually tabled in Parliament each fall.

experimentation (expérimentation)
The conducting of activities that explore, test, and compare the effects and impacts of policies and interventions in order to inform decision-making and improve outcomes for Canadians. Experimentation is related to, but distinct from, innovation. Innovation is the trying of something new; experimentation involves a rigorous comparison of results. For example, introducing a new mobile application to communicate with Canadians can be an innovation; systematically testing the new application and comparing it against an existing website or other tools to see which one reaches more people, is experimentation.

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. 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.

gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus)(analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS Plus])
An analytical tool used to support the development of responsive and inclusive policies, programs, and other initiatives; and understand how factors such as sex, race, national and ethnic origin, Indigenous origin or identity, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic conditions, geography, culture and disability, impact experiences and outcomes, and can affect access to and experience of government programs.

government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)
For the purpose of the 2022–23 Departmental Plan, government-wide priorities are the high-level themes outlining the Government’s agenda in the 2021 Speech from the Throne: building a healthier today and tomorrow; growing a more resilient economy; bolder climate action; fighter 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 in which two or more federal organizations 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 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.

plan (plan)
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.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)
For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts 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 Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.

program (programme)
Individual or groups of services, activities, or combinations thereof that are managed together
within a department and that focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes, or service levels.

program inventory (répertoire des programmes)
An inventory of a department’s programs that describes how resources are organized to carry out the department’s core responsibilities and achieve its planned results.

result (résultat)
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 (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 an organization, 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.