Section III: Departmental Overview

Note: The creation of two departments — Human Resources and Skills Development (HRSDC) and Social Development Canada — on December 12, 2003 complicated the process of reporting to Canadians in the Departmental Performance Report.

To ensure comprehensive reporting, each priority and commitment from the Human Resources Development Canada 2003-2004 Report on Plans and Priorities¹ was allocated to either HRSDC or Social Development Canada according to their mandates.

This Departmental Performance Report sets out the accomplishments of Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) relating to the labour market, learning, labour and homelessness. It also reports on HRSDC's achievements. The HRDC commitments not included in this report can be found in Social Development Canada's Departmental Performance Report.² The term "department" is used, for ease of presentation, to cover the two departments over the entire fiscal year. Figures, tables and charts in this report reflect the situation of HRSDC as of March 31, 2004, unless otherwise specified.

Departmental Mandate

HRDC had a broad mandate to enhance employment, encourage equality and promote social security. This mandate put HRDC at the forefront of the Government of Canada's social and labour market agenda and it was fulfilled through the delivery of programs such as Employment Insurance, Old Age Security, Canada Pension Plan, Employment Benefits and Support Measures, and the Canada Student Loans Program. HRDC's mission was to enable Canadians to participate fully in the workplace and community, and this was accomplished by assisting Canadians of all ages and needs.

On December 12, 2003, the Prime Minister announced a restructuring of the federal government to achieve progress in three key areas:

• Strengthening Canada's social foundations;
• Building a 21^st century economy; and
• Ensuring Canada's role in the world.

As part of this change, HRDC was divided into two new departments: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) and Social Development Canada. HRDC programming that promoted social inclusion became the foundation of the new department of Social Development Canada. Those programs that were focused on the labour market and on developing human capital became part of HRSDC. The mandate of the new department of HRSDC supports the dual objectives of strengthening Canada's social foundations and helping build a 21^st century economy. HRSDC's long-term vision supports these objectives of building a country where everyone has the opportunity to learn and to contribute to Canada's success by participating fully in a well-functioning and efficient labour market. The departmental mission is to improve the standard of living and quality of life for all Canadians by promoting a highly skilled and mobile workforce and an efficient and inclusive labour market.

In addition, HRSDC is taking steps to modernize the way benefits and services are delivered, and improve its capacity to reach, engage, and serve Canadians.

HRSDC works closely with provinces and territories on learning, homelessness, labour market and workplace issues. Among others, HRSDC clients include Canadians looking for work or income support following a loss of employment, employers and workers dealing with workplace-related issues, students requiring financial assistance to participate in post-secondary education, parents saving for their children's education and learners of all ages, and those who need support to participate in the workplace or community such as youth at risk, older workers, Aboriginal people, and homeless persons.

Strategic Outcomes and Business Lines

To deliver on their mandates, HRDC and HRSDC developed strategic outcomes. Strategic outcomes reflect the results the department is expected to achieve through a broad array of programs and as part of the Government of Canada's service delivery network. The strategic outcomes provide the structure against which results are reported to the public.

The former HRDC had four strategic outcomes supporting its mandate:

• Income security for seniors, persons with disabilities and their children, survivors, and migrants;
• Opportunity to fully participate in the workplace and community;
• Safe, fair, stable and productive workplaces; and
• Sustainable and effective program management and service delivery.

Reflecting the reorganization on December 12, 2003, HRSDC developed six strategic outcomes that are used in this report to structure the performance discussion for 2003-2004:

• Efficient and effective income support and labour market transitions;
• Enhanced competitiveness of Canadian workplaces by supporting investment in and recognition and utilization of skills;
• Through access to learning, Canadians can participate fully in a knowledge-based economy and society;
• Safe, healthy, fair, stable, cooperative and productive workplaces;
• Enhanced community capacity to contribute to the reduction of homelessness; and
• Seamless, integrated and multi-channel service delivery that ensures client satisfaction.

The HRDC strategic outcome, "opportunity to fully participate in the workplace and community" encompassed four of the new HRSDC strategic outcomes devoted to the labour market, workplaces, learning and homelessness. It should also be noted that HRDC's "income security for seniors, persons with disabilities and their children, survivors and migrants" strategic outcome is now delivered through Social Development Canada and reported in their performance report.

Figure 1 provides a crosswalk between the strategic outcomes from the 2003-2004 Report on Plans and Priorities of the former HRDC and the new HRSDC strategic outcomes. It also highlights how specific programs and services align under the new HRSDC strategic outcomes. Each strategic outcome and business line is described in detail in Section VI — Performance Discussion. Further details on how activities have been divided between the two departments can be found in Annex 1.

Organizational Structure

To deliver on its mandate and achieve these strategic outcomes, HRSDC modified the previous departmental structure and established new business lines. Figure 2 presents the organizational structure of HRDC before December 12, 2003, and Figure 3 shows the structure of HRSDC following its creation.

Figure 2: Human Resource Development Canada

Figure 3: Human Resource and Skills Development Canada

Serving Canadians

HRSDC is responsible for direct in-person service delivery and most of the mail delivery channel for HRSDC and Social Development Canada. With almost 14,000 employees, HRSDC is accountable for $20 billion in benefits and supports for Canadians that are delivered through a network of regional offices located in each of the provinces and territories, and 320 Human Resource Centres of Canada (HRCC) located in communities. Of these 320 local offices, HRSDC manages 105 Employment Insurance Processing Centres, and another 11 Income Security Programs Processing Centres are managed on behalf of Social Development Canada.

In addition, HRSDC was responsible for the management of the Government of Canada's in-person network of 223 Service Canada Access Centres, 156 of which were operated by Canada Post, and 3 were operated by the department of Canadian Heritage. The other 64 were operated by HRSDC; 57 of these from HRSDC offices, and 7 contracted from third parties.

Social Development Canada is responsible for delivering telephone and Internet client services as well as shared corporate services (human resources, finance and administrative services and systems) for both departments.

HRSDC expenditures on programs and services total more than $20 billion, of which $17 billion or 85% are direct benefits to Canadians through Employment Insurance, Student Loans and other statutory transfer payments.

Figure 4a: 2003-2004 Expenditure Profile