Home / Publications On-Line / Estimates / Report on Plans and Priorities 2002–2003 / President’s Message and Management Representation Statement / Raison d’être / Plans and Priorities by Strategic Outcome / Organization / Annexes /

Annexes

Annex 1 – Sources of Non-Respendable Revenue

Annex 2 – Net Cost of Program for the Estimates Year

Annex 3 – Government-wide and Horizontal/Collective Initiatives

Renewal

HMIRC has completed its third and final year of program renewal. The process, begun in January 1999, is designed to transform the Commission into a more client- and results-based organization dedicated to meeting its clients’ changing needs efficiently and cost-effectively. It has also responded to the principles outlined in the Treasury Board Secretariat document entitled Results for Canadians: A Management Framework for the Government of Canada.

HMIRC laid out its renewal agenda in two key documents: Commission Renewal: Blueprint for Change , which establishes the guiding principles of renewal and maps the direction of change; and an accompanying Workplan, which enumerates the actions needed to realize the Blueprint’s vision. That vision is best expressed by the eight principles that form the cornerstones of renewal and the benchmark against which the Commission’s activities are measured: timeliness, accessibility, transparency, quality, consistency, competency, respect and fairness.

The Blueprint and the Workplan were developed in consultation with the Commission’s stakeholders. Both publications were approved by the Commission’s Council of Governors and by the Minister of Health, and both have been published and distributed to stakeholders as evidence of the Commission’s commitment to change.

Many of the Blueprint’s 29 strategic measures have been implemented through administrative and procedural changes; others will require regulatory or statutory changes (see Regulatory and Legislative Initiatives below).

Cost Recovery

One important objective of the Commission’s strategic renewal initiative was to update our cost recovery structure to bring it into line with the Treasury Board of Canada’s current Cost Recovery and Charging Policy.

From the first, the government intended that the registration fees collected by the Commission would cover the full cost of operating the Commission. HMIRC has been charging fees since 1988. Its cost recovery initiative pre-dates the first cost recovery policy issued by Treasury Board Secretariat in 1989. When Cabinet established HMIRC in 1987 with cost recovery targets set at 100% of program costs, no consideration had been given to distinguishing between public good and private benefits derived from the Commission’s activities. In addition, workload assumptions established at that time never materialized and the Commission has never attained 100% self-funding. The actual cost recovery level has remained between 25-30% of operating costs. This has resulted in chronic revenue shortfalls beyond the Commission’s ability to manage. As a consequence, HMIRC has sought, and received from its inception, additional annual funding from Treasury Board to operate its program.

A key feature of current Cost Recovery and Charging Policy is the distinction it draws between public and private good. A private good is one that primarily benefits an identifiable individual or organization, whereas a public good accrues to Canadians in general. Federal departments and agencies may charge for services that confer a private—but not a public—good. In particular, there should not be a charge for services that provide Canadians with information about dangers to health, public safety or protection of the environment. Departments must work with their clients to determine an appropriate division between public and private benefits.

Over the past year, we reviewed our cost recovery policy, examining the records of more than 1,000 claims to determine grouping characteristics, fee profiles and related factors. After conferring with clients, we drafted a proposed new fee schedule that would meet our goals. We propose to charge user fees for services rendered through our Client Services (which generally provide a private benefit to industry), while eliminating fees for services related to MSDS Compliance (which are performed in the public interest).

The revised fee schedule will protect program integrity, minimize the costs charged to clients, and make cost recovery practices more consistent, fair, transparent, and simpler to administer.

Government On-Line

Government On-Line (GOL) is the federal government’s multi-year project to provide Canadians with electronic Internet access to federal information and services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The program’s goals are to improve service delivery to Canadians, to increase citizens’ participation in government, to make the government more transparent and responsive to Canadians, and to spur Canada’s participation in the global e-commerce marketplace.

Many of the strategic initiatives of HMIRC’s renewal plan envisioned using the Internet to deliver the Commission’s programs and services more efficiently and effectively. HMIRC extended its plan to incorporate the government’s GOL vision. HMIRC’s “Government On-Line Plan” describes how the Commission will implement, in three stages, the government’s GOL strategy. In addition, HMIRC is an element in the Canada Health Portal currently under the developmental lead of HC.

HMIRC proudly launched its Web site on March 1, 2000. The site, which was developed in consultation with HMIRC’s clients, provides information about the Commission and its services, and instructions for filing claims and appeals. HMIRC’s publications and forms are available for viewing or downloading in a variety of formats. The site also features e-mail access with automatic acknowledgement, basic search capabilities, links to related sites, and a “What’s New” page to keep visitors abreast of recent developments and activities at the Commission.

The site was designed to comply with Treasury Board Secretariat’s Common Look and Feel Guidelines, to facilitate use by the disabled, and to respect both the letter and the spirit of the Official Languages Act. Indeed, HMIRC’s Web site achieves so much with such limited resources that it has been cited as a model for other departments and agencies to follow and showcased at several government workshops.

HMIRC is further developing the site to increase its functionality and features. Plans are under way to build in capacity for on-line filing of claims (e-filing) and fee payment (e-commerce). Also on the drawing board are advanced security and search capabilities, Internet forums, an electronic databank of toxicity profile summaries, a list of common MSDS errors, and templates and standard wording for MSDSs.

To further increase its accountability and transparency as a public service organization, and to encourage comments and participation by its WHMIS partners and stakeholders, the Commission has committed to posting all newly developed policies, regulations and procedures on its Web site.

Collective Initiatives

In its ongoing effort to become more efficient, HMIRC has launched a number of initiatives designed to trim its operating costs. For example, the Commission has entered into a Health Portfolio Partnership Agreement with HC. Under this arrangement HC provides HMIRC with a variety of corporate services, including human resource management, financial services, information technology services and real property management.

As well, HMIRC has an arrangement with the Department of Justice for the provision of legal services. The Department established a multi-client group to provide legal services, on a cost-recovery basis, to small agencies, including HMIRC.

The Commission is an active member of the Small Agency Administrators’ Network and the Federal Agencies Forum. These organizations provide members with a forum for discussing, among other things, ways to ensure that federal initiatives are implemented efficiently and effectively. As well, members can collaborate in finding ways to meet their special resource needs and to turn to their advantage the fundamental differences that distinguish them from more conventional departments.

Modern Comptrollership

The President strongly supports the integration of Comptrollership Modernization principles in our management improvement agenda. Inherent to the renewal of HMIRC is the inculcation of a new values-based culture of service delivery, accountability, and modern administration. To consolidate the work already accomplished and to address the full scope of comptrollership, including risk management and integrated performance measurement, we intend to embark on the Modernizing Comptrollership Initiative during fiscal 2002–2003 with the establishment of a Project Management Office. The first step will be to conduct a capacity assessment to establish a baseline against which progress can be measured and to determine areas requiring priority attention. Following the capacity check, an action plan will be developed to address priority areas and to put in place the mechanisms and systems required to ensure ongoing and continuous comptrollership improvement and reporting. An internal/external communication plan will be established and implemented. The Project Management Office will be phased-out once the essential capacity for modern comptrollership is established throughout the organization.