 Federal institutions make up the largest and most complex organization in Canada and
include Parliament, the Supreme Court, federal departments and agencies, Crown
corporations, and the federal Public Service as a whole.
Together, these institutions support the way we govern ourselves
as a federation, administer our laws and justice system, develop and deliver our
national social programs and services, regulate the economy and promote fair
trade, and represent and protect the interests and values of Canadians.
Getting federal governance right has a direct impact on Canada
and the social, political, and economic well-being of Canadians.
Canadians expect their federal government to pursue policies and
programs that take into account public priorities. They expect it to operate in
an open, transparent, and accountable manner. They want to know that federal
programs and services are well managed. Above all, they want assurances that
they are receiving good value for money for their tax dollars.
Federal institutions, however, are facing some significant
pressures to reform and modernize. Social and demographic changes are increasing
our diversity as a nation, the competition for skilled labour, and pressures on
the distribution of resources across our social programs as society ages. Rapid
and ongoing technological change is creating new opportunities to streamline
government operations, reduce overlap and duplication, and integrate the
delivery of some programs and services. Calls for democratic reform are fuelling
demands to better engage Canadians in government, and broaden parliamentary and
stakeholder engagement in the development of public policy. In addition, public
sector employees are demanding more from their leaders than in the past, in the
areas of learning, professional development, work life-family balance, and
career opportunities.
The Treasury Board of Canada, its Secretariat, and the
organizations within its portfolio, have a unique mandate to deliver good
government to Canadians. It is the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat's job to
address these challenges as the general manager of the federal government. This
includes setting performance expectations for public sector management,
overseeing the expenditure management system of government, supporting the
allocation of public funds in accordance with changing public priorities,
assuring integrity and value for money with respect to public investments, and
overseeing the preparation of the Government of Canada's financial statements.
While there is more to do, the federal government has made
significant progress in its efforts to strengthen public sector management. It
has:
- launched a major effort to modernize the culture of the federal public
sector and move from a focus on activities to a focus on performance and
results;
- laid the foundation for modernizing human resources management across the
public sector through the development and passage of the Public Service
Modernization Act;
- introduced the Management Accountability Framework to enhance
accountabilities across the system;
- undertaken additional reviews of accountability, including the roles and
responsibilities of ministers and senior public service employees, and
governance of Crown corporations;
- re-established the Office of the Comptroller General to lead and
strengthen financial management and internal audit across the Public
Service, including overseeing government spending and establishing more
rigorous certification standards for financial management and internal audit
professionals; and
- laid a foundation for the transformation of government operations and
service delivery through Government On-Line, which has made the Canadian
government one of the most connected public administrations in the world.
Through these efforts, the government has put in place the
building blocks needed to strengthen public sector management across the federal
public sector as a whole. The government is committed to making the operations
of federal institutions more open and accountable, based on clearer performance
expectations and measurable standards. It is committed to capitalizing on new
information and communications technologies to better integrate the delivery of
shared programs and services. It is committed to modernizing human resources
management in order to better reward performance and excellence.
To move forward on this agenda, the government must take a
comprehensive and integrated approach. It is not effective, for example, to set
measurable performance standards without putting in place the training and
learning programs for public service employees who are required to meet those
standards.
It is for this reason that the Treasury Board, its Secretariat,
and the broader Treasury Board portfolio will pursue an integrated management
agenda for the Public Service in the year ahead, focussed on the following four
priority areas:
- enhance accountability;
- strengthen financial management;
- improve service delivery and internal efficiencies; and
- ensure effective human resources management.
Co-ordinated efforts in all of these areas will serve to
strengthen trust, accountability, and the value for money that Canadians expect
from their federal institutions.
The paper version was signed by Reg Alcock
President of the Treasury Board and
Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board
This Report on Plans and Priorities is the Treasury Board
of Canada Secretariat's key planning and priority-setting document for the
fiscal year 2005-06. The report provides an overview of the role of the Treasury
Board and its Secretariat, outlines the issues and challenges that the Treasury
Board and the Secretariat are facing in their efforts to strengthen public
sector management, and establishes priorities for the government's management
agenda.
The report is divided into four sections. This section provides
an introduction to the Treasury Board and outlines its core business and current
operating environment. Section 2 outlines the Secretariat's plans and
priorities, and the resources and milestones associated with those priorities.
Section 3 presents the Secretariat's current program activity architecture by
outcome and outlines how the Secretariat organizes its program activities and
resources to deliver results. Section 4 provides supplementary information,
including financial tables for departmental planned spending.
The Treasury Board is a Cabinet committee of the Queen's Privy
Council for Canada. It was established in 1867 and given statutory powers in
1869.
As the general manager of the Public Service, the Treasury Board
functions as the government's management board, overseeing the operations of the
entire federal government. It manages the government's financial, personnel, and
administrative responsibilities, establishes management policy in each of these
areas, examines and approves the proposed spending plans of government
departments, and reviews the development of approved programs.
The Treasury Board's powers and responsibilities are set out in
various pieces of legislation, regulations, orders-in-council, policies,
guidelines, and practices. While the primary statute setting out the legislative
authorities of the Treasury Board is the Financial Administration Act,
there are over 20 other contributing statutes.
The Treasury Board has a number of instruments at its disposal
to fulfill its responsibilities. It oversees a suite of administrative
management policies that set the performance expectations of the government. It
scrutinizes and approves all Treasury Board submissions from departments and,
through the Treasury Board submissions process, provides departments with
authority to expend funds in accordance with government policies and priorities.
The Treasury Board also sets standards for a range of reports to Parliament,
determines compensation, approves terms of employment, and manages the various
pension and benefit plans provided for public service employees.
The Treasury Board fulfills its responsibilities through a
portfolio of organizations. The portfolio includes the:
- Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, which supports the Treasury Board by
providing advice to Treasury Board ministers in the management and
administration of government, by overseeing government management and
expenditure performance, by managing compensation, pensions, benefits, and
labour relations, and by fulfilling the statutory responsibilities of a
central government agency;
- Public Service Human Resources Management Agency of Canada, which supports
the Treasury Board by bringing together most human resources (HR) management
functions, including HR planning and accountability, the implementation and
management of the Public Service Modernization Act, the management and
reform of the classification system for the Public Service, the development
and implementation of employment policies, leadership, values and ethics,
employment equity and diversity, and official languages; and
- Canada School of Public Service, which supports the Treasury Board by
ensuring that public service employees have access to the common learning
they need to effectively serve Canadians.
The mission of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat is to
ensure that the rigorous stewardship of public resources achieves results for
Canadians. This includes:
- setting performance expectations and standards for public sector
management;
- establishing and leading strategies to support the horizontal management
of operations across government;
- assessing departmental, agency, and Crown corporation performance against
expectations;
- assessing government operations, programs, and services at the
departmental and whole-of-government level, and advising the government on
ways and means to allocate and reallocate resources to achieve government
priorities and objectives;
- supporting the Treasury Board's role as employer by conducting labour
relations and compensation operations, and through the strategic management
of public service pension and benefits policies and programs;
- providing assurance of probity and value for money with respect to public
investments;
- reporting federal expenditures to Parliament through the Public Accounts
of Canada; and
- supporting the President of the Treasury Board, the Treasury Board, and
Cabinet system as a central agency of government.
Within this context, the core business of the Secretariat is
currently organized into three key areas of activity. They are:
- Management and Expenditure Performance;
- Comptrollership; and
- Centrally Managed Funds.
These program areas are discussed in greater detail in Section
3; information about the Secretariat's corporate management is provided in
Section 4.
The federal government is the largest and most complex
organization in Canada. It is more than four times larger than the next largest
employer in Canada, with seven times more revenue than the next largest
organization in the country. It has more than 1,600 programs and 2,000 points of
service in Canada and abroad. And it administers more than $186 billion per year
supporting national programs, services, and transfers to the provinces, and
processes more than 350 million transactions per year.
It is also a diverse organization. It is supported by 450,000
federal employees, including public service employees, officers of Parliament
and the Supreme Court, RCMP officers, members of the Canadian Forces, and
employees of Crown corporations.
Managing change within this environment is a challenging and
demanding task. By their very nature, large organizations require structure to
function. These structures take the form of administrative policies, established
processes and procedures, suborganizations, and their supporting information
systems and cultures. Collectively, these structures tend to be rigid and fairly
resistant to change. As a result, large organizations often find it difficult to
adapt to changes in their environment. The most successful organizations,
however, create mechanisms that encourage change on a continuous basis.
Our national institutions of governance and the federal public
sector as a whole are facing significant pressures to reform and modernize:
- innovative opportunities have arisen to better engage Canadians in
government and streamline and integrate government operations, programs,
services, and their delivery through continual developments in information
and communications technologies;
- increased competition for financial and human resources, and increased
pressure on the distribution of these resources across our social programs
have emerged even as the diversity of our nation increases through social
and demographic changes;
- Canadians are demanding more from their governments in terms of openness,
transparency, citizen-centred service, and accountable financial management
and public administration; and
- employees have different expectations from their leaders than in the past,
with high expectations for learning, professional development, work
life-family balance, and career opportunities.
The Treasury Board portfolio is also experiencing significant
change and pressures. The Secretariat has been reorganized and re-mandated to
focus on the stewardship of public resources. The Public Service Human Resources
Management Agency of Canada has been mandated to oversee implementation of the Public
Service Modernization Act, and the Canada School of Public Service is just
completing a review of its business operations to improve the delivery of core
learning across the federal public sector.
Collectively, these issues and challenges have placed
significant pressures on the management of the federal public sector, and the
ongoing administration of Treasury Board policies, the expenditure management
system, financial operations, and human resources management and learning.
Indeed, in multiple areas, the federal public sector is facing growing and
deepening challenges in terms of its ability to meet higher public expectations
for openness, transparency, greater accountability, and integrated services with
existing resources.
The government has established an ambitious agenda to address
these challenges and respond to public demands for better government. Solid
progress is being made. Key developments include the:
- re-establishment of the Office of the Comptroller General of Canada as a
distinct office within the Secretariat, whereby the Comptroller General
reports to the President via the Secretary;
- passage of the Public Service Modernization Act;
- creation of the Management Accountability Framework;
- tabling of the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act;
- introduction of the new Policy on Service Standards for External Fees;
- ongoing, proactive disclosure of government operations in areas such as
contracts over $10,000, reclassifications, and hospitality and travel of
senior officials;
- tabling of the Review of the Governance Framework for Canada's Crown
Corporations-Meeting the Expectations of Canadians; and
- ongoing efforts to clarify the accountabilities and responsibilities of
ministers and senior public service employees and strengthen rules governing
compliance under the Financial Administration Act, including
prevention and sanction of mismanagement.
More, however, must be done to address public demands for better
government and position the federal government as an exemplary workplace.
Continued action is required to:
- make departments, agencies, and Crown corporations more accountable to
Parliament for results and performance;
- ensure greater fiscal discipline and the ability to allocate and
reallocate resources based on priorities and performance on an ongoing
basis;
- integrate the delivery of government operations and services; and
- ensure federal public service employees have the tools, training, and
capabilities they need to deliver programs and services effectively,
efficiently, and in a manner that meets performance expectations.
To address each of these areas effectively, the Treasury Board,
its Secretariat, and its portfolio partners must move forward in a measured and
well-planned manner. It is vital to build on Results for Canadians, a
management framework for the Government of Canada tabled in 2000, establish an
integrated, long-term agenda that sets clear and achievable goals, and then move
forward on a planned, incremental, and step-by-step basis.
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