2022-23 Departmental Plan

Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada

Original signed by

The Honourable David Lametti, P.C., Q.C., M.P.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Caroline Maynard
Information Commissioner of Canada

ISSN 2371-865X

Download PDF version

Table of contents

• From the Commissioner
• Plans at a glance
• Core responsibilities: 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
• Appendix: definitions

From the Commissioner

The Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) is starting 2022-23 with cautious optimism as we look back on the recent challenges we have successfully overcome and results we have achieved over the past two years.

My dedicated team demonstrated resilience and agility during a difficult and challenging time, transforming the way we work, welcoming and orienting new investigators, and completing 4000 files last year. While we are proud of these achievements, we are also cognizant of the long-term effects the ongoing pandemic and mindful of the need to ensure the sustainability of our operations.   

In 2022, the OIC enters the third year of our five-year strategic plan that serves as a foundation document to measure progress. I am proud of what we have accomplished to date and I look forward to further progress towards achieving my vision in the coming years.

The strategic plan focuses on three priorities: First, investing in and supporting the organization’s resources. I will continue to support my employees and further stabilize the OIC’s workforce through development and retention efforts. Mental health and wellness will remain at the top of my priority list in the upcoming year together with my commitment to promote and improve equity, diversity and inclusiveness. As we transition toward hybrid work on a permanent basis, we will take steps in order to achieve a diverse and inclusive workplace and position ourselves as the employer of choice. Upon receiving unprecedented number of complaints in the last six months of 2021/22, my office will closely monitor this trend, and act on securing additional resources needed to respond to complainants.

I will continue to deliver on our second priority—to innovate and transform operations—by building on the momentum achieved over the past two years. I will ensure that our modernized business processes continue to yield efficiencies, while simultaneously looking for new and better ways of delivering our mandate.

The third priority is to maintain and enhance the organization’s credibility. I will continue to speak out on access to information issues and provide advice and authoritative information to Parliament, central agencies and other stakeholders. My office will continue to share best practices with our stakeholders while working on reducing the number of files in our inventory and keeping up with the inflow of new complaints.

As we navigate through this pandemic, the right of access continues to be imperilled by the deficiencies of the system I have investigated and reported upon over the course of my mandate.  And yet, this quasi-constitutional right must be safeguarded as a fundamental pillar of our democracy, as we seek to secure support for government actions that will enable Canada to chart a course for the future beyond the global pandemic.

It is imperative, therefore, that my office continue to carry out its critical role of providing advice and investigating complaints in a timely manner while exercising rigorous and consistent application of the Access to Information Act. 

Caroline Maynard

Plans at a glance

The OIC plans to complete 4,000 investigations in 2022–23. This number includes reducing the number of complaints registered before 2018 in the inventory. This is part of overall efforts to make the OIC’s caseload more current and to minimize the number of open complaints dated prior to the June 2019 amendments to the Access to Information Act.

The OIC will also complete an evaluation of its investigative function in 2022-23 and continue to implement improvements identified by the evaluation of the registry function completed in 2021-22.

The OIC will initiate a gradual transition to a hybrid workplace, employing best practices of hybrid workforce management.

Other planned activities include the modernization of the OIC’s case management system, the ongoing conversion of our operations, including investigation file, from paper documents to digital formats, and the implementation of digital forms, templates and e-signatures that will help ensure the OIC’s ongoing effectiveness in a hybrid workplace. The OIC will continue to respond to a growing staff desire for workplace flexibility and agility, therefore enabling a hybrid work environment that fosters innovation, collaboration and productivity in whatever post-pandemic reality emerges.

The OIC will carry out work under the second phase of its plan to migrate its IT infrastructure to the cloud.

Specific activities in 2022–23 will include introducing new collaborative tools through MS Teams and cloud-based storage capacity via OneDrive.

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

Core responsibilities: planned results and resources, and key risks

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

Government transparency

Description

The Information Commissioner is the first level of independent review of government decisions related to requests for information from government institutions under the Access to Information Act. The Federal Court of Canada is the second level of independent review.

Planning highlights

The 2019 amendments to the Access to Information Act gave the Information Commissioner the power to publish her decisions and make any orders related to a record, including requiring institutions to disclose information. Both of these are important factors in the OIC’s work to continue to improve its efficiency and effectiveness.

Government funding decisions in 2019 and 2020 have allowed the OIC to augment its investigative capacity in order to keep up with demand and significantly reduce its complaint inventory. To meet its core responsibility in 2022-23, the OIC plans to spend $14,125,685 (voted appropriations), with 135 full-time equivalents in total. This includes $4,037,125, with 32 full-time equivalents to conduct its Internal Services work.

The OIC has established a goal to complete 4,000 investigations in the coming year. This will include reducing the number of complaints registered before 2018 that remain open, as part of overall efforts to minimize the portion of the inventory dating from before the 2019 amendments to the Act. Doing so will mean the OIC closes resource-intensive investigations that have been active for a number of years, enabling the OIC to devote more resources to newer complaints.

As of mid-December 2021, the OIC had closed over 4,400 investigations, including over 350 pre-2019 complaints, surpassing its goal.

The Legal Services team will expand the development and delivery of tools and training for investigators while providing continued support to the Commissioner on a broad range of internal services and investigations related matters.  This includes the power to make orders, publish her decisions and approve institutions’ requests to decline to act on requests as well as litigation.

The new fiscal year will see the OIC focussing on how to transition its investigations operations to the post-pandemic workplace. Traditionally, the OIC has required investigators, lawyers and other staff involved in investigations to be on site to carry out their work. However, the pandemic has shown that there has not been a negative impact on investigations with employees working remotely, as long as proper security precautions and electronic systems and solutions are in place. The OIC expects that most of its staff will continue to work remotely, at least part time, once the pandemic is over. Helping to make this possible is the planned modernization of the OIC’s case management system, as well as the ongoing digitization of paper documents and the implementation of electronic templates and signatures.

To help ensure the effectiveness of the investigations sector teams—even those working remotely—the OIC will also introduce enhanced tools and support for managers. The planned adjustment of recruitment and training activities (including the OIC’s professional development program for investigators) will help ensure the OIC can engage and retain staff, as well as helping them thrive and be effective in the hybrid work environment.

Based on more than 35 years of unique experience investigating access-related complaints, the Commissioner and the OIC will be pleased to contribute to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s review of the access system and the Access to Information Act during 2022–23.

Gender-based analysis plus

The OIC will implement measures to respond to the results of an all-staff survey on the impact of the pandemic on employees, including effects on GBA+ groups.

United Nations’ (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2022-23, the OIC will endeavour to implement the contributions it is responsible for under the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS). Further, the OIC will develop its departmental sustainable development strategy, taking into account it is a small, arms-length organization reporting directly to Parliament with limited resources.

Experimentation

The OIC will build upon the results of a pilot project that demonstrated our employees are able to work remotely in a secure and efficient manner from anywhere outside the national capital region (NCR). Collaborative tools and leveraging technology currently in place towards cloud base operating system, including future direction mandated by the government, will contribute to the flexibility and agility of our working environment.

Key risk(s)

An important strategic priority for the Commissioner is to ensure that the OIC remains relevant. This means both investigating matters of significant public interest, and finding a balance between old and new files. It also means that the OIC continues to provide informed advice to Parliament and others on matters concerning access to information.

Doing these tasks also requires the prompt completion of investigations. The OIC will be reviewing and adjusting its file management approach. It will also be updating systems and processes, templates, guidance and training materials—within both the investigations and enabling functions, such as Human Resources—to ensure they are effective and efficient.

However, the OIC is also aware that by increasing its efficiency and investigative capacity, it risks overwhelming institutions, to the detriment of the OIC’s work and to an institutions ability to respond to access requests. To mitigate this risk, the OIC engages institutions’ cooperation through ongoing communications with officials at various levels and considers institutional workload when assigning files.

Finally, the OIC’s project to migrate its IT infrastructure to the cloud began before the pandemic started in 2020. The successful conclusion of this project is essential to the OIC being able to operate effectively in the post-pandemic work environment. The OIC will seek to mitigate the security risks associated with carrying out all its business electronically——by reviewing and updating its security threat and risk assessments and taking any necessary corrective measures.

Planned results for government transparency

The following table shows, for government transparency, 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 OIC’s targets were modified in 2020-21 to better reflect all aspects of its operations. Key Performance Indicators were designed and set in anticipation that no further major disruptions to operations would emerge.  The significant increase in the number of complaints received combined with the impact of the pandemic across the access to information system during the last two years have negatively affected the organization’s ability to meet these targets.  The OIC continues to be on track to meet its initial target of closing over 4000 files a year, while slowly working through its inventory of older files and decreasing the average time complaints remain in the inventory.

**The figures for 2019–20 only include administrative complaints (those about time extensions, delays and other matters such as official languages) closed outside the OIC’s Registry. This had been set up by the OIC the previous year to facilitate case management and close complaints not requiring a full investigation. The figure for the percentage of administrative complaints assigned to investigators within 30 days of registration in 2019–20 is the result of a number of factors, including resource challenges. Moreover, the OIC could not assign at once the large volume of new administrative complaints received during the year without compromising investigators’ ability to work on other types of complaints and older files, and without overwhelming institutions’ capacity to respond to investigators’ queries.

***Refusal complaints (largely those about the application of exemptions and exclusions by institutions) completed with a finding of well founded, not well founded, or resolved.

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

Planned budgetary spending for government transparency

The following table shows, for government transparency, budgetary and planned spending for 2022–23, as well as planned spending for each of the next two fiscal years.

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

Planned human resources for government transparency

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

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Office of the Information Commissioner’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
• acquisition management services

Planning highlights

The OIC’s Internal Services teams provide direct and essential support to the OIC’s investigations program. In 2022–23, this will include the second phase of overseeing an evaluation of the program, following a successful phase I evaluation conducted in 2021-22.

Communications services will also support the OIC through the development and publication of the organization’s annual report and special reports to Parliament. Communications will also support the OIC in its role to provide advice to Parliament and assist in the preparation of submissions to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat regarding the Review of Access to Information Regime currently under way.

The Human Resources team will complete the staffing actions required for the OIC to maintain a full complement of investigators.

The Human Resources team will also support OIC managers in performance, talent and professional development management activities, with the goal of retaining our employees, providing career development opportunities and developing leadership competencies for top performers.

To provide further support to employees, the Finance and Human Resources teams will continue their efforts to implement a plan to enhance how the OIC handles employees’ compensation matters, including problems related to the Phoenix pay system.

To ensure the OIC is in full compliance with its policy and regulatory obligations, it will complete its comprehensive policy review and continue implementing an updated governance structure. 

As Canada emerges from the pandemic, the IM/IT team will continue to play an important support role for the OIC’s Beyond 2020 working group, which is guiding the organization’s towards its new normal (hybrid and post-pandemic). This is complemented by work of the Innovation Steering Committee who will also play an important role in shaping the future vision and transformation agenda.

To that end, the IM/IT Team will implement tools to ensure the OIC can take a hybrid approach to operations, featuring both on-site and remote work. This will include carrying out activities under the second phase of the OIC’s plan to migrate its IT infrastructure to the cloud, such as introducing new collaborative tools such as MS Teams, Document Management solution (Sharepoint), new training tools and digital storage capacity via OneDrive.

Renovations to the OIC’s office will conclude in 2022–23 to allow flexibility and enhance collaboration within and among teams, regardless of where employees are located.

Finally, the OIC will continue delivering on three-year mental health plan, with various activities for employees and a review of OIC policies and procedures to ensure they support employee mental health.

Likewise, the OIC will work to foster equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, welcoming and valuing the contributions by members of the four employment equity groups (women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and visible minorities), accessibility issues, as well as LGBTQ2 communities as integral parts of the overall OIC team.

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 each of the next two fiscal years.

Planned human resources for internal services

The following table shows, in full‑time equivalents, the human resources required by the department to carry out its internal services for 2022–23 and 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.

Text version

Departmental spending 2019–20 to 2024–25

Fiscal year	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022	2022-2023	2023-2024	2024-2025
Statutory	1,229,844	1,628,794	1,794,193	1,784,534	1,784,534	1,784,534
Voted	13,146,703	14,504,595	16,918,434	14,125,695	14,125,695	14,125,695
Total	14,376,547	16,133,389	18,712,627	15,910,229	15,910,229	15,910,229

In 2019–20, the OIC received $1.4 million in permanent annual funding to implement the Commissioner’s new powers and responsibilities under Bill C-58, and $2.6 million in temporary funding for inventory reduction. In 2020–21, the OIC received $2.5 million in annual permanent funding under the OIC’s core responsibilities. Finally, in 2020-21, the OIC reprofiled $0.9 million to 2021-22.

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

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

The totals for 2019–20 to 2024–25 each include $1.4 million in permanent funding to implement the new responsibilities the Commissioner received as part of the June 2019 legislative amendments. The totals for 2020–21 to 2024–25 include $2.5 million in permanent funding for investigations under the OIC’s core responsibility. In 2020-21, the OIC reprofiled $0.9 million to 2021-22. The increased permanent funding will help ensure the OIC’s investigations program is viable and sustainable, and can achieve maximum results for Canadians. The graph and table also show the funding for collective agreements: $0.3 million for 2021–22 and $0.1 million for 2022–23 and ongoing. The OIC plans to spend $15.9 million in 2022–23 and ongoing. The vast majority of the OIC’s spending (86 percent) is for salaries and associated employee cost.

Planned human resources

The following table provides human resources information, in full-time equivalents (FTEs), for each of the OIC’s core responsibilities and its internal services for 2022–23 and other relevant years.

Human resources planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services

In 2019–20, the OIC received permanent funding for 15 FTEs to carry out the Commissioner’s new responsibilities. In 2020–21, the OIC received permanent funding for an additional 27 FTEs to carry out investigations.

Estimates by vote

Information on the OIC’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 OIC’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 OIC’s website.

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

The variance between the forecast results for 2021–22 and the planned results for 2022–23 is mainly due to lower expected authorities in 2022–23.

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister(s): David Lametti, P.C., Q.C., M.P, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Institutional head: Caroline Maynard, Information Commissioner of Canada

Ministerial portfolio: Department of Justice Canada

Enabling instrument(s): Access to Information Act (RSC, 1985, C-1)

Year of incorporation/commencement: 1983

Other: For administrative purposes, the Minister of Justice is responsible for submitting the organization’s Departmental Plan and Departmental Results Report.

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

“Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do” is available on the OIC’s website.

Operating context

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

Reporting framework

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

Changes to the approved reporting framework since 2021–22

The OIC’s core responsibility and program remain unchanged.

Supporting information on the program inventory

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

Supplementary information tables

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

• Reporting on Green Procurement
• Gender-based analysis plus

Federal tax expenditures

The OIC’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

France Labine
Deputy Commissioner, Corporate Services, Strategic Planning
and Transformation Services Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
30 Victoria Street
Gatineau QC  K1A 1H3

Telephone: 819-994-8181
Cell: 613-462-4441
Email: france.labine@ci-oic.gc.ca
Website: www.oic-ci.gc.ca ^xii

Appendix: 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 is often 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 process used to assess how diverse groups of women, men and gender-diverse people experience policies, programs and services based on multiple factors including race, ethnicity, religion, age, and mental or physical disability.

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 managed together within a department and 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 are 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 are made.