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Chairperson’s Message

I am pleased to present the 2009-2010 Departmental Performance Report (DPR) for the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (the Tribunal).

The Tribunal’s mandate is to provide the fair, transparent, timely and effective disposition of international trade cases, government procurement reviews and other matters in various areas of the Tribunal’s jurisdiction. The Tribunal conducts inquiries into complaints relating to unfair trade (i.e. dumping and subsidizing), requests for protection from rapid increases in imports (safeguards) and complaints regarding federal government procurement. The Tribunal hears appeals from decisions of the Minister of National Revenue under the Excise Tax Act and of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) under the Customs Act or the Special Import Measures Act (SIMA). In its advisory role, the Tribunal undertakes general economic inquiries for the Governor in Council and tariff references for the Minister of Finance. As this DPR illustrates, the Tribunal’s activities and initiatives contribute to Canada’s competitiveness and to a fair and secure marketplace.

During the last 12 months, members and staff of the Tribunal successfully managed an exceptionally large number of cases. Indeed, as the economy started to recover after the 2008-2009 recession, the Tribunal experienced an increase in the number of trade remedies cases brought by industries alleging injury caused by dumped and subsidized imports. The Tribunal also experienced a significant increase in the number of procurement complaints because of the increase in government procurement resulting from Canada’s Economic Action Plan and from a greater awareness, in the marketplace, of the Tribunal’s existence.

Coming into 2009-2010, the Tribunal was carefully monitoring an increase in the volume of trade remedies and procurement cases. With a requirement to process cases within statutory deadlines and limited scope for increasing capacity through internal resources, the Tribunal submitted a request for additional funding from the Treasury Board Management Reserve. The Tribunal received supplementary funding starting in the fourth quarter of 2009-2010 and continuing through to fiscal year 2011-2012.

In 2009-2010, the Tribunal’s supporting priority remained that of continuous improvement. In this regard, the Tribunal targeted initiatives under three broad categories: investment in its people, sound management practices and improved service delivery.

In particular, the Tribunal continued to invest in its people by encouraging learning and skills development for all employees. Sound management practices were further reinforced through the implementation of the recommendations from the 2008-2009 Management Accountability Framework final report. In addition, the Tribunal started to develop a more integrated information management system to track case work, case statistics and the Tribunal’s performance. Through these initiatives, the Tribunal has been committed to advancing government priorities by enhancing its services to Canadians, improving its accountability and ensuring the transparency of its operations.

The original version was signed by
André F. Scott
Chairperson

Raison d’être

The Tribunal provides Canadian and international businesses with access to fair, transparent and timely processes for the investigation of trade remedy cases and complaints concerning federal government procurement and for the adjudication of appeals on customs and excise matters. At the request of the Government, the Tribunal provides advice in tariff, trade, commercial and economic matters.

Responsibilities

The Tribunal was established in December 1988 under the Canadian International Trade Tribunal Act (CITT Act). It acts as an independent, investigative and quasi-judicial decision-making body that reports to Parliament through the Minister of Finance. The Tribunal also derives authority from SIMA, the Customs Act and the Excise Tax Act. The Tribunal’s office is located in Ottawa, Ontario.

The Tribunal fulfils the following roles within the Government of Canada:

● inquires, under SIMA, into whether dumped or subsidized imports have caused, or are threatening to cause, injury to a domestic industry;

● inquires into complaints by potential suppliers concerning procurement by the federal government that is covered by the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Agreement on Internal Trade, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement, the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement and the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement;

● hears appeals of decisions of the CBSA made under the Customs Act and SIMA and of the Minister of National Revenue under the Excise Tax Act;

● inquires into and provides advice on such economic, trade and tariff issues as are referred to the Tribunal by the Governor in Council or the Minister of Finance;

● investigates requests from Canadian producers for tariff relief on imported textile inputs used in their production operations and to make recommendations to the Minister of Finance on the requests; and

● undertakes safeguard inquiries into complaints by domestic producers that increased imports are causing, or threatening to cause, injury to domestic producers and, as directed, makes recommendations to the Government on an appropriate remedy.

Strategic Outcome and Program Activity Architecture

The chart below illustrates the Tribunal’s complete framework of program activities. The Tribunal has no program sub-activities except under internal services.

Summary of Performance

The Tribunal’s financial and human resources had a direct impact on its ability to achieve its strategic outcome and deliver on its program activities. The following sections highlight the Tribunal’s performance and demonstrate linkages between resources and results.

Financial Resources ($ thousands)

Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending
9,530	11,277	10,952

During the 2009-2010 fiscal year, the Tribunal’s planned spending was $9.5 million. Through the Main Estimates and Supplementary Estimates, the Tribunal was allocated total authorities of $11.3 million, of which $0.5 million was additional funding from the Treasury Board Management Reserve. Actual spending for the Tribunal was almost $11 million.

Human Resources (FTE)

Planned	Actual	Difference
82	78	4

As per the 2009-2010 Main Estimates, the Tribunal originally planned to operate with 77 full-time equivalents (FTEs). Additional funding from the Treasury Board Management Reserve received during fiscal year 2009-2010 allowed the Tribunal to increase its FTEs to 82. The Tribunal actually utilized 78 FTEs in 2009-2010, up from 73 in 2008-2009. A variance of 4 FTEs can be attributed to delays associated with finalizing competitive recruitment processes and to normal attrition issues associated with staff. Also, to achieve a good working level at a rapid pace, recruitment was offset to ensure good mentoring, and guidance was provided for all new employees.

Strategic Outcome 1: Fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases, procurement cases and government-mandated inquiries within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.

Performance Indicators	Targets	Performance Summary
Tribunal decisions overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal or international appeal bodies.	Less than 2 percent of all decisions rendered are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal or international appeal bodies.	Met all
Tribunal decisions overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal or international appeal bodies for reasons of “due process”.	Less than 1 percent of all decisions rendered are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal or international appeal bodies on judicial review dealing specifically with “due process”.	Exceeded
Tribunal notices, decisions and guidelines are accessible to the public.	All notices, decisions and guidelines for all areas of its mandate and practice notices are accessible to the public through the Tribunal’s Web site, the Canada Gazette and/or MERX (Canada’s electronic tendering service).	Met all
Decisions are issued within statutory deadlines.	All decisions are issued within statutory deadlines.	Met all
Appeal decisions are issued within internal deadlines.	Seventy percent of decisions on appeals are issued within internal deadlines.	Met all
Recommendations meet the terms of reference and provide requested information.	All recommendations and reports meet the terms of reference and provide requested information.	Met all
Reports, determinations and recommendations are published within Government-mandated deadlines.	All reports and recommendations to the Government or the Minister of Finance are published within the statutory deadlines.	Met all
Summary of achievements against priorities ● The Tribunal met its targets for issuing all decisions within statutory deadlines, making information available to the public and making sound decisions. The Tribunal exceeded its performance target on “due process”. ● The Tribunal met its target in meeting internal deadlines for the issuance of appeal decisions. ● The Tribunal met its target for providing complete reports and recommendations to the Minister of Finance under the textile tariff reference. It met its target for providing timely reports and recommendations.

Financial Resources by Program Activity ($ thousands)

Program Activity1	Actual Spending 2008-20092	2009-2010				Alignment to Government of Canada Outcomes
		Main Estimates	Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending
Adjudication of Trade Cases (quasi-judicial role)	9,664	6,071	6,071	7,104	6,899	Fair and secure marketplace
General Economic Inquiries and References (advisory role)	155	88	88	113	110	Fair and secure marketplace
Internal Services	-	3,371	3,371	4,060	3,943
Total	9,819	9,530	9,530	11,277	10,952
1. For program activity descriptions, please access the Main Estimates online at http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/est-pre/estime.asp. 2. Starting in the 2009-2010 Estimates Cycle, the resources for Internal Services are displayed separately from other program activities; they are no longer distributed between the remaining program activities, as was the case in previous Main Estimates. This change affects the comparability of spending and FTE information by program activity between fiscal years.

Contribution of the Tribunal’s Priorities to its Strategic Outcome

Operational Priorities	Type	Status	Link to Strategic Outcome
I—Process Cases Within Statutory Deadlines and Maintain Quality Standards	Ongoing	Met all The primary objective was to ensure that statutory deadlines were met and that the quality of the Tribunal’s findings, determinations and recommendations were not compromised during a particularly busy year. The Tribunal met this objective by focusing on the core areas of its mandate and on effective workforce planning, which included selecting and prioritizing initiatives that optimized resources and operational efficiencies. The Tribunal secured additional funding for the period starting in the fourth quarter of 2009-2010 and continuing through to fiscal year 2011-2012 to help manage the increase in workload relating to the global economic recession.	The Tribunal’s overriding priority is to hear cases and to make sound decisions on matters that fall within its jurisdiction, within legislative and internal deadlines. In so doing, the Tribunal supports a fair marketplace in Canada, maintains its strong reputation both within Canada and throughout the world and complies with its legislative requirements.
II—Improve Service Delivery	Ongoing	Mostly met Continuous improvement in service delivery remained a priority for the Tribunal in 2009-2010. The improvements were as follows. ● The Tribunal finalized its business continuity plan (BCP) for all its branches and assigned selected staff to participate in a training exercise to practice its implementation. The Tribunal’s BCP will contribute to the continuity of the Tribunal’s services to the public. ● During the last fiscal year, the Tribunal continued to work with the CBSA to streamline the expiry review process in order to improve service delivery and efficiency by examining different options to alleviate the burden on questionnaires’ respondents. ● The Tribunal continued to work on the ToolKit system (electronic compilation of the administrative record) to strengthen its information management for cases. ● The review of the IT Strategy and Architecture Plan has been postponed until 2010-11 to allow the Tribunal to finalize its Integrated IT plan, which was completed in 2009-2010. The Integrated IT plan will serve as a roadmap for the development of the IT Strategy and Architecture Plan.	The Tribunal continues to provide efficient and reliable services for parties and their counsel. It also provides secure, efficient and reliable information technology services (IT) to members and staff. It protects at all times personal and confidential information and applies regular process improvements to all these services. These measures ensure the security and availability of information held by the Tribunal.

Management Priorities	Type	Status	Link to Strategic Outcome
I—Invest in Its People	Ongoing	Met all The Tribunal uses a comprehensive approach to focus on professional development, in-house training material, succession planning and continuous learning to keep its employees’ skills current. In 2009-2010, the Tribunal’s investment in its people was as follows. ● The Tribunal drafted and started implementation of its 2009-2012 Integrated Human Resources Plan to recruit, train and retain its staff. The HR plan is a live working document that the Tribunal is constantly reviewing and adjusting ● Individual learning plans have been developed for most employees on an annual basis. Learning profiles based on occupations are being prepared to ensure uniformity in professional development based on recent government trends. Currently, we have three developmental programs in place at the Tribunal to help promote learning in the organization. ● The Tribunal offered seminars on processes and issues in trade remedies, procurement review and appeal cases for its staff. ● Case teams were carefully formed to include experienced and new staff in order to facilitate on-the-job training and knowledge transfer.	The Tribunal’s reputation of excellence depends largely on its highly specialized workforce working closely together to deliver on its mandate. The Tribunal continues to encourage a positive, healthy and respectful work environment and to offer professional development opportunities with an emphasis on learning, knowledge transfer, and career and succession planning. The Tribunal also continues to offer an inclusive barrier-free selection and appointment process reflective of the Canadian population. These measures contribute to the long-term operational requirements of the Tribunal.
II—Sound Management	Ongoing	Met all Promoting transparency and supporting overall government-wide management accountability priorities, including the Management Accountability Framework (MAF) and the commitments introduced under the new Federal Accountability Act, continue to be priorities for the Tribunal. The projects undertaken in 2009-2010 included the following. ● The Tribunal started its implementation of the recommendations resulting from the 2008-2009 MAF final report. The implementation of the management action plan will be completed in 2010-2011. ● The Tribunal started to integrate its information management systems, including systems relating to case tracking, case reporting, planning and performance measurement. The integration is well under way and will be fully completed in the first quarter of 2010-2011. ● The Tribunal continued to follow its risk-based assessment plan by conducting an independent preliminary review of its internal management of trade remedies and procurement cases. ● The Tribunal provided a values and ethics workshop for staff and members to promote and reinforce values and ethics in the workplace.	The Tribunal continues to foster sound management practices in processing Tribunal cases and references and observed all government-wide management accountability priorities, including the MAF and the measures introduced under the Federal Accountability Act. In doing so, the Tribunal continues to improve its performance and accountability as a whole.

Risk Analysis

The Tribunal’s workload of trade remedies, procurement, and appeal and textile cases is externally generated through complaints filed by companies, which must be handled as soon as they are received and within statutory, government-mandated or internal deadlines. This operating environment presents three challenges for management. First, the actual caseload varies from year to year around the baseline. The caseload depends on factors outside the control of the Tribunal, such as the state of the economy and government priorities. Second, the randomness of when complaints are filed often leads to the bunching of cases, i.e. there are periodic peaks of activity throughout the year that cannot be smoothed out because of statutory deadlines. Third, there is the challenge posed by the relatively small number of trade remedies cases and their high costs. Variations from the norm in terms of the number or size of cases can cause comparatively large swings in work effort.

In terms of risk, 2009-2010 was a transitional year for the Tribunal. Going into the year, the Tribunal recognized that the unanticipated events in financial markets and the ensuing downturn in the global, U.S. and Canadian economies would likely require an upward revision in its estimate of case volumes. Indeed, as the year progressed, the anticipated increase in caseload materialized and the Tribunal was left with few options but to request additional funding to meet the increased workload. As a result, the Tribunal’s risks changed throughout the year, as did the mitigation strategies.

In the first half of the year, case activity had already started to increase. This created an important risk with regard to the Tribunal’s ability to maintain the quality of decisions and meet deadlines with available resources. To mitigate this risk, the Tribunal reallocated resources from internal services to its business lines to provide more capacity for case work. As well, the Tribunal prioritized trade remedies and procurement cases, which have legislative deadlines, as opposed to other mandates that do not have such deadlines. At the same time, the Tribunal started to invest in improving its processes and capacity for the handling of appeal cases.

In the second half of the year, case activity continued to exceed the Tribunal’s benchmark levels. The Tribunal received additional funding to handle the increased workload. The Tribunal’s risk evolved and became its ability to maintain quality decisions and meet deadlines while concurrently integrating new resources. The Tribunal responded by moving quickly to implement its Integrated Human Resources Plan for 2009-2012. The components of the plans included a strategy to allocate the new resources to respond as effectively and efficiently as possible to the increased case activity and plans for employee training and development.

Throughout the year, knowledge transfer remained an important risk for the Tribunal. The Tribunal’s work requires specialized skills and knowledge, which are acquired over a number of years from training and experience, and includes key elements, such as judgment, values and insight. Knowledge of this type is not easily replaced. In 2009-2010, knowledge transfer was important, in part because of the impending departure of some key staff, but also because of the need to staff above normal levels to meet the increase in case activity. Maintaining continuity of the Tribunal’s corporate knowledge required a sustained focus on training and development, recruitment, retention and succession planning. Trainees and junior staff required timely access to orientation and training programs to expedite the knowledge transfer process. As well, case teams were carefully assembled to include a mix of experienced and new staff in order to facilitate knowledge transfer through coaching and mentoring.

Expenditure Profile

Planned and Actual Spending ($ thousands)

	2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009	2009-2010
Main Estimates	10,005	10,682	10,152	9,530
Planned Spending	10,005	10,682	10,152	9,530
Total Authorities	10,243	10,980	11,009	11,277
Actual Spending	9,700	10,061	9,819	10,952

For the 2006-2007 to 2009-2010 period, total spending includes all parliamentary appropriation: Main Estimates, Supplementary Estimates and Treasury Board Vote 15, and carry-forward adjustments.

The fluctuations in spending and planned spending since 2006-2007 can be explained by the following three events:

• 1. In 2007-2008, the Tribunal replaced its aging hearing room audio system for a total actual cost of nearly $340,000.
• 2. In 2008-2009, $702,000 was placed in a frozen allotment that was unavailable to the Tribunal, as a result of the 2007 Strategic Review. This explains the large variance between total authorities and actual spending.
• 3. In 2009-2010, in anticipation of additional cases due to the world economic downturn, more resources were allocated to the Tribunal to ensure the Tribunal could maintain its current level of service and would continue to deliver on its mandate. As a result, the Tribunal’s actual spending increased by more than $1.1 million compared to 2008-2009, while its total authorities increased by close to $0.3 million.

Voted and Statutory Items

This table illustrates Parliamentary approval of the Tribunal’s resources and shows the changes in resources derived from supplementary estimates and other authorities, as well as how funds were spent.

($ thousands)

Vote or Statutory Item	Truncated Vote or Statutory Wording	2009-2010 Main Estimates	2009-2010 Planned Spending	2009-2010 Total Authorities	2009-2010 Actual Spending
20	Program Expenditures1	8,379	8,379	9,968	9,643
(S)	Contributions to Employee Benefit Plans	1,151	1,151	1,309	1,309
Total Tribunal		9,530	9,530	11,277	10,952
1. Variance between 2009-2010 Main Estimates and 2009-2010 Actual Spending is attributable to funding of $0.5 million received to help manage the unanticipated workload increase resulting from the world economic downturn, $0.4 million received for operating budget carry-forward and $0.3 million received for salary increases as a result of collective bargaining.

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