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ARCHIVED - RPP 2006-2007
Department of Justice Canada

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SECTION I—OVERVIEW

Message from the Minister of Justice

Vic Toews
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Canada's laws affect virtually every aspect of our political, social, and economic life. They are the bedrock of our proud tradition of safety and security, ensuring that all Canadians - particularly the most vulnerable members of society - can live in safe, healthy communities.

As Minister of Justice and Attorney General, I am responsible for ensuring that an accessible, efficient, and fair system of justice results in the safe streets and communities that have been defining characteristics of Canada. I consider it an honour and a privilege to have been entrusted with this duty, and I will act decisively to ensure that our justice system promotes safety and responds to the needs of Canadians. In this regard, I am deeply appreciative of the professionalism of the public servants of the Department of Justice, who work hard to help me fulfil these duties.

Strengthening the justice system to protect Canadian families and communities is one of the Government of Canada's five key priorities. For this fiscal year, the Department of Justice is focusing on an ambitious agenda that includes such issues as sentencing reform, victims of crime, youth criminal justice, street racing, the DNA Data Bank, raising the age of protection, and efforts to combat illegal guns, gangs and drugs – both in urban and rural areas.

The Department will also play a significant role in improving government accountability, including reforms of our access to information laws. I am pleased to say that progress has already been made, as we have seen unprecedented openness and transparency in the process used to select the newest Supreme Court Justice.

In each of these areas, we will work closely with all levels of government, as well as with our justice stakeholders, community and business leaders, academics and other experts, and directly with the Canadian public. We will also look beyond our borders at best practices that have produced positive results in other countries.

Within the Department of Justice, we will continue to work on such pressing issues as a sustainable funding strategy for legal services, managing the volume of litigation, legal risk management, performance measurement, and developing the skills and knowledge of our workforce. In all of our work, we will emphasize fiscal responsibility and transparency.

I believe that focusing on these areas will help modernize and strengthen our justice system. I look forward to making significant progress on these justice issues as an important step toward fulfilling our government's priority of protecting Canada's families and communities.

Vic Toews
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Message from the Deputy Minister

The Department of Justice works to ensure that Canada's justice system is as fair, accessible and efficient as possible so that, ultimately, Canada's families and communities are safer and better protected. The Department helps the federal government to develop policy and to draft and reform laws as needed so that priorities and key commitments are realized to the benefit of all Canadians. The priorities and agendas captured in this report reflect the Department of Justice's plans to support progress on the Government's agenda while providing legal services to all Government departments.

Beyond delivering on these extensive priorities, as Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General, I am committed to bringing increased discipline and rigour to our management policies and processes that support the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and more broadly that enable the Government of Canada to pursue its policy and program agenda. To this end, we have embarked on an ambitious change agenda to ensure that the Department focuses on improving its ability to manage for results and thereby support the Government of Canada's key commitment to make government more accountable.

To make concrete progress, we have been focused over the past two reporting periods on developing and implementing some of the base infrastructure necessary to pursue a performance management approach to our core business. While we still have work to do to further build this capacity, I am confident that, over the coming year, some of the fruits of these endeavours will begin to take shape. For example, we will be collecting and reporting on stakeholder feedback on the utility, timeliness and responsiveness of the full range of legal services that we provide to the Government of Canada. This key initiative will enable us to establish baselines against which we can monitor and assess our performance.

I expect that, as we pursue our efforts to roll out and refine such standardized tools as time-keeping and client feedback mechanisms, our capacity to report on results will continue to improve, and consequently there will be continual enhancements to the robustness of the performance information presented in our annual performance reports.

This report lays out the Department's priorities and commitments and I am committed to continuing our efforts to make more systemic the collection of information about our performance. For further detail on our corporate plans to improve our capacity to manage effectively, please see Section IV of this report.

Management Representation Statement

I submit for tabling in Parliament, the 2006-2007 Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP) for the Department of Justice Canada.

This document has been prepared in accordance with the reporting principles contained in the Guide to the preparation of Part III of the Estimates: Reports on Plans and Priorities.

It adheres to the specific reporting requirements outlined in TBS guidelines in that
- it is based on the Department's approved accountability structure as reflected in its Management, Resources and Results Structure (MRRS); and
- it presents consistent, comprehensive, balanced and accurate information;
It provides a basis of accountability for the results achieved with the resources and authorities entrusted to the Department; and
It reports finances based on planned expenditures approved by the Treasury Board Secretariat in the RPP.

John Sims
Deputy Minister and Deputy Attorney General

Summary Information

Raison d'être

The justice system defines and prescribes the balance between collective and individual rights and responsibilities that ensure a well-ordered society. As such it affects almost every facet of Canadians' daily lives from guiding everyday activities that ensure our safety to supporting social policies and social benefits, regulating our economy, and offering ways to resolve disputes peacefully where there are disagreements or conflicts between people, organizations, and/or governments.

Maintaining a system that serves all Canadians is a central focus for the Department of Justice (DOJ), which strives to ensure that the system remains fair, accessible and efficient as it evolves in response to social change.

Role of the Department

The Department of Justice is headed by the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada. The responsibilities of the Minister and the Attorney General are set out in the Department of Justice Act and 47 other Acts of Parliament. The Department of Justice fulfills three distinctive roles within the Government of Canada, acting as a:

policy department with broad responsibilities for overseeing all matters relating to the administration of justice that fall within the federal domain;
provider of a range of legal advisory, litigation and legislative services to government departments and agencies; and
central agency responsible for supporting the Minister in advising Cabinet on all legal matters including the constitutionality of government activities.

Mission

The Department's mission is to:

Support the Minister of Justice in working to ensure that Canada is a just and law-abiding society with an accessible, efficient and fair system of justice;
Provide high-quality legal services and counsel to the government and to client departments and agencies; and
Promote respect for rights and freedoms, the law and the Constitution.

Benefits to Canadians

The Department of Justice plays an important role in supporting the Government's priority of protecting Canadian families and communities. Furthermore, the Department is a Federal Organization that supports all of the Government of Canada's priorities through its services to other departments and agencies.

Departmental Planned Spending: Summary of Resources

Financial Resources (in millions of dollars)

2006-2007	2007-2008¹	2008-2009¹
1,005.7	728.3	711.6

Human Resources (in Full-time Equivalents or FTEs)

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
4,783	4,783	4,850

2006-2007 Planned Spending by Strategic Outcome and Supporting Program Activity ($ million)

A fair, relevant and accessible justice system that reflects Canadian values
Developing policies and laws	31.1
Developing and Implementing Programs	382.2
Total - Strategic Outcome 1	413.3

A federal government that is supported by effective and responsive legal services
Providing legal advisory, litigation and legislative services to government	508.6
Providing prosecution services	83.8
Total - Strategic Outcome 2	592.4
Total	1,005.7

1. Please refer, to note 4 in Table 1 for an explanation of the difference.

2006-2007 Planned Spending by Strategic Outcome

2006-2007 Planned Spending by Program Activity

Departmental Priorities
Program Activity - Expected Result		Planned Spending
		Estimated Planned Spending	Estimated Planned Spending	Estimated Planned Spending
		2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Priority A: Protecting Canadian communities	S.O. I Program activity A.1: Developing policies and laws Expected results: Policies and laws are developed in response to identified needs and gaps and are integrated with Government priorities and commitments S.O II Program activity B.1: Providing legal advisory and litigation services to government Expected results: High quality legal services and respect for the rule of law S.O. II Program activity B.2: Providing prosecution services Expected results: Effective pre-charge interventions/advice	$ 42,299,582	$ 41,329,785	$ 41,329,785
Priority B: Improving government accountability	S.O. I Program activity A.1: Developing policies and laws Expected results: Policies and laws are developed in response to identified needs and gaps and are integrated with Government priorities and commitments S. O. II Program activity B.1: Providing legal advisory, legislative and litigation services to government Expected results: High quality legal services and respect for the rule of law	$ 500,000	$ 500,000	$ 100,000
Priority C: Strengthening youth criminal justice	S.O.I Program activity A.1: Developing policies and laws Expected results: Policies and laws are developed in response to identified needs and gaps and are integrated with Government priorities and commitments S.O. I Program activity A.2: Developing and implementing programs Expected results: Programs are developed and implemented in response to identified needs and gaps and are integrated with Government priorities and commitments	$ 192,252,835	$ 192,252,835	$ 192,803,335
Priority D: Improving the experience of victims of crime	S.O. I Program activity A.1: Developing policies and laws Expected results: Policies and laws are developed in response to identified needs and gaps and are integrated with Government priorities and commitments S.O. I Program activity A.2: Developing and implementing programs Expected results: Programs are developed and implemented in response to identified needs and gaps and are integrated with Government priorities and commitments	$ 4,839,031	$ 4,839,056	$ 4,838,974
Priority E: Improving efficiencies in the justice system and the efficient delivery of legal services to Government	S.O. I Program activity A.1: Developing policies and laws Expected results: Policies and laws are developed in response to identified needs and gaps and are integrated with Government priorities and commitments S.O. I Program activity A.2: Developing and implementing programs Expected results: Programs are developed and implemented in response to identified needs and gaps and are integrated with Government priorities and commitments	$ 164,356,845	$ 108,760,764¹	$ 86,749,36²
Priority F: Improving efficiencies in the justice system	Developing policies and laws Expected results: Policies and laws are developed in response to identified needs and gaps and are integrated with Government priorities and commitments S.O. II Program activity B.1: Providing legal advisory and litigation services to government Expected results: High quality legal services and respect for the rule of law S. O. II Program activity B.2: Providing prosecution services Expected results: Effective pre-charge interventions/advice	$ 562,766,939	$ 337,746,212	$ 342,545,728

1. Resources for Aboriginal Justice Strategy are not included in totals as the strategy is due to sunset on March 31, 2007

2. Resources for Family Justice and Aboriginal Justice Strategy are not included in totals as both strategies are due to sunset on March 31, 2007

3. Totals do not add up to 100% of Departmental spending as there are other activities managed by the Department such as the Family Violence Initiative as well as other management activities such as Business Planning, etc. Details are found in Tables in Section III.

Program Activity Architecture (PAA) Crosswalk from old PAA to new PAA for 2005-2006 Main Estimates*

($ million)	Developing policies and laws (New)	Developing and implementing programs (New)	Providing legal advisory, litigation and legislative services to government (New)	Providing prosecution services (New)	Total
A.1 Developing policies and laws (Old)	19.6				19.6
A.2 Delivering Programs (Old)		338.7			338.7
A.3 Managing and coordinating the strategic policies/priorities function (Old)	10.2	3.4			13.6
B.1 Providing legal advisory and litigation services to government (Old)			452,8		452.8
B.2 Providing legislative services to government (Old)			20.6		20.6
B.3 Providing prosecution services (Old)				79.7	79.7
	29.8	342.1	473.4	79.7	925.0

* Crosswalk represents changes made in 2005-2006 PAA therefore 2005-2006 forecasted spending is represented. Refer to Table 1 in Section III for further detail.

Operating environment

The Department of Justice is a medium-sized department with about 5,000 employees. While roughly one half of departmental staff are lawyers, there are a number of other professionals in the Department including paralegals, social scientists, program managers, communications specialists, administrative services personnel, computer services professionals and financial officers. In addition to a national headquarters and a network of legal services units located in departments and agencies throughout the National Capital Region, the Department provides services across the country through a network of regional offices and sub-offices. About one half of all departmental staff are located in the regional offices and sub-offices.

The Department has two types of expenditures: operating expenditures and transfer payments. Approximately 65 percent of the Department's spending is for operating expenditures. The operating expenditures are predominantly devoted to staff and related costs (salary, training, office equipment, etc.). About 51 percent of operating expenditures is devoted to the delivery of integrated legal advisory, litigation and legislative services to client departments and agencies. A significant portion of the operating expenditures incurred in delivering legal services (about 44 percent) is recovered from client departments and agencies. This represents approximately 22 percent of the Department's total expenditures.

For the most part, the Department does not deliver programs and services directly to the Canadian public. Instead, it provides funding to assist the provinces and territories in delivering justice-related programs that fall within their areas of constitutional jurisdiction. In this context, transfer payments to provinces, territories and community-based organizations represent approximately 35 percent of the Department's total spending. Most of this funding (about 87 percent) is for two large contribution programs to support citizen access to provincial and territorial legal aid programs and to support youth justice services administered by the provinces and territories. Additionally, the Department provides a range of smaller grants and contributions to provinces, territories and community organizations to support the delivery or testing of new approaches to justice-related programs and services.

Services that are delivered directly to the Canadian public are as follows: processing of access requests filed under the Access to Information Act, the Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance services, Central Registry of Divorce Proceedings services, and the Garnishment, Attachment and Pension Diversion Registry service.

Factors affecting operating context

Globalization: Terrorism, organized crime, cyber-crime, human trafficking and human rights violations are global issues. Similarly, international trade now has a much more complex legal dimension, while integration of the North American economy has many implications for both trade and national security, and all of them potentially involve the need for legal intervention. Justice Canada will continue to work with the international community and domestic partners to achieve common goals in this context.

Federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) relations: The effectiveness of the administration of justice depends on close cooperation with provinces and territories, both in policy development and in allocating the cost of providing services to Canadians - youth justice services, legal aid, public legal education and information, family justice, and other programs to improve or maintain access to the justice system.

Increasing complexity of litigation: An increased focus on crime, and the major increases in federal, provincial, and territorial policing resources, particularly those for the fight against organized crime, have combined to change the nature and increase the complexity of cases for prosecution. Rapid advances in science and technology demand parallel evolution in policy, law making, and litigation.

As well, civil litigation involving the federal government has increased markedly in scale and cost, in part because of Canadians' growing tendency to turn to the courts to claim individual and collective rights in the Charter era and development of class actions.

Participatory justice: working with partners

We work with others in the justice system, including nongovernmental and community-based organizations to generate innovative, cost-effective ways of delivering services that improve access to the justice system and keep it relevant and responsive in a diverse society. Similarly, we work with federal departments and agencies in areas such as safety and security and Aboriginal justice to help achieve overarching Government of Canada strategic outcomes. At the same time, we are managing a fine balance between priorities and diverse responsibilities. Some of our key partners include:

Canadian public, including non-governmental and community-based organizations;
Parliamentarians;
The judiciary, the Bar and the research community;
Approximately 50 federal departments and agencies (while the Department refers to federal departments and agencies as "clients" for ease of understanding, it is important to note that all work is done on behalf of the Crown, not a specific branch of the Government of Canada);
Provinces and Territories with which the Department has shared jurisdiction over the legal system and to which funds are transferred for youth justice, legal aid and other programs; and
Foreign governments and international organizations, directly and in conjunction with Foreign Affairs Canada.

Department of Justice efforts aimed at improved reporting to Parliament

Recent reviews by the Office of the Auditor General and the Treasury Board Secretariat raised concerns about the Government of Canada's performance management practices and capacity particularly in the areas of planning, measurement, and reporting. Many government agencies, including the Department of Justice, are working to improve their capacity to monitor and track performance and to report on outcomes and results.

In the 2004-2005 Departmental Performance Report (DPR), the Department initiated the practice of presenting a management assessment of our performance vis a vis our plans and priorities identified in the corresponding Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP). In addition, the rating was complemented by an assessment of the quality of the data used to support the management assessments of performance (i.e. "good", "reasonable", "needs improvement" or "unable to assess"). This data quality assessment was provided by both internal and external technical experts. The Department is continuing with these practices in the next planning and reporting cycle. Thus, the results commitments listed in this report are made with the approval of the appropriate managers to ensure that the identified performance indicators are relevant, credible and valid, and that the internal capacity exists to collect the required data.

The Department approaches performance measurement from two interrelated perspectives⁴. First, there are those measures that are aimed at tracking performance of activities and outputs over which the Department has direct control and is directly accountable. Workload indicators such as files opened and closed, hours logged, etc, are examples of these types of measures.

The second level of measures relate to the results of our activities over which we exercise influence. That is to say that while we cannot control the results of the activities, we do have some level of influence over the extent to which the results can be achieved. However, there are other identifiable groups who also either have influence or control over those results. As a result, accountability for those results is shared. By way of illustration, two examples of this type of measure are the number of people receiving assistance from Provincial legal aid programs, and client feedback on the timeliness, utility and responsiveness of legal services provided by the Department of Justice.

In a similar vein, the Department monitors trends in measures relating to broader societal trends over which the Department may exert some level of influence. Examples of these types of performance measures could include the trends in crimes and the application of custodial versus non-custodial sentences, or outcomes of litigation including trends in the value of settlements and awards.

The Department is interested in measures related to both control and influence. Our interest in the first type of performance measures is aligned with our direct accountabilities, i.e. effective stewardship of Government resources. Our interest in the second type (i.e., results over which we have at best some level of shared accountability with others), revolves around our desire to identify areas where we may want to try to enhance the level of influence we can bring to bear through a variety of management actions, or alternatively, to identify areas where we are apparently unable to exercise influence and thus possibly rethink our continued involvement.

⁴ Concepts of control and influence as reflected in this section were adapted from material developed by Principals at the Performance Management Network http://soc.kuleuven.be/pol/io/egpa/qual/ljubljana/Valovirta%20Uusikila_paper.pdf.
For further reading on this subject, the reader is directed to the following sites: DISCUSSION PAPER: Addressing Attribution Through Contribution Analysis: Using Performance Measures Sensibly, John Mayne, Office of the Auditor General of Canada, 1999, http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/other.nsf/html/99menu5e.html#discussion.