Report on Plans and Priorities 2014–15

2014-15 estimates

Part III - departmental expenditure plans: report on plans and priorities

Purpose

Reports on plans and priorities (RPP) are individual expenditure plans for each department and agency. These reports provide increased levels of detail over a three-year period on an organization's main priorities by strategic outcome, program, and planned/expected results, including links to related resource requirements presented in the Main Estimates. In conjunction with the Main Estimates, RPP's serve to inform members of Parliament of planned expenditures of departments and agencies, and support Parliament's consideration of supply bills. RPPs are typically tabled soon after the Main Estimates by the president of the Treasury Board.

Estimates documents

The Estimates are comprised of three parts:

Part I - Government Expenditure Plan - provides an overview of the Government's requirements and changes in estimated expenditures from previous fiscal years.

Part II - Main Estimates - supports the appropriation acts with detailed information on the estimated spending and authorities being sought by each federal organization requesting appropriations.

In line with the standing orders of the House of Commons, Parts I and II must be tabled on or before March 1.

Part III - Departmental Expenditure Plans - is made up of two components:

• Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP)
• Departmental Performance Report (DPR)

DPRs are individual department and agency accounts of results achieved against planned performance expectations as set out in the respective RPPs.

The DPRs for the most recently completed fiscal year are tabled in the fall by the president of the Treasury Board.

Supplementary Estimates support appropriation acts presented later in the fiscal year. They present information on spending requirements that were either not developed enough in time to be included in the Main Estimates or have since been refined to account for developments in particular programs and services. Supplementary Estimates also provide information on changes to expenditure forecasts of major statutory items as well as on such items as: transfers of funds between votes; debt deletion; loan guarantees; and new or increased grants.

For more information on the Estimates, please consult the end note number 2 on page 86.

Links to the estimates

As shown above, RPPs make up part of Part III of the Estimates. Whereas Part II emphasizes the financial aspect of the Estimates, Part III focuses on financial and non-financial performance information, from a planning and priorities standpoint (the RPP) and from an achievements and results perspective (the DPR).

The Management, Resources and Results Structure establishes a structure for displaying of financial information in the Estimates and reporting to Parliament through RPPs and DPRs. When displaying planned spending, RPPs rely on the Estimates as a basic source of financial information.

Main Estimates expenditure figures are based on the Annual Reference Level Update which is prepared in the fall. In comparison, planned spending found in RPPs includes the Estimates as well as any other amounts that have been approved through a Treasury Board submission up to February 1 (see the definitions section). This readjusting of the financial figures allows for a more up-to-date portrait of planned spending by program.

Changes to the presentation of the report on plans and priorities

Several changes have been made to the presentation of the RPP, partly to respond to a number of requests—from the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts (PAC - Report 15), in 2010 and Government and Operations Estimates (OGGO - Report 7), in 2012—to provide more detailed financial and non-financial performance information about programs within RPPs and DPRs, making it easier to study them to support appropriations approval.

• In Section II, financial, human resources, and performance information is now presented at the program and sub-program levels for more substance.
• The report's general format and terminology have been reviewed for clarity and consistency.
• The report was made more intuitive and focused on Estimates information to strengthen alignment with the Main Estimates.

How to read this document

RPPs are divided into four sections:

Section 1: organizational expenditure overview

This section allows the reader to get a general glance at the organization. It describes the organization's purpose and gives basic financial and human resources information. The section opens with the new organizational profile, which displays general information about the department, including the names of the minister and the deputy head, the ministerial portfolio, the year the department was established, and the main legislative authorities. It is followed by a new section called "organizational context," which includes the raison d'être, the responsibilities, the strategic outcomes and program alignment architecture, the organizational priorities, and the risk analysis. The section ends with the planned expenditures, the alignment to Government of Canada outcomes, the estimates by vote, and the contribution to the federal sustainable development strategy. It should be noted that this section does not display any non-financial performance information related to programs (see Section 2).

Section 2: analysis of programs by strategic outcomes

This section gives detailed financial and non-financial performance information for strategic outcomes, programs, and sub-programs. It allows the reader to learn more about the programs by giving a description and narrative called "planning highlights". The narrative speaks to key services or initiatives which support the plans and priorities presented in Section 1; it also describes how performance information supports the department's strategic outcome or parent program.

Section 3: supplementary information

This section provides supporting information related to departmental plans and priorities. The reader will find future-oriented statements of operations and a link to supplementary information tables for transfer payments, as well as information related to greening government operations, internal audits and evaluations, horizontal initiatives, user fees, major crown and transformational projects, and up-front multi-year funding, where applicable, to individual organizations. The reader will also find a link to the Tax Expenditures and Evaluations Report, produced annually by the minister of Finance, which gives estimates and projections of the revenue impacts of federal tax measures designed to support the economic and social priorities of the Government of Canada.

Section 4: organizational contact information

In this last section, the reader will have access to organizational contact information.

Definitions

Appropriation

Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

Budgetary vs. non-budgetary expenditures

Budgetary expenditures: operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, organizations, or individuals; and payments to crown corporations.

Non-budgetary expenditures: net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments, and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.

Expected result

An outcome that a program is designed to achieve.

Full-time equivalent (FTE)

A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person-year charge against a departmental budget. FTEs 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.

Government of Canada outcomes

A set of high-level objectives defined for the government as a whole.

Management, resources and results structure

A common approach and structure to the collection, management, and reporting of financial and non-financial performance information.

An management, resources and results structure gives detailed information on all departmental programs (for example: program costs, program expected results and their associated targets, and how they align with the Government's priorities and intended outcomes) and establishes the same structure for both internal decision making and external accountability.

Planned spending

For the RPP, planned spending refers to those amounts for which a Treasury Board submission approval has been received by no later than February 1, 2014. This cut-off date differs from the Main Estimates process. Therefore, planned spending may include amounts incremental to planned expenditure levels presented in the 2014-15 Main Estimates.

Program

A group of related resource inputs and activities that are managed to meet specific needs and to achieve intended results, and that are treated as a budgetary unit.

Program alignment architecture

A structured inventory of a department's programs, where programs are arranged in a hierarchical manner to show the logical relationship between each program and the strategic outcome they contribute to.

Spending areas

Government of Canada categories of expenditures. There are four spending areas (social affairs, economic affairs, international affairs, and government affairs), each made up of three to five Government of Canada outcomes.

Strategic outcome

A long-term and enduring benefit to Canadians that is linked to the department's mandate, vision, and core functions.

Whole-of-government framework

A map of the financial and non-financial contributions of federal organizations receiving appropriations that aligns their programs with a set of high-level outcome areas defined for the government as a whole.

Date modified:

2014-03-06