2020-21 Departmental Results Report

Results: what we achieved

Core responsibility

Description: The Office of the Correctional Investigator conducts investigations of complaints by federally sentenced persons (incarcerated or in the community), and by family, friends, or other representatives on behalf of a sentenced person. It also carries out systemic investigations of issues that affect large numbers of federally sentenced persons. The Office reviews all Correctional Services of Canada investigations of deaths in custody and serious bodily injury cases to ensure compliance with law and policy, and conducts reviews of all use of force incidents. The OCI’s investigative activities support a safe, lawful and humane federal correctional practice to ensure that federal correctional decisions and practices are in compliance with human rights, law, policy, and are fair.

Results: 

Fiscal year 2020-21 was a challenging one for all, as measures were implemented to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, while also being innovative and accommodating the continuation of operations through the implementation of virtual visits. The office conducted 43 virtual visits (148 days) and conducted nine (9) inspections (9 days). During the last year, the investigative team received 4,509 complaints out of which 4,107 were reviewed/investigated. In addition to having conducted 481 interviews with sentenced persons, the team also produced and published three COVID-19 status updates providing an assessment of the pandemic impact within correctional institutions. Furthermore, the office conducted reviews of 1,471 incidents involving use of force and 136 reviews of investigation reports conducted under sections 19 and 19.1 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act related to incidents involving death or serious bodily injury

Gender-based analysis plus 

In its Annual Report, OCI demonstrated its commitment to GBA Plus through its investigative work on Uses of Force involving federally incarcerated Black, Indigenous, Peoples of Colour and other vulnerable populations including women and individuals with mental health concerns. The Office continues to raise concerns regarding the lack of progress on tracking, responding to and preventing incidents of sexual coercion and violence. With changes to the Canadian Human Rights Act , OCI increasingly received and investigated complaints regarding the treatment of gender diverse individuals in federal institutions, and also conducted a comprehensive review of CSC’s new Commissioner’s Directive on gender considerations. Finally, the Office completed a focused review of women’s corrections 30-years since Creating Choices. This investigation included an analysis of a variety of GBA Plus groups including Indigenous women, women with mental health considerations and gender diverse individuals housed in facilities designated for women.

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 

Through the delivery of its mandate, the OCI contributes to two main UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals: Gender Equality (5) and Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (16). As indicated in the GBA Plus section, in its 2020-21 Annual Report, OCI examined the evolution of women’s corrections over a thirty-year period, since the release of the landmark report on the state of women’s corrections, Creating Choices . OCI’s in-depth review of women’s corrections offers a number of targeted recommendations to improve conditions for women who are federally incarcerated, with specific consideration of the needs of Indigenous women and women with complex histories of trauma and mental health concerns. Additionally, through the continuous delivery of its mandate, the OCI also contributes to the Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions goals by ensuring the fair and humane treatment of persons serving federal sentences. The OCI demonstrated this through its investigative work and recommendations related to use of force and CSC’s security-first approach to working with people who have mental health needs and its overuse with Black and Indigenous individuals. To support a stronger organization, the OCI increased its capacity to do more systemic investigative work. The investigative team also worked collaboratively with CSC staff to respond to inmate complaints with the goal of improving conditions in institutions. Finally, OCI collaborates with international partners through the Expert Network to identify best practices in corrections.

Internal Services 

Description

Internal Services are those groups of related activities and resources that the federal government considers to be services in support of programs and/or required to meet corporate obligations of an organization. Internal Services refers to the activities and resources of the 10 distinct service categories that support Program delivery in the organization, regardless of the Internal Services delivery model in a department. The 10 service categories are:

• Acquisition Management Services
• Communication Services
• Financial Management Services
• Human Resources Management Services
• Information Management Services
• Information Technology Services
• Legal Services
• Material Management Services
• Management and Oversight Services
• Real Property Management Services

The fiscal year 2020-21 has been a challenging one for Internal Services teams across all organizations. The OCI’s internal services were successful in providing information technology and information management equipment and available applications to ensure the implementation of work from home practices and support the continuing delivery of the program. Building on this momentum, the OCI has also initiated its Digital Office project with the implementation of digital signature and rolling out of a new information management system.

Analysis of trends in spending and human resources 

Actual expenditures 

Departmental spending trend graph

The following graph presents planned (voted and statutory spending) over time.

       
 

The Office of the Correctional Investigator’s actual spending has incrementally increased over the past four years, averaging $5.0 million of voted appropriations. Because of incremental program integrity funding secured in Budget 2018, spending in 2019-20 increased to $5.4 million. This level of expenditures should be maintained in future fiscal years as well. The 3% increase between 2020-21 and 2021-22 budget is allocated to the signing of the collective agreement.

Actual human resources

The Office of the Correctional Investigator’s full-time equivalents (FTEs) utilization has decreased during the last fiscal to better align with the allocated budget and operational needs. Further organizational analysis will be conducted to inform upcoming planned FTEs.

Expenditures by vote

For information on the Office of the Correctional Investigator’s organizational voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada 2020–2021. 

Government of Canada spending and activities

Information on the alignment of the Office of the Correctional Investigator’s spending with the Government of Canada’s spending and activities is available in GC InfoBase .

Financial statements and financial statements highlights

Financial statements 

The Office of the Correctional Investigator’s financial statements (unaudited) for the year ending March 31, 2021, are available on the departmental website .

Financial statement highlights

The Condensed Statement of Operations highlights the Office of the Correctional Investigator’s consistency in establishing planned results and linking these to the financial resources required to achieve them. In this reporting period, the difference between actuals and planned results is 634,925 or 10%.

In the Condensed Statement of Financial Position, the difference between the organization’s net financial position over the last two fiscal years is -128,578.        

 

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister[s]: The Honourable Marco E. L. Mendicino, P.C., M.P.

Institutional head: Ivan Zinger, J.D., Ph.D.

Ministerial portfolio: Public Safety

Enabling instrument[s]: Corrections and Conditional Release Act 

Year of incorporation / commencement: 1973 pursuant to the Inquiries Act and 1992 pursuant to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act .

Other: 

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 Office of the Correctional Investigator’s website .

For more information on the department’s organizational mandate letter commitments, see the Minister’s mandate letter . 

Operating context

Information on the operating context is available on the Office of the Correctional Investigator’s website .

Reporting framework

The Office of the Correctional Investigator’s Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory of record for 2020–21 are shown below.

Supporting information on the program inventory

Financial, human resources and performance information for The Office of the Correctional Investigator’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase .

Supplementary information 

The Office of the Correctional Investigator, in its Departmental Plan 2020-21, has committed to contribute to the GBA Plus initiative and align with Green Procurement.

While supplementary information tables were not required, the Office has demonstrated its commitment to GBA Plus through its investigative work on Uses of Force involving federally incarcerated Black, Indigenous, Peoples of Colour and other vulnerable populations including women and individuals with mental health concerns.

The Office has demonstrated its commitment to Green procurement through its compliance with its Public Safety contracting service provider. Specifically, the OCI contributes to increasing the knowledge of green procurement by ensuring that each acquisition cardholder completes the green procurement training before issuance of the acquisition card. The Office has also integrated environmental considerations into procurement processes and instruments for proposals and contracts, by maximizing our use of the Mandatory National Master Standing Offer and Supply Arrangement that has green considerations and requesting that all contracting documentation is in electronic format, including invoicing.

Federal tax expenditures

The tax system can be used to achieve public policy objectives through the application of special measures such as low tax rates, exemptions, deductions, deferrals and credits. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures . This report also provides detailed background information on tax expenditures, including descriptions, objectives, historical information and references to related federal spending programs as well as evaluations and GBA Plus of tax expenditures.

Organizational contact information

Office of the Correctional Investigator Canada        
PO Box+ 3421, Station D        
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 6L4        
Canada        
Telephone: 1-877-885-8848        
Fax: 613-990-0563        
E-mail: org@oci-bec.gc.ca 

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 report on the plans and expected performance of an appropriated department over a 3‑year period. Departmental Plans are usually tabled in Parliament each spring.

departmental priority (priorité)

A plan or project that a department has chosen to focus and report on during the planning period. Priorities represent the things that are most important or what must be done first to support the achievement of the desired departmental results.

departmental result (résultat ministériel)

A consequence or outcome that a department seeks to achieve. A departmental result is often outside departments’ immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.

departmental result indicator (indicateur de résultat ministériel)

A quantitative measure of progress on a departmental result.

departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)

A framework that connects the department’s core responsibilities to its departmental results and departmental result indicators.

Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)

A report on a department’s actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Departmental Plan.

experimentation (expérimentation)

The conducting of activities that seek to first explore, then test and compare the effects and impacts of policies and interventions in order to inform evidence-based decision-making, and improve outcomes for Canadians, by learning what works, for whom and in what circumstances. Experimentation is related to, but distinct from innovation (the trying of new things), because it involves a rigorous comparison of results. For example, using a new website to communicate with Canadians can be an innovation; systematically testing the new website against existing outreach tools or an old website to see which one leads to more engagement, 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. For a particular position, the full‑time equivalent figure is the ratio of number of hours the person actually works divided by the standard number of hours set out in the person’s collective agreement.

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 2019–20 Departmental Results Report, those high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the 2019 Speech from the Throne, namely: Fighting climate change; Strengthening the Middle Class; Walking the road of reconciliation; Keeping Canadians safe and healthy; and Positioning Canada for success in an uncertain world.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

An initiative where 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.

performance indicator (indicateur de rendement)

A qualitative or quantitative means of measuring an output or outcome, with the intention of gauging the performance of an organization, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.

performance reporting (production de rapports sur le rendement)

The process of communicating evidence‑based performance information. Performance reporting supports decision making, accountability and transparency.

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 to the expected result.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)

For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in 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 that are managed together within the department and focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.

program inventory (répertoire des programmes)

Identifies all the department’s programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department’s core responsibilities and results.

result (résultat)

A 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 may be 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 may be made.