Departmental Plan 2022-2023

Table of Contents

• From the Chairperson
• 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
• Endnotes

From the Chairperson

This 2022–23 Departmental Plan provides parliamentarians and Canadians with an overview of the Commission's objectives, planned activities and expected results during the reporting period, as well as the financial and human resources forecast to deliver those results.

The Commission is an agency of the federal government, distinct and independent from the RCMP. Its role is to ensure that public complaints regarding the conduct of RCMP members are examined fairly and impartially.

Independent civilian review is essential to maintaining accountability and public trust in law enforcement. Without the trust and support of the community, policing is simply less effective, which undermines the rule of law upon which democracies are built.

The Commission adopts a remedial approach to addressing public complaints about the RCMP. We make findings and recommendations aimed at identifying and remedying policing problems stemming from the conduct of individual RCMP members or from deficiencies in RCMP policies, procedures, training or practices.

The 3,361 public complaints received by the Commission in 2020-21 represent an increase of almost 22 percent over five years, and the increasing complexity of current cases means that the complaint process now takes more time.

In 2022-23, the Commission must therefore continue to prioritize its core duty of receiving and reviewing complaints against the RCMP, and we will seek additional resources to maintain capacity in that key area. In carrying out our mandate, we will make better use of disaggregated race-based data and we will explore ways to collect, analyze and report on demographic data that will help identify systemic issues in RCMP policing.

We will also seek support to conduct more public interest investigations and review more specified activities of the RCMP to make sure they comply with policy and law. The Commission will continue to monitor the RCMP's progress on outstanding recommendations from previous reports, and we will work towards completing more complaint reviews within our stated timelines to eliminate the backlog. We were encouraged in late 2021 to see the RCMP clear its backlog of responses to our interim reports and commit to responding to all new reports within the agreed‑upon six-month timeframe.

With many of Canada's communities at risk of under utilizing the RCMP complaint process, increasing public outreach and education will be another important objective for the Commission in 2022-23. We will identify and work with key partners and stakeholders to raise awareness of the complaint process—particularly among Indigenous, Black and other racialized communities, who often experience systemic racism.

The Commission will continue its support of government efforts to enhance civilian oversight of the RCMP and help create a public complaint and review body for the Canada Border Services Agency.

We look forward to delivering results to Canadians through strong, independent, civilian review of the RCMP for a more effective, transparent and accountable national police service.

Michelaine Lahaie
Chairperson

Plans at a glance

The Commission's plans and priorities focus primarily on providing the public and the RCMP with an independent and transparent process through which to address concerns about RCMP activities generally and how members conduct themselves while carrying out their duties.

The Commission has set performance targets relating to both the processing of public complaints and the review of the RCMP's handling of public complaints. Meeting the performance objectives for these core functions will continue to be a business priority in this fiscal period. Further, due to the high volume of RCMP Commissioner responses to the Commission's reports that were received recently, the Commission is now facing a backlog of complaint review cases. Addressing this backlog, and putting in place the resources necessary to do so, will also be a business priority in this fiscal period.

Furthermore, we will continue to ensure that the Commission's business processes are adjusted if needed to meet changing operational and social conditions brought on by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

The Commission will maintain its outreach and public education efforts to inform Canadians, community partners and stakeholders about its mandate, within its current fiscal resource envelope. The needs of Indigenous communities, Black Canadians and other racialized people, who experience systemic racism and disparate outcomes in their interactions with the RCMP, will remain a focus in the coming year, with any funding not attributed to the Commission's core mandate being invested in this specific area. Within its core mandate, the Commission will also continue to focus on ensuring that issues of systemic racism and discrimination are addressed, without requiring individual complainants to use technical or specific language to raise the issues.

A key element of this will be ensuring simple and direct access to the public complaint process through online tools that are adaptable to the changing social restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Commission has successfully worked remotely since March 2020. Staff have demonstrated their adaptability to new ways of working while continuing to deliver results for Canadians. As such, the Commission is preparing for a post-pandemic work environment by developing a hybrid workplace model that will allow flexibility while meeting operational requirements.

The Commission continues to call for strengthened oversight of the RCMP to ensure greater accountability. The Commission is hopeful that legislation will soon be introduced to not only create a civilian review and complaint mechanism for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), but to also create statutory timelines for responding to Commission reports, statutory public education and outreach to Indigenous communities, and require the RCMP and CBSA to report annually on the implementation status of Commission recommendations. Additional funding is needed to ensure the Commission can continue to deliver its mandate.

For more information on the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP'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 planned results and resources for each of its core responsibilities. It also contains information on key risks related to achieving those results.

Independent Review of the RCMP

Description

The CRCC's fundamental role is to provide a civilian review of the conduct of RCMP members in carrying out their policing duties, thereby holding the RCMP accountable to the public. The CRCC ensures that complaints about the conduct of RCMP members are examined fairly and impartially. Its findings and recommendations help identify and remedy policing problems which stem from the conduct of individual RCMP members or from deficiencies in RCMP policies or practices. The CRCC also conducts reviews of specified RCMP activities, reports to provinces which contract RCMP services, conducts research, program outreach and public education, and provides independent observers to investigations of serious incidents involving RCMP members.

Planning highlights

The Commission's objective is to increase public confidence in the RCMP by enhancing its transparency and accountability to the public as well as to the provinces and territories that contract for its services.

The Commission's approach to achieving this objective includes initiatives focused on improving the delivery of the Commission's core programs and services to Canadians. These include:

1) Strengthening the public complaint process

In recent years, the Commission has seen an increase in the number of complaints made by the public against the RCMP. Over the last five years (2016-17 to 2020-21), there has been a:

• 21.73% total percent increase in complaints, and a
• 32.19% total percent increase in review requests.

It is not uncommon for complainants to be represented by legal counsel or to raise multiple allegations, spanning different incidents, and involving different offences. This adds complexity (and often involves a large quantity of materials to review) and means that it takes more time to analyze, process and review complaints.

The Commission has prioritized funding to its core mandate functions of receiving and reviewing complaints, and streamlined its business processes to deal with this increase in volume. The Commission is also seeking additional resources to maintain its internal capacity to receive complaints and conduct complaint reviews.

Furthermore, the Commission intends to increase its capacity to collect and analyze disaggregated race-based data and other GBA+/ demographic data. The Commission is undertaking a study to determine the appropriate way to collect, analyze and report on demographic data. The results of the study will inform the Commission of the means to obtain quality information, thereby leveraging effective, accurate and unbiased data collection methods. Collecting and publishing reliable data will enhance accountability and transparency, and support efforts to better identify and respond to systemic issues in the RCMP that disproportionately affect racialized and Indigenous communities.

In the fiscal 2022–23 period, the Commission will:

• Continue to prioritize funding to, and seek additional resources for, its core mandate function of receiving and processing complaints in an effective and efficient manner;
• Enhance the Commission's data collection, statistical integration, analysis and reporting functions;
• Modernize its information technology and information management (IM/IT) systems as well as its business processes, to increase efficiency and enable the collection and analysis of disaggregated intersectional data.

2) Strengthening the Commission's review and investigative capacity

It is of paramount importance that the review of police conduct, policy and practice be conducted independently, particularly where an incident attracts wide public interest and there is a public perception that the RCMP may not be impartial in its investigation of the incident.

The CRCC is seeking to augment its internal capacity to conduct complaint and systemic reviews as well as public interest investigations, and to track the manner in which its recommendations are accepted and implemented by the RCMP.

In the fiscal 2022–23 period, the Commission will:

• Work towards the elimination of the backlog of complaint review files and seek additional resources to enable completion of review files within the Commission's stated service standards;
• Continue to track actions taken by the RCMP with respect to recommendations contained in the Commission's earlier reports;
• Seek to increase its capacity to conduct public interest investigations and specified activity reviews of RCMP programs.

3) Increasing outreach, public education and engagement efforts

Outreach and education initiatives inform Canadians about the Commission's services, how to access them and the results of its work. With the aim of enhancing RCMP accountability and the accessibility and transparency of the complaint process, the Commission will:

• Identify key community stakeholders and partners, and develop suitable engagement strategies and information materials for their use with a particular focus on Indigenous communities, Black Canadians and other racialized people who may experience systemic racism;
• Maintain effective and collaborative relationships with the RCMP and provincial oversight bodies with jurisdiction to investigate serious incidents involving the RCMP;
• Undertake outreach activities, alone or in collaboration with other agencies, to raise awareness of the Commission's mandate and the services it offers;
• Publish depersonalized summaries of the Commission's reviews of RCMP public complaint investigations.

Gender-based analysis plus

Gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) is considered in the development and delivery of the CRCC's programs and services. For instance, GBA+ has shown that individuals in particular communities (i.e. Indigenous and racialized communities, remote communities) may face barriers in accessing the CRCC's services. The CRCC will examine its services on a continuing basis for accessibility, to ensure equal access to the complaint process for all Canadians.

The CRCC has established an Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Advisory Committee (IDEAC) to examine and provide advice on its internal policies, programs and procedures, as well as its external service delivery model through the lens of inclusion, diversity and equity.

Furthermore, the CRCC is seeking additional resources to modernize its information systems and business processes, to enable the collection and analysis of disaggregated intersectional data and ensure that its policies and decisions benefit all of the communities that it serves. The collection and analysis of disaggregated data will allow the CRCC to report publicly on a broader spectrum of data and thereby enhance the accountability and transparency of both the RCMP and the CRCC.

Experimentation

The Commission's limited budget precludes undertaking any significant experimentation beyond routine analysis and testing of new processes and tools aimed at enhancing its operations.

Key risk(s)

Risks related to public complaints, reviews and investigations

The CRCC requires additional capacity to handle year-over-year increases in the number and complexity of public complaints and requests for review. For instance, the CRCC has seen an increase in complaints related to the RCMP's enforcement of injunction orders. Another issue has been the time and resources involved in dealing with frivolous or vexatious complaints. Measures have been implemented to streamline business processes and increase efficiency to address these increases within existing funding levels. Without additional resources, however, the Commission will be challenged to deal efficiently with its caseload, meet its service standards, and maintain the public's trust in the complaint and review processes.

Additional resourcing is also needed to bolster the CRCC's capacity to conduct public interest investigations into complaints (instead of turning the complaints over to the RCMP for investigation) and systemic reviews of RCMP activities. Limited resources and capacity have directly affected the CRCC Chairperson's discretion to initiate public interest investigations and systemic reviews of RCMP activities. The CRCC needs appropriate resources to conduct such investigations and reviews in order to meet the public's increased demand for police accountability.

Risks related to the modernization of IT systems and the collection of disaggregated data

The Commission is mindful of the risks associated with inadequate or inappropriate data collection and reporting. The Commission is undertaking a demographic data study to learn how best to collect demographic data in an unbiased and appropriate manner. The Commission will also modernize its IM/IT systems to enable the collection, analysis and reporting of disaggregated intersectional data.

Risks related to public education and outreach

While Indigenous and racialized people are overrepresented in police use of force incidents, many of those incidents do not result in public complaints. Statistics Canada surveys in 2019 indicated that members of Indigenous and visible minority communities are less likely to trust police officers than members of other communities.^{Footnote i}

The Commission has minimal resources available to develop and deliver public education programs focused on Indigenous, racialized and marginalized communities, and while it has leveraged web-based communication platforms to increase its reach, additional funding is needed to promote awareness of, and recourse to, the Commission's services.

Planned results for Independent Review of the RCMP

The following table shows, for Independent Review of the RCMP, 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.

*Note: The Departmental Results Framework became the new approved structure for the CRCC for 2019-20; therefore, actual results for fiscal year 2018-19 are not available.

**Note: Baseline to be established by RCMP Core Survey. Data for this result are not yet available.

The financial, human resources and performance information for the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.^{Footnote ii}

Planned budgetary spending for Independent Review of the RCMP

The following table shows, for Independent Review of the RCMP, budgetary spending for 2022–23, as well as planned spending for that year and for each of the next two fiscal years.

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.^{Footnote iii}

Planned human resources for Independent Review of the RCMP

The following table shows, in full‑time equivalents, the human resources the department will need 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 Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.^{Footnote iv}

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 Commission will ensure that resources are deployed in the most effective and efficient manner possible. Its operational and administrative structures, tools and processes will continue to focus on supporting the delivery of its priorities. Streamlining business processes and employing strategies and technologies that enhance operational efficiency will reduce the internal services costs.
The Commission's employees are the backbone of its operations. Employee health and well‑being are key to the Commission's success. Initiatives geared towards improving workplace health and employee well-being are an ongoing priority for the Commission.
Key objectives for this reporting period include:

• Continuing the modernization of the Commission's IT infrastructure and IM systems and processes, in alignment with Treasury Board Secretariat IM/IT policies and standards, including the Digital Operations Strategic Plan: 2021-2024.^{Footnote v}
• Recruiting, retaining and promoting employees of different employment equity groups to improve diversity, equity and inclusion within the Commission.
• Continuing to support and implement initiatives to improve employee health and well‑being, mental health and workplace health.

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 for each of the next two fiscal years.

Planned human resources for Internal Services

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

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

The following table shows information on spending for each of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's core responsibilities and for its internal services for 2022–23 and other relevant fiscal years.

The variance in expenditures for fiscal year 2020-21 is primarily attributable to an increase in staffing, collective bargaining adjustments and associated employee benefit plan costs.

Planned human resources

The following table shows information on human resources, in full-time equivalents (FTEs), for each of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's core responsibilities and for its internal services for 2022–23 and the other relevant years.

The variance between fiscal years 2020-21 actual and 2021-22 planned FTEs can be attributed to minor employee turnover in some of the Commission's business lines.

Estimates by vote

Information on the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's organizational appropriations is available in the 2022–23 Main Estimates.^{Footnote vi}.

Future-oriented condensed statement of operations

The future‑oriented condensed statement of operations provides an overview of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP'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 Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's website.^{Footnote vii}

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

Corporate Information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister(s): The Honourable Marco E. L. Mendicino

Institutional head: Michelaine Lahaie, Chairperson

Ministerial portfolio: Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Enabling instrument(s): Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act^{Footnote viii}

Year of incorporation / commencement: 2014

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

Information on the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP raison d'être, mandate and role is available on the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's website.^{Footnote ix}

Information on the Minister of Public Safety's mandate letter commitments is available in the Minister's mandate letter.^{Footnote x}

Operating context

Information on the operating context is available on the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's website.^{Footnote xi}

Reporting framework

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's approved departmental results framework and program inventory for 2022–23 are as follows.

Supporting information on the program inventory

Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP's program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.^{Footnote xii}

Supplementary information tables

The CRCC does not have any supplementary information tables.

Federal tax expenditures

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP'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.^{Footnote xiii} 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

Mail address:
P.O. Box 1722, Station B,
Ottawa, ON K1P 0B3

Telephone: 1-800-665-6878

TTY: 1-866-432-5837

Fax: 613-952-8045

E-mail: Media@crcc-ccetp.gc.ca

Web site: http://www.crcc-ccetp.gc.ca^{Footnote xiv}

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 it should be 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 tool used to support the development of responsive and inclusive policies, programs and other initiatives; and understand how factors such as sex, race, national and ethnic origin, Indigenous origin or identity, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic conditions, geography, culture and disability, impact experiences and outcomes, and can affect access to and experience of government programs.

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 that are managed together within a department and that 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 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.