2016–17 Departmental Results Report

Analysis of trends in spending and human resources

Actual expenditures

Departmental spending trend graph

As depicted in the chart below, the Department’s total spending is $689.82 million for 2016-17, an increase of $6.6 million from 2015-16. As the primary provider of legal services to federal government departments and agencies, the Department of Justice has a Vote Netted Revenue Authority to collect and spend revenue from such services. For the purpose of departmental reporting, the total amount of expenditures are reduced by the revenues received by the Department.

In 2016-17, $306.30 million of Vote-Netted Revenue was collected, an increase of $12.8 million compared to 2015-16. This increase is primarily due to fluctuations in legal services demand and to the new legal services rates structure approved by Treasury Board, effective April 1, 2016.

Vote-Netted Revenue
2014–15 Actual	2015–16 Actual	2016–17 Planned	2016–17 Actual	2017–18 Planned	2018–19 Planned
297.18	293.53	296.2	306.3	296.2	296.2

Budgetary performance summary for Programs and Internal Services (dollars)
Programs and Internal Services	2016–17 Main Estimates	2016–17 Planned spending	2017–18 Planned spending	2018–19 Planned spending	2016–17 Total authorities available for use	2016–17 Actual spending (authorities used)	2015–16 Actual spending (authorities used)	2014–15 Actual spending (authorities used)
Strategic Outcome 1: A Fair, Relevant and Accessible Canadian Justice System
Program 1.1: Stewardship of the Canadian Legal Framework	400,491,696	400,491,696	385,118,141	386,176,639	420,670,448	409,973,313	384,331,448	383,759,270
Program 1.2: Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime^{Table note i}	1,324,227	1,324,227	1,312,105	1,312,105	1,338,475	1,008,746	1,115,554	1,080,165
Subtotal	401,815,923	401,815,923	386,430,246	387,488,744	422,008,923	410,982,059	385,447,002	384,839,435
Strategic Outcome 2: A Federal Government that is Supported by High-Quality Legal Services
Program 2.1: Legal Services to Government Program	199,619,747	199,619,747	195,920,770	191,669,494	207,124,393	198,793,560	194,449,097	208,762,405
Subtotal	199,619,747	199,619,747	195,920,770	191,669,494	207,124,393	198,793,560	194,449,097	208,762,405
Internal Services	77,424,860	77,424,860	73,808,640	73,228,692	95,250,612	80,043,827	103,323,708	115,249,778
Total^{Table note ii}	678,860,530	678,860,530	656,159,656	652,386,930	724,383,928	689,819,446	683,219,807	708,851,618

Table note i

The Ombudsman reports directly to the Minister of Justice, and as such, the Office falls outside of the Department’s governance framework.

Return to table note i referrer

Table note ii

Differences may arise due to rounding.

Return to table note ii referrer

As shown above, the Department's 2016-17 Main Estimates totaled $678.86 million and its Total Authorities amounted to $724.38 million. The Total Authorities include funding received through the 2016-17 Supplementary Estimates processes and Treasury Board Secretariat Central Votes (Compensation adjustments, Operating Budget Carry Forward, parental and maternity allowances and entitlements on cessation of service).

The main variance between the Total Authorities and Actual Spending of 2016-17 is mostly explained by anticipated expenditures related to retroactive compensation payments resulting from expiring collective agreements that were deferred to 2017-18. This will cause an increase in expenditures for the Department in 2017-18 and will be presented in the 2017-18 Departmental Results Report.

Actual human resources

Human resources summary for Programs and Internal Services (full‑time equivalents)
Programs and Internal Services	2014–15 Actual	2015–16 Actual	2016–17 Forecast	2016–17 Actual	2017–18 Planned	2018–19 Planned
Strategic Outcome 1: A Fair, Relevant and Accessible Canadian Justice System
Program 1.1: Stewardship of the Canadian Legal Framework	253	255	258	256	254	254
Program 1.2: Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime	9	9	10	9	9	9
Subtotal	262	264	268	265	263	263
Strategic Outcome 2: A Federal Government that is Supported by High-Quality Legal Services
Program 2.1: Legal Services to Government Program	3,079	3,023	3,039	3,096	3,089	3,089
Subtotal	3,079	3,023	3,039	3,096	3,089	3,089
Internal Services	1,058	1,050	1,004	950	948	948
Total	4,399	4,337	4,311	4,311	4,300	4,300

Expenditures by vote

For information on the Department of Justice’s voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada 2017.

Alignment of spending with the whole-of-government framework

Alignment of 2016-17 actual spending with the whole-of-government framework (dollars)
Program	Spending area	Government of Canada activity	2016–17 Actual spending
Program 1.1: Stewardship of the Canadian Legal Framework	Social Affairs	A safe and secure Canada	409,973,313
Program 1.2: Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime	Social Affairs	A safe and secure Canada	1,008,746
Program 2.1: Legal Services to Government Program	Government Affairs	Well-managed and efficient government operations	198,793,560

Total spending by spending area (dollars)
Spending area	Total planned spending	Total actual spending
Economic affairs	0	0
Social affairs	401,815,923	410,982,059
International affairs	0	0
Government affairs	199,619,747	198,793,560

Financial statements and financial statements highlights

Financial statements

The financial highlights presented within this DRR are intended to serve as a general overview of the Department of Justice’s Statement of Operations and Statement of Financial Position as presented in the Department’s financial statements (unaudited). These statements are prepared in accordance with accrual accounting principles and, therefore, are different from reporting on the use of authorities, reflected in previous sections of this report. Reconciliation between authorities used and the net cost of operations is set out in Note 3 of the Department’s financial statements (unaudited). The Department of Justice’s financial statements (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2017, are available on the departmental website.

Financial statements highlights

The financial results are shaped by the two strategic outcomes and associated internal services that aim to ensure a fair, relevant and accessible Canadian justice system and a Federal Government that is supported by high-quality legal services.

Condensed Statement of Operations (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2017 (dollars)
Financial information	2016–17 Planned	2016–17 Actual	2015–16 Actual	Difference (2016–17 actual minus 2016–17 planned)	Difference (2016–17 actual minus 2015–16 actual)
Total expenses	1,067,109,000	1,050,500,000	1,060,282,000	(16,609,000)	(9,782,000)
Total revenues	296,200,000	306,067,000	293,577,000	9,867,000	12,490,000
Net cost of operations before government funding and transfers	770,909,000	744,433,000	766,705,000	(26,476,000)	(22,272,000)

Planned results

Planned Results are based on the Future-Oriented Financial Statements presented in the 2016-17 Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP). The $16.6 million difference between planned expenses for 2016-17 and the actual expenses is mainly due to severance benefit expenses being lower than planned resulting from a change, this year, to the process used to determine these benefits. The change was made to reflect two things: that the accumulation of severance benefits for voluntary departures ceased and that settlements for immediate cash out were completed for substantially all eligible employees. This variance is offset by an increase in transfer payments resulting from the Budget 2016 announcement for the following programs:

funding for contributions to the provinces and territories for the delivery of legal aid to ensure access to justice for economically disadvantaged persons;
funding to assist Indigenous people facing the criminal justice system; and
funding to support culturally-responsive victim services as well as Family Information Liaison Units for families of missing or murdered Indigenous women and girls.

The 2016-17 planned revenues were $9.9 million lower than the 2016-17 actual revenues mainly due to an increase in the demand for legal services and to the new legal services rates structure that was approved by Treasury Board, effective April 1, 2016.

Expenses

Total departmental expenses were $1.1 billion in 2016-17, a decrease of $9.8 million from 2015-16. This reduction is mainly because of a decrease of the severance benefits expense for the year, as described in the previous section. This decrease is offset by an increase in grants and contributions funding to the provinces and territories resulting from the Budget 2016 announcements, as described in the previous section, including the Contributions for Access to Justice Services to the Territories.

Revenues

Total departmental revenues were $306 million in 2016-17, a net increase of $12.5 million from 2015-16. This variance is mainly due to the increase of legal services revenues.

Condensed Statement of Financial Position (unaudited) as at March 31, 2017 (dollars)
Financial Information	2016–17	2015–16	Difference (2016–17 minus 2015–16)
Total net liabilities	359,662,000	417,309,000	(57,647,000)
Total net financial assets	322,792,000	351,026,000	(28,234,000)
Departmental net debt	36,870,000	66,283,000	(29,413,000)
Total non-financial assets	33,725,000	34,171,000	(446,000)
Departmental net financial position	(3,145,000)	(32,112,000)	28,967,000

Liabilities

Total net liabilities were $360 million for 2016-17, a decrease of $57.6 million from 2015-16. The variance is mainly because of a decrease in transfer payments payable for contributions to the provinces and territories in support of the youth justice services, contributions to the provinces to assist in the operation of the Legal Aid systems, and contributions to support the implementation of official languages requirements under the Contraventions Act resulting from timing variation of financial claims submitted from year to year. The variance is also due to a decrease in employee future benefits payable. These decreases are offset by two factors: an increase in accounts payable to employees as a result of the implementation of the Government of Canada’s Phoenix pay system; and an increase in accounts payable to other government departments mainly as a result of the new legal services billing model that was implemented April 1, 2016, as part of the Legal Services Review initiatives.

Financial and non-financial assets

Total net financial assets were $323 million at the end of 2016-17, a decrease of $28.2 million from 2015-16. This variance is mainly because of a decrease in the amount due from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, which represents net cash the Department is entitled to from the Receiver General for Canada in order to discharge its liabilities. This variance is also due to a decrease in other government departments’ receivables, mainly resulting from the new legal services billing model. This decrease is offset by a net increase in receivables from employees as a result of the implementation of the Government of Canada’s Phoenix pay system.

Date modified:: 2022-05-12

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