2017–18 Departmental Results Report

Analysis of trends in spending and human resources

Actual expenditures

Departmental Spending Trend
	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Sunset Programs - Anticipated	-	-	-	3.3	8.7	3.3
Statutory	73.1	70.1	66.9	69.6	69.6	69.5
Voted	610.1	619.8	640.1	628.2	623.8	629.4
Total^{Table note i}	683.2	689.8	707.0	701.0	702.1	702.2

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 $296.2 million annually in respendable revenue. For the purpose of departmental reporting, the total amount of expenditures is reduced by the revenues received by the Department.

Vote-Netted Revenue
2015–16 Actual	2016–17 Actual	2017–18 Planned	2017–18 Actual	2018–19 Planned	2019–20 Planned
293.5	306.3	296.2	316.3	296.2	296.2

In 2017-18, $316.3 million of Vote-Netted Revenue was collected, an increase of $10.0 million compared to 2016-17. This increase is primarily due to a slight increase in revenues collected from some clients in support of government priorities, and to the change in the funding model for some initiatives. For instance, funding for the negotiation of comprehensive land claims and incremental treaty and non-treaty agreements with Indigenous groups across Canada is now under cost recovery from Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.

Budgetary performance summary for Programs and Internal Services (dollars)
Programs and Internal Services	2017–18 Main Estimates	2017–18 Planned spending	2018–19 Planned spending	2019–20 Planned spending	2017–18 Total authorities available for use	2017–18 Actual spending (authorities used)	2016–17 Actual spending (authorities used)^{Table note ii}	2015–16 Actual spending (authorities used)
Strategic Outcome 1: A Fair, Relevant and Accessible Canadian Justice System
Program 1.1: Stewardship of the Canadian Legal Framework	385,118,141	385,118,141	386,176,639	384,478,149	434,873,804	423,821,524	409,973,313	384,331,448
Program 1.2: Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime^{Table note iii}	1,312,105	1,312,105	1,312,105	1,312,105	1,335,012	1,201,148	1,008,746	1,115,554
Subtotal	386,430,246	386,430,246	387,488,744	385,790,254	436,208,816	425,022,672	410,982,059	385,447,002
Strategic Outcome 2: A Federal Government that is Supported by High-Quality Legal Services
Program 2.1: Legal Services to Government Program	195,920,770	195,920,770	191,669,494	191,669,494	202,149,802	186,330,788	198,793,560	194,449,097
Subtotal	195,920,770	195,920,770	191,669,494	191,669,494	202,149,802	186,330,788	198,793,560	194,449,097
Internal Services	73,808,640	73,808,640	73,228,692	73,220,582	95,168,485	95,648,611	80,043,827	103,323,708
Total^{Table note iv}	656,159,656	656,159,656	652,386,930	650,680,330	733,527,103	707,002,071	689,819,446	683,219,807

Table note ii

The 2016-17 expenditure split between programs and internal services is imprecise due to an oversight in the coding of a salary expenditure adjustment predominately affecting Strategic Outcome 2 with a decrease of $6.7 million and internal services with an increase of the same amount.

Return to table note ii referrer

Table note iii

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 iii referrer

Table note iv

Differences may arise due to rounding.

Return to table note iv referrer

In 2017-18, Main Estimates totaled $656.2 million and the total authorities available amounted to $733.5 million. The total authorities available include $45.8 million of funding received through the 2017-18 Supplementary Estimates processes and $31.5 million of funding from Treasury Board Secretariat Central Votes 15 and 25 (including compensation allocations and 2016-17 Operating Budget Carry Forward).

The $26.5 million variance between the total authorities available and actual spending of 2017-18 is mostly explained by anticipated expenditures related to retroactive compensation payments resulting from the expired Law Practitioner collective agreement that did not materialize in 2017-18. This increase in expenditures is expected for the Department in 2018-19 and will be reported in the 2018-19 Departmental Results Report.

The Department’s total actual spending is $707.0 million for 2017-18, representing an increase of 2.5% compared to the total actual spending for 2016-17 ($689.8 million). This increase is mainly explained by the retroactive compensation payments from various collective agreements signed and ratified in 2017-18 and by an increase in spending on Grants and Contributions programs primarily in the Victims Fund and Legal Aid programs.

Actual human resources

Human resources summary for Programs and Internal Services (full‑time equivalents)
Programs and Internal Services	2015–16 Actual	2016–17 Actual	2017–18 Planned	2017–18 Actual	2018–19 Planned	2019–20 Planned
Program 1.1: Stewardship of the Canadian Legal Framework	255	256	254	243	254	254
Program 1.2: Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime	9	9	9	9	9	9
Program 2.1: Legal Services to Government Program	3,023	3,096	3,089	3,079	3,089	3,089
Subtotal	3,287	3,361	3,352	3,331	3,352	3,352
Internal Services	1,050	950	948	980	948	948
Total	4,337	4,311	4,300	4,311	4,300	4,300

Expenditures by vote

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

Government of Canada spending and activities

Information on the alignment of the Department of Justice Canada’s spending with the Government of Canada’s spending and activities is available in the GC InfoBase.

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 departmental financial statements (unaudited). These statements are prepared in accordance with accrual accounting principles and are therefore different from reporting on the use of authorities, reflected in earlier sections of this report. Reconciliation between authorities used and the net cost of operations is set out in Note 3 of the departmental financial statements (unaudited).The Department of Justice Canada’s financial statements (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2018, 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, 2018 (dollars)
Financial information	2017–18 Planned results	2017–18 Actual	2016–17 Actual	Difference (2017–18 actual minus 2017–18 planned results)	Difference (2017–18 actual minus 2016–17 actual results)
Total expenses	1,037,943,000	1,103,877,000	1,050,500,000	65,934,000	53,377,000
Total revenues	296,200,000	316,308,000	306,067,000	20,108,000	10,241,000
Net cost of operations before government funding and transfers	741,743,000	787,569,000	744,433,000	45,826,000	43,136,000

Planned results

Planned Results are based on the Future-Oriented Financial Statements presented in the 2017-18 Departmental Plan. The actual expenses for 2017-18 are $65.9 million higher than planned expenses due to retroactive compensation payments made in 2017-18 related to the ratification of various collective agreements and an increase in transfer payments resulting from the Budget 2017 announcement for the following areas:

Contributions in support of the Canadian Family Justice Fund;
Contributions to the provinces to assist in the operation of immigration and refugee legal aid; and
Contributions under the Indigenous Justice Program Fund.

The 2017-18 actual revenues for 2017-18 are $20.1 million higher than planned revenues. This can be explained by the change in the legal services rates in 2016-17 approved by Treasury Board, which included anticipated increases to costs for Law Practitioner group collective agreements and the change of funding model for some initiatives resulting in more cost recovery from clients.

Expenses

Total departmental expenses were $1.1 billion in 2017-18, an increase of $53.4 million from 2016-17. The variance is mainly explained by the following factors:

A decrease in severance benefit liability and expense in 2016-17 that did not re-occur in 2017-18;
An increase in salary expenses due to retroactive compensation payments related to the ratification of various collective agreements;
An increase in the liability for vacation pay as a result of the implementation of the Government of Canada’s Phoenix pay system; and
An increase in transfer payments expenses as a result of increases in funding provided for the contributions to the provinces to assist in the operation of immigration and refugee legal aid and the contributions from the Victims Fund.

Revenues

Total departmental revenues were $316.3 million in 2017-18, a net increase of $10.2 million from 2016-17. This variance is mainly due to the change in funding model for some initiatives.

Condensed Statement of Financial Position (unaudited) as at March 31, 2018 (dollars)
Financial Information	2017–18	2016–17	Difference (2017–18 minus 2016–17)
Total net liabilities	423,514,000	359,662,000	63,852,000
Total net financial assets	385,368,000	322,792,000	62,576,000
Departmental net debt	38,146,000	36,870,000	1,276,000
Total non-financial assets	38,904,000	33,725,000	5,179,000
Departmental net financial position	758,000	(3,145,000)	3,903,000

Liabilities

Total net liabilities were $423.5 million for 2017-18, an increase of $63.9 million from 2016-17. The variance is mainly due to an increase of transfer payments payable resulting from an increase in funding provided and the timing variation of financial claims submitted from year to year for the following areas:

Contributions to the provinces to assist in the operation of the legal aid systems; and
Contributions to the provinces to assist in the operation of immigration and refugee legal aid.

The variance is also due to an increase in the liability for vacation pay (as described above).

Financial and non-financial assets

Total net financial assets were $385.4 million at the end of 2017-18, an increase of $62.6 million from 2016-17. This variance is mainly because of an increase in net cash the Department is entitled to receive from the Receiver General for Canada to discharge its liabilities, especially as it relates to transfer payment programs as described above.

Total net non-financial assets were $38.9 million at the end of 2017-18, an increase of $5.2 million from 2016-17. The variance of $5.2 million is mostly attributable to an increase of leasehold improvements projects for office accommodations as well as informatics software projects. It is offset by a decrease in acquisitions of informatics hardware and furniture and furnishings resulting from changes in departmental accounting methodology related to tangible capital assets. The Department decided to no longer apply the “bulk accounting” principle for low dollar value assets and increase the capitalization threshold from $1,000 to $10,000 for the “informatics hardware” and “furniture and furnishings” assets classes. This change was made to allow for consistent treatment of all capital asset classes.

Date modified:: 2022-05-12

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