Financial Statements

Notes to the Financial Statements (Unaudited)

For the year ended March 31

1. Authority and objectives

The Department of Justice was officially established in 1868, when the Department of Justice Act was passed in Parliament. The Department is named in Schedule I of the Financial Administration Act and currently reports to Parliament through the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada.

Under Canada’s federal system, the administration of justice is an area of shared jurisdiction between the federal government and the provinces and territories. The Department supports the Minister of Justice’s responsibilities for 53 statutes and areas of federal law by ensuring a bilingual and bijural national legal framework. The Department also supports the Attorney General as the chief law officer of the Crown, both in terms of the ongoing operations of government and of the development of new policies, programs, and services for Canadians.

The Department's key strategic outcomes are delivered through the following program activities:

(a) A Fair, Relevant and Accessible Canadian Justice System

Stewardship of the Canadian Legal Framework

The Department fulfils its stewardship role by ensuring a bilingual and bijural national legal framework for the administration of justice that contributes to a safe and just society for all Canadians and confidence in Canada’s justice system. The Department develops and tests innovative approaches to strengthen the legal framework within various domains: criminal law, youth criminal justice, sentencing, official languages, marriage and divorce, access to justice, bijuralism, human rights, privacy, access to information and Indigenous justice. In addition, in view of the federal government’s shared interest in a sustainable justice system, the Department promotes and facilitates ongoing dialogue with the provinces and territories in the areas of shared jurisdiction and provides funding for the delivery of programs that directly support federal policy objectives.

Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime

The Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime (OFOVC) was created to provide a voice for victims of crime at the federal level and to ensure that the federal government meets its commitments to victims. The Office provides direct information, referral and complaint-review services to its primary clients: victims, victims’ family members or representatives, victim-serving agencies, and other related stakeholders. The Office also helps raise awareness of systemic issues among all criminal justice and victim-serving personnel, and provides related recommendations and advice to the Government of Canada through the Minister of Justice. In order to fulfill its mandate, the Office promotes access by victims to existing federal programs and services for victims; addresses complaints of victims about compliance with the provisions of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act; promotes awareness of the needs and concerns of victims and the applicable laws that benefit victims of crime, including Canadian Victim Bill of Rights and the principles set out in the Canadian Statement of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime; identifies and reviews emerging and systemic issues that negatively impact victims of crime; and facilitates access by victims to existing federal programs and services by providing them with information and referrals. The Ombudsman reports directly to the Minister of Justice and, as such, the Office falls outside the Department’s governance framework.

(b) A Federal Government that is Supported by High-Quality Legal Services

Legal Services to Government Program

The Department of Justice provides an integrated suite of high-quality legal advisory, litigation and legislative services to the Minister of Justice and to all federal departments and agencies to support them in meeting the Government’s policy and programming priorities, and to advance the overall objectives of the Government. Services are provided through a network of departmental legal services units co-located with client departments and agencies, specialized legal capacities within national headquarters, and a network of regional offices and sub-offices providing legal advisory and litigation services to federal departments and agencies across the country.

(c) The following program activity supports all strategic outcomes within the organization

Internal Services

Internal Services are groups of related activities and resources that are administered to support the needs of programs and other corporate obligations of an organization. Internal services include only those activities and resources that apply across an organization, and not those provided to a specific program. The groups of activities are Management and Oversight Services, Communications Services, Legal Services (Corporate Counsel), Human Resources Management Services, Financial Management Services, Information Management Services, Information Technology Services, Real Property Services, Materiel Services and Acquisition Services.

2. Summary of significant accounting policies

These financial statements are prepared using the department's accounting policies stated below, which are based on Canadian public sector accounting standards. The presentation and results using the stated accounting policies do not result in any significant differences from Canadian public sector accounting standards.

The significant accounting policies are as follows:

(a) Parliamentary authorities

The Department is financed by the Government of Canada through Parliamentary authorities. Financial reporting of authorities provided to the Department do not parallel financial reporting according to generally accepted accounting principles since authorities are primarily based on cash flow requirements. Consequently, items recognized in the Statement of Operations and Departmental Net Financial Position and in the Statement of Financial Position are not necessarily the same as those provided through authorities from Parliament. Note 3 provides a reconciliation between the bases of reporting. The planned results amounts in the “Expenses” and “Revenues” sections of the Statement of Operations and Departmental Net Financial Position are the amounts reported in the Future-Oriented Statement of Operations included in the 2017-18 Departmental Plan. Planned results are not presented in the “Government funding and transfers” section of the Statement of Operations and Departmental Net Financial Position and in the Statement of Change in Departmental Net Debt because these amounts were not included in the 2017-18 Departmental Plan.

(b) Net cash provided by Government

The Department operates within the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), which is administered by the Receiver General for Canada. All cash received by the Department is deposited to the CRF, and all cash disbursements made by the Department are paid from the CRF. The net cash provided by Government is the difference between all cash receipts and all cash disbursements, including transactions between departments of the Government.

(c) Amount due from (to) CRF

The amounts due from or to the CRF is the result of timing differences at year-end between the recognition of certain transactions and the disbursement or receipt of funds. The amount due from the CRF represents the net amount that the department is able to withdraw from the CRF in order to discharge its liabilities without generating any additional charges against its authorities in the year of the withdrawal.

(d) Revenues

(e) Expenses - recorded on the accrual basis:

(f) Future employee benefits

i. Pension benefits

Eligible employees participate in the Public Service Pension Plan (the Plan), a multiemployer pension plan administered by the Government. The Department’s contributions to the Plan are charged to expenses in the year incurred and represent the total departmental obligation to the Plan. The Department’s responsibility with regard to the Plan is limited to its contributions. Actuarial surpluses or deficiencies are recognized in the financial statements of the Government of Canada, as the Plan’s sponsor.

ii. Severance benefits

The accumulation of severance benefits for voluntary departures ceased for applicable employee groups. The remaining obligation for employees who did not withdraw benefits is calculated using information derived from the results of the actuarially determined liability for employee severance benefits for the Government as a whole.

(g) Receivables

Receivables are recorded at cost; an allowance for doubtful accounts is made for receivables where recovery is considered uncertain. The allowance for doubtful accounts represents management's best estimate of probable losses in receivables. The allowance is determined based on an analysis of historic loss experience and an assessment of current conditions. The allowance is increased for losses and reduced by amounts written-off.

Under the Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act, remission order p.c. 1994-269, outstanding receivables are written-off once the garnishee application has terminated. The application terminates when the five-year life of the garnishment summons has expired or when the province or territory has requested that the application be cancelled.

Receivables that are not available to discharge the Department's liabilities are considered to be held on behalf of the Government of Canada.

(h) Contingent liabilities

Contingent liabilities, are potential liabilities which may become actual liabilities when one or more future events occur or fail to occur. If the future event is likely to occur or fail to occur, and a reasonable estimate of the loss can be made, a provision is accrued and an expense recorded to other expenses. If the likelihood is not determinable or an amount cannot be reasonably estimated, the contingency is disclosed in the notes to the financial statements.

(i) Non-financial assets

The costs of acquiring equipment and other capital property are capitalized as tangible capital assets and are amortized to expense over the estimated useful lives of the assets. All tangible capital assets and leasehold improvements having an initial cost of $10,000 or more are recorded at their acquisition cost. Amortization of tangible capital assets is done on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful life of the asset as follows:

Non-financial assets
Asset class Acquisition cost equal or greater than Amortization period
Office and other equipment $10,000 5 to 10 years
Informatics hardware $10,000 3 to 5 years
Informatics software $10,000 3 to 5 years
Motor vehicles $10,000 5 years
Leasehold improvements $10,000 Lesser of useful life or remaining term of the lease
Work in progress In accordance with asset class Once in service, in accordance with asset class

Assets under construction are recorded in the applicable asset class in the year they are put into service and are not amortized until they are put into service.

(j) Measurement uncertainty

The preparation of these financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported and disclosed amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes at March 31. The estimates are based on facts and circumstances, historical experience, general economic conditions and reflect the Government's best estimate of the related amount at the end of the reporting period. The most significant items where estimates are used are contingent liabilities, the liability for future employee benefits, allowance for doubtful accounts, and the useful life of tangible capital assets. Actual results could significantly differ from those estimated. Management’s estimates are reviewed periodically and, as adjustments become necessary, they are recorded in the financial statements in the year they become known.

(k) Related party transactions

Inter-entity transactions are transactions between commonly controlled entities. Inter-entity transactions, other than restructuring transactions, are recorded on a gross basis and are measured at the carrying amount, except for the following:

Related party transactions, other than inter-entity transactions, are recorded at the exchange amount.

  1. Services provided on a recovery basis are recognized as revenues and expenses on a gross basis and measured at the exchange amount.
  2. Certain services received on a without charge basis are recorded for departmental financial statement purposes at the carrying.

3. Parliamentary authorities

The Department receives most of its funding through annual parliamentary authorities. Items recognized in the Statement of Operations and Departmental Net Financial Position and the Statement of Financial Position in one year may be funded through parliamentary authorities in prior, current or future years. Accordingly, the Department has different net results of operations for the year on a government funding basis than on an accrual accounting basis. The differences are reconciled in the following tables:

(a) Reconciliation of net cost of operations to current year authorities used

Reconciliation of net cost of operations to current year authorities used (in thousands of dollars)
  2018 2017
Net cost of operations before government funding and transfers 787,569 744,433
Adjustments for items affecting net cost of operations but not affecting authorities:
Amortization of tangible capital assets (note 8) (9,013) (11,664)
Increase in vacation pay and compensatory leave (2,973) (1,016)
Decrease in future employee benefits 1,249 23,141
Adjustments to previous year's accounts payable 8,312 11,680
Bad debts expense (5,193) (5,225)
Services provided without charge by other government departments (note 11 (a)) (89,079) (89,799)
Accrued liabilities (738) (115)
Salary overpayments to be recovered 2,664 7,357
Total items affecting net cost of operations but not affecting authorities (94,771) (65,641)
Adjustments for items not affecting net cost of operations but affecting authorities:
Accrued liabilities paid in the fiscal year - -
Acquisitions of tangible capital assets (note 8) 14,218 12,038
Transition payments for implementing salary payments in arrears 8 13
Decrease in prepaid expenses (8) (786)
Adjustments to respendable revenues (8) (229)
Other (6) (9)
Total items not affecting net cost of operations but affecting authorities 14,204 11,027
Current year authorities used 707,002 689,819

(b) Authorities provided and used

Authorities provided and used (in thousands of dollars)
  2018 2017
Authorities provided:
Vote 1 - Operating expenditures 272,264 270,508
Vote 5 - Grants and contributions 394,315 383,816
Statutory amounts 66,948 70,060
Less:
Authorities available for future years (4) (2)
Lapsed: Operating expenditures (19,463) (25,209)
Lapsed: Grants and contributions (7,058) (9,354)
Current year authorities used 707,002 689,819

4. Accounts payable and accrued liabilities

The following table presents details of the Department's accounts payable and accrued liabilities:

Accounts payable and accrued liabilities (in thousands of dollars)
  2018 2017
Accounts payable - Other government departments and agencies 11,861 7,898
Account payable - External parties 36,939 35,957
Total accounts payable 48,800 43,855
Accrued liabilities 32,239 34,242
Total accounts payable and accrued liabilities 81,039 78,097

5. Family Law account

Under the Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act, the Department assists provinces and territories in the enforcement of family support orders and agreements by providing garnishment assistance through the interception of designated federal moneys payable to individuals owing family financial support. These intercepted moneys (consisting of garnisheed moneys such as income tax refunds, employment insurance benefits, etc.) are deposited into the Family Law account from which payments to the provinces and territories are then made. The provinces and territories distribute these payments to the beneficiaries:

Family Law account (in thousands of dollars)
  2018 2017
Family Law account - Beginning of year 3,617 3,130
Receipts 184,134 196,931
Payments (183,164) (196,444)
Family Law account - End of year 4,587 3,617

6. Future employee benefits

(a) Pension benefits

The Department's employees participate in the public service pension plan (the Plan), which is sponsored and administered by the Government of Canada. Pension benefits accrue up to a maximum period of 35 years at a rate of 2 percent per year of pensionable service, times the average of the best five consecutive years of earnings. The benefits are integrated with Canada/Québec Pension Plan benefits and they are indexed to inflation.

Both the employees and the Department contribute to the cost of the Plan. Due to the amendment of the Public Service Superannuation Act following the implementation of provisions related to Economic Action Plan 2012, employee contributors have been divided into two groups – Group 1 relates to existing plan members as of December 31, 2012 and Group 2 relates to members joining the Plan as of January 1, 2013. Each group has a distinct contribution rate.

For Group 1 members, the expense presented below represents approximately 1.01 times (1.12 times in 2016-2017) the employee contributions and, for Group 2 members, approximately 1.00 times (1.08 times in 2016-2017) the employee contributions.

Pension benefits (in thousands of dollars)
  2018 2017
Expense amounts 45,530 48,751

The Department's responsibility with regard to the Plan is limited to its contributions. Actuarial surpluses or deficiencies are recognized in the Financial Statements of the Government of Canada, as the Plan's sponsor.

(b) Severance benefits

Severance benefits provided to the Department’s employees were previously based on an employee’s eligibility, years of service and salary at termination of employment. However, since 2011 the accumulation of severance benefits for voluntary departures progressively ceased for substantially all employees. Employees subject to these changes were given the option to be paid the full or partial value of benefits earned to date or collect the full or remaining value of benefits upon departure from the public service. By March 31, 2018, substantially all settlements for immediate cash out were completed. Severance benefits are unfunded and, consequently, the outstanding obligation will be paid from future authorities.

The changes in the obligations during the year were as follows:

Severance benefits (in thousands of dollars)
  2018 2017
Accrued benefit obligation - Beginning of year 23,103 46,244
Expense for the year 1,393 (21,547)
Benefits paid during the year (2,642) (1,594)
Accrued benefit obligation - End of year 21,854 23,103

7. Accounts receivable and advances

The following table presents details of the Department's accounts receivable and advances balances:

Accounts receivable and advances (in thousands of dollars)
  2018 2017
Receivables - Other government departments and agencies 20,465 21,999
Receivables - External parties
Family Law 13,245 12,507
Allowance for doubtful accounts from Family Law (12,438) (11,773)
Total accounts receivable from Family Law 807 734
Other receivables and advances 9,186 7,974
Allowance for doubtful accounts on receivables from external parties (209) (226)
Total other receivables and advances 8,977 7,748
Gross accounts receivable 30,249 30,481
Accounts receivable held on behalf of Government (891) (787)
Net accounts receivable 29,358 29,694

8. Tangible capital assets

Tangible capital asset class (in thousands of dollars)
  Opening balance Acquisitions Disposals, Write-Offs and Adjustments Closing balance
Office and other equipment 21,059 39 (34) 21,064
Informatics hardware 20,091 298 - 20,389
Informatics software 28,259 73 5,306 33,638
Motor vehicles 55 - - 55
Leasehold improvements 34,268 - 953 35,221
Work in progress - software development 7,490 6,347 (5,306) 8,531
Work in progress - leasehold improvements 857 7,461 (970) 7,348
Total tangible capital assets 112,079 14,218 (51) 126,246
Accumulated amortization (in thousands of dollars)
  Opening balance Current year amortization Disposals, Write-Offs and Adjustments Closing balance
Office and other equipment 13,238 1,799 (33) 15,004
Informatics hardware 14,541 2,200 - 16,741
Informatics software 22,848 2,931 - 25,779
Motor vehicles 14 11 - 25
Leasehold improvements 27,780 2,072 - 29,852
Total accumulated amortization 78,421 9,013 - 87,401
Net book value (in thousands of dollars)
  2018 2017
Office and other equipment 6,060 7,821
Informatics hardware 3,648 5,550
Informatics software 7,859 5,411
Motor vehicles 30 41
Leasehold improvements 5,369 6,488
Work in progress - software development 8,531 7,490
Work in progress - leasehold improvements 7,348 857
Total net book value 38,845 33,658

Disposals, Write-Offs and Adjustments include assets under construction of $6,270,623 that were transferred to the other categories upon completion of the assets.

9. Contractual obligations

The nature of the Department's activities results in some large multi-year contracts and obligations whereby the Department will be obligated to make future payments in order to carry out its transfer payment programs or when the services and/or goods are received.

Significant contractual obligations that can be reasonably estimated are summarized as follows:

Contractual obligations (in thousands of dollars)
  2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 and thereafter
Transfer payments 181,749 174,480 176,215 163,891 2,533

10. Contingent liabilities

Claims and litigation

Claims have been made against the Department in the normal course of operations. These claims include items with pleading amounts and other for which no amount is specified. While the total amount claimed in these actions is significant, their outcomes are not determinable. The Department has recorded an allowance for claims and litigations where it is likely that there will be a future payment and a reasonable estimate of the loss can be made. Claims and litigations for which the outcome is not determinable and a reasonable estimate can be made by management amount to approximately $3,050,000 ($3,000,000 in 2016-2017) at March 31, 2018.

11. Related party transactions

The Department is related as a result of common ownership to all Government departments, agencies, and Crown corporations. Related parties also include individuals who are members of key management personnel or close family members of those individuals, and entities controlled by, or under shared control of, a member of key management personnel or a close family members of that individual.

The Department enters into transactions with these entities in the normal course of business and on normal trade terms.

(a) Common services provided without charge by other government departments

During the year, the Department received services without charge from certain common service organizations, related to accommodation, the employer's contribution to the health and dental insurance plans, and workers' compensation coverage. These services provided without charge have been recorded at the carrying value in the Department's Statement of Operations and Departmental Net Financial Position as follows:

Related party transactions (in thousands of dollars)
  2018 2017
Accommodation  44,616 45,678
Employer's contributions to the health and dental insurance plans 44,449 44,111
Workers’ compensation coverage provided 14 10
Total 89,079 89,799

The Government has centralized some of its administrative activities for efficiency, cost-effectiveness purposes and economic delivery of programs to the public. As a result, the Government uses central agencies and common service organizations so that one department performs services for all other departments and agencies without charge. The costs of these services, such as the payroll and cheque issuance services provided by Public Services and Procurement Canada and audit services provided by the Office of the Auditor General are not included in the Department’s Statement of Operations and Departmental Net Financial Position. The costs of information technology infrastructure services provided by Shared Services Canada, following the transfer of responsibilities in November 2011 and April 2013, are also not included in the Department’s Statement of Operations and Departmental Net Financial Position.

(b) Common services provided without charge to other government departments

In addition, the Department of Justice has provided legal services, such as advisory, litigation and legislative services, without charge to other government departments for a total amount of $108,356,360 ($155,294,877 in 2016-2017). The amount is determined based on actual salary and operating expenses attributed to non-recoverable services provided to other government departments.

12. Segmented information

Presentation by segment is based on the Department's program alignment architecture. The presentation by segment is based on the same accounting policies as described in the Summary of significant accounting policies in note 2. The following table presents the expenses incurred and revenues generated for the main program activities, by major object of expenses and by major type of revenues. The segment results for the period are as follows:

Segmented information (in thousands of dollars)
  Legal Services to Government Program Stewardship of the Canadian Legal Framework Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime Internal Services 2018 2017
Operating expenses
Salaries and employee benefits 444,755 48,193 1,062 104,395 598,425 561,546
Accommodation 20,096 18,614 56 11,360 50,126 51,047
Professional and special services 17,669 4,405 93 11,660 33,827 31,673
Amortization of tangible capital assets 430 58 - 8,525 9,013 11,664
Utilities, materials and supplies 1,500 168 4 6,298 7,970 4,895
Travel and relocation 4,580 801 49 702 6,132 6,263
Bad debts - 5,193 - - 5,193 5,225
Other 107 465 2 3,537 4,111 4,981
Rentals 306 107 4 2,432 2,849 2,412
Information 1,899 260 30 522 2,711 2,741
Repairs and maintenance 34 3 - 1,578 1,615 989
Communications 560 50 2 481 1,093 1,444
Claims and ex-gratia payments 216 7 - - 223 411
Total operating expenses 492,172 78,324 1,302 151,490 723,288 685,291
Transfer payments
Provinces and territories - 343,375 - - 343,375 330,190
Non-profit institutions and organizations - 35,563 - - 35,563 33,482
International organizations - 735 - - 735 709
Individuals - 916 - - 916 828
Total transfer payments - 380,589 - - 380,589 365,209
Total expenses 492,172 458,913 1,302 151,490 1,103,877 1,050,500
Revenues
Legal services 304,933 - - 51,776 356,709 349,707
Family Law fees - 8,245 - - 8,245 8,502
Common Services - - - 2,832 2,832 2,825
Other revenues 101 1,792 - 11 1,904 2,164
Revenues earned on behalf of Government (36,687) (10,037) - (6,658) (53,382) (57,131)
Total revenues 268,347 - - 47,961 316,308 306,067
Net cost of operations before government funding and transfers 223,825 458,913 1,302 103,529 787,569 744,433

13. Adjustments to prior year’s results

In 2017-2018, the Department of Justice conducted a review of the tangible capital asset accounting policies. 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. An analysis was carried out by the Department to determine the need to process a retroactive adjustment. Considering that there is no impact on departmental appropriations, the materiality of the change and that the necessary financial data are not reasonably determinable, this change has been applied prospectively and comparative information for 2016-2017 has not been restated.

14. Comparative information

Comparative figures have been reclassified to conform to the current year's presentation.