Administrative Tribunals Support Service of Canada 2023-24 Departmental Results Report

From the Chief Administrator

I am pleased to present the 2023–2024 Departmental Results Report for the Administrative Tribunals Support Service of Canada (ATSSC). The ATSSC plays an instrumental role in supporting the access and delivery of justice to Canadians. It provides registry, legal, member and corporate services to 12 federal administrative tribunals, and the National Joint Council while respecting their adjudicative and institutional independence.

In 2023–2024, the ATSSC’s efforts focused on 3 strategic pillars—business excellence through innovation, collaboration with tribunal leadership and one another, and supporting our people—which were central in delivering results for Canadians.

I am especially proud to report that our efforts over the last years to realize operational efficiencies by building a result-driven and more efficient organization have paid dividends. The ATSSC was successful in assisting tribunals to handle more files, support more hearings and help deliver more decisions than in previous years. These accomplishments are to be celebrated. In the coming year, the organization will continue working towards establishing a strong and resilient foundation to ensure future success and deliver results for Canada and Canadians.

In our efforts to deliver excellence through innovative solutions, the organization continued to modernize administrative tribunals facilities and equip them with the capability to conduct virtual hearings and completed the migration of its email server to the cloud, while also upgrading bandwidth in offices. The organization also pursued the implementation of new technological solutions such as e-filing portals to facilitate access to justice and developed new operational data collection and reporting software to support statistics collection for tribunal case management and reporting requirements and to inform optimal resource-allocation decisions.

Additionally, in the spirit of collaboration, the organization supported the administrative tribunals in their efforts to manage their increasing and complex caseloads by allocating resources towards initiatives designed to offer parties innovative alternate dispute resolution mechanisms. The ATSSC furthered its integration as a single organization by onboarding an eleventh tribunal (the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board (CCPERB)) on its network. It completed the implementation of its Case Management System (CMS) Strategy by adopting a new CMS for the CCPERB—the last tribunal scheduled to be provided with a new and upgraded CMS, while continuing to develop and tailor the tools and services offered, to correspond to each tribunal’s specificities and their growing needs.

The ATSSC remained dedicated to support its workforce, including through the updated requirement to return to the workplace. Workspaces were refitted to align with the new common hybrid work model and boardrooms and hearing rooms were equipped with the necessary technology to enable efficient hybrid meetings. The ATSSC ensured that it created a positive and supportive work environment for employees and tribunals through this transition. It made significant progress in implementing activities within its Accessibility Plan and launched important initiatives included in its Corporate Services Strategic Plan.

I invite you to read the 2023–2024 Departmental Results Report to learn more about ATSSC’s many accomplishments to support a cost-effective delivery of justice to Canadians and our key efforts over the past year in achieving our mandate.

I would like to extend my gratitude to the Chairpersons of the administrative tribunals for their continued collaboration. My sincere thanks to all ATSSC employees for their diligence, determination, and dedication throughout 2023-24. By demonstrating extraordinary resiliency and strong leadership and innovative skills, ATSSC’s talented staff worked hard despite the many challenges to allow the organization to carry out its mandate once again this year.

Orlando Da Silva, LSM
Chief Administrator

Results—what we achieved

Core responsibilities and internal services

• Support services and facilities to federal administrative tribunals and their members
• Internal services

Support services and facilities to federal administrative tribunals and their members

• In this section

  • Description
  • Progress on results
  • Key risks
  • Resources required to achieve results
  • Related government-wide priorities
  • Program inventory

Description

The ATSSC is responsible for providing support services required by each tribunal by way of a single, integrated organization.

Progress on results

This section presents details on how the department performed to achieve results and meet targets for Support services and facilities to federal administrative tribunals and their members. Details are presented by departmental result.

Table 1: Targets and results for Support services and facilities to federal administrative tribunals and their members

Table 1 provides a summary of the target and actual results for each indicator associated with the results under Support services and facilities to federal administrative tribunals and its members.

Tribunal members receive the specialized support services they require to hear matters, to resolve files, or to render decisions

^‡—Established timeframes are set for each individual tribunal as the timing for the receipt of preparatory information varies by tribunal. Timeframes are established by Chairpersons in collaboration with the relevant secretariat and, if applicable, in accordance with legislative or regulatory requirements.

¹– Percentage is based on the average results of 10 out of 12 tribunals. Of the two remaining tribunals, one had no cases to report, and the other had not finalized their methodology by the end of the fiscal year.

²– Percentage is based on the average results of 11 out of 12 tribunals. One tribunal had not finalized their methodology by the end of the fiscal year.

³– Percentage is based on the average results of 10 out of 12 tribunals. Of the two remaining tribunals, one had no cases to report, and the other had not finalized their methodology by the end of the fiscal year.

⁴– Percentage is based on the average of the results for the 3 ATSSC programs. This year, the ATSCC has implemented the client satisfaction score (CSAT) to calculate members’ level of satisfaction. Previous years’ results have not been recalculated.

Key risks

The ATSSC continued to manage the risks identified in the 2023–24 Departmental Plan and successfully implemented mitigation strategies. Our mandate to support a wide range of administrative tribunals with professional services is broad and complex. By investing in our workforce, we were able to maintain the necessary human resources capacity to deliver the specialized services and expertise required by each tribunal. We will continue to invest in its workforce by offering renewed opportunities to build skills and experience.

Resources required to achieve results

Table 2: Snapshot of resources required for Support services and facilities to federal administrative tribunals and its members

Table 2 provides a summary of the planned and actual spending and full-time equivalents (FTEs) required to achieve results.

Complete financial and human resources information for the ATSSC’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Related government-wide priorities

Program inventory

Support services and facilities to federal administrative tribunals and its members are supported by the following programs:

• Program 1.1: Registry Services

• Program 1.2: Legal Services

• Program 1.3: Mandate and Member Services

Additional information related to the program inventory for Support services and facilities to federal administrative tribunals and its members is available on the Results page on GC InfoBase. 

Internal services

• In this section

  • Description
  • Progress on results
  • Resources required to achieve results
  • Contracts awarded to Indigenous business

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

Progress on results

This section presents details on how the department performed to achieve results and meet targets for internal services.

Recognizing that internal services directly impact employees and the management community, the Corporate Services Branch initiated the first phase of its 3-year Corporate Services Strategic Plan. to transform operations by further implementing efficiencies and improving service delivery.

• To ensure that financial, human resources, contractual and security requirements are clear and easy to understand and follow, we surveyed clients on their level of satisfaction with services delivered by the Corporate Services Branch. This exercise allowed us to identify the process reviews to be prioritized and carried out in 2024–25. The Lean review of the business workflows will ensure that administrative procedures remain consistent, accessible, and proportionate.

• Since the ATSSC’s intranet is the primary point of service and communications, we completely redesigned it. The architecture and content were updated to be relevant, intuitive, user-centric, and accessible. The ATSSC’s new intranet enables employees and tribunal members to easily access up-to-date information and to be more effective in their work.

The year 2023–24 was also marked by the Return to the Office and the new common hybrid work model was implemented in stages across the organization. The ATSSC provided staff with flexible work arrangements and new solutions that facilitated the return to the workplace while supporting staff well-being.

• We implemented a new reservation system for office space and created focus rooms and collaborative areas. We equipped boardrooms and hearing rooms with large monitors and webcams or OWL cameras to enable staff to conduct hybrid meetings and to support tribunals in hosting hybrid hearings. We moved our email server to the cloud and have upgraded bandwidth in offices to ensure business continuity.

• We reconfigured the National Capital Region office spaces for internal services, the Canada Industrial Relations Board and the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board to adapt to the new hybrid work model and installed collaborative furniture, ergonomic workstations, and lockers. We redesigned several office spaces in accordance with Public Services and Procurement Canada’s (PSPC) accessibility requirements.

• The Canada Industrial Relations Board’s Toronto office was relocated to a newly refitted modern workspace, which includes large hearing and mediation spaces to meet the Board’s specific needs. We also added a secure reception area and ergonomic workstations at the Montreal location. Videoconferencing equipment was also installed in the hearing room to enable the Canada Industrial Relations Board to conduct hybrid hearings. These spaces can be used by all the tribunals supported by the ATSSC, facilitating access to justice for Canadians across the country and reducing the cost of renting facilities.

The ATSSC’s specialized workforce allows it to provide quality services to administrative tribunals. Because we value our employees, we improved services to better support employee well-being.

• We prepared the organization to launch MyGCHR in 2024–25, a standardized Human Resources management system. This one-stop solution for all Human Resources administrative transactions required adapting the platform to the ATSSC’s structure.

• We further advanced our PowerBI project for Human Resources to provide key information to management in a timely manner and to complement our data collection for various Human Resources strategies, such as employee retention, career development and new talent acquisition, resulting in better evidence-based decision-making.

• Through the leadership of the Mental Health Champion, we organized special learning sessions on mental health topics and made new tools available to employees to strengthen their well-being.

The ATSSC renewed efforts to create an equitable, diverse, inclusive, accessible, and bilingual work environment through the implementation of our Equity, Diversity and Inclusive Strategy and 2022–25 Action Plan and ATSSC Accessibility Plan. We published a progress report on accessibility in December 2023.

• We invested in training for hiring managers and human resources on topics such as unconscious bias and potential employment barriers and created a Diversity and Inclusion Learning Path to further promote accessibility. We took additional steps to remove barriers and promote inclusive hiring practices in staffing processes.

• Several secretariats completed the Access to Justice Index, a self-assessment tool that helps identify accessibility gaps, and highlights practices or measures that facilitate access to justice. We created an accessibility working group including representatives from all secretariats. Together with the ATSSC’s Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee, we conducted consultations with staff and tribunal members. As a result, we identified common challenges, gaps, and best practices that helped us to develop an accessibility action plan.

• In line with the implementation of the Government of Canada Workplace Accessibility Passport introduced last fiscal year, we adjusted our procurement processes to consider accessibility when purchasing technological hardware.

• We ensured that all ATSSC’s internal and external webpages are compliant with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat Guidelines on Making Communications Products and Activities Accessible. We also began an analysis of tribunal websites to assess their level of compliance.

Resources required to achieve results

Table 3: Resources required to achieve results for internal services this year

Table 3 provides a summary of the planned and actual spending and full-time equivalents (FTEs) required to achieve results.

The complete financial and human resources information for the ATSSC’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

Government of Canada departments are to meet a target of awarding at least 5% of the total value of contracts to Indigenous businesses each year. This commitment is to be fully implemented by the end of 2024–25.

ATSSC’s result for 2023-24:

Table 4: Total value of contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses¹

As shown in the Table 4, the ATSSC awarded 44.88% of the total value of all contracts to Indigenous businesses for the fiscal year.

-¹ For the purposes of measuring performance against the minimum 5% target for FY 2023–24, the data in this table is based on how Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) defines “Indigenous business”, which is one that is owned and operated by Elders, band and tribal councils; registered in the Indigenous Business Directory; or registered on a modern treaty beneficiary business list.

-²Includes contract amendments with Indigenous businesses and contracts that were entered into with Indigenous businesses by means of acquisition cards above $10,000.00 ($10K) and may include subcontracts with Indigenous businesses.

-³Includes contract amendments and contracts that were entered into by means of acquisition cards above $10K.

The ATSSC is a phase 2 organization, and as such must ensure that a minimum of 5% of the total value of its contracts are awarded to Indigenous business by the end of 2023–24. In its 2023–24 Departmental Plan, the ATSSC forecasted that, by the end of 2023–24, it would award at least 5% of the total value of its contracts to Indigenous businesses. By the end of November 2023, the ATSSC had already reached 49.4% of contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses. In its 2024–25 Departmental Plan, the department forecasted that by the end of 2023–24, it would award 50% of the total value of its contracts to Indigenous businesses. Unfortunately, that percentage slightly decreased due to an unforeseen increase in the value of contracts awarded to non-Indigenous businesses between December 2023 and March 2024.

As shown in the table above, the ATSSC awarded 44.88% of the total value of its contracts to Indigenous businesses in 2023–24. It exceeded the 5% minimum requirement by maximizing for Set-aside procurements for commodities such as IT consultants, IT hardware or software, translation services, office furniture and office supplies.

The ATSSC will continue to support the Government of Canada’s commitment to award a minimum of 5% of its procurement to Indigenous businesses. It is committed to continuous improvement and follows Treasury Board Secretariat, PSPC and Indigenous Services Canada’s guidance on contracting. To achieve its 2023–24 target, the ATSSC made the Canada School of Public Service course Indigenous Considerations in procurement (COR409) part of its mandatory training for all procurement functional specialists (PGs). 100% of PGs have completed the course.

Spending and human resources

• In this section

  • Spending
  • Funding
  • Financial statement highlights
  • Human resources

Spending

This section presents an overview of the department's actual and planned expenditures from 2021–22 to 2026–27.

Budgetary performance summary

Table 5 Actual three-year spending on core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)

Table 5 presents how much money the ATSSC spent over the past three years to carry out its core responsibilities and for internal services.

Analysis of the past three years of spending

Spending has increased over the course of the last 3 years due to increased staffing levels required to support new mandates given to the tribunals, temporary funding received to address program integrity issues, growth in salary rates resulting from the signing of collective agreements as well as investments in its facilities.

More financial information from previous years is available on the Finances section of GC Infobase.

Table 6 Planned three-year spending on core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)

Table 6 presents how much money the ATSSC’s plans to spend over the next three years to carry out its core responsibilities and for internal services.

Analysis of the next three years of spending

The planned spending will decrease in 2025–26 and following years due to the sunsetting of the program integrity funding received in 2022–23. The reduction in funding due to the Refocusing Government Spending initiative and the funding received to cover the new collective agreements are also reflected in this table.

More detailed financial information from previous years is available on the Finances section of GC Infobase.

Table 7: Budgetary actual gross and net planned spending summary (dollars)

Table 7 reconciles gross planned spending with net spending for 2023–24.

Analysis of budgetary actual gross and net planned spending summary

The ATSSC is partially funded by vote-netted revenue (a cost recovery mechanism), for the operations of the Secretariat to the Social Security Tribunal. As the expenses of this secretariat increase, the revenues increase proportionately, thereby decreasing its net cost of operations. The planned revenues result from the authority to make recoverable expenditures on behalf of the Canada Pension Plan and the Employment Insurance Operating Account.

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

Funding

This section provides an overview of the department's voted and statutory funding for its core responsibilities and for internal services. For further information on funding authorities, consult the Government of Canada budgets and expenditures.

Graph 2: Approved funding (statutory and voted) over a six-year period

Graph 2 summarizes the department’s approved voted and statutory funding from 2021-22 to 2026-27.

Financial statement highlights

The ATSSC’s complete financial statements (unaudited or audited) for the year ended March 31, 2024, are available online.

Table 8 Condensed Statement of Operations (unaudited or audited) for the year ended March 31, 2024 (dollars)

Table 8 summarizes the expenses and revenues for 2023–24 which are net to the cost of operations before government funding and transfers.

The 2023–24 planned results information is provided in ATSSC’s Future-Oriented Statement of Operations and Notes 2023-24.

Table 9 summarizes actual expenses and revenues which are net to the cost of operations before government funding and transfers.

Table 10 Condensed Statement of Financial Position (unaudited or audited) as of March 31, 2024 (dollars)

Table 10 provides a brief snapshot of the department’s liabilities (what it owes) and assets (what the department owns), which helps to indicate its ability to carry out programs and services.

Human resources

This section presents an overview of the department’s actual and planned human resources from 2021–22 to 2026–27.

Table 11: Actual human resources for core responsibility and internal services

Table 11 shows a summary of human resources, in full-time equivalents (FTEs), for ATSSC’s core responsibility and for its internal services for the previous three fiscal years.

Analysis of human resources over the last three years

The FTE variance is caused by the ongoing introduction and implementation of new and modified legislative mandates for many of the tribunals. The FTE increase between 2021–22 and 2023–24 was the result of the continuing implementation of new and modified legislative mandates for tribunals and was primarily sustained by temporary funding received to address program integrity issues.

Table 12: Human resources planning summary for core responsibility and internal services

Table 12 shows information on human resources, in full-time equivalents (FTEs), for each of ATSSC’s core responsibility and for its internal services planned for the next 3 years. Human resources for the current fiscal year are forecasted based on year to date.

Analysis of human resources for the next three years

The planned decrease in 2025–26 is the result of the sunsetting of the temporary funding received to address program integrity issues. 

Corporate information

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on ATSSC’s website:

• Gender-based analysis plus

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.

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