Section I: Organizational overview

Key Supporting Initiatives

Progress toward the priority:

In terms of modernizing and streamlining the Government of Canada’s web presence, as of December 3, 2015, a number of federal institutions began publishing directly to Canada.ca and some were fully migrated. Over 60 are now using the Social Media Account Management tool for official Government of Canada social media accounts. An enterprise search solution (using Google) has been procured and launched. With respect to ESDC’s own online presence (i.e. ESDC/Service Canada/Labour Program), the Department reviewed/archived/moved nearly 55 percent of its web pages to Canada.ca. 

The modernization of Passport Services is intended to allow the program to address a fundamental shift in its business model due to the introduction of a 10-year validity period for passports which will entail larger fluctuations in demand for passport services. This shift will be addressed by: expanding passport services across the Service Canada in-person network, replacing the program’s aging IT infrastructure, improving integrity in the passport application process and supporting a digital-first strategy. ESDC has been working with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada on passport modernization through the Identity Linkages Project. This project will allow for the authentication of the identity of individuals applying for passports.

Through the EI Inventory Reduction Strategy, over 300 employees were hired to process claims and reduce the accumulated inventory of claims to sustainable levels. At year-end, the inventory levels were 45 percent below the same period in 2014–15 and 37 percent below the same period in 2013–14. The Department met its fiscal year-end objective of reducing the initial and renewal inventory to a target level of 220,000. This positions the Department to consistently meet its EI speed of payment service standard of 80 percent. As a result of the IRS, speed of payment as of March 2016 was 83.8 percent and the initial, renewal and revised inventory was reduced to 212,733 claims.

Efforts in 2015–16 to modernize labour programs and services focused on adapting to the changing times, streamlining business processes and making better use of technology. This included targeting high-risk sectors for proactive occupational health and safety interventions, providing tools to promote mental health and safety in the workplace, renegotiating agreements with provinces on workers’ compensation, and the increasing use of technology (e.g. e-reporting for the Federal Workers’ Compensation Service, developing online tools to support compliance with labour standards, providing tablets to mobile Health and Safety Officers and leveraging technology to reach remote and First Nations communities). As well, progress was made toward the development and implementation of a single information technology system to encompass all the functions currently supported by numerous independent applications in the Labour Program, including workplace health and safety monitoring databases.

The Department successfully included enforceable labour provisions in free trade agreements with Israel, Ukraine and the Trans-Pacific Partnership and contributed to developing public support for Canada’s free trade agreements.

During fiscal year 2015–16, the Department actively promoted an integrity-by-design approach that embeds integrity throughout the life cycle of a program or service, with a particular emphasis on prevention of error or fraud. This included providing analysis and advice on integrity risks and mitigations for service delivery modernization initiatives and conducting program compliance reviews to identify higher-risk areas in need of attention. In addition, the Department used advanced analytics and successfully implemented several predictive models to identify high-risk areas, triage workloads and claims, and identify previously undetected cases of error and/or fraud.

Key Supporting Initiatives

Progress toward the priority:

The Department’s Employment Insurance (EI) automation agenda continued to build on earlier initiatives to further increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the EI processing model.  In 2015–16, this included introduction of both public-facing and internal enhancements:

• Over 48,000 new organizations registered on Record of Employment (ROE) Web, and 84.1 percent of all ROEs were submitted electronically, which surpassed the target of 81 percent.
• The Issue Resolution Process 1.2 was implemented, which allowed claims that fall out of automation (because a manual action and agent decision are required) to be reinserted into the automated stream. Approximately 71 percent of all EI initial and renewal claims were fully or partially automated, which surpassed the target of 67.5 percent.
• Three new automated letters were implemented, which provided claimants with increased automated service. Forty-three percent of EI letters are now automated.

In addition, advancements in electronic services helped build the foundation for future client service improvements and self-serve functionality:

• The alignment between business and information technology is on plan for Appliweb re-Architecture, a key enabler for evolution towards increased processing automation and addressing revised claims.
• The development of the eNotification functional specifications enabled the Department to improve the online client experience and provide timely and meaningful claim-specific information through My Service Canada Account (MSCA). The take-up of MSCA by EI claimants continued to grow, increasing from 27.8 percent in 2013–14 to 36.2 percent in 2015–16.

Collectively, the initiatives undertaken as part of the EI automation agenda have led to improved efficiency and better service for Canadians.

During 2015–16, the EI Service Delivery Modernization initiative was renamed Benefit Delivery Modernization (BDM).  The name BDM was adopted to reflect the initiative’s expanded focus on EI, the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS). The initiative will design modernized business processes, replace the suite of aging IT solutions with modern, commercial off-the-shelf application technology and address policy constraints to improved service delivery beginning with EI but ensuring scalability to support CPP and OAS program delivery. Progress made to date includes:

• completion of best practice, jurisdictional research and an environmental scan to inform the initiative through lessons learned from other commensurate large-scale transformations;
• establishment of detailed program scope and objectives; and
• establishment of a robust future state concept of operations and high-level business requirements.

The Department continued to advance the OAS Service Improvement Strategy:

• With the implementation of automatic enrolment, approximately 46 percent of new OAS beneficiaries no longer need to apply to receive their pension and had access to certain new e-services through My Service Canada Account.
• The Department mailed another 165,676 automatic enrolment letters to seniors, and since implementation has now sent over 465,000 automatic enrolment letters.
• Building on the successful implementation of the first phase of automatic enrolment, the Department completed detailed planning to expand automatic enrolment and client-centric e-services, and the migration of OAS to a common IT platform with the CPP.

The Department continued to develop a comprehensive CPP service improvement strategy to enhance electronic service offerings, enable online applications, increase automation and streamline benefit processing through modern business tools and processes.  On June 1, 2015, an end-to-end online application for CPP retirement was launched. By the end of March 2016, over 52,500 seniors had applied using the new online service.

A comprehensive CPP-Disability Renewal was launched in fall 2015 in response to the Office of the Auditor General audit, including approval of a new Quality Assurance Framework.

The Department began implementation of a comprehensive Pensions Integrated National Workload Plan in May 2015 that focused on a number of immediate and longer-term initiatives to address the growing workload pressures associated with the aging population in advance of the full implementation of the two service improvement strategies.

As of March 31, 2016, 86 percent of programs have implemented the ESDC Identity Management Policy.  The Department has adopted the Business Identity Validation Standard, which completes the policy by providing programs with a consistent approach to registration, authentication and validation for all clients, individuals and businesses. The implementation of the policy strengthens identity management of programs and supports the delivery of services offered by ESDC. This project is ongoing in order to support new programs and changes in service delivery.

In meeting the Department’s obligation under the Main Point of Contact with the Government of Canada in case of Death Act, an online death reporting service is being developed for the Social Insurance Register to receive electronically the information on the passing of Canadians from funeral home directors.  The new service, which will impact all SIN-enabled programs, will support a “tell-us-once” approach to reporting a death, streamline the administration of death information for programs using the Social Insurance Number, automate existing manual processes (i.e. receiving death notifications via fax machines) and achieve cost savings. Work is being undertaken by the Joint Councils (Public Sector Service Delivery Council and Public Sector Chief Information Officer Council) to establish a blueprint to improve the timeliness of death registrations and notifications, with a view to improving the service experience for citizens and the integrity of key government programs. This initiative, which began in June 2015, is on track and is expected to reach finalization in 2020.

In 2015–16, the Department continued to modernize grants and contributions (Gs and Cs) by increasing efficiencies through streamlined, simplified and standardized processes and tools and improving the web-based experiences of Canadians through enhanced Gs and Cs online services. The following enhancements related to Gs and Cs modernization were released in 2015–16:

• The Grants and Contributions Online Services (GCOS) introduced an electronic signature process for agreements which eliminates the need for hand-written signatures leading to increased efficiencies throughout the project life cycle.
• Streamlined and automated the process of applying for Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) funding and the ability to manage active CSJ projects completely online through the GCOS.
• Efficiencies were created for the internal CSJ application review through the automation of assessment, bulk approval functions and project management.
• Paper to Online functionality was implemented for CSJ. This allowed organizations which applied by paper to convert their applications to the GCOS system.
• The Common System for Grants and Contributions was enhanced to improve information management practices and system processing capacity.

The eAccount secure portal user interface design was initiated. In preparation for development, usability testing was undertaken to ensure portal design enhancements would deliver a modern digital government service that is easy, fast and secure.

The Digital Service Strategy developed a sequenced approach to increased digital service delivery and underlies the new ESDC Service Strategy.

Significant progress was made on the Canada Loans and Grants for Students and Apprentices Program re-procurement initiative and subsequent new business model implementation. Specifically, all bid evaluation components were completed and a new contract with a start date of April 1, 2018, was awarded. Transition planning activities have been initiated.

The Department has kept pace with the staged implementation of the Treasury Board Policy on Service, concentrating on the policy requirements currently in effect.

Key Supporting Initiatives

Progress toward the priority:

In Budgets 2013 through 2015, the Government of Canada signaled its intention to strengthen the Labour Market Development Agreements (LMDAs) in consultation with the provinces and territories (P/Ts) in order to reorient training to meet labour market demand. Negotiations were undertaken in 2015, but no amended agreements were signed with P/Ts before the October 2015 federal election.

Ensuring that workers are well prepared for good-quality jobs is an important means of strengthening the middle class, and helping those working hard to join it. Budget 2016 committed an additional $125 million in 2016–17 for LMDAs to help unemployed workers prepare for good- quality jobs. Budget 2016 also committed to broad-based consultations with provinces, territories and stakeholders in 2016–17 to identify ways to improve the intergovernmental labour market agreements and guide future investments to strengthen labour market programming.

Another key supporting initiative for ESDC in 2015–16 was continuing to implement and support the Job Match service through Job Bank. As of March 31, 2016, 47,995 employers had created an account on the new Job Bank for Employers (around 4,000 employers were still using the legacy Job Bank for Employers module), and 33,956 job seekers had an active Job Match profile, of which 40 percent belonged to Canadian citizens and permanent residents, and 60 percent belonged to Express Entry candidates. Since Job Match launched in 2015, a total of 158,779 users published a job seeker profile, of which 88,286 were Express Entry candidates. Furthermore, in 2015, Job Bank began co-delivering with the Northwest Territories and Newfoundland and Labrador. Job Bank also held discussions with British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Québec, the three remaining provinces that continue to maintain independent job boards.

In terms of the initiative to strengthen apprenticeship systems, new Red Seal Occupational Standards were developed to ensure long-term sustainability of harmonized training.  The Department, as directed by the Forum of Labour Market Ministers (FLMM), also continued to advance and implement harmonization changes to apprenticeship programs in most P/Ts for intake by September 2016 for Red Seal trades in Phase 1 [Carpenter, Metal Fabricator (Fitter), Welder, Ironworker (Generalist), Ironworker (Structural/Ornamental), Ironworker (Reinforcing), Mobile Crane Operator/Mobile Crane Operator (Hydraulic) and Tower Crane Operator]. 

Additionally, there has been significant progress made by the Canadian Council of Directors of Apprenticeship, with support from ESDC, in launching pan-Canadian consultations in Red Seal trades in Phase 2 [Heavy Duty Equipment Technician, Truck and Transport Mechanic, Agricultural Equipment Technician, Automotive Service Technician, Industrial Mechanic (Millwright), Construction Electrician, Industrial Electrician, Steamfitter/Pipefitter and Plumber]. This is on track to meet the FLMM revised goal of harmonizing training in Red Seal trades covering two-thirds of apprentices by 2017.  In terms of Phase 3 of harmonization changes, 15 trades have been identified for implementation to meet the FLMM goal of harmonizing training in 30 Red Seal trades covering 90 percent of apprentices by 2020. 

Finally, to improve employer engagement in apprenticeship, ESDC, through the FLMM, continued to work with P/Ts.  A review of initiatives currently offered by governments across the country to support apprenticeship was completed and is informing recommendations of further collaborative efforts to promote and encourage employer participation in apprenticeship.

The Canada Labour Code was amended to provide protections to interns. The expanded protections include the right to refuse dangerous work and the opportunity to participate in health and safety committees, among others.

Key Supporting Initiatives

Progress toward the priority:

The Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training Strategy (ASETS) was extended to March 31, 2017, and Terms and Conditions were amended to facilitate implementation.  The 84 existing contribution agreements were also extended to ensure continuity of skills and job training, and employment support services to Indigenous Canadians all across the country. As a first phase of renewal of ASETS, Budget 2016 announced an additional $15 million in funding over two years to enhance training that aligns with community needs.  Budget 2016 also announced that Indigenous groups would be engaged towards renewal of the program. 

Additionally, in 2015, the Skills and Partnership Fund (SPF) was renewed as an ongoing program at $50 million/year starting in 2016–17 to 2020–21. To preserve the continuity of the program before its renewal, transitional funding of $16.5 million was allocated to support the continuation of successful projects in priority sectors.  The SPF Terms and Conditions were amended as needed to implement the renewed program. 

ESDC also continued to improve foreign credential recognition in 2015–16 by completing Occupational Action Plans for the third set of targeted occupations (Audiologists and Speech Language Pathologists, Geoscientists, Midwives and Psychologists). All of the action plans have been approved by the Forum of Labour Market Ministers (FLMM) senior officials with the exception of the Law Profession. Additionally, the redesign of the Labour Mobility Coordinating Group website, as well as the ESDC web portals on labour mobility and foreign credential recognition, was completed. Finally, recommendations received from the 2014 Panel were included in the 2016–17 Foreign Qualifications Recognition (FQR) Working Group work plan to inform recommendations for addressing barriers to FQR.

Through the Workplace Opportunities: Removing Barriers to Equity grant and contribution program, the Department provided support to five federally regulated private-sector employers to improve representation of women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities in their workplace. In addition, a national diversity recognition program was instituted.

Key Supporting Initiatives

Progress toward the priority:

In May 2015, ESDC returned to the Treasury Board (TB) seeking project approval and expenditure authority for the work to be undertaken for the Build/Deploy and Close-Out Stages of the Mainframe Legacy Application Migration Project (MLAMP). In July 2015, a comprehensive governance model was developed and implemented that includes a cross-representation of partner organizations.  A comprehensive internal risk and issue management strategy has been implemented, which includes the development of a risk management plan and integrated risk and issue register. As such, MLAMP is developing mitigation and contingency plans against all known material risks and issues being reported to the project. ESDC developed and is executing a comprehensive change management and communications strategy to ensure employees are engaged and informed.

The Shared Services Canada (SSC) project for the consolidation of email systems is still on hold with no new partner migrations planned within the Government of Canada.  ESDC is working with SSC on integrated project planning and departmental preparations for eventual migration. 

The Department continues to work with SSC to plan and execute the migration of ESDC business systems and applications from old data centres to new enterprise data centres. In 2015–16, a workload process roadmap was created and is being finalized with SSC stakeholders. A Master application tool has been developed which pulls information from the Corporate Solution Directory (applications) and the Definitive Media Library and leverages this tombstone information to generate a roadmap for the migration of solutions and components to the End-State Data Centres. The Project Charter has been submitted and, once approved, the schedule for migration/roadmap can begin (in fiscal year 2016–17).

The use of collaborative technologies was expanded by enhancing the videoconferencing feature of Lync for approximately 2,350 employees. My Virtual Meeting Room was launched in February 2016 and provides a permanent videoconference bridge that employees can register for and use. As of March 2016, the Government of Canada Wi-Fi service is functioning and supports are in place.

The Department continued its implementation of an integrated, client-centred “click-call-consult” internal services model through the Enabling Services Renewal Program (ESRP). In 2015–16, the ESRP continued to deliver on its key milestones with the successful implementation of PeopleSoft v9.1 for human resources management, the second of two Enterprise Resource Planning systems. Given the magnitude of implementing this second Enterprise Resource Planning system and the resulting transformation of system-enabled business processes, an integrated and robust communication, engagement and change management plan was implemented, along with a targeted approach to training according to employee role and responsibility in the organization. Business processes were also aligned to system functionalities.

A Hosted Contact Centre Solution was procured by SSC in October 2015. The Department will migrate from its current contact centre tools and technologies to a government-wide, centralized, modern and responsive hosted contact centre platform.  Through active collaboration of key stakeholders and partners, and participation of the oversight committees governing this initiative, the Department has advanced its readiness to migrate its contact centres; developed common business requirements in collaboration with the Canada Enquiry Centre; and refined business requirements in collaboration with the National Service Desk, its proposed pilot migration site. Further, the Department has strengthened its pre-migration planning efforts through collaboration and engagement with industry experts as well as other government departments.

Over the past year, ESDC has significantly improved its investment planning and project management processes and increased capacity through further developing the Project Management Information System, adding new processes, developing a comprehensive training curriculum to help build project management competencies in the Department, providing extensive user training on the system, and increasing support for project personnel and executives. Project management processes were greatly improved with the introduction of a project change management process, and a project program management process which facilitates better cost, time and scope tracking as well as providing greater integration of projects across the portfolio. Furthermore, a benefits management framework was completed that will be implemented over the coming years.  Support for project management personnel was bolstered with the development of a Capacity on Demand contract for Statement of Work writers that will allow project teams to more easily procure consultants for project activities. New project management advisors were introduced this past year as well to support departmental project leaders and executives with expert project management consultation throughout the project life cycle. 

Pay services were consolidated under the Pay Centre in Miramichi, New Brunswick, and the Regional Pay System was replaced with Phoenix. With the implementation of the PeopleSoft v9.1 system for human resources management, the Human Resources Services Centre portal was updated to respond to pay-related service enquiries for employees and managers, and the data entry processes were aligned with the new systems.

Key Supporting Initiatives

Progress toward the priority:

The Department is leveraging feedback and consultations that were conducted with the six branches that have onboarded to the Electronic Documents and Records Management Solutions (EDRMS). After completing work with second wave branches, the EDRMS team decided to temporarily hold off onboarding and examine the issues raised by branches to date to identify what must/can be addressed, recognizing the need for an enterprise solution for the Department. Wave 1 and 2 Information Management Leads were consulted in order to validate and clarify some of the issues raised. As well, they were asked to identify their top issues from a business perspective. An analysis is currently being conducted to determine a suitable way forward for the full implementation of an appropriate documents and records management solution. A revised plan was brought to the Corporate Management Committee and approved. The Department is targeting the fall to return to the Major Projects and Investments Board with a complete plan.

In 2015–16, ESDC continued to make important progress on the implementation of its privacy management priorities:

• strengthened planning and reporting on privacy to support ESDC’s annual privacy and information security workplan;
• management and coordination of Privacy Impact Assessments on new programs and activities;
• a refresh of the Department’s Program-Led Privacy Action Plans;
• development and update of information sharing arrangements; and
• privacy and security awareness activities for employees, including a Privacy Awareness Week and Data Privacy Day; and continued online and in-person privacy training and awareness activities.

ESDC is moving forward with the multi-year, integrated departmental security program, strengthening the protection of information holdings and aligning the government-wide and ESDC-specific security direction. In 2015–16, in addition to procuring and working with Shared Services Canada on IT Security Tools to assist operations, the security program focused on increasing communications, awareness and training, including phishing exercises, updating online courses for IT Security Essentials and initiating a proof of concept on the use of Gamification for an innovative approach to adult learning. The Department also updated its application risk management approach to the new Security Assessment and Authorization process and is integrating “Security by Design” approaches into the Branch’s System Development LifeCycle.

ESDC is advancing the development of an information service to collect employer payroll and employment data in real time. In January 2016, the project successfully obtained support to move into the concept initiation stage of work. ESDC established and led regular engagement with various stakeholders to communicate and refine the vision of ePayroll and incrementally develop the future state design. The initiative is presently in the opportunity identification phase.

For more information on organizational priorities, see the Ministers’ mandate letters.^{Footnote 4}