IRCC Minister Transition Binder 2023: Logistics and Reference Information
Overview
This presentation will provide you with logistical and reference information to assist you with gaining a high-level understanding of key corporate services and responsibilities:
- Security: Practices and protocols
- Corporate Services: Services available to you and your office
- Access to Information and Privacy: Overview of the acts and recent statistics
- Proactive Disclosure: New requirements and progress to date
- Managing information: Duty to maintain records
- Financial Authorities: Delegation of Spending and Financial Authorities requirements
- Governor in Council Appointments: Roles and responsibilities
Security: Safeguards in Place For Your Safety
IRCC Corporate Security and the RCMP
There are a number of security protocols in place to ensure your security. An in-person briefing on these measures will be held soon after your arrival.
IRCC Corporate Security coordinates with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Protective Services on security matters. This requires sharing your agenda and travel schedule with IRCC Corporate Security in a timely manner.
- Threat and risk assessments (TRAs) are conducted by the RCMP in collaboration with law enforcement agencies, on your behalf, with regard to all domestic and international activities and public invitations.
- TRAs of your residence(s) are conducted by IRCC Corporate Security within the first 90 days of you taking office.
- A TRA of your constituency office is also completed in collaboration with House of Commons Security.
- Classified information addressed to you, including special access documents, are received, distributed and accounted for by IRCC Corporate Security.
- IRCC Corporate Security will provide security awareness sessions for your staff on request.
Corporate Services at Your Disposal…
DMO-21
The Deputy Minister’s Office has a dedicated executive and a team of departmental resources to support you in all day-to-day operations and in your key interactions with the Department. Led by the Departmental Assistant, DMO-21 is comprised of three teams:
Advisors – your first stop for policy and program needs
Corporate Services – your dedicated resource for issues related to human resources, finance, security, IT and accommodations
Travel and Protocol Services Unit (TPS) – your support for all requests related to meetings with stakeholders, as well as international and domestic engagements
Briefings Unit
To ensure high quality briefing products, the team coordinates, edits and packages all briefing materials provided to you by the Department. This includes memoranda for your information, decision or approval, as well as briefing binders to support you for meetings, events, trips, and parliamentary committee appearances.
Parliamentary Affairs Unit
A multiservice team at your disposal through regular consultation on all parliamentary-related issues, including strategic advice on committee appearances, debates, the legislative process, tabling information in Parliament, as well as other parliamentary processes.
Logistics and Reference
- During the FY 2022-2023, IRCC responded to 230 parliamentary returns and appeared at 29 committee meetings.
- Last year, the Briefings Unit reviewed 389 memoranda addressed to the Minister.
- The Briefings Unit produced in FY 2022-202 80zm l,l l3 149 binders.
Corporate services at your disposal cont’d…
Ministerial Enquiries Division (MED) – Ministerial Correspondence
Receives, triages, records and responds to correspondence addressed to you.
Provides statistical reports on correspondence volumes, trends, and service standard adherence rates.
About 1% of responses (nearly 400 last year) are drafted in close collaboration with key areas of expertise throughout the Department for your consideration and signature. These are VIP correspondents, including elected officials at all levels, foreign governments, stakeholders, partners, and your constituents.
Logistics and Reference
MED provides 99% of the answers sent directly to clients and correspondents (more than 35,000 last year). The majority of these are case enquires from IRCC clients.
Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP)
Access to Information Act :
Provides access to corporate records (e.g., memoranda, briefing notes, reports, etc.)
- In 2021-2022, IRCC received over 204,000 ATIP requests, which represents 64% of all ATIP requests to the Government of Canada.
- IRCC’s ATIP volumes far exceed those of any other government department, both for requests received (over 200K a year) and files closed (170K).
- The majority (99%) of IRCC's ATIP requests are from applicants seeking their immigration record information. Departmental initiatives are underway to improve the availability of client immigration information, which are in turn anticipated to alleviate undue pressure on the broader access to information regime.
Privacy Act:
Provides individuals access to their own personal information.
- IRCC is consistently in the top 3 federal institutions with the most personal information year after year.
- Privacy breaches at IRCC have increased considerably. In 2021-2022, we had 33% of all GOC, breaches. Just last fiscal year (2022-2023), IRCC reported over 8000 breaches of personal information and forecasts show a similar trend for this fiscal.
The Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) are responsible for overseeing compliance with the Acts.
IRCC has collaborative working relationships with both the OIC and the OPC.
Logistics and Reference
Areas of focus:
- Focusing on reducing the ATIP backlog
- ATIP is identifying processes whereby requesters can obtain information outside of the access to information system
- Developed a Privacy Policy Suite to help employees understand how to approach privacy, report a privacy breach and manage personal information
Proactive Disclosure
Since 2019, all federal departments must publish the following materials online:
- Titles of briefing notes and memoranda to ministers and deputy ministers (monthly)
- All Question Period notes prepared for ministers (30 days after the last sitting day in June and December)
- Transition and parliamentary committee appearance binders prepared for ministers and deputy ministers (120 days after appointment/appearance)
- All ministers’ office contracts and amendments over $10K
Departments must also proactively publish other components according to timelines:
- Disclosure of travel and hospitality expenses for all Minister’s Office staff and senior management of the Department (monthly)
- Annual report of all expenses incurred by a Minister’s Office (within 120 days after fiscal year end)
Logistics and Reference
- Names and titles of ministerial staff are not considered personal information and will be disclosed through access to information requests
Managing Information
Electronic Documents
- Electronic documents up to Protected B level must be saved in GCdocs under the appropriate folder.
Classified And Designated Information
- Information must be handled, protected and secured according to its designation or classification.
- Information Security Guide
MS teams
- All conversations are deleted after 24H.
- All decisions captured in a conversation must be transferred to GCdocs.
- Protected B if everybody is using an IRCC device. If not, conversation must remain unclassified.
- Save information into GCdocs from Collaborative Tools
Paper Documents
- Paper documents should be segregated in different cabinets according to the category of information and their designation or classification.
ATIP & Litigation
- Before disposing of information be aware of ongoing legal holds and ATIP requests.
Personal Email Address
- Do not use your personal email address to conduct IRCC business activities.
For more information on Managing Information in the Minister’s Office, click here
Financial Authorities
Immediate requirements
As per the Treasury Board Directive on Delegation of Spending and Financial Authorities requirements, we will send you the Departmental Delegation of Spending and Financial Authorities Instrument within 90 calendar days of your appointment for your approval.
- The appointment of a new Minister does not nullify existing authorities.
- Responsibility for the budgetary control and spending of public money is placed on Ministers and Deputy Ministers by Parliament through Appropriation Acts, the Financial Administration Act, and Financial Administration Act Regulations.
- All expenditures incurred for the Department must be approved in accordance with the Financial Administration Act.
Governor in Council Appointments
Appointment Requirements
An open, transparent, and merit-based selection process for Governor in Council appointments was established in February 2016.
The process supports ministers in making appointment recommendations of high-quality candidates who reflect Canada’s diversity for positions within their portfolio.
As a Member of the Queen’s Privy Council of Canada and responsible Minister, you will be asked to recommend to Cabinet Governor in Council appointments for two organizations under your portfolio:
- The Immigration and Refugee Board; and,
- Citizenship Judges.
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