ARCHIVED - Public Service Staffing Tribunal

Authority and Objectives

The new Public Service Staffing Tribunal (PSST) has been established through the new Public Service Employment Act, and was enacted on November 20, 2003 by Order in Council 2003-1808. The PSST's mandate is to consider and dispose of complaints under the revised Public Service Employment Act regarding internal appointments, complaints regarding internal appointments revoked by the Deputy Head or the Public Service Commission (PSC) following a departmental or PSC investigation made at the request of a department or agency, and complaints from employees who have been notified that they will be laid off. The PSST also promotes a non-adversarial resolution of disputes by providing mediation services.

Significant Accounting Policies

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Treasury Board accounting policies which are consistent with Canadian generally accepted accounting principles for the public sector.

Siginificant accounting policies are as follows:

Parliamentary appropriation - The Tribunal is financed by the Government of Canada through Parliamentary appropriations. Appropriations provided to the Tribunal do not parallel financial reporting according to Canadian generally accepted accounting principles. Consequently, items recognized in the statement of operations and the statement of financial position are not necessarily the same as those provided through appropriations from Parliament. Note 3 provides a high-level reconciliation between the bases of reporting.

Net Cash Provided by Government – The Tribunal operates within the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), which is administered by the Receiver General for Canada. All cash received by the Tribunal is deposited to the CRF and all cash disbursements made by the Tribunal 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 federal government.

Change in net position in the Consolidated Revenue Fund is the difference between the net cash provided by Government and appropriations used in a year, excluding the amount of non respendable revenue recorded by the Tribunal. It results from timing differences between when a transaction affects appropriations and when it is processed through the CRF.

Revenues - Revenues are accounted for in the period in which the underlying transaction or event occurred that gave rise to the revenues.

Expenses - Expenses are recorded on the accrual basis:

• Vacation pay and compensatory leave are expensed as the benefits accrue to employees under their respective terms of employment.
• Services provided without charge by other government departments for accommodation, the employer’s contribution to the health and dental insurance plans and legal services are recorded as operating expenses at their estimated cost.

Employee future benefits

(i) Pension benefits: Eligible employees participate in the Public Service Pension Plan, a multiemployer plan administered by the Government of Canada. The Tribunal's contributions to the Plan are charged to expenses in the year incurred and represent the total obligation to the Plan. Current legislation does not require the Tribunal to make contributions for any actuarial deficiencies of the Plan.

(ii) Severance benefits: Employees are entitled to severance benefits under labour contracts or conditions of employment. These benefits are accrued as employees render the services necessary to earn them. The obligation relating to the benefits earned by employees is calculated using information derived from the results of the actuarially determined liability for employee severance benefits for the Government as a whole.

Receivables recorded by the Tribunal are from Other Government Departments. Recovery is considered certain and a provision has not been made.

Contingent Liabilities - In the normal course of its operations, the Tribunal may become involved in various legal actions. Some of these potential liabilities may become actual liabilities when one or more future events occur or fail to occur. To the extent that the future event is likely to occur or fail to occur, and a reasonable estimate of loss can be made, an estimated liability is accrued and an expense recorded. If the likelihood is not determinable or an amount cannot be reasonably estimated, the contingency is disclosed in the notes to the financial statements. The Tribunal has no contingent liabilities as at March 31, 2007.

Tangible capital assets - all tangible capital assets treated as capital assets under Public Sector Accounting Board Recommendations plus leasehold improvements having an initial cost of $3,000 or more are recorded at their acquisition cost. Capital assets do not include intangibles, works of art and historical treasures that have cultural, aesthetic or historical value, assets located on Indian Reserves and museum collections. Amortization of capital assets is done on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful life of the capital asset as follows:

Parliamentary Appropriations

The Tribunal receives its funding through annual Parliamentary appropriations. Items recognized in the statement of operations and the statement of financial position in one year may be funded through Parliamentary appropriations in prior, current or future years. Accordingly, the Tribunal 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:

Reconciliation of net cost of operations to current year appropriations used:
(in dollars)

Appropriations provided and used
(in dollars)

Reconciliation of net cash provided by Governement to current year appropriations used:
(in dollars)

Tangible Capital Assets
(in dollars)

Employee benefits

(a) Pension benefits: The Tribunal's employees participate in the Public Service Pension 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 Plans benefits and they are indexed to inflation.

Both the employees and the Tribunal contribute to the cost of the Plan. The 2006-07 expense amounts to $131,068 ($232,850 in 2005-06), which represents approximately 2.6 time the contributions by employees.

The Tribunal'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: The Tribunal provides severance benefits to its employees based on eligibility, years of service and final salary. These severance benefits are not pre-funded. Benefits will be paid from future appropriations. Information about the severance benefits, measured as at March 31, is as follows:

Related party transactions

The Tribunal is related as a result of common ownership to all Government of Canada departments, agencies, and Crown corporations. The Tribunal enters into transactions with these entities in the normal course of business and on normal trade terms. Also, during the year, the Tribunal received services which were obtained without charge from other Government departments as presented in part (a).

(a) Services provided without charge:

During the year the Tribunal received without charge from other departments, accommodation and the employer’s contribution to the health and dental insurance plans. These services without charge have been recognized in the Tribunal’s Statement of Operations as follows:

The Government has structured some of its administrative activities for efficiency and cost-effectiveness purposes so that one department performs these on behalf of all without charge. The costs of these services, which include payroll and cheque issuance services provided by Public Works and Government Services Canada are not included as an expense in the department’s Statement of Operations.