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Section IV: Other Items of Interest

Strengthen Internal Management Practices

One of PCO’s four priorities for 2007-2008 was to strengthen internal management practices. As mentioned in Section I, Overall Departmental Performance, two specific commitments for improvement were identified. The status of performance for this priority needs to be rated as “ongoing” because of the long-term, evolving nature of both the Human Resources and Emergency Management plans.

1. Implement a new human resources plan for PCO

PCO promoted linguistic duality and during 2007-2008 nominated an Official Languages Champion and elaborated a new accountability framework on official languages that clearly sets out official languages roles and responsibilities for various levels of management and employees at PCO. It also provides performance indicators to support and guide staff in meeting official languages requirements.

An Employment Equity Action Plan was developed for 2008-2011, which includes recommendations from the Employment Systems Review to overcome barriers to the employment of designated groups. PCO is revising its approach to self identification to ensure that representation of Employment Equity- (EE) designated groups at PCO are captured accurately and effectively. The Career on the Move Program, a PCO national career development program open to EE-designated group members, launched its third intake. An EE Champion supported activities of the Employment Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee, which met once a month. Executive Performance Agreements included EE and diversity as key commitments under the People Management Competency.

A succession planning exercise was undertaken for executive positions and some critical positions, and PCO participated in the Assistant Deputy Ministers Talent Management initiative developed by the Canada Public Service Agency. An Exit Interview Program was implemented to collect valuable information from employees leaving the organization and to understand some of the organization’s underlying workplace issues in order to help facilitate improvements. An administrative support community action plan, which included a number of strategies to address recruitment, training and development issues affecting this community, was developed and implemented.

To support the renewal initiative, PCO sponsored 14 Accelerated Economist Training Program (AETP) participants and five Management Trainee Program participants. PCO bridged three Federal Student Workplace Employment Program participants, and offered indeterminate positions to two AETP participants and one graduate from the Policy Leader Program. The corporate services community participated in various recruitment campaigns to address shortage areas. An inventory of the analyst and executive communities is part of a strategy to address shortage areas, as well as to provide a unique development opportunity.

To stabilize the administrative support community, several initiatives were implemented, including conducting frequent collective staffing processes at the AS-01 and AS-02 levels, and increasing the use of prequalified pools.

Investment in people and leadership through training and development were established through a number of activities for four communities. For example, a leadership seminar series on core leadership competencies was developed for the EX community. A number of activities were put forward for the administrative support community, such as a special orientation session and a web tool to help access information quickly. For the analyst community, an orientation session for new analysts was developed and support was provided for the Young Professionals Network to develop a number of activities. For the corporate services community, a full analysis of training and development needs was undertaken.

2. Strengthen emergency management and business continuity planning

In June of 2007, a dedicated project team was established to fast-track progress in strengthening emergency management and business continuity planning in PCO. This work was undertaken to ensure the ongoing safety and security of employees; the confidentiality, integrity and availability of sensitive information; the sustainable protection of valued assets; and ultimately to ensure that PCO can continue to perform its critical functions in support of the effective functioning of Cabinet and its committees.  An in-depth analysis was launched to determine threats, risks and areas of priority.  Concurrently, various initiatives were undertaken.

Departmental contingency plans were developed to address two scenarios: the first is a plan to respond to a localized or widespread electrical blackout; and the second plan is to respond to varying levels of severity in the case of an influenza pandemic. The influenza pandemic plan was further validated through the development and execution of an exercise to test the plan and additional exercises are under development.

A network of business continuity planners throughout the organization challenged and updated business continuity plans using a standardized approach and the feasibility of an automated tool is currently under review.

Workplace emergency evacuation plans for several buildings occupied by PCO staff were updated and refreshed and training was provided for fire wardens. Emergency telephone numbers were also established and communicated to all staff so that in cases of emergency, messages can be accessed for up-to-date information and direction.

PCO also worked in close collaboration with Public Safety Canada and other institutions to coordinate common or complementary strategies for government-wide emergency management and business continuity plans.

Integrated Business and Human Resources Plan

This plan forms the framework to enable the recruitment and retention of people needed to meet PCO’s business requirements and drives employee development and succession plans. In a knowledge organization such as PCO, this is crucial. It also captures the related infrastructure requirements, such as accommodations and technology, to support the organization. The Integrated Business and Human Resources plan will evolve and mature over time.

State of management at PCO, based on the Management Accountability Framework

This year’s observations by the Treasury Board Portfolio (TBP) on the state of management at the Privy Council Office, based on the Management Accountability Framework (MAF), were generally positive. In total, for the 20 indicators against which the department was assessed, it received two “strong” ratings, 15 “acceptable” ratings, three “opportunity for improvement” ratings, and no “attention required” ratings. Compared to the 2006 MAF assessment, PCO had four higher ratings (noted below) and one rating that was lower (organizational change management – strong to acceptable). TBP noted that PCO undertook several management initiatives including developing an Integrated Business Plan, amending its Program Activity Architecture, developing a Performance Measurement Framework and Governance Structure, and completing a Strategic Human Resources Plan.

The Treasury Board Portfolio recognized PCO for its work to improve management in a number of areas since last year, including:

• Effectiveness of corporate risk management
• Effectiveness of information management
• Quality of reporting to Parliament
• Effectiveness of internal audit

At the same time, it recommended that PCO continue to improve management in the following areas:

• Effectiveness of the internal audit function
• Quality and use of evaluation
• Effective management of security and business continuity

Using the TBP assessment, as well as information from a variety of other sources (e.g. RPP, Corporate Risk Profile, environmental scans, etc.), management improvement priorities that have been identified by the Executive Committee for PCO for the next few years include: emergency preparedness and business continuity; risk-based Integrated Human Resources and Business Planning; audit and evaluation; and quality reporting to Parliament, including finalization of the Performance Measurement Framework.

Legislation Administered

Prime Minister

President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada

Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Leader of the Government in the Senate

Further Information

Information related to Access to Information Act, Privacy Act, Canada Evidence Act

Access to Information Act

69. (1) This Act does not apply to confidences of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, including, without restricting the generality of the foregoing:
(a) memoranda, the purpose of which is to present proposals or recommendations to Council;
(b) discussion papers, the purpose of which is to present background explanations, analyses of problems or policy options to Council for consideration by Council in making decisions;
(c) agenda of Council or records recording deliberations or decisions of Council;
(d) records used for or reflecting communications or discussions between ministers of the Crown on matters relating to the making of government decisions or the formulation of government policy;
(e) records the purpose of which is to brief ministers of the Crown in relation to matters that are before, or are proposed to be brought before, Council or that are the subject of communications or discussions referred to in paragraph (d);
(f) draft legislation; and
(g) records, that contain information about the contents of any record within a class of records referred to in paragraphs (a) to (f).

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), Council means the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, committees of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, Cabinet and committees of Cabinet.

(3) Subsection (1) does not apply to
(a) confidences of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada that have been in existence for more than twenty years; or
(b) discussion papers described in paragraph (1)(b)
(i) if the decisions to which the discussion papers relate have been made public, or
(ii) where the decisions have not been made public, if four years have passed since the decisions were made.
Access to Information Act, 1980-81-82-83, c. 111, Sch. I, s. 1; R.S.C. 1985, c. A-1, s. 69.

Privacy Act

70. (1) This Act does not apply to confidences of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, including, without restricting the generality of the foregoing, any information contained in
(a) memoranda, the purpose of which is to present proposals or recommendations to Council;
(b) discussion papers, the purpose of which is to present background explanations, analyses of problems or policy options to Council for consideration by Council in making decisions;
(c) agenda of Council or records recording deliberations or decisions of Council;
(d) records used for or reflecting communications or discussions between ministers of the Crown on matters relating to the making of government decisions or the formulation of government policy;
(e) records, the purpose of which is to brief ministers of the Crown in relation to matters that are before, or are proposed to be brought before, Council or that are the subject of communications or discussions referred to in paragraph (d); and
(f) draft legislation.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), Council means the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, committees of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, Cabinet and committees of Cabinet.

(3) Subsection (1) does not apply to
(a) confidences of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada that have been in existence for more than twenty years; or
(b) discussion papers described in paragraph (1)(b)
(i) if the decisions to which the discussion papers relate have been made public, or
(ii) where the decisions have not been made public, if four years have passed since the decisions were made.

Privacy Act, 1980-81-82-83, c. 111, Sch. II, s. 1; R.S.C. 1985, c. P-21, s. 70.

Canada Evidence Act

39. (1) Where a minister of the Crown or the Clerk of the Privy Council objects to the disclosure of information before a court, person or body with jurisdiction to compel the production of information by certifying in writing that the information constitutes a confidence of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, disclosure of the information shall be refused without examination or hearing of the information by the court, person or body.

(2) For the purpose of subsection (1), a confidence of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada includes, without restricting the generality thereof, information contained in
(a) a memorandum, the purpose of which is to present proposals or recommendations to Council;
(b) a discussion paper, the purpose of which is to present background explanations, analyses of problems or policy options to Council for consideration by Council in making decisions;
(c) an agendum of Council or a record recording deliberations or decisions of Council;
(d) a record used for or reflecting communications or discussions between ministers of the Crown on matters relating to the making of government decisions or the formulation of government policy;
(e) a record, the purpose of which is to brief Ministers of the Crown in relation to matters that are brought before, or are proposed to be brought before, Council or that are the subject of communications or discussions referred to in paragraph (d); and
(f) draft legislation.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), Council means the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, committees of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, Cabinet and committees of Cabinet.

(4) Subsection (1) does not apply in respect of
(a) a confidence of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada that has been in existence for more than twenty years; or
(b) a discussion paper described in paragraph (2)(b)
(i) if the decisions to which the discussion paper relates have been made public, or (ii) where the decisions have not been made public, if four years have passed since the decisions were made.
Canada Evidence Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-5, s. 39.

1. Statistics Canada. Canada’s Ethnocultural Mosaic, 2006 Census, and Statistics Canada. The Daily, Monday, September 10, 2007.
2. PCO’s key role in many cases is to provide advice and support to the Prime Minister, ministers in his portfolio and Cabinet. Despite extensive efforts over the past few years, PCO is challenged to find meaningful and useful qualitative and quantitative measures of this work. Therefore, quantitative measures have been developed to serve as a proxy, with the full understanding of their limitations, one of the key ones being that they cannot alone demonstrate the complexity of the analysis and research necessary to achieve the goals nor the scope or range of the different activities. However, the value of these quantitative measures to the managers in PCO is that within one area (e.g. machinery of government, legislation or social policy) they can be used to show the trends in volume of activity, and explanations of the variances can help determine what action may be required.
3. Orders in Council are legal instruments made by the Governor in Council pursuant to a statutory authority or, less frequently, the royal prerogative. All Orders in Council are made on the recommendation of the responsible Minister of the Crown and take legal effect only when signed by the Governor General. (Orders in Council include appointments, regulations, statutory instruments and other orders, e.g. orders for international agreements, coming into force date of legislation, official Government responses and granting of citizenship.) The total number of approved Orders in Council reported as part of last year’s DPR report (2006-2007) was reported on a calendar-year basis. Therefore, the previously reported figure of 1,634 (calendar year) is replaced with the above listed figure of 1,956 for the fiscal year 2006-2007.
4. Please refer to Section IV for more information on s. 69 of the Access to Information Act and s. 70 of the Privacy Act.
5. Please refer to Section IV for more information on s. 39 of the Canada Evidence Act.
6. A Governor-in-Council (GIC) appointment is one made by the Governor General, on the advice of the Queen’s Privy Council of Canada (i.e. the Cabinet). The appointments are made through an Order in Council and range from heads of agencies and chief executive officers of Crown corporations to members of quasi-judicial tribunals.

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