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CHAIRPERSON’S MESSAGE

I am pleased to present the 2010-2011 Departmental Performance Report (DPR) for the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (the Tribunal). The Tribunal’s mandate is to provide the fair, transparent, timely and effective disposition of international trade cases, government procurement review and other matters in various areas of the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.

In 2010-2011, the Tribunal issued decisions in more than 200 cases. Although the Tribunal experienced a decline in the number of new trade remedy cases, the activities relating to public procurement complaints and to appeals under the Customs Act, the Special Import Measures Act (SIMA) and the Excise Tax Act remained strong. In addition, the Tribunal exceeded its performance indicator for issuing appeal decisions within internal deadlines.

An improvement in global economic conditions, combined with government stimulus measures and consumer and business spending, allowed Canada to sustain and strengthen its recovery. Although the increase in trade remedy cases did not materialize to the extent initially anticipated, a significant amount of the supplementary funding received for 2010-2011 was used to manage the increase in workload in the appeal and procurement areas of the Tribunal’s mandate.

Despite the departure of the former Chairperson in October 2010, and the retirement of key senior staff within the organization, the Tribunal successfully delivered on its key priority identified for 2010-2011, which was the fair, timely and effective disposition of cases. As described in greater detail in this report, the Tribunal also completed several initiatives under three broad categories that had been targeted, i.e. investment in its people, sound management practices and improved service delivery. Several other undertakings worth mentioning included the progress made on the review of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal Rules (Rules), the successful implementation of electronic distribution of the official record for Tribunal cases, the development of a managerial leadership training curriculum and the drafting of internal procedure manuals for expiry review cases.

These initiatives have helped the Tribunal continue to be a key player in Canada’s trade remedy system by issuing fair, timely and transparent decisions. In doing so, the Tribunal continues to support the government priorities of strengthening the economy and enhancing its services to Canadians.

SECTION I—TRIBUNAL OVERVIEW

Raison D’être

Responsibilities

The Tribunal was established in December 1988 under the Canadian International Trade Tribunal Act (CITT Act). It acts as an independent, investigative and quasi-judicial decision-making body that reports to Parliament through the Minister of Finance. The Tribunal also derives authority from SIMA, the Customs Act and the Excise Tax Act. The Tribunal’s office is located in Ottawa, Ontario.

The Tribunal fulfils the following roles within the Government of Canada:

• inquires, under SIMA, into whether dumped or subsidized imports have caused, or are threatening to cause, injury to a domestic industry;
• inquires into complaints by potential suppliers concerning procurement by the federal government that is covered by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Agreement on Internal Trade (the AIT), the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (AGP), the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) and the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA);
• hears appeals from decisions of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) made under the Customs Act and SIMA and of the Minister of National Revenue under the Excise Tax Act;
• inquires into and provides advice on such economic, trade and tariff issues as are referred to the Tribunal by the Governor in Council or the Minister of Finance;
• investigates requests from Canadian producers for tariff relief on imported textile inputs used in their production operations and makes recommendations to the Minister of Finance on the requests; and
• undertakes safeguard inquiries into complaints by domestic producers that increased imports are causing, or threatening to cause, injury to domestic producers and, as directed, makes recommendations to the Government on an appropriate remedy.

Strategic Outcome and Program Activity Architecture

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Organizational Priorities

Priority Status Legend

Exceeded: More than 100 percent of the expected level of performance for the priority identified in the corresponding Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP) was achieved during the fiscal year.

Met All: 100 percent of the expected level of performance for the priority identified in the corresponding RPP was achieved during the fiscal year.

Mostly Met: 80 to 99 percent of the expected level of performance for the priority identified in the corresponding RPP was achieved during the fiscal year.

Somewhat Met: 60 to 79 percent of the expected level of performance for the priority identified in the corresponding RPP was achieved during the fiscal year.

Not Met: Less than 60 percent of the expected level of performance for the priority identified in the corresponding RPP was achieved during the fiscal year.

Priority	Type	Strategic Outcome
Process Cases Within Statutory Deadlines and Maintain Quality Standards	Ongoing	Fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases, procurement cases and government-mandated inquiries within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction
Status
Mostly Met (99 percent) The primary objective was to ensure that statutory deadlines were met and that the quality of the Tribunal’s findings, determinations and recommendations was kept to the highest standards. The Tribunal met the first aspect of this objective in all its cases, but one, where, in the initial phase of determining whether or not to accept a procurement complaint for inquiry, it missed a statutory deadline by a few days. The case, which had initially been assigned to the former Chairperson, had to be reassigned to another member, due to the former Chairperson’s immediate appointment to the Federal Court. Although the increase in new trade remedy cases did not materialize to the extent anticipated, a significant amount of additional funding that had been secured for 2010-2011 was used to manage the increased workload in the Tribunal’s appeal and procurement mandates.

Priority	Type	Strategic Outcome
Invest in Its People	Ongoing	Fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases, procurement cases and government-mandated inquiries within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction
Status
Met all The Tribunal uses a comprehensive approach to focus on professional development, in-house training material, succession planning and continuous learning to keep its employees’ skills current. In 2010-2011, the Tribunal’s investment in its people was as follows: The Tribunal had to cope with the retirement of some key staff, including the Director General of the Research Branch and the Information Technology (IT) Manager. These individuals had been with the Tribunal for many years and were an important source of knowledge and expertise. Proactive succession planning and hiring strategies helped to ensure a smooth transition, including the transfer of the necessary corporate knowledge to a new generation of employees. The Tribunal hired less staff than expected in 2010-2011, due to a less-than-anticipated volume of trade remedy cases. All staffing actions were completed in a timely manner. The Tribunal focused on both the training of new employees and the development of existing employees. As well, a leadership training curriculum was developed for current and potential managers with a view to retaining the Tribunal’s top management talent. Following consultations with its employees, the Tribunal successfully completed the first draft of its code of conduct. To recognize employee contributions to the organization and to foster commitment and excellence, the Tribunal held an awards and recognition ceremony in the fall of 2010. Among the award categories were the following: Outstanding Achievement and Dedication Award, Team Spirit Award, Leadership Award, and a Service and Innovation Award. The Tribunal drafted a procedure manual for expiry review cases to promote consistency and to assure knowledge transfer to its new employees.

Priority	Type	Strategic Outcome
Sound Management	Ongoing	Fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases, procurement cases and government-mandated inquiries within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction
Status
Met all Promoting transparency and supporting overall government-wide management accountability priorities, including the Management Accountability Framework (MAF) and the commitments introduced under the new Federal Accountability Act, continue to be priorities for the Tribunal. The projects undertaken in 2010-2011 included the following: The Tribunal continued to improve the efficiency and reliability of its IT infrastructure in 2010-2011 by renewing its servers in order to increase performance, stability, maintenance and the business continuity plan readiness of its network. The Tribunal finalized its implementation of the recommendations resulting from the 2008-2009 MAF final report. The implementation of the management action plan was completed in 2010-2011. An information management (IM) action plan was adopted in December 2010 for the creation, maintenance and disposition of the administrative record. In parallel, management decided to proceed with an evaluation of alternate IM platforms. In the first quarter of 2010-2011, the Tribunal finalized the integration of its IM tools relating to case tracking, case reporting and planning.

Priority	Type	Strategic Outcome
Improve Service Delivery	Ongoing	Fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases, procurement cases and government-mandated inquiries within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction
Status
Met all Continuous improvement in service delivery remained a priority for the Tribunal in 2010-2011. The improvements were as follows: The Tribunal continued the review of its Rules. Over the last fiscal year, the scope of the review included the rules of general application and the rules that cover the appeal and procurement areas of the Tribunal’s mandate. Once finalized, parties and counsel who appear before the Tribunal will greatly benefit from the review of its Rules, as they will streamline proceedings, reduce the paper burden imposed on parties, and increase efficiency and transparency while preserving fairness and the protection of confidential information. One of the initiatives that the Tribunal undertook was looking at ways of improving and facilitating access to the Tribunal’s record without compromising the protection of confidential information. In 2010-2011, the Tribunal successfully implemented the distribution of its voluminous record in SIMA cases using a secure USB key. This initiative allows counsel to access and search the Tribunal’s record easily, has made the Tribunal more environmentally friendly and has reduced operating costs. In order to improve efficiency in the conduct of its hearings and be able to display exhibits on the screen to counsel and witnesses, the Tribunal invested in new software features for the appeal area of its mandate and equipped its second hearing room with monitors.

Risk Analysis

Environmental Scan

In 2010-2011, the global economic recovery broadened and became more firmly entrenched. Global financial market conditions improved and commodity prices rebounded, although unemployment remained high in many countries.¹ The pace of the global recovery eased somewhat toward the end of the period, in part due to uncertainty surrounding sovereign debt issues in Europe, political uncertainty in North Africa and the after-effects of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.²

The global recovery progressed at varying speeds across regions, with many emerging and developing country economies experiencing strong growth, while most advanced economies experienced more moderate growth.³ In the United States, Canada’s largest trading partner, the recovery continued to be modest by historical standards. As of March 2011, concerns remained with respect to low consumer confidence, weak balance sheets for households and the financial sector, and high unemployment.⁴

The positive global economic conditions, combined with government stimulus and consumer and business spending, allowed Canada to sustain and strengthen its recovery.⁵ The Canadian economy expanded steadily over these 12 months, with the strongest growth occurring in the first quarter of 2011. Employment levels also recovered, as Canada posted the strongest employment growth of all G-7 countries since June 2009.⁶

In 2010-2011, the Tribunal received the second year of additional funding to cover an operating budget shortfall resulting from an expected post-recession increase in casework. Experience from prior recessions was that the number of trade remedy cases increased as the economy recovered. However, the Canadian economy grew more slowly in 2010-2011 than forecast when the additional funding was approved late in 2009-2010. As a result, the increase in trade remedy cases, the Tribunal’s most costly and resource-intensive type of case, did not occur as anticipated in 2010-2011.

Nonetheless, the workload in the other areas of the Tribunal’s mandate remained strong. Procurement continued to be an important line of work for the Tribunal as the economy recovered. Similarly, appeal cases remained at high levels, as Canadians and Canadian businesses attempted to employ cost-saving measures in a recovering economy.

As part of the 2010 federal budget, it was announced that departmental budgets would not be increased to fund the 1.5 percent increase in annual wages for the federal public administration.⁷ All departments, including the Tribunal, were asked to reallocate funds from the remainder of their operating budgets to fund these increases. The impact of this measure in 2010-2011 was minimal on the Tribunal’s budget but its compounded effect for the next two fiscal years is expected to increase.

The following three key risks were identified in the 2010-2011 RPP:

1. managing cases (issuing quality decisions within deadlines) during a sustained period of heavy workload while integrating new resources;

2. recruiting and training new staff and transferring corporate memory during a period of heavy workload; and

3. maintaining employee wellness in periods of heavy workload.

The fact that the Tribunal had lower-than-anticipated trade remedy cases helped to mitigate the risks identified in the 2010-2011 RPP. Subsequently, the Tribunal had to revise its human resources plan to adjust to the new caseload. Management also shifted priorities to allocate more resources to the appeal and procurement areas of the Tribunal’s mandate. Work-life balance and staff wellness were maintained, and employees were encouraged to participate in career development and training opportunities if possible.

Summary of Performance

The Tribunal’s financial and human resources had a direct impact on its ability to achieve its strategic outcome and deliver on its program activities. The following sections highlight the Tribunal’s performance and demonstrate linkages between resources and results.

2010-2011 Financial Resources ($ thousands)

Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending
11,941	12,211	10,922

During the 2010-2011 fiscal year, the Tribunal’s planned spending was $11.9 million. Through the Main Estimates and Supplementary Estimates, the Tribunal was allocated total authorities of $12.211 million, of which $1.79 million was additional funding from the Treasury Board Management Reserve. Actual spending for the Tribunal was almost $11 million.

2010-2011 Human Resources (FTE)

Planned	Actual	Difference
96	82	14

The Tribunal normally operates with 77 full-time equivalents (FTEs). Additional funding from the Treasury Board Management Reserve received during 2010-2011 allowed the Tribunal to increase its FTEs to 96. The actual FTEs for 2010-2011 were 82, an increase from 78 in 2009-2010. The variance of 14 FTEs from planned to actual human resources can be attributed to the lower-than-anticipated trade remedy cases.

Strategic Outcome 1: Fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases, procurement cases and government-mandated inquiries within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.

Performance Indicators	Targets	Performance Summary
Tribunal decisions overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal or international appeal bodies.	Not more than 2 percent of all decisions rendered over the most recent five-year period are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal or international appeal bodies.	Exceeded
Tribunal decisions overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal or international appeal bodies for reasons of “due process”.	Less than 1 percent of all decisions rendered are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal or international appeal bodies on judicial review dealing specifically with “due process”.	Exceeded
Tribunal notices, decisions and guidelines are accessible to the public.	All notices, decisions and guidelines for all areas of its mandate and practice notices are accessible to the public through the Tribunal’s Web site, the Canada Gazette and/or MERX (Canada’s electronic tendering service).	Met all
Decisions are issued within statutory deadlines.	All decisions are issued within statutory deadlines.	Mostly met
Appeal decisions are issued within internal deadlines.	Seventy percent of decisions on appeals are issued within internal deadlines.	Exceeded
Recommendations meet the terms of reference and provide requested information.	All recommendations and reports meet the terms of reference and provide requested information.	N/A
Reports, determinations and recommendations are published within Government-mandated deadlines.	All reports and recommendations to the Government or the Minister of Finance are published within the statutory deadlines.	N/A

Financial Resources by Program Activity ($ thousands)

Program Activity	Actual Spending 2009-20101	2010-2011				Alignment to Government of Canada Outcomes
		Main Estimates	Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending
Adjudication of Trade Cases (quasi-judicial role)	6,899	7,523	7,523	7,693	6,881	Fair and secure marketplace
General Economic Inquiries and References (advisory role)	110	119	119	122	109	Fair and secure marketplace
Total	7,009	7,642	7,642	7,815	6,990
1. Starting in the 2009-2010 Estimates cycle, the resources for Internal Services are displayed separately from other program activities; they are no longer distributed among the remaining program activities, as was the case in previous Main Estimates. This change affects the comparability of spending and FTE information by program activity between fiscal years.

Program Activity	2009-2010 Actual Spending	2010-2011
		Main Estimates	Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending
Internal Services	3,943	4,299	4,299	4,396	3,932

Expenditure Profile

Planned and Actual Spending ($ thousands)

	2007-2008	2008-2009	2009-2010	2010-2011
Main Estimates	10,682	10,152	9,530	11,941
Planned Spending	10,682	10,152	9,530	11,941
Total Authorities	10,980	11,009	11,277	12,211
Actual Spending	10,061	9,819	10,952	10,922

For the 2007-2008 to 2010-2011 period, total spending includes all parliamentary appropriation: Main Estimates, Supplementary Estimates and Treasury Board Vote 15, and carry-forward adjustments.

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The fluctuations in spending and planned spending since 2007-2008 can be explained by the following three events:

1. In 2008-2009, $702,000 was placed in a frozen allotment that was unavailable to the Tribunal, as a result of the 2007 Strategic Review. This explains the large variance between total authorities and actual spending.

2. In 2009-2010, in anticipation of additional cases due to the world economic downturn, more resources were allocated to the Tribunal to ensure the Tribunal could maintain its current level of service and would continue to deliver on its mandate. As a result, the Tribunal’s actual spending increased by more than $1.1 million compared to 2008-2009, while its total authorities increased by close to $0.3 million.

3. In 2010-2011, the lower-than-anticipated trade remedy caseload resulted in a variance of more than $1.2 million between the total authorities approved and actual spending.

Estimates by Vote

For information on the Tribunal’s organizational votes and/or statutory expenditures, please see the 2010-2011 Public Accounts of Canada (Volume II) publication. An electronic version of the Public Accounts is available at http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/recgen/txt/72-eng.html.

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