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The Parole Board of Canada, as part of the criminal justice system, contributes to the maintenance of a just, peaceful and safe society. In pursuing its mandate, the Board's work is grounded in two fundamental principles - a commitment to public safety and to operating in an open and accountable manner to the Canadian public that it serves.
In 2010-11, the Board demonstrated that it continues to meet its important mandate of delivering high-quality conditional release and pardon decisions and clemency recommendations, in support of the safe reintegration of offenders into the community. While following through on its identified plans and priorities, the PBC was also able to effectively support new government priorities in the areas of legislative change, as well as continue with efforts towards improving information services to victims of crime.
Continuing to operate under a challenging and shifting environment, the Board was able to achieve a number of initiatives during 2010-11. These included:
In terms of performance results, in 2010-11 the Board completed almost 17,000 conditional release reviews (federal and provincial offenders). Multi-year data continues to demonstrate that parole contributes to public safety: 94% of all parole releases do not result in a new offence, and 99% do not result in a new violent offence.
In addition, the Board received almost 32,000 new pardon applications, and began to significantly redesign its operations to bring them in line with new legislative requirements as a result of changes to the Criminal Records Act.
The Board also had more than 22,500 contacts with victims, more than 2,300 observers at its hearings, and released more than 5,700 decisions from its decision registry.
These results speak to the great dedication and commitment of our Board members and public service employees, and of our ability as an organization to adapt and innovate in response to our changing environment to ensure that we continue to foster safe and secure communities for Canadians.
Harvey Cenaiko
Chairperson, Parole Board of Canada
The Parole Board of Canada (PBC or "the Board")[1] is an agency within the Public Safety Portfolio, which also includes the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC).
The Board is an independent administrative tribunal that has exclusive authority under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to grant, deny, cancel, terminate or revoke day parole and full parole. The PBC may also order (on referral by CSC) that certain offenders be held in prison until the end of their sentence. This is called detention during the period of statutory release. In addition, the Board makes conditional release decisions for offenders in provinces and territories that do not have their own parole boards. Only the provinces of Ontario and Quebec currently have their own parole boards, which make parole decisions for offenders serving sentences of less than two years.
As well, the Board has extensive legislated responsibilities related to openness and accountability. This includes the provision of information and assistance to victims of crime, observers at hearings, access to the PBC's decision registry, and delivery of a program of public information.
The Board is also responsible for making decisions to grant, deny and revoke pardons under the Criminal Records Act (CRA) and the Criminal Code of Canada. A pardon is a formal attempt to remove the stigma of a criminal record for people who, having been convicted of an offence, have satisfied their sentence as well as a specified waiting period, and remained crime free. The Board also makes recommendations for the exercise of clemency through the Royal Prerogative of Mercy(RPM). The Governor General or the Governor in Council approves the use of the RPM for those convicted for a federal offence, following investigations by the Board, and recommendations from the Minister of Public Safety.
Outcomes of the PBC daily work can be found in the annual Performance Monitoring Reports. The report provides performance and statistical information for the past five years for the PBC's two legislatively based programs - conditional release and clemency and pardons.
The Parole Board of Canada, as part of the criminal justice system, makes independent, quality conditional release and pardon decisions and clemency recommendations. The Board contributes to the protection of society by facilitating, as appropriate, the timely integration of offenders as law-abiding citizens.
Our Mission provides clear direction and guidance to Board members and staff for the achievement of excellence in the field of corrections in general and in conditional release and pardons/clemency in particular. It provides guidance for today and a focus to meet the challenges of tomorrow. It also explains to offenders and ex-offenders, to our criminal justice partners, to interest groups, including victims, to Parliament and to the public, who we are, what we stand for, what we do and how we do it.
In making quality conditional release and pardon decisions, as well as recommendations in clemency cases, the Board's primary objective is the long term protection of society. Law-abiding behaviour can best be achieved by timely and supervised conditional release and the effective administration of sentences. During the course of rendering its decisions, the Board is autonomous and independent. However, it is accountable for its actions, by virtue of its guiding legislation, policies and internal framework. The Board is accountable to Parliament and ultimately, to all Canadians.
Achieving the mandate of the PBC is not easy. It involves the safeguarding of two of PBC's most precious values: public safety and personal freedom. "Making the Mission a Reality" therefore is a challenge that becomes the primary responsibility and obligation of all those associated with the Board.
The Mission of the PBC establishes four core values:
As an agency within the Public Safety Portfolio, the PBC works to advance the government's public safety priorities. The Board contributes to these priorities by making quality conditional release and pardon decisions and clemency recommendations that result in the safe reintegration of offenders in the community.
The Parole Board of Canada is an agency within the Public Safety Portfolio. The Board works in partnership with portfolio agencies in pursuit of priorities such as safer communities, but the PBC is unique in many ways. The PBC is headed by a Chairperson who reports to Parliament through Public Safety Canada. The Minister, however, does not have statutory authority to give direction to the Chairperson or other Board members of the PBC in the exercise of their decision-making powers. This structure helps to ensure the PBC's impartiality and the integrity of the parole decision-making process.
The Chairperson of the PBC is a full-time member of the Board and its chief executive officer. The Chairperson directs PBC's program delivery in keeping with government plans and priorities, reports to Parliament through the Minister of Public Safety on the fulfillment of the Board's mandate and is accountable for the effectiveness and efficiency of PBC policy and operations. The Chairperson is assisted in these responsibilities by the Executive Vice-Chairperson, the Vice-Chairperson of the Appeal Division, and the Board's five regional vice-chairpersons. The Executive Director General of the Board is its senior staff member and chief operating officer. The Executive Director General, in support of the Chairperson, provides leadership for strategic and operational planning, resource management, performance measurement and administration as well as operation of the national office and the regions.
Organization Chart
The Board carries out its responsibilities through its national office in Ottawa, as well as five regional offices across the country (Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies, and Pacific).
PBC Locations
Conditional release decisions are made by Board members in the regions. Board members are supported by staff that schedule hearings, provide information for decision-making, ensure that information for decision-making is shared with offenders, and communicate conditional release decisions to the offender, CSC representatives and others as required. Regional staff also provide information to victims, make arrangements for observers at hearings, and manage requests for access to the Board's decision registry.
At the national office, Board members make pardon decisions and decisions related to the appeal of conditional release decisions. Staff at the national office deliver the pardons and clemency program; develop conditional release and pardon policy; coordinate Board member training; and deliver a program of public information. As well, the national office provides leadership for policy, strategic and operational planning, resource management, performance monitoring, case reviews and investigations, appeals and an array of internal services.
Consistent with the provisions of the Acts that govern the PBC, Board members are independent in their decision-making responsibilities, and free from interference of any type. As independent decision-makers, Board members are guided by legislation and policy and are responsible for:
The Parole Board of Canada's Strategic Outcome and Program Activity Architecture (PAA), reflect the key aspects of the PBC's legislated responsibilities for conditional release and pardons/clemency, and represent the areas of accountability and performance in which the public and Parliamentarians most frequently express interest. In this context, the Board's strategic outcome is the cornerstone of its public accountability. The PAA includes a single outcome and four program activities.
The following chart illustrates the PBC's complete framework of program activities and program elements, which roll up and contribute to the PBC's single strategic outcome:
The following identifies the key priorities for the PBC during 2010-11, links them to the Board's strategic outcome and program activities and explains how these priorities contributed to progress made toward the strategic outcome.
Priority | Type | Performance Status | Links to Strategic Outcome and/or Program Activity(ies) |
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Effectively fulfilling legislative responsibilities related to quality conditional release decision-making | Ongoing | Overall Status: Met All |
Strategic Outcome:
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Effectively fulfilling legislative responsibilities related to open and accountable conditional release processes | Ongoing | Overall Status: Met All |
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Effectively fulfilling legislative responsibilities related to the processing of pardon applications | Ongoing | Overall Status: Met All |
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Strengthening stakeholder and community partnerships | Ongoing | Overall Status: Met All |
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Improving information services for victims | Ongoing | Overall Status: Met All |
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Pursuing strategic excellence in PBC governance | Ongoing | Overall Status: Met All |
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Investing in our people | Ongoing | Overall Status: Met All |
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The PBC works in a challenging environment that demands effective alignment to the Government of Canada's outcome of a safe and secure Canada, and careful assessment of criminal justice issues and community concerns. The Board is expected to rigorously pursue innovation and improvements to meet heavy workload pressures, within the current resource allocation. Public safety remains the Board's primary consideration in all aspects of decision-making policy, training, and operations.
The Board delivers on two statutory responsibilities: conditional release; and pardons and clemency. The PBC also manages a range of internal services that provide critical support for program delivery. The conditional release area is the most complex and accounts for 86% of annual program expenditures (including conditional release and openness and accountability). Program delivery is labour-intensive, with salary costs accounting for approximately 86% of yearly program expenditures. Most of the remaining expenditures cover essential operating costs, such as travel to parole hearings.
Conditional Release
The PBC workloads are shaped by factors beyond its control. Legislation governing the Board (the CCRA) is prescriptive, specifying when and how the Board conducts its business (e.g., when a review is required by law, and when to use hearings). In addition, workloads are driven by the actions of offenders, victims and the community. In concrete terms, this means that the PBC must deal with high workload volumes (i.e., almost 17,000 conditional release reviews for federal and provincial offenders in 2010-11), involving critical issues of public safety, under tight timeframes, amid intense public scrutiny.
The Board must also continue to strengthen its capacity for quality conditional release decision-making to ensure that it responds to recent legislative changes. It must also respond to an increasingly challenging program environment characterized by a higher percentage of offenders with shorter sentences (i.e., sentences between 2-3 years in length), an increasingly difficult federal offender population (e.g., characterized by longer criminal histories, greater prevalence of violence, more gang affiliations, more serious substance abuse problems, and more serious mental health issues), and the growing diversity of the offender population.
The growing diversity in the offender population, as reflected in the continued over-representation of Aboriginal people and the growing numbers of offenders from diverse ethno-racial communities, demand that the Board continue to ensure policies, training and decision processes are reflective of present and future realities. Decision processes such as Elder-assisted hearings for Aboriginal offenders exemplify the PBC's efforts in this area.
The openness and accountability provisions of the CCRA continue to present important challenges for the Board with respect to:
Workloads in these areas have grown exponentially since the introduction of the CCRA in 1992. In 2010-11 for example, the Board had more than 22,500 contacts with victims, over 2,300 observers at hearings, and released more than 5,700 decisions from the decision registry. As with conditional release decision-making, the need for quality program delivery in this area is critical, given its implications for public confidence in corrections and conditional release. Ongoing public scrutiny and media interest in this area make program effectiveness crucial.
The Government is in the process of implementing its plan to tackle crime and strengthen community safety, including measures for reform of sentencing, corrections and conditional release. Effective support for these measures continues to be a focal point for the Board. The Board must manage the workload and cost implications of legislative amendments.
Pardons and Clemency
Recent legislative amendments to the CRA have led to process changes within the pardon program.
On June 29, 2010, Bill C-23A "Limiting Pardons for Serious Crimes Act" came into force, amending the CRA to:
These legislative amendments significantly changed the operations of the Pardons program. Board staff are now required to obtain additional information from applicants, and research and investigate cases that include more in-depth inquiries with criminal justice partners. In addition, Board members require additional time to review cases and to make decisions.
Furthermore, the lengthening of the eligibility period for certain offences as a result of the amendments to the CRA has had direct implications for the Board's Clemency unit. In past years the Clemency Unit typically handled approximately 20 applications a year. Currently, the Unit is managing in excess of 50 active files and dealing with an increase in inquiries as a result of the new legislation. This has led to delays in processing requests for clemency under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy (RPM).
In order to ensure the program can continue to be delivered effectively without affecting budgets devoted to the Board's conditional release program, the Board is seeking to implement a cost-recovery model for the processing of pardon applications.
Strategic Resource Management
The Board must continue to address the need for strategic management of human, financial, information and technology resources to support quality program delivery. The PBC is committed to ensuring a strong, diverse and dynamic workforce that excels in delivering the Board's mandate to Canadians, today and in the years to come.
The Board's human resource challenge has two dimensions:
The first challenge involves Board members who are Governor-in-Council appointments. The CCRA specifies that the Board will comprise no more than 45 full-time members. The Act also provides for the appointment of part-time members to help manage conditional release decision-making workloads. Board members are usually appointed for three year terms. Each year, decision-making workloads require the use of significant numbers of part-time Board members (over the last five years the number has fluctuated between 20 to 25 full-time equivalents). Maintaining sufficient numbers of experienced Board members is a challenge because of the specified terms of appointment. The PBC must also deal with the reality that, following an initial orientation period of five weeks, newly appointed Board members still require three to six months of additional training and mentoring before they can manage the full scope of their decision-making responsibilities. In this context, the Board must ensure that it recruits sufficient numbers of qualified candidates for consideration for appointment as Board members, and provides effective ongoing training to ensure that Board members have the knowledge they need to apply PBC policies and assess risk in decision-making.
The Board faces another challenge with respect to succession planning with regard to its public service staff. Departures of experienced staff erode corporate memory and diminish critical knowledge of the law, policy, and training. The impact of this is especially acute in a small organization. Board staff provide the continuity of knowledge and information essential for quality program delivery. For this reason, development of an effective human resource plan for dealing with staff turnover is essential.
Timely access to relevant information provides the foundation for quality conditional release and pardon decision-making and ultimately for the Board's continuing contribution to public safety. In addition, the Board must deal with legislated responsibilities for sharing appropriate information with victims of crime, offenders, other criminal justice agencies, and the public. In this environment, strategic information management is crucial, requiring the Board to have the automated systems necessary to support effective collection, storage and sharing of information. Additionally the Board must have in place the policies and procedures necessary to ensure effective information management. Progress in these areas will require the assistance of the CSC who is the Board's information technology service provider.
In April 2007, the Commissioner of the CSC and the Chairperson of the Board entered into a Master Service Agreement (MSA) for the provision of IT services at the PBC. CSC agreed to provide future IT services to the PBC in exchange for the transfer of all PBC IT resources (human, financial and physical) to CSC. CSC is responsible for maintaining PBC's IT systems, infrastructure, business applications and corporate applications.
Strategic management of financial resources will also present important challenges. For the foreseeable future, the Board will face complex and growing workload pressures in areas of legislated responsibility. There is also a growing need to address Treasury Board and Public Service Commission monitoring and accountability mechanisms. The Board's resource capacity could be constrained by the need to address these new priorities in a period of restraint in which the focus of the federal government will be on efforts to stimulate economic recovery.
2010-11 Financial Resources ($ thousands)
Planned Spending | Total Authorities | Actual Spending |
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46,407 | 49,665 | 45,995 |
2010-11 Human Resources (full-time equivalent - FTEs)
Planned | Actual | Difference |
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472 | 438 | 34 |
The following tables report back on the indicators and targets from the 2010-11 Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP) to provide information on whether progress on the Board's strategic outcome was achieved as planned.
Performance Summary Tables
Table 1
Strategic Outcome: Conditional release and pardon decisions and decision processes that safeguard Canadian communities | ||
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Performance Indicators | Targets | 2010-11 Performance |
The percentage of parole releases that did not result in a new conviction | Zero (0) re-offending by parolees prior to warrant expiry | 97% of offenders who completed a parole supervision period in 2010-11 did not commit a new offence prior to warrant expiry. |
The percentage of pardon recipients who have not had their pardon revoked | 96% of all pardons awarded remain in force | Since the inception of the pardon program, 96% of pardons awarded have remained in force. |
The percentage of victims who express satisfaction with the information and assistance they receive from the PBC | 90% rate of client satisfaction[2] | In a victim's questionnaire conducted in 2009-10, 11% of respondents said that they were not satisfied with the services they received. |
Table 2
Program Activity | 2009-10 Actual Spending | 2010-11 ($ thousands) | Alignment to Government of Canada Outcomes | |||
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Main Estimates | Planned Spending | Total Authorities | Actual Spending | |||
Conditional Release Decisions | 33,101 | 33,887 | 33,887 | 36,305 | 33,780 | Safe and secure Canada |
Conditional Release Openness and Accountability | 6,973 | 6,071 | 6,071 | 6,537 | 5,693 | Safe and secure Canada |
Pardon Decisions /Clemency Recommendations | 1,429 | 1,449 | 1,449 | 1,853[3] | 2,095[4] | Safe and secure Canada |
Internal Services | 4,675 | 5,000 | 5,000 | 4,970 | 4,427 | |
Total Planned Spending | 46,178 | 46,407 | 46,407 | 49,665 | 45,995 |
In 2010-11, the Board's total authorities, consisting of Main Estimates, subsequent to Supplementary Estimates funding, were $49.7M. This consisted of $43.9 of operating resources and $5.8M for the Employee Benefit Plan (EBP).
Actual expenditures were $45.9M and resulted in a reported Public Accounts lapse of $3.7M. This lapse included $1.7M of frozen allotments that the Board could not spend, therefore resulting in a real lapse of $2.0M. The $2.0M lapse or approximately 4.0% of total authorities indicates that the Board was able to manage its resources successfully for 2010-11.
The Board applied its resources to the four following program areas: Conditional Release Decisions, Conditional Release Openness and Accountability, Pardon Decisions/Clemency Recommendations and Internal Services.
For information on our organizational votes and/or statutory expenditures, please see the 2010-11 Public Accounts of Canada (Volume II) publication. An electronic version of the Public Accounts is available on the Public Works and Government Services Canada website[5].