ARCHIVED - Canada's Performance Report 2008-09: The Government of Canada's Contribution

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1 - Overview

Accountability is at the heart of Canada's system of responsible government. It is the key to assuring Parliament—and, thereby, all Canadians—that the Government of Canada is using public resources efficiently and effectively. Accountability systems and structures ensure that the government is answerable for its actions.

Each year, federal departments and agencies submit departmental performance reports (DPR) summarizing their results in meeting the objectives outlined in their reports on plans and priorities (RPP). These two documents strengthen departmental accountability to Parliament by establishing a clear link between commitments and the progress made in delivering on them.

Canada's Performance 2008–09 is the ninth annual report to Parliament on the federal government's contribution to Canada's performance as a nation. As a companion piece to the collection of 92 individual DPRs for 2008–09, Canada's Performance aims to give parliamentarians and Canadians:

• a high-level overview of departments' and agencies' annual achievements;
• an understanding of how the performance of individual departments and agencies contributes to broader, government-wide outcomes in four spending areas: economic affairs, social affairs, international affairs, and government affairs; and
• a whole-of-government summary of planned and actual spending.

While the focus of this year's report is on government performance during 2008–09 in relation to the annual performance plans of federal organizations, the report also addresses the important action that was taken in Budget 2009: Canada's Economic Action Plan to deal with the worst economic downturn Canada has experienced since the 1930s. Accordingly, measures contained in the Plan are identified throughout Canada's Performance. Next year's report will provide further details on the early results achieved through implementation of the Economic Action Plan. Quarterly reports^[1] to Canadians on the Plan's implementation are also available on the Department of Finance Canada website.

The electronic version of Canada's Performance can be found on the Government of Canada Planning and Performance Gateway,^[2] which serves as an online road map to the spending, planning, and performance information contained in DPRs and RPPs.

The whole-of-government framework

Serving as a guide to the 92 federal DPRs, this report is organized according to a whole-of-government framework that helps parliamentarians and Canadians locate and integrate information of interest to them on federal government policies and programs. The framework also allows parliamentarians and Canadians to gain a whole-of-government overview of planned and actual spending.

Figure 1.1 illustrates the whole-of-government framework that forms the basis for this report. The framework consists of 4 spending areas—Economic Affairs, Social Affairs, International Affairs, and Government Affairs—and 13 Government of Canada outcome areas that contribute to them. 

When consulting Canada's Performance, you can identify a broad spending area of interest, such as Economic Affairs (shown on the left-hand side of the figure), and then explore an area of more direct interest, called an "outcome area" (e.g., the federal government's work in promoting strong economic growth). The report highlights the major federal organizations that contribute to each Government of Canada outcome area. For each outcome area, you can find which departments, agencies, and Crown corporations have strategic outcomes^[3]and program activities^[4]that contribute to it (specific examples are shown on the right-hand side of the figure).

Figure 1.1 - Text version

Information on current socio-economic trends in Canada

This report includes societal indicators that together provide an assessment of the quality of life in Canada and a context for federal government expenditures. The societal indicators are drawn from recognized data sources, including the Census of Canada, general social surveys by Statistics Canada, public opinion polls, and reports from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Canada's Performance also links to Indicators of Well-being in Canada^[6] on the Human Resources and Skills Development Canada website.

A legend of the symbols used in this report is shown below.

Overview of the Government of Canada's actual spending 2008–09

In 2008–09, a total of 134 federal organizations contributed to the achievement of results for Canadians in economic, social, international, and government affairs. Expenses for the 2008–09 fiscal year, as presented in the Public Accounts of Canada 2009 (Volume I, Section 2), reached a total of $238.8 billion.

Actual spending for the Government of Canada includes $31.0 billion in public debt servicing related to unmatured debt, pensions and other employee benefits, and other accounts. Actual spending also includes consolidated specified purpose account expenses, the largest of which is Employment Insurance ($16.3 billion), which has been aligned under the income security and employment for Canadians outcome area.

Table 1 gives an overview of the government's planned and actual spending by outcome and spending area for 2008–09. The whole-of-government framework is applied to all program spending made by the Government of Canada.

Approximately $105.4 billion of federal funds was spent under Economic Affairs. Actual spending for Economic Affairs includes $25.1 billion in transfer payments to the provinces and territories (excluding the Canada Health Transfer).

Total actual spending for the government in the area of Social Affairs amounted to $48.8 billion, which includes $22.8 billion for the Canada Health Transfer.

The government's actual spending in the area of International Affairs for the 2008–09 fiscal year was $28.3 billion, and $11.7 billion was spent in the area of Government Affairs.

Figure 1.2 - Text Version

Table 1-Government of Canada's planned and actual spending ($ billions) by outcome area, 2008-09

Spending Area	Outcome Area	Actual Spending 2007-08	Planned Spending 2008-09	Actual Spending 2008-09
Economic Affairs	Income security and employment for Canadians (includes Employment Insurance)	52.3	55.7	56.5
	Strong economic growth	11.4	12.3	13.7
	An innovative and knowledge-based economy	7.5	6.3	6.8
	A clean and healthy environment	4.6	2.7	2.6
	A fair and secure marketplace	5.6	1.1	0.7
	Transfer payments to the provinces and territories (excluding the Canada Health Transfer)	25.7	23.1	25.1
Total for Economic Affairs		107.1	101.2	105.4
Social Affairs	Healthy Canadians	28.0	28.2	28.8
	A safe and secure Canada	9.0	10.4	10.4
	A diverse society that promotes linguistic duality and social inclusion	5.9	6.0	6.4
	A vibrant Canadian culture and heritage	3.0	3.2	3.2
Total for Social Affairs		45.9	47.8	48.8
International Affairs	A safe and secure world through international cooperation	20.7	21.6	22.1
	Global poverty reduction through sustainable development	4.4	3.7	4.1
	A strong and mutually beneficial North American partnership	1.6	1.6	1.8
	A prosperous Canada through global commerce	0.1	0.4	0.3
Total for International Affairs		26.9	27.4	28.3
Total for Government Affairs		13.4	12.6	11.7
Spending for all outcome areas		193.2a	189.0b	194.2
Public debt servicing		33.3	33.7	31.0
Consolidated specified purpose accounts (excluding Employment Insurance)		1.5	1.1	1.5
Non-budgetary expenditures		(5.8)c	—	—
Accrual and other adjustmentsd		1.2	—	2.8
Tax credits and repayments		9.4	—	9.4
Total Expenses		232.8	239.6e	238.8

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