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SECTION II: ANALYSIS OF PROGRAM ACTIVITY BY STRATEGIC OUTCOME

Strategic Outcome and Program Activities

The following section describes the CIRB's program activities and identifies the expected result, performance indicators and targets for each activity. This section also explains how the CIRB plans on meeting the expected results and presents the financial and non-financial resources that will be dedicated to each program activity.

This section will contain a discussion of plans surrounding the following program activities:

• Adjudication and Dispute Resolution Program
• Internal Services

The Board has only one key operational program activity—the Adjudication and Dispute Resolution Program. The second program activity of the Board is to provide the internal support required to carry out the Board's primary program.

Through its primary program, the CIRB resolves labour relations issues by exercising its statutory powers relating to the application and interpretation of Part I (Industrial Relations), and certain provisions of Part II (Occupational Health and Safety), of the Code. Activities include the granting, modification and termination of bargaining rights; the investigation, mediation and adjudication of complaints alleging violation of Part I of the Code; the determination of essential services; the exercise of ancillary remedial authority; the exercise of cease and desist powers in cases of unlawful strikes or lockouts; the settlement of the terms of a first collective agreement. The secondary program activity involves the provision of administrative services required to support these activities.

Information on both activities is provided in the tables below.

Program Activity 1: Adjudication and Dispute Resolution Program

Human Resources (FTEs) and Planned Spending ($ thousands)
2010–11		2011–12		2012–13
FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending
76	9,437	76	9,450	76	9,450

Program Activity Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets
Labour relations issues are resolved in a timely, fair and consistent manner	CIRB decisions overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal Number of applications/complaints resolved through mediation Decisions are issued within statutory deadlines Reduction of CIRB's average case disposition time	Less than one percent of all decisions rendered are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal Fifty percent of cases are resolved through mediation Average decision-making time is less than 90 days from the date the Board reserved its decision Seventy percent of cases are processed in less than one year

Planning Highlights

The complexity and implications of the issues facing federally regulated employers and unions require the Board to judiciously apply a wide range of knowledge and skills in diverse industrial relations, labour law and administrative law contexts. The stable economic environment over the past few years has resulted in a decrease in the number of cases coming before the Board, but the current environment may well change that situation. It is possible that the Board will receive more unfair labour practice complaints as a result of difficulties at the bargaining table, as well as more applications related to corporate restructuring or sale of business.

Typical issues of continuing concern to the Board include:

• the acquisition and exercise of free collective bargaining rights, and the promotion of sound labour-management relations in a fair and transparent manner;
• the need to ensure that collective bargaining between employers and unions is conducted fairly and in good faith;
• the determination of the levels of services required to be maintained during a work stoppage to ensure the protection of the health and safety of the Canadian public;
• the prompt consideration of situations in which illegal work stoppages are alleged;
• the need to assist companies and unions in resolving the labour relations implications of corporate mergers and acquisitions—including the determination of appropriate bargaining unit structures and representation rights.

The Board's foremost priority remains the efficient and effective delivery of its statutory mandate as set out in the Code, while being both transparent and accountable in its decision making process. The Board continually monitors and adjusts its processes in order to respond to workload demands.

Within this context, the Board's three main operational priorities in the coming years are to provide expeditious and fair processing of applications and complaints; focus on successful resolution of labour relations problems through appropriate dispute mechanisms; and continue with its formal and informal consultations and engagement with the labour relations community.

To deliver on these priorities, and in consultation with the client community, the Board will begin a review of its Regulations and seek effective and efficient ways of handling applications and complaints, including exploring opportunities to further reduce case processing and disposition time. It will also increase its emphasis on proactive mediation of complaints by regional staff and Board members. In addition, it will develop and disseminate regular CIRB updates to the labour community.

It is expected that the achievement of these priorities will simplify and/or shorten case processing measures, which will increase the number of matters that can be disposed of with a limited adjudicative capacity, thus enhancing effectiveness and efficiencies.

The Board will continue to endeavor to provide timely and legally sound decisions that are consistent across similar matters, in order to establish strong and clear jurisprudence, which in turn should reduce the likelihood of a demand for reconsideration, as well as reducing the likelihood of applications to the Federal Court of Appeal for a judicial review.

Analysis

Volume of Matters

It is expected that the volume of matters will not be significantly different from the last three years. After an initial spike in caseload levels in the years following the 1999 amendments to the Code, the number of applications/complaints received has generally declined over the last five fiscal years. In the first five years following the 1999 amendments to the Code, the CIRB received an average of 924 applications/complaints per year, compared to 685 over the last five years.

Unfair labour practice (ULP) complaints, which represent approximately 40% of incoming matters in any given year, and are an indicator of the labour relations climate, are down almost 25% on average, in the 2006–07 to 2008–09 period (representing 85 fewer complaints per year), compared to the previous five fiscal years. It should be noted that the rate of incoming matters related to ULP has increased somewhat in the third and fourth quarters of 2008–09 as the recession took hold.

Disposition of Matters

With respect to the disposition of matters, the Board was able to improve its rate of matter disposition in the years following the 1999 amendments. While the number of matters disposed of by the Board declined in 2006–07 and 2007–08, similarly to incoming matters, the CIRB took a number of measures to raise its disposition rate and resolved 819 matters in 2008–09, which represents 144 more matters disposed than the 675 in the previous fiscal-year. As a result, the number of pending cases dropped to 443 at the end of March 2009, or 147 fewer than the previous year, and the lowest level since 1996–97.

The Canada Industrial Relations Board Regulations, 2001 (the Regulations) stipulate that certain types of matters require priority attention. These cases include requests for an interim order/decision, requests to file Board orders in Court, referrals to the Board by the Minister of Labour relating to the maintenance of activities during a legal work stoppage, applications alleging an invalid strike or lockout vote, applications for a declaration of unlawful strike or lockout, and unfair labour practice complaints alleging the use of replacement workers and dismissal for union activities. These types of matters are processed on an expedited time frame. During the planned review of the Regulations, the Board will consider whether any other types of applications should by subject to expedited procedures.

Processing and Disposition Time

The time required to process a file—the time spent opening, investigating, mediating, hearing, and deciding a case—increased moderately in 2008–09, averaging 313 calendar days compared to 298 days in 2007–08 and 242 days in 2006–07.

The principal reason for the increase in processing time experienced in both 2007–08 and 2008–09 is related to the resolution of a large number of backlog of cases involving duty of fair representation (DFR) complaints. Prior to 2007–08, DFR complaints were often set aside when more urgent matters arose. As a result, the CIRB had accumulated a significant backlog of DFR complaints, and their proportion of all pending matters grew from 25.6% in 2002–03 to almost 43% at the end of 2006–07. The CIRB decided to seriously address this DFR backlog in 2007–08 and 2008–09. Consequently, DFR complaints represent a third of disposed matters in 2008–09 compared to an average of about 19% in the previous five years.

One component of the overall processing time is the length of time required by a Board panel² to prepare and issue a decision, following the completion of the investigation and/or hearing of a matter. A panel may decide a case without a hearing on the basis of written and documentary evidence, such as investigation reports and written submissions, or may defer the decision until further evidence and information is gathered via an oral hearing.

Section 14.2(2) of the Code requires that a panel must render its decision and give notice of it to the parties no later than ninety days after the day on which it reserved its decision or within any further period that may be determined by the Chairperson. The Board's objective is to achieve compliance with the ninety-day time limit in a majority of the cases requiring written reasons for decision.

Written Decisions

The Board issues detailed Reasons for decision in matters dealing with significant labour management issues and/or those with significant precedential importance. In other matters, concise “letter decisions” help expedite the decision-making process, thereby providing more timely industrial relations outcomes for parties. The Board strives to provide timely and legally sound decisions that are consistent across similar matters in order to establish strong and clear jurisprudence. In 2008–09, more than three quarters of decisions were rendered in 90 days or less.

Benefits for Canadians

The impact of the work of the Board can be both broad-ranging and significant. The Board's decisions and mediation efforts often affect, in very tangible ways, the working lives of thousands of Canadians, the economic position of leading Canadian corporations, and the general well-being of the Canadian public. When the Board receives an application or complaint, it is usually because there is some form of unresolved conflict or problem that the parties involved have been incapable of resolving on their own. By resolving the matter, through mediation or by issuing a decision, the Board effectively and directly contributes to improved labour-management relations in that enterprise.

However, the Board also contributes to effective industrial relations in the federal jurisdiction generally. Each time it issues a decision, the Board adds to its growing jurisprudence, which is widely disseminated to the industrial relations community. Clear and consistent jurisprudence provides an environment where potential litigants are more likely to resolve matters on their own than to bring the matter before the Board.

Program Activity 2: Internal Services

Human Resources (FTEs) and Planned Spending ($ thousands)
2010–11		2011–12		2012–13
FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending
34	3,580	34	3,585	34	3,585

The Internal Services program activity supports CIRB's strategic outcome. It consists of the groups of activities and resources that are administered to support the needs of programs and other corporate obligations of the CIRB, including Central Agency requirements. These groups are: management and oversight services; human resources services; financial and administrative services (including facilities, materiel and procurement services); information management (IM) services; and information technology (IT) services.

Planning Highlights

In line with the government's Public Service Renewal Initiative, the CIRB has instituted an integrated planning process, which involves assessing current and future workforce capacity against evolving business priorities, identifying gaps, developing and implementing strategies to fill those gaps, and monitoring and reporting on progress. This process is guided by CIRB's three-year Integrated Human Resources and Business Plan (updated annually), which articulates the department's business goals and sets out short and longer term people management strategies to ensure that these goals are met. This Plan recognizes that priorities and business requirements constantly evolve and that our people management activities must also be flexible and responsive.

The CIRB will also continue to improve and strengthen its management practices and will focus its efforts on areas of improvement identified in Round VI of the Management Accountability Framework Assessment released in 2009. Specifically, in the coming years, the CIRB will focus its efforts on the development of a corporate risk management framework; the development of an integrated IM/IT Strategy harmonizing its information management needs, practices and policies with technology management products and overall security responsibilities. In addition, the CIRB will continue to monitor and enhance its comptrollership practices, as required.

Benefits for Canadians

Specific benefits to Canadians include the following:

• resources effectively support the delivery of the CIRB's program and corporate obligations; and
• human and financial resources are utilized in the most economical, efficient and effective manner.

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