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Section II — Analysis of Program Activities

2.1 Strategic Outcome

The Commission works toward equality, respect for human rights and protection from discrimination by fostering understanding of, and compliance with, the CHRA and the EEA by federally regulated employers and service providers, as well as the public they serve. All Canadians benefit when organizations are sensitive to human rights, respectful of differing needs, and are responsive to misunderstandings before they develop into discrimination complaints.

This section outlines the expected results of the program activities that contribute to the realization of the strategic outcome of the Commission and that of the Government of Canada.

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2.2 Program Activities

2.2.1 Human Rights Knowledge Development and Dissemination Program

Program Activity Summary

This program helps foster both an understanding of and compliance with the CHRA and the EEA. Knowledge development also ensures that programs, interventions and decisions are grounded in evidence and best practices. Knowledge products include research, policies, regulatory instruments and special reports. Information and/or advice are provided to the Commission itself, Parliament, federal departments and agencies, Crown corporations, federally regulated private sector organizations, and the public. Partnerships with other human rights commissions as well as governmental, non-governmental, research and international organizations are formed and maintained to leverage knowledge development and dissemination activities in areas of common interest.

Program Activity – Human Rights Knowledge Development and Dissemination Program

Human Resources (FTEs) and Planned Spending ($ thousands)
2011–12		2012–13		2013–14
FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending
27	3,580	27	3,490	25	3,348

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets
Increased number of Canadians who are informed about human rights issues	Number of employers, service providers and other organizations that pick up and further disseminate Commission products	20% of Canadians working for the targeted audience of Commission products are made aware of their human rights
	Number of products completed and disseminated	Three (3) products completed Four (4) products disseminated
	Number of visits to the Commission’s website and subscribers for information updates	Over 1.5 million visits Over 2,250 subscribers
http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/knowledge_connaissances/default-en.asp

Planning Highlights

Multiple initiatives under the Human Rights Knowledge Development and Dissemination Program will contribute to the 2011–12 priority of increased capacity of First Nations to address human rights issues within their own communities. The program will collaboratively develop and disseminate additional tools to further promote understanding of the Canadian Human Rights Act within First Nations. It will also help strengthen the capacity to resolve discrimination issues using community-based (internal) conflict resolution processes. The Commission will continue to engage with Aboriginal stakeholders on human rights issues, and identify and advance understanding and resolution of systemic discrimination issues that affect Aboriginal and First Nations communities. The Commission will also continue to improve its own capacity to serve First Nations and Aboriginal communities in a culturally relevant manner. This includes increasing the Commission’s understanding of how to give due regard to First Nations’ legal traditions and customary law, and the balancing of collective and individual rights.

The Human Rights Knowledge Development and Dissemination Program will contribute to the 2011–12 priority of federally regulated organizations demonstrating progress toward developing a self-sustaining human rights culture in three main ways: engaging stakeholders strategically; developing relevant tools; and improving knowledge dissemination and information exchange.

The Commission will complete research and consultations on the topical issues of family status and religious accommodation to help develop related policies or guides. It will continue to develop model employer policies.

To ensure the widest reach and take-up, the Commission will further improve the dissemination of its policies and tools, as well as key jurisprudence and information about international human rights standards, to employers, service providers and others. The Commission will disseminate the Framework for Documenting Equality Rights, an innovative new tool for developing a comprehensive picture of equality in Canada, and it will complete the framework’s first national report.

Benefits for Canadians

By consulting with stakeholders, gathering data, partnering with experts and synthesizing commentary from international bodies, the Commission ensures that relevant, accurate, and timely information and evidence fully illuminate the human rights situation in Canada, including in Aboriginal and First Nations communities.

The combination of the Commission’s analysis of current domestic and international issues with a human rights lens and its development of tools for a variety of human rights issues in plain language raises awareness and translates complex legal and social issues into more accessible and understandable formats.

The Commission also provides employers and service providers with additional tools, such as model policies, to strengthen their capacity to both consider human rights impacts and offer improved protections in areas under their authority. The Commission’s planned activities will help keep workplaces, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and other decision makers informed of the human rights aspects of a wide range of issues.

These activities benefit Canadians because they will be more likely to work in places that better understand the human rights impacts of decisions, and will therefore be more likely to provide human rights protections. Canadians will also be more likely to receive programs and services that are relevant to their daily lives and that respect their diversity.

Canadians will also benefit from improved human rights information dissemination, as they will have an increased understanding of human rights and responsibilities, will be better equipped to identify human rights issues in their own organizations and communities, and will be better prepared to participate in resolving concerns where they arise.

2.2.2 Discrimination Prevention Program

Program Activity Summary

This program helps foster and sustain a human rights culture in federally regulated organizations by promoting continuous improvement of an organization’s human rights competencies. Prevention initiatives, employment equity audits, learning programs and events are among the program’s tools to promote discrimination prevention and achieve employment equity objectives. Stakeholder engagement involves federal departments and agencies, Crown corporations, private sector organizations, provincial and territorial government bodies, international agencies, unions and other non-governmental organizations.

Program Activity – Discrimination Prevention Program

Human Resources (FTEs) and Planned Spending ($ thousands)
2011–12		2012–13		2013–14
FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending
41	4,531	42	4,486	41	4,374

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets
Canadians work in and receive services from federally regulated organizations that embrace a human rights culture	Number of employees and number of clients of federally regulated organizations that have progressed in the Commission’s Human Rights Maturity Model (HRMM)	75% of organizations implementing the Commission’s HRMM have demonstrated progress*
	Number of organizations that have been reviewed for appropriate and effective internal conflict resolution processes and deemed appropriate by the Commission for referral under sections 41(1)(a) and (b) of the CHRA	100% of organizations that have had a complaint filed against them for the first time
	Number of employers, service providers and other organizations that have implemented human rights policies	20% of organizations implementing the Commission’s HRMM have human rights policies in place
	Number of human rights international standards and obligations that are implemented in Canada	One (1)
Designated employment equity groups are appropriately represented in federally regulated organizations	Percentage-point gap between representation and availability in designated employment equity groups	0.2 percentage-point gap reduction within five (5) years (4.2 percentage-point gap in 2008)
		40 audit reports
http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/preventing_discrimination/default-en.asp

* The employee and client base will be calculated for the specific organizations that demonstrate progress, and these numbers will be used to measure performance against the target.

Planning Highlights

The Discrimination Prevention Program contributes to the Commission’s strategic outcome by helping federally regulated employers implement workforce practices that continuously improve their organizations’ human rights competencies. The program integrates multiple processes to:

• encourage recruitment, retention and representation that reflects Canada’s diversity;
• foster efficient, collaborative and innovative workplaces; and
• empower and support employees and managers in making a difference in their workplaces.

To this end, the Commission has improved its employment equity audit program to put a greater emphasis on employers that are less successful in achieving equality in the workplace. In doing so, the Commission’s employment equity program is fostering greater efficiencies and a stronger positive impact for designated groups. Furthermore, employment equity status reports are now being issued to more successful employers to acknowledge their success while identifying challenges. These changes have allowed the program to significantly increase its reach with employers.

In all cases, the Commission’s new business approach takes into account the employer’s environmental context, provides an incentive to move beyond basic employment equity legislative requirements, and encourages the continuous improvement of employment equity in the workplace. Moreover, the employment equity reports and status reports also serve as communication tools between the Commission and employers. Employers are encouraged to take into account the ongoing growth in labour market availability of designated groups. This innovative and proactive step helps to persuade employers to do more than what is required by the legislation and thus ensure better representation of all designated groups.

In its continuing efforts to nurture self-sustaining human rights cultures in federally regulated workplaces, the Commission will officially launch its Human Rights Maturity Model (HRMM) in 2011–12, following a pilot test. The HRMM is intended to serve as a roadmap and performance measurement framework for employers and service providers, bargaining agents and employees.

Overall, the Discrimination Prevention Program will support the 2011–12 priority to give federally regulated organizations the tools and information necessary to create a self-sustaining human rights culture by strengthening the communication element of the employment equity approach, and by launching and promoting the HRMM.

The program will also contribute to the second priority by continuing its efforts to help strengthen capacity through the development of tools to help First Nations and Aboriginal communities prevent, manage and resolve discrimination issues.

Benefits for Canadians

The HRMM is a concrete invitation to employers to improve their human rights capacity, boosting the Commission’s ongoing role of resolving disputes and conducting employment equity audits. This new tool, developed in partnership with employers, relies on the latter’s engagement and innovation to create better workplaces for Canadians. This model also conveys to organizations the importance of employment equity in becoming an employer of choice.

By creating synergy between an organization’s multiple human rights-related processes and the HRMM, the Commission provides a model for implementing workforce practices that continuously improve an organization’s human rights culture.

Organizations are involved in defining what support they need to better integrate respect for human rights in their workplaces. The immediate outcome of this stakeholder engagement is raising awareness of the HRMM, its benefits for the organization and its usefulness as a tool to enhance organizational human rights. This is followed by strengthened skills, capacities, practices and systems with respect to human rights. The ultimate benefit for Canadians is an integrated approach to human rights issues and self-sustaining human rights cultures that are fostered in federally regulated organizations.

2.2.3 Human Rights Dispute Resolution Program

Program Activity Summary

This program addresses discrimination by dealing with individual and systemic complaints and issues brought by individuals or groups of individuals against federally regulated employers and service providers. The Commission exercises its discretion in choosing the most appropriate dispute resolution method including investigation, mediation and conciliation. The Commission also serves as a screening body in determining whether further inquiry is warranted, participates in all pre-tribunal mediations and represents the public interest in appearing before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

Program Activity – Human Rights Dispute Resolution Program

Human Resources (FTEs) and Planned Spending ($ thousands)
2011–12		2012–13		2013–14
FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending
75	8,515	75	8,642	73	8,278

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets
Canadians are protected from individual and systemic human rights discrimination	Number of systemic issues (received or addressed)	Two (2) systemic issues
	Number of potential and accepted complaints resolved (settled) by the Commission	35% resolved
	Number of complaints that were referred to the Tribunal by the Commission that lead to a remedy	20 complaints
Complaints are dealt with where they originate	Percentage of individual complaints that were referred to another process and were dealt with	70% of all complaints referred
Complaints processed (and brought to an end)	Number of potential and accepted complaints processed	1:1 ratio
http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/disputeresolution_reglementdifferends/default-en.asp

Planning Highlights

This program activity contributes to the achievement of the Commission’s strategic outcome by providing dispute resolution services in cases of alleged discrimination by federally regulated employers, unions and service providers. The Human Rights Dispute Resolution Program will contribute to the achievement of the Commission’s strategic outcome by implementing systems and tools that are integrated with a Commission-wide framework. This program will also report on trends in the complaints stream, contributing to the Commission’s focus on raising awareness and developing tools to address systemic issues.

As of June 2011, the Commission will be able to accept complaints against First Nations governments that were previously barred by section 67. The program’s priority will be to provide an effective process for the treatment of such complaints. The Commission will make available its network of Aboriginal mediators to help First Nations communities resolve human rights disputes within their own communities. In appropriate cases, the Commission will encourage parties to avail themselves of internal redress mechanisms before the Commission deals with the complaint.

Benefits for Canadians

The parties to all cases, resolved or unresolved, benefit from fair, expeditious and accessible human rights processes, and gain an increased understanding of the CHRA.

For dispute resolution services to be meaningful, the parties to disputes need to understand the Commission’s processes. Their satisfaction with the services they receive is an important indicator of the Commission’s success. The Commission emphasizes the importance of dealing with complaints and finding solutions through dialogue by encouraging non-adversarial methods of dispute resolution.

Through exposure to the dispute resolution process, parties should have a better understanding of their rights and responsibilities under the CHRA. The ultimate benefit to Canadians is protection from discrimination and increased compliance with the CHRA by federally regulated employers.

By participating in precedent-setting human rights cases, the Commission contributes to the clarification and development of Canadian human rights law overall, which increases protection for all Canadians and affirms the fundamental value of supporting diversity.

2.2.4 Internal Services

Program Activity Summary

Internal Services are groups of related activities and resources that are administered to support the needs of programs and other corporate obligations of an organization. These groups are: Management and Oversight Services; Communications Services; Corporate Legal Services; Human Resources Management Services; Financial Management Services; Information Management Services; Information Technology Services; Real Property Services; Materiel Services; Acquisition Services; and Travel and Other Administrative Services. Internal Services include only those activities and resources that apply across the organization and not to those provided specifically to a program.

Program Activity – Internal Services

Human Resources (FTEs) and Planned Spending ($ thousands)
2011–12		2012–13		2013–14
FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending
59	6,410	59	6,401	58	6,175

Planning Highlights

The Commission’s Internal Services will lead the process to adopt one methodology to be used across the Commission for assessing the impact and likelihood of risks. Once implemented, the Commission will be in a strong position to establish a consistent approach to risk management planning throughout the organization. The Corporate Management Branch will pilot the chosen methodology on several Internal Services processes (such as aging information technology, security assessments and high-risk expenditures) and adapt the process to the Commission’s program activity requirements.

Once this single risk methodology is approved, program risks will be evaluated during the development process of the Commission’s Integrated Business and Human Resources Plan for 2011–12. Planning meetings will be specifically scheduled with Finance and Program Activity Directors to establish stronger linkages between financial and non-financial performance information.

Benefits for Canadians

Internal Services will continue to explore and implement corporate, technological and administrative best practices to ensure and support efficient and effective program activities to deliver human rights information and discrimination protection services to Canadians.

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