Departmental Results Report 2021-2022

• His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of the Treasury Board, 2022
• Catalogue No.: SC100-10E-PDF
• ISSN: 2561-1143

From the Minister

As the Minister responsible for the Canada School of Public Service (the School), I am pleased to present the School's Departmental Results Report for the 2021–22 fiscal year. This report highlights how the School has continued to offer timely and relevant learning opportunities to Canada's federal public service.

As part of its ongoing efforts to provide federal public service employees with learning opportunities that are current, relevant, accessible and available in both official languages, the School maximized the availability of its learning products by continuing to expand the catalogue of learning products available in a virtual delivery format, which includes making its virtual events available to participants located across the country and elsewhere throughout the world.

In February 2022, the School successfully launched a new modern learning platform that uses innovative technologies to improve the learning and registration experience for public service learners. This secure, scalable, cloud-based, enterprise-wide platform was configured with the user in mind, with easy log in improved accessibility, and a mobile-friendly experience.

Throughout 2021–22, the School continued to focus on providing learning opportunities across its five business lines: Government of Canada and Public Sector Skills, Transferable Skills, Digital Academy, Indigenous Learning, and Respectful and Inclusive Workplace. Through each of these business lines, the School developed new, high-quality learning products to address emerging themes and learning needs across the federal government, while proactively applying a diversity and inclusion lens to its curriculum and its corporate decision-making.

By prioritizing collaboration and consultation, the School developed and fostered relationships with internal and external partners who share the goal of making learning an integral part of the employee onboarding and career development paths. The School also partnered with other government departments by sharing and adopting novel methods that serve to strengthen the capacity for innovation across the Government of Canada, particularly in areas such as digital enablement, accessibility, and data exchange.

Furthermore, by analyzing evaluation data and learner feedback, and incorporating this information into its learning products and services, the School responded in real time to the varied needs, interests and schedules of public service employees across Canada.

During a time of challenge and change, the School once again demonstrated a steady ability to provide public service employees with the skills and knowledge they need to serve Canadians with excellence.

Results at a glance

In 2021–22, the Canada School of Public Service provided relevant, responsive and accessible common learning across the public service. In response to the ongoing COVID‑19 pandemic, the School continued to convert its courses from a traditional classroom delivery to a virtual model, providing public servants across the country with the training they need on topics such as virtual work teams, mental health, unconscious bias, change management, leadership, and digital government.

To fulfill its core responsibility of providing common public service learning, the School oversaw initiatives that led to achievements supporting four expected results:

For more information on the Canada School of Public Service's plans, priorities and results achieved, see the "Results: what we achieved" section of this report.

Results: what we achieved

Core responsibility

Common public service learning

Description

The Canada School of Public Service provides common learning to all employees of the core public service to serve Canadians with excellence.

Results

1. Common learning is responsive to learning needs

   In 2021–22, the School delivered common learning that was responsive, accessible and high quality across five business lines, while strengthening the capacity for innovation across the core public service.

   • Government of Canada and Public Sector Skills (491,229 course registrations) ^{Note **}
     • The School launched 20 events, 10 instructor-led learning products and 5 online self-paced products designed to strengthen human resources management and Indigenous procurement, among other areas.
     • The School took immediate steps to ensure the availability and relevance of courses identified as mandatory or of high importance by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and assigned a dedicated multidisciplinary team to lead this work on an expedited basis.
   • Transferable Skills (174,787 course registrations)
     • The School offered numerous events and released several learning products in high-demand emerging areas, including 8 new courses on topics such as virtual work teams, human-centred leadership, coaching, navigating social media, effective briefings, and project management.
     • The School continued to research, analyze, engage with clients, design and develop multiple learning products to meet the needs of public servants throughout Canada.
   • Digital Academy (26,675 course registrations)
     • The School launched 5 new courses, 11 events, 3 learning paths, 15 microlearning episodes on digital and data themes, and 2 cohorts of the School's Digital Accelerator program, including 96 workshops and 4 pilot workshops, to provide public servants with practical experience in applying digital competencies to real problems.
     • The School released learning products that not only teach the importance of the Government of Canada's Digital Standards to learners, but that were created by experts and partners with these very standards in mind, using a transparent and iterative, evidence-based approach. The result is products that are responsive to learning needs.
   • Indigenous Learning (93,884 course registrations)
     • The School delivered 7 online self-paced courses, 5 instructor-led virtual courses and 12 events, and made the first microlearning video available on its website.
     • The School provided learning products designed to increase knowledge and awareness among public service employees of Indigenous history, cultures and perspectives, and developed and released a second version of a fully mobile and web-friendly app to help advance reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.
   • Respectful and Inclusive Workplace (637,638 course registrations)
     • The School delivered 33 events and launched 42 new learning products on topics related to equity, diversity and inclusion, including online courses, instructor-led virtual courses, videos, job aids, case studies and complementary resources.
     • The School continued to conduct enterprise-wide learning needs and gaps analyses, in conjunction with interdepartmental learning advisory committees, to ensure its learning products are responsive to the needs of public service learners.

   Across all business lines and subject-matter areas, executive learning remained a priority. In 2021–22, the School progressed in updating and adapting its learning products to meet emerging priorities while leveraging a virtual delivery model. The School supported executive leadership development programs, courses and events by partnering with other learning institutions and by delivering:

   • 15 instructor-led orientation programs for executives
   • 125 virtual learning sessions of the Executive Leadership Development Program
   • 25 virtual sessions of the Leadership Reflection Series
   • 2 new coaching courses
2. Quality common learning is provided to the core public service

   In 2021–22, the School engaged in partnerships across the public service, and with Indigenous Peoples, academia, federal policy centres and functional communities, among other stakeholders, to enhance curriculum development. For example, the School:

   • instituted a new approach for engaging with federal policy centres and functional communities to improve its capacity to respond to learning requests and foster greater collaboration and transparency
   • created learning opportunities by leveraging material from other departments, sectors, jurisdictions and countries and supplementing it with third-party content to fill specific learning gaps
   • continued to identify critical learning opportunities for public servants in partnership with the 25 Government of Canada functional communities
   • structured its product development approach around agile principles and early engagement with learners and stakeholders
   • renewed its approach to engagement on Indigenous learning with the creation of an interdepartmental committee and a sharing network to ensure content is distinctive and reflective of Indigenous perspectives
   • worked with other departments, central agency groups and interdepartmental organizations through the National Managers' Community (NMC) to execute the Annual NMC Strategic and Operational Plan

   In support of diversity and inclusion, the School collaborated with interdepartmental working groups and advisory committees to co-create learning products based on the core principle of "Nothing About Us Without Us." Under this approach, individuals with lived experience share their perspectives and are involved from the outset in identifying, prioritizing, testing and vetting learning products. For example, case studies to address the high levels of harassment and discrimination reported by employees with disabilities were co-created by the School using an intersectional lens. To ensure the content accurately reflected the realities faced by many people with disabilities, public servants who self-identify as having a disability were consulted. The perspective of racialized communities was also sought early in the development of the content to raise awareness of the impact of intersectionality.

   The School used data as an asset to ensure that learning priorities were defined through evidence-based decision-making and focused on the user experience. Through its Digital Academy and the GC Data Community, the School collaborated with data leaders and practitioners across the public service to update the GC Data Competency Framework. This undertaking has helped to create a common understanding of the skills and abilities required, at both the individual and organizational levels, to promote data literacy across government.

   The School collected and analyzed evaluation data to measure learner engagement and overall experience. It also completed a data literacy survey of all employees to inform future mandatory training requirements and released the results of the "Shape Your Learning" user study. This study gathered insights on public servants' knowledge and skill levels in areas related to digital technology and on their learning habits, preferences and interests. The results of this study allowed the School to gain a better understanding of the digital literacy level of various organizations, identify specific learning needs, and make important decisions on how best to support public servants.

   The School continued to systematically review its learning products to ensure they were relevant, accessible and up to date, leveraging evaluation data and user feedback to improve the learner experience. Among other things, the School has created dashboards that allow access to post-course or event evaluation data in near-real time to all employees.

3. Common learning is accessible to all employees of the core public service

   To ensure the availability of key learning products to public service employees across Canada during the COVID‑19 pandemic, the School continued the conversion of traditional classroom courses to virtual instructor-led and self-paced online classes. All learning products are available in accessible formats and in both official languages.

   Virtual events were also a significant mode of learning delivery, allowing learners to participate from coast to coast to coast, and beyond. The School adopted the new vExpo virtual exposition platform, an engaging and easy-to-use in-house solution. Developed using emerging technology, vExpo is a modern, bilingual and accessible event platform that enhances the participant experience by providing access to all event information from one central location.

   A new learning platform with improved data integrity, accessibility and usability was launched across the public service in February 2022, and saw rapid take-up. The platform, designed with user as the primary consideration, is informed by user-experience research and analysis data gathered from a broad set of internal and external stakeholders. Extensive testing of usability and accessibility has resulted in high user satisfaction as well as fewer support calls to the School's client service desk.

   With the transition to the new platform, the School rebuilt over 70 courses to offer an updated and more accessible learning experience. Additionally, all of the School's instructional designers and product developers received training on the new platform's modern and accessibility friendly authoring tools.

4. Strengthened capacity across the core public service to use innovative approaches

   In 2021–22, the School fostered innovation through its work, and the work of its partners, in developing the skills necessary to strengthen capacity for innovation across the Government of Canada. For example, the School:

   • developed new products using a peer-coaching model. This open and collaborative approach brings peers together to explore specific work-related challenges, share ideas, and learn from each other.
   • collaborated with the Public Health Agency of Canada to deliver:
     • a series of workshops to public service learners on concrete approaches to innovative policy and service design
     • an event on how innovation and experimentation can support evidence-based policy design and decision-making
   • launched the new School's Data Demo Week Series. This series features a range of cutting-edge technologies that draw on the power of data, artificial intelligence and machine learning to help the public service innovate and remain relevant as an institution Canadians look to for excellent service, support and leadership.

   Through a learning-by-doing approach, the School worked with partner departments to understand how novel technologies and methods can be used to advance public sector innovation and encourage solutions for core government functions.

   For example, through the School's Digital Accelerator program, the School provided a transformational learning experience for teams transitioning to new digital ways of working. Established teams and their leaders had the opportunity to experiment with collaborative, human-centred and iterative ways of defining problems and prototyping solutions. Through a combination of hands-on workshops, peer learning, coaching and mentoring, participants applied their newfound skills in design thinking, user research, prototyping, product management, and agile principles to address a real business problem facing their organization.

   The School shared innovative practices, both across government and with external partners, by providing learning opportunities and encouraging novel solutions for core government functions in the areas of digital enablement, accessibility and data exchange, among others. The School:

   • made available an innovative technology that allows participants to practise their communications skills in a virtual setting using avatars and to receive personalized data-driven feedback; over 500 public service employees took part in the trial offering.
   • successfully managed learning events that placed the spotlight on innovation. The School held 13 innovative-focused learning events attended by over 8,000 participants showcasing projects taking place across the Government of Canada in functional areas such as access to information and privacy (ATIP).
   • undertook the joint development of 12 technology demonstration projects, including two aimed at developing, experimenting with and demonstrating the potential of emerging digital technologies (for example, virtual guided tours of office workplaces) and exploratory research on game-based learning.
   • co-hosted the 2022 Data Conference with Statistics Canada. Fifty-seven speakers shared innovative practices, including health data partnerships, the responsible use of artificial intelligence and collection of disaggregated data.

Gender-based Analysis Plus

In 2021–22, the School continued to incorporate the Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) perspective into departmental decision-making processes, including the design and delivery of human resources operations and practices. GBA Plus standards and gender-inclusive language were incorporated throughout the employee life cycle to foster a positive workplace that is equitable, diverse and inclusive.

In delivering learning products, the School continued to ensure that public service employees have the necessary analytical tools to uphold the goals, objectives and indicators of the Gender Results Framework across functional communities. Targeted and designated learning products were developed in collaboration with Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) and the GBA Plus Capacity-Building Working Group, including two courses:

• Introduction to GBA Plus
• GBA Plus: Applying Tools and Best Practices

The School also hosted two events on GBA Plus attended by 1,550 participants.

Experimentation

The School has played an important role in fostering a culture of experimentation in the Government of Canada by providing the learning support public servants need to understand and employ experimentation in their work.

The School has engaged public servants in learning-by-doing projects designed to explore the feasibility of new technologies and data analytics techniques in addressing complex horizontal issues. Examples of such projects include piloting projects in the regulatory, access to information and privacy (ATIP) and human resources functions by creating learning resources to scale up capacity building. The School tested the use of immersive technology to develop virtual environments in support of change management initiatives, and of artificial intelligence-powered avatars to support the development of learning products. It also created new application programming interfaces to enhance development processes and production of digital tools.

The School piloted a privacy-first learning tool that challenged public servants to better prevent and respond to violence and harassment in the workplace. Engagement metrics showed that this experimental tool is an effective way to enhance the learning experience, increase knowledge retention and provide real-time actionable data.

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Canada School of Public Service's Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Canada School of Public Service's Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Canada School of Public Service's Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.

Internal Services

Description

Internal services are those groups of related activities and resources that the federal government considers to be services in support of programs and/or required to meet corporate obligations of an organization. Internal services refer to the activities and resources of the 10 distinct service categories that support program delivery in the organization, regardless of the internal services delivery model in a department. The 10 service categories are:

• Acquisition Management Services
• Communications Services
• Financial Management Services
• Human Resources Management Services
• Information Management Services
• Information Technology Services
• Legal Services
• Materiel Management Services
• Management and Oversight Services
• Real Property Management Services

Spending and human resources

Spending

Spending 2019–20 to 2024–25

The following graph presents planned (voted and statutory spending) over time.

The authorities used in fiscal year 2021–22 amount to $81.3 million, which comprises $64.7 million in voted appropriations and $16.6 million in statutory funding. Statutory authorities in fiscal year 2021–22 consist of $7.6 million of respendable revenue brought forward from the previous fiscal year under the provisions of section 18(2) of the Canada School of Public Service Act, and $9 million for employee benefit plans.

Compared to 2020–21, authorities used decreased by $1 million or 1.2%, which is mostly due to a decrease of $3.4 million in voted authorities related to collective agreements funds received the previous year, offset by an increase of $2.4 million in statutory authorities mainly due to an increase in respendable revenue brought forward from the previous fiscal year.

Compared to 2020–21, authorities used decreased by $1 million or 1.2%, which is mostly due to a decrease of $2.4 million in Personnel related to a retroactive salary payments in 2020–21 as well as a decrease of $2.4 million related to office renovation projects undertaken in the previous year, offset by an increase of $3.8 million mainly due to the purchase of licences of software and content to enrich online learning.

Human resources

The "Human resources summary for core responsibilities and internal services" table presents the full-time equivalents (FTEs) allocated to each of the Canada School of Public Service's core responsibilities and to internal services.

Expenditures by vote

For information on the Canada School of Public Service's organizational voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada 2021.

Government of Canada spending and activities

Information on the alignment of the Canada School of Public Service's spending with the Government of Canada's spending and activities is available in GC InfoBase.

Financial statements and financial statements highlights

Financial statements

The Canada School of Public Service's financial statements (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2022, are available on the departmental website.

Financial statements highlights

The 2021–22 planned results information is provided in the Canada School of Public Service Future-Oriented Statement of Operations and Notes 2021–22.

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister: The Honourable Mona Fortier, P.C., M.P., President of the Treasury Board

Institutional head: Taki Sarantakis, President

Ministerial portfolio: Treasury Board

Enabling instrument: Canada School of Public Service Act, S.C. 1991, c. 16

Year of incorporation/commencement: 2004

Raison d'être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do

"Raison d'être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do" is available on the Canada School of Public Service's website.

For more information on the department's organizational mandate letter commitments, see the Minister's mandate letter.

Operating context

Information on the operating context is available on the Canada School of Public Service's website.

Reporting Framework

The Canada School of Public Service Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory of record for 2021–22 are shown below.

Supporting information on the program inventory

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Canada School of Public Service's Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information table is available on the Canada School of Public Service's website:

• Gender-based analysis plus

Federal tax expenditures

The tax system can be used to achieve public policy objectives through the application of special measures such as low tax rates, exemptions, deductions, deferrals and credits. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures. This report also provides detailed background information on tax expenditures, including descriptions, objectives, historical information and references to related federal spending programs as well as evaluations and GBA Plus of tax expenditures.

Organizational contact information

Mailing address

Telephone: 1-866-703-9598
Fax: 1-866-944-0454
Email: https://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/contact_us/inquiries-eng.aspx
Website: www.csps-efpc.gc.ca

Appendix: definitions

appropriation (crédit)

Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

budgetary expenditures (dépenses budgétaires)

Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, organizations or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.

core responsibility (responsabilité essentielle)

An enduring function or role performed by a department. The intentions of the department with respect to a core responsibility are reflected in one or more related departmental results that the department seeks to contribute to or influence.

Departmental Plan (plan ministériel)

A report on the plans and expected performance of an appropriated department over a 3 year period. Departmental Plans are usually tabled in Parliament each spring.

departmental priority (priorité ministérielle)

A plan or project that a department has chosen to focus and report on during the planning period. Priorities represent the things that are most important or what must be done first to support the achievement of the desired departmental results.

departmental result (résultat ministériel)

A consequence or outcome that a department seeks to achieve. A departmental result is often outside departments' immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.

departmental result indicator ( (Indicateur de résultat ministériel)

A quantitative measure of progress on a departmental result.

departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)

A framework that connects the department's core responsibilities to its departmental results and departmental result indicators.

Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)

A report on a department's actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Departmental Plan.

experimentation (expérimentation)

The conducting of activities that seek to first explore, then test and compare the effects and impacts of policies and interventions in order to inform evidence-based decision-making, and improve outcomes for Canadians, by learning what works, for whom and in what circumstances. Experimentation is related to, but distinct from innovation (the trying of new things), because it involves a rigorous comparison of results. For example, using a new website to communicate with Canadians can be an innovation; systematically testing the new website against existing outreach tools or an old website to see which one leads to more engagement, is experimentation.

full-time equivalent (équivalent temps plein)

A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person-year charge against a departmental budget. For a particular position, the full-time equivalent figure is the ratio of number of hours the person actually works divided by the standard number of hours set out in the person's collective agreement.

gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS Plus])

An analytical tool used to support the development of responsive and inclusive policies, programs and other initiatives; and understand how factors such as sex, race, national and ethnic origin, Indigenous origin or identity, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic conditions, geography, culture and disability, impact experiences and outcomes, and can affect access to and experience of government programs.

government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)

For the purpose of the 2021–22 Departmental Results Report, government-wide priorities refers to those high-level themes outlining the government's agenda in the 2020 Speech from the Throne, namely: Protecting Canadians from COVID‑19; Helping Canadians through the pandemic; Building back better – a resiliency agenda for the middle class; The Canada we're fighting for.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

An initiative where two or more federal organizations are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.

non-budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)

Net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.

performance (rendement)

What an organization did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the organization intended to achieve, and how well lessons learned have been identified.

performance indicator (indicateur de rendement)

A qualitative or quantitative means of measuring an output or outcome, with the intention of gauging the performance of an organization, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.

performance reporting (production de rapports sur le rendement)

The process of communicating evidence-based performance information. Performance reporting supports decision making, accountability and transparency.

plan (plan)

The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how an organization intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally, a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead to the expected result.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)

For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in Main Estimates.

A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.

program (programme)

Individual or groups of services, activities or combinations thereof that are managed together within the department and focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.

program inventory (répertoire des programmes)

Identifies all the department's programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department's core responsibilities and results.

result (résultat)

A consequence attributed, in part, to an organization, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single organization, policy, program or initiative; instead they are within the area of the organization's influence.

statutory expenditures (dépenses Statutory)

Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.

target (cible)

A measurable performance or success level that an organization, program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period. Targets can be either quantitative or qualitative.

voted expenditures (dépenses votées)

Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an appropriation act. The vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.

Contact us Subscribe to the GCLearning newsletter

---

Features

Learning Day – Government of Canada’s Project Management Community: Project Delivery in a Changing World (TRN3-E13)

(February 11, 2025)

GC Data Conference 2025: Empowering Insight and Action (DDN3-E45)

(February 19 and 20, 2025)

Video series: Deputy Minister Leadership Reflections

Follow:

• Twitter
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• GCLearning newsletter
• RSS