Canadian Centre of Occupational Health and Safety’s 2024-25 Departmental plan

Description

The goal of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety is to provide easy access to credible information on occupational health and safety to help workers in Canada be safe at work, and support employers, labour groups and governments in their efforts to create healthy and safe workplaces. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, as a national institute, provides impartial information through various free and for fee bilingual products and services. Workers and employers in Canada can access a free, confidential service to have their health and safety questions answered personally via telephone, e-mail, person-to-person, fax or mail. In addition, a broad range of online and print resources are offered which support safety and health information needs of workers and workplaces in Canada. Products and services may be financially supported through cost recovery efforts, contributions from the Government of Canada and contributions from other stakeholders.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety collects, evaluates, creates and publishes authoritative information resources on occupational health and safety for the benefit of the working population in Canada. This information is used for education and training, research, development of policy and best practices, improvement of health and safety programs, achieving compliance, and for personal use. When the product or service provided by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety is offered to stakeholders such as individuals, groups, and organizations within Canada and abroad with benefits beyond those enjoyed by the general public, the product or service becomes part of the cost-recovery program and a fee is charged.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety promotes and facilitates consultation and cooperation among federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions and participation by labour, employers and other stakeholders in order to assist in the establishment and maintenance of high standards and occupational health and safety initiatives for the Canadian context. The sharing of resources results in the coordinated and mutually beneficial development of unique programs, products and services. Collaborative projects are usually supported with a combination of financial and non-financial contributions to the programs by partners and stakeholders and result in advancement of the health and safety initiatives.

Quality of life impacts

This core responsibility contributes to the “Healthy people”, “Employment and job quality”, “Safety and security”, and “Environment and people” domains of the Quality of Life Framework for Canada and, more specifically, “Self-rated mental health”, “Job satisfaction”, “Personal safety” and “Climate change adaptation” through all of the activities mentioned in the core responsibility description.

Results and targets

The following tables show, for each departmental result related to National Occupational Health and Safety Resource, the indicators, the results from the three most recently reported fiscal years, the targets and target dates approved in 2024–25.

Plans to achieve results

CCOHS is dedicated to the advancement of workplace health and safety in Canada. CCOHS does this by providing information and knowledge transfer services; education through e-learning; cost-effective tools and management systems for improving occupational health and safety programs and performance; injury and illness prevention initiatives; and by promoting the total well-being – physical, psychosocial and mental health – of working people in Canada.

For fiscal year 2024-25, CCOHS will focus its efforts on addressing the departmental results as defined by its Departmental Results Framework as well as priorities identified in the new strategic plan:

1. Show national leadership on health and safety issues and be the go-to experts for health and safety guidance;
2. Demonstrate service excellence by simplifying and streamlining processes and enhancing client service delivery;
3. Achieve responsible growth by growing CCOHS’ reach and impact and reinvesting to develop new and innovative products and services.

Priority 1: Show national leadership on health and safety issues and be the go-to experts for health and safety guidance.

CCOHS will partner with relevant organizations to develop guidance, and informational and educational content and services in plain language, in a variety of formats that promote positive mental health, chemical safety and prevention of occupational disease and ergonomic injuries. CCOHS will explore the intersectionality of psychological health and safety and harassment, bullying, and violence with human rights, gender, and diversity, as well as the impacts of climate change. Focus will be on producing guidance that addresses the concerns of workers with vulnerabilities including newcomers, young and new workers, gig workers and include gender-based concerns, and the changing nature of work. CCOHS will strengthen our accessibility efforts to reach other-abled people through close captions, transcripts, and American Sign Language (ASL), where possible. In the coming year, CCOHS will provide leadership to stakeholders on emerging health and safety issues by facilitating knowledge exchange and promoting positive change in workplaces.

Priority 2: Demonstrate service excellence by simplifying and streamlining processes and enhancing client service delivery.

CCOHS is committed to offering an improved client experience. CCOHS will continue to focus on robust and secure IT infrastructure to support service delivery of all its web-based offerings. Client facing processes will be optimized to eliminate barriers and complexity and implement a continuous improvement approach across the organization to further enhance the level of service. CCOHS will enhance our decision-making capabilities by collecting and analysing metrics and analytics to inform its work. CCOHS will continue to develop its gateway to information that can be used to shape programs and policy that will lead to improvements in the workplace and workplace practices.

Priority 3: Achieve responsible growth by growing CCOHS’ reach and impact and reinvesting to develop new and innovative products and services.

During the recent pandemic, CCOHS was a primary go-to resource, working with federal government agencies to develop sector specific guidance documents and tools to disseminate invaluable information and meet the needs of the working population. CCOHS will continue to build on this increased profile to secure funding and revenue generating opportunities to provide further financial security for the Centre.

Growth will enable the continued collaboration with governments and like-minded organizations, unions, and employers across Canada, so that CCOHS can create e-courses, add content to topic-specific microsites, produce tools, and host events to spread prevention messages and good practices. CCOHS will deliver tools, services and solutions that meet the health and safety needs of small and medium-sized businesses; Indigenous enterprises; and workers at higher risk. CCOHS will focus prevention efforts to address hazards in priority sectors including healthcare, government agencies and public administration, and community services. CCOHS will develop new and innovative products and services to meet the needs of workplaces and workers in Canada.

Key risks

CCOHS relies heavily on cost recovery programs and contributions from partners to supplement its parliamentary appropriations and cover fixed costs. The CCOHS funding model is based upon a target of 50% of its operating budget being generated through cost recovery. Therefore, CCOHS’ products and services must be continually updated to be marketable. Continuous improvement in technology continues to change the landscape for CCOHS.

CCOHS delivers most of its products and services to workers in Canada through electronic delivery and must stay up to date on new technology as traditional delivery methods for its content are unsustainable and out-dated, resulting in a risk of client and revenue attrition.

CCOHS must also ensure that it is adequately protected against increasing threat from unauthorized exploitation of systems, networks and technologies. Such threats can have significant impact to CCOHS’ operations and ability to safely conduct business transactions. CCOHS maintains sufficient levels of investment in technology required to support continuous improvements in its on-line resource delivery channels and to protect against cyber-security risks.

To continue to provide relevant leadership training and support to workers in Canada on emerging occupational health and safety issues, CCOHS relies heavily on maintaining a high level of professional development of its staff. Lack of properly directed investment in talent management will have a significant impact on the ability of CCOHS to perform optimally in the research and timely delivery of relevant products and services on topics which may quickly become areas of concern for workers both in Canada and globally.

Related government priorities

Program inventory

National Occupational Health and Safety Resource is supported by the following programs:

• Occupational health and safety information and services

Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to CCOHS’ program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Description

Internal services are the services that are provided within a department so that it can meet its corporate obligations and deliver its programs. There are 10 categories of internal services:

• management and oversight services
• communications services
• legal services
• human resources management services
• financial management services
• information management services
• information technology services
• real property management services
• materiel management services
• acquisition management services

Plans to achieve results

Internal Services at CCOHS continue working to achieve the priorities in the Strategic Plan, specifically Priority 4: Achieve an employee experience that consistently models CCOHS values and health and safety excellence. To achieve this, CCOHS has set the following goals:

1. To improve the overall working experience of its employees. This improvement will be accomplished with the continued focus on CCOHS' corporate values along with the alignment of its performance management system to further support these values. A continued emphasis will be encouraged to foster open communication and consistent and equal treatment of staff across the organization.
2. To implement an internal framework for diversity and inclusion focused on recruitment strategies that increase social, racial, gender and cultural diversity in the workplace.

In addition, Internal Services will focus on the following goals:

1. To continue enhancing its cost recovery program to support the strategic outcomes of the organization. A successful cost recovery program is imperative to ensure the sustainability of CCOHS operations.
2. To further service excellence by streamlining processes and enhancing decision-making capabilities through metrics and analytics.
3. To continue the implementation of the 2023-2027 Strategic Plan and further CCOHS' national leadership on occupational health and safety issues being the go-to experts for health and safety guidance. CCOHS will continue to align its human resources to support and service these national initiatives.
4. To continue to refresh and reinvest in its Information Technology infrastructure to ensure CCOHS continues to meet the ongoing needs of its stakeholders while continually enhancing its protection against cyber-security risks.
5. To continue investing in a digital transformation of how CCOHS delivers its services in support of its Strategic Plan and in alignment with the government direction on delivering digital services to the public.

Related government priorities

Table 5: Actual spending summary for core responsibilities and internal services ($ dollars)

The following table shows information on spending for each of CCOHS’ core responsibilities and for its internal services for the previous three fiscal years. Amounts for the current fiscal year are forecasted based on spending to date.

Table 6: Budgetary planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)

The following table shows information on spending for each of CCOHS’ core responsibilities and for its internal services for the upcoming three fiscal years.

Estimates by vote

Information on CCOHS’ organizational appropriations is available in the 2024–25 Main Estimates.

Table 7: Future-oriented condensed statement of operations for the year ending March 31, 2025 (dollars)

Table 8: Actual human resources for core responsibilities and internal services

The following table shows a summary of human resources, in full-time equivalents (FTEs), for CCOHS’ core responsibilities and for its internal services for the previous three fiscal years. Human resources for the current fiscal year are forecasted based on year to date.

Table 9: Human resources planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services

The following table shows information on human resources, in full-time equivalents (FTEs), for each of CCOHS’ core responsibilities and for its internal services planned for 2024–25 and future years.