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The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) is Canada's national resource for the advancement of workplace health and safety. CCOHS promotes the total well-being - physical, psychosocial and mental health - of working Canadians by providing information, training, education, and management systems and solutions that support health and safety programs and the prevention of injury and illness.
As Minister of Labour, I am proud to present the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety's (CCOHS) Report on Plans and Priorities for 2013-2014.
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) was created to provide reliable and practical occupational health and safety information to assist Canadian employers and workers to be productive, healthy and safe at work. CCOHS partners and collaborates with agencies and organizations from Canada and around the world to improve the quality and quantity of resources and programs, as well as expand the breadth of usage of OSH information to many different segments of society. As such, CCOHS is renowned internationally and at home, as an innovative, authoritative occupational health and safety resource.
The fundamental right of all Canadians to a healthy and safe workplace is the cornerstone of CCOHS' mandate. By working together, we can make great strides to improve workplace health and safety standards and ensure that every working Canadian comes home healthy and safe.
The Honourable Lisa Raitt, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Labour
Raison d’être
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety was founded by an Act of Parliament in 1978 with a mandate to promote health and safety in the workplace and to enhance the physical and mental health of working people.
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) operates under the legislative authority of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Act S.C., 1977-78, c. 29 which was passed by unanimous vote in the Canadian Parliament. The purpose of this Act is to promote the fundamental right of Canadians to a healthy and safe working environment by creating a national institute (CCOHS) concerned with the study, encouragement and co-operative advancement of occupational health and safety.
CCOHS is Canada's national occupational health and safety resource which is dedicated to the advancement of occupational health and safety performance by providing necessary services including information and knowledge transfer; training and education; cost-effective tools for improving occupational health and safety performance; management systems services supporting health and safety programs; injury and illness prevention initiatives and promoting the total well-being – physical, psychosocial and mental health - of working people. The Centre was created to provide a common focus for, and coordination of, information in the area of occupational health and safety.
CCOHS functions as an independent departmental corporation under Schedule II of the Financial Administration Act and is accountable to Parliament through the Minister of Labour. Its funding is derived from a combination of appropriations, cost recoveries and collaboration with the provinces. It is expected that 50% of the budget will be funded through cost recoveries from the creation, production, and worldwide sales of fee-for-service and revenue generating occupational health and safety products and services.
CCOHS is a recognized leader in providing effective programs, products and services, which are based on the centre's core knowledge, its collection of occupational health and safety information, and its application of information management technologies.
CCOHS is governed by a tripartite council representing governments (federal, provincial and territorial), employers, and labour organizations. The Council of Governors assists in overseeing a policy framework for a trustworthy and complete occupational health and safety service, and ensures that the information CCOHS disseminates is unbiased. Our key stakeholders are directly involved in the policy, governance and strategic planning for the organization. They also assist with reviews of programs and services to help ensure that our information is impartial and relevant. Our inquiries service is supported and funded from contributions provided by provincial and territorial governments.
CCOHS has a broad range of collaborative arrangements with many national and international health and safety organizations. These include the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Pan- American Health Organization (PAHO) the World Health Organization (WHO), North American Occupational Safety and Health Week (NAOSH), European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Health Canada and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Further information on the many partnerships is available at http://www.ccohs.ca/ccohs/partner.html and in our annual report.
Collaborative projects serve many purposes at CCOHS. They are opportunities to enhance our OHS information resources, generate revenues and collaborate with partners worldwide. This collaboration among nations serves to promote the sharing of information and knowledge for social and economic programs relating to health and safety, to reduce injuries and illness, and improve conditions for workers. They also contribute to Canada's role in the world and bring the wealth of global OHS information for use by CCOHS to benefit Canada and to improve the health and safety of Canadians.
1Type is defined as follows: previously committed to—committed to in the first or second fiscal year prior to the subject year of the report; ongoing - committed to at least three fiscal years prior to the subject year of the report; and new - newly committed to in the reporting year of the RPP or DPR.
The major challenge for CCOHS is growing revenues sufficient to finance 50% of our operating budget, develop new products, while also maintaining our mandate of public services. The costs of ongoing product development must be financed from the operating budget so without working capital we increase the time from development to market place. The timeframe between new product development, implementation and ultimately sales is problematic as it generally does not coincide with the fiscal year-end so there is limited opportunity for financing of these initiatives. Costs are expensed as incurred so there are few funds available in the fiscal period for long-term promotion of products and services and free public service programs
CCOHS is also subject to changes in the market place such as technological change, the life cycle of products and the availability of free information on the Internet. These changes make it difficult to sustain growth.
CCOHS is a Schedule II department and has administrative responsibilities that are not always conducive to generating revenues. For example, CCOHS has limited working capital to finance accounts receivable or inventories that are carried on its balance sheet. In addition, CCOHS also can only carry over limited funds, which makes multi-year planning and product development difficult.
Technology is changing at a fast pace and CCOHS' traditional delivery methods were becoming outdated, so new communications methods and delivery of information where developed to meet these changing needs. CCOHS has expanded its on-line resources to include more specialized web portals, e-learning programs, webinars, podcasts, facebook and twitter promotion and on-line discussion groups. These new communication channels require a balance to provide free public service offerings while also generating sufficient revenues to fund our operating budget.
As CCOHS works nationally and internationally in various partnerships and collaborations, changes with these partners can have direct impact on our revenues and ability to deliver services. The support of our stakeholders is essential to the ongoing success of CCOHS. Changes in other governments and organizations' priorities could have a direct impact on their collaboration with CCOHS. Specifically, these organizations face decreased funding therefore reducing the scope of their external collaborations. Lastly, the voluntary funding provided to CCOHS by provincial and territorial government is at greater risk due to the past year of lowered government revenue, therefore causing governments to reconsider and reduce their financial contributions to CCOHS. Some reduction in voluntary funding has already happened in recent years. Changes in future years can be unpredictable.
In order to plan for employees eligible for retirement, staff have been re-organized into working groups or teams to improve knowledge transfer. New employees need to be trained and fully engaged to ensure a smooth transition during this period of rapid change.
| 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 |
|---|---|---|
| 96 | 96 | 96 |
2 Information on departmental alignment to Government of Canada outcomes is available on the Secretariat's website.
3 Includes one time settlement of severance payments under discontinued severance program
4 Includes one time settlement of severance payments under discontinued severance program
5 Includes one time settlement of severance payments under discontinued severance program $530,475
Departmental Spending Trend
For the year 2009-10 to 2011-12 periods, the total spending includes all Parliamentary appropriations and revenue sources: Main Estimates, Supplementary Estimates, Treasury Board Vote 10, 15 and 23 and respendable revenues. It also includes carry forwards and adjustments. For the 2013-14 to 2015-16 periods, the total spending corresponds to the planned spending and revenues. Supplementary funding and carry forward adjustments are unknown at this point and are therefore not reflected.
CCOHS' funding remains consistent from year to year other than increases for compensations. There have been no increases in funding for compensation in the past two years due to cost containment measures. Fluctuations in funding are primarily due to carry forward amounts and recovery of paylist shortfalls. Spending is impacted by the ability to raise revenues to cover the un-funded portion of the budget.
Estimates by Vote
For information on our organizational appropriations, please see the 2013–14 Main Estimates publication. ii
Description
The goal of this program is to provide free information on occupational health and safety to support Canadians in their efforts to improve workplace safety and health. Citizens are provided information through a free and impartial personalized service via telephone, e-mail, person-to-person, fax or mail. Alternatively, they can independently access a broad range of electronic and print resources developed to support safety and health information needs of Canadians. This may include cost recovery products and services and is supported financially by contributions from various stakeholders.
Through health and safety information development, CCOHS collects, processes, analyzes, evaluates, creates and publishes authoritative information resources on occupational health and safety for the benefit of all working Canadians. This information is used for education and training, research, policy development, development of best practices, improvement of health and safety programs, achieving compliance, and for personal use. When the product or service provided by CCOHS is to identifiable external recipients with benefits beyond those enjoyed by the general taxpayer, a user fee is charged.
CCOHS promotes and facilitates consultation and cooperation among federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions and participation by labour, management and other stakeholders 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.
| 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 |
|---|---|---|
| 73 | 73 | 73 |
This section will contain a discussion of plans surrounding the expected results for our Planning Activity, occupational health and safety information development, delivery services and tripartite collaboration. The discussion will focus on the following expected results:
Planning Highlights
In order to achieve the expected results, CCOHS plans to undertake the following activities:
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; Legal Services; Human Resources Management Services; Financial Management Services; Information Management Services; Information Technology Services; Real Property Services; Material Services; Acquisition Services; and Travel and Other Administrative Services. Internal Services include only those activities and resources that apply across an organization and not to those provided specifically to a program.
| 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 |
|---|---|---|
| 23 | 23 | 23 |
Planning Highlights
Plans for the year include follow-up activities as a result of our employee engagement survey. We will continue with our business planning process to engage employees and prepare them for new roles through participation in cross departmental working groups. This will increase their skills in anticipation of many retirements in the next few years.
Our second goal is to improve the overall working experience. This includes working on performance management, open communications, consistent and equal treatment of staff across the organization. This will also include incentives and rewards, based on established performance standards criteria.
We will continue to review our IT resources and strategy to ensure adequate hardware and software to meet the ongoing needs of CCOHS. This will include a review of systems that will improve workflow.
The future oriented financial highlights presented within this RPP are intended to serve as a general overview of CCOHS' financial position and operations. These future-oriented financial highlights are prepared on an accrual basis to strengthen accountability and improve transparency and financial management.
Future –oriented financial statements can be found on CCOHS' website at: http://www.ccohs.ca/ccohs/reports/other_reports.html
Future-Oriented Financial Statements
The Future-Oriented Financial Statements are located at: http://www.ccohs.ca/ccohs/reports/estimates_rpp.html
List of Supplementary Information Tables
All electronic supplementary information tables found in the 2013–14 Report on Plans and Priorities can be found on CCOHS' website iii :
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 publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures annually in the Tax Expenditure and Evaluation iv publication. The tax measures presented in the Tax Expenditures and Evaluations publication are the sole responsibility of the Minister of Finance.
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Act (R.S. 1985, c. C-13)
The following reports are available at: http://www.ccohs.ca/ccohs/reports.html
Departmental Performance Reports
Program Evaluation and Cost Recovery Study: Assessing the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. 2001
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety – Modern Management Practices Assessment
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety – Modern Comptrollership Action Plan
Customer Satisfaction Research Report, 2004
CCOHS 2005 Program Evaluation and Performance Measurement Study
CCOHS Program Evaluation and Financial Capacity Assessment, 2009
End Notes
i http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/ppg-cpr/descript-eng.aspx#bm02
ii http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/ems-sgd/esp-pbc/me-bpd-eng.asp
iii http://www.ccohs.ca/ccohs/reports/estimates_rpp.html
iv http://www.fin.gc.ca/purl/taxexp-eng.asp
