Public Services and Procurement Canada
Operating context and results at a glance: 2019 to 2020 Departmental Results Report

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What funds were used

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC)'s actual spending (authorities used) for 2019 to 2020: $3,828,687,376

Who was involved

PSPC's actual full-time equivalents for 2019 to 2020: 15,984

Operating context

PSPC plays a key enabling role in the daily operations of the Government of Canada as a provider of goods and services that help federal departments and agencies meet their mandated objectives. Our fundamental values of respect, integrity, excellence, and leadership guide the way we support the government, our people, and our communities.

With close to 16,000 employees across the country, and offices located in communities from coast to coast to coast, we manage an annual budget of over $4 billion. PSPC operations are vast, given our roles, such as:

We are experts in a wide variety of fields, from professional purchasers to translators, from accountants to banking experts, and from architects and engineers to sustainable development experts. Our people manage a variety of programs and services and are our greatest asset.

In line with the government-wide Policy on Results, PSPC's Departmental Results Framework outlines 5 core responsibilities:

Within these, priorities for 2019 to 2020 were identified in the 2019 to 2020 Departmental Plan to guide our efforts.
The department made progress in fulfilling mandate commitments and key initiatives in support of Government of Canada priorities and delivering results to Canadians. More information on mandate commitments can be found in the minister's mandate letter.

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak to be a global pandemic. PSPC responded quickly to launch a significant and sustained effort to provide critical and essential services in support of the Government of Canada and Canadians, such as the procurement of supplies and equipment to protect the health and safety of Canadians.

Results at a glance

Table 1: Purchase of goods and services
Key priorities for 2019 to 2020 Achievements
Continue working towards a world-class, accessible procurement system that drives value for money while advancing government socio-economic objectives, simplifying the procurement system for suppliers and client departments and delivering better results for Canadians. One of the department's primary goals is to make the procurement process less burdensome for both suppliers and government buyers through digital technologies, open data, and agile, iterative and innovative approaches. PSPC's various procurement modernization efforts continue to create efficiencies and simplicity in the procurement process while achieving the Government of Canada's green and socio-economic goals.
Advance the implementation of the electronic procurement solution, a web-based platform to make it faster and easier for suppliers to do business with the Government of Canada, and for departments and agencies to procure the goods and services they need to deliver their programs. PSPC has made great strides in the implementation of the electronic procurement solution, successfully achieving an important milestone in March 2020 that allows suppliers to centrally register and maintain their profile within the platform. The electronic procurement solution will shift the focus away from administering paper-based and burdensome processes, enabling digital services to deliver better outcomes for Canadians.
Remain focused on ensuring the women and men of the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Coast Guard get the equipment and services they need, through Canada's defence policy: Strong, Secure, Engaged and the National Shipbuilding Strategy. Key advancements of major defence and marine procurements included the release of the request for proposals for the replacement of Canada's CF-18 fighter jets, which occurred in July 2019, the award of a contract to acquire 360 armoured combat support vehicles to supplement the Canadian Armed Forces' existing platform, and the launch of a competitive process to select a third strategic partner shipyard under the National Shipbuilding Strategy.
Accept delivery of the first and second offshore fisheries science vessels and the first Arctic and offshore patrol ships. The first 2 offshore fisheries science vessels, the Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Sir John Franklin and the Canadian Coast Guard Services Captain Jacques Cartier, were delivered to the Canadian Coast Guard. Sea trials began for the first Arctic and offshore atrol ship, the Halifax-class modernization ship (HCMS) Harry DeWolf, and the second ship, the HCMS Margaret Brooke, was launched.
Increase the participation in federal procurement of Indigenous peoples and under-represented supplier groups, such as women, persons with disabilities, and visible minorities, through outreach activities.

PSPC continued to leverage federal procurement to support Indigenous businesses by increasingly incorporating requirements for benefits for Indigenous Peoples and businesses. In collaboration with Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and Indigenous Services Canada, PSPC also continued encouraging federal departments to find ways to increase the value of contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses.

To increase the diversity of bidders on government contracts, PSPC's Office of Small and Medium Enterprises has increased its outreach activities to target under-represented businesses across Canada, and is collaborating with organizations such as Women Business Enterprises Canada.
Table 2: Payments and accounting
Key priorities for 2019 to 2020 Achievements
Prioritize work towards the stabilization of pay administration across the Government of Canada through implementation of the Human Resource (HR)-to-Pay Integrated Plan. PSPC will continue to implement a comprehensive set of activities that will contribute to the government's capacity to process and issue pay accurately and on-time. Restoring employee trust in their pay is our ultimate outcome.

In 2019 to 2020, PSPC improved its capacity, productivity and efficiency in pay administration. One of the most significant projects was the roll-out of the pay pod service delivery model, completed in May 2019.

Progress has been made on reducing the queue of pay transactions over the course of the fiscal year. Beyond keeping up with new intake and implementing new collective agreements, the department managed to reduce the number of cases waiting to be processed at the Pay Centre queue by 78,000, representing an 18% decrease, for a total reduction of 14,000 employees with a case in the queue.

Significant progress has been made on system improvements since Phoenix launched in 2016. In 2019 to 2020, PSPC continued to make system changes, fixes and enhancements to improve functionality for clients and added system automations to reduce the need for manual interventions.

MyGCPay, a self-service web application, was launched across government to give employees better clarity on their pay and benefits, which is helping to restore confidence in their pay.
Continue to meet service standards for service delivery to pension plan members with payments being subject to verification and quality assurance processes to ensure accuracy and timeliness. All service levels for service delivery to plan members were met during the year. Pension payments are subject to a rigid verification and quality assurance process that ensures they are made accurately. As Canada's largest pension administrator serving more than 904,000 active and retired members, PSPC issued over 4.9 million pension payments valued at $13.7 billion in 2019 to 2020.
Continue to maintain the general ledger of the Government of Canada, also known as Accounts of Canada, to produce government wide financial reports, and provide advice, guidance and instructions to departments and agencies on accounting and reporting matters.

The Receiver General continues to be among the world leaders in terms of government accounting. For the 21st consecutive year, the consolidated financial statements of the Government of Canada received an unmodified audit opinion from the Auditor General.

Again this year, PSPC published all formats of the Accounts of Canada simultaneously exceeding the 6 weeks target, and allowing Canadians with disabilities to access reliable information at the same time as all other stakeholders, contributing to a more responsive, accessible and transparent government.

An innovative project to automate the production of the Public Accounts and the monthly statement of financial operations was undertaken. A proof of concept for robotic process automation was successfully completed. This technology can replicate high volume, repetitive tasks from manual business processes while improving process accuracy, increasing productivity and speed, therefore enabling employees to focus on more value-added, judgement driven tasks.
Table 3: Property and infrastructure
Key priorities for 2019 to 2020 Achievements
Continue to lead, in collaboration with the Industry Government Working Group, Acquisitions Branch and Justice Canada, the development of effective prompt payment legislation and complete the 14-point action plan. Prompt payment legislation was tabled in the House of Commons as part of the Budget Implementation Act on April 8, 2019 and received royal assent on June 21, 2019. A 14-point action plan was developed and 10 actions have been completed to date, including the recommendation that legislation be enacted to ensure prompt payment at all levels of the construction supply chain.
Support Employment and Social Development Canada and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in the new Federal Lands Initiative, by providing real property expertise in the review and approval of suitable properties and participating in the governance of the initiative. PSPC continued to support work with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) on the Federal Lands Initiative by providing real property expertise to the review and approval of suitable properties for redevelopment to support affordable housing and participating in the governance of the Federal Lands Initiative. PSPC provided disposal related services that facilitates the transfer of properties to the affordable housing proponents. In 2019 to 2020, PSPC contributed 15 properties to the Federal Lands Initiative to be assessed by CMHC for suitability for affordable housing, for a total of 75 since the inception of the program in 2018.
Address the greening goals identified in the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change by ensuring that real property projects integrate sustainable development, energy reduction, and greenhouse gas reduction into the planning and delivery of work. PSPC has reduced its operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 58.1% for the year 2019 to 2020, compared to 2005 base year levels, surpassing the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy 2030 target of 40%. The department is targeting carbon neutrality by 2030. In order to achieve its goal of a carbon-neutral portfolio, PSPC updated a national carbon neutral portfolio plan and an associated asset level implementation tool. PSPC also updated a GHG emissions options analysis tool to incorporate GHG emission reduction into project investment decisions.
Advance the government's vision for science, promoting scientific excellence with an ambitious whole-of-government plan to rebuild federal laboratories as a sustainable, multi-purpose, collaborative portfolio to deliver world-class science in support of decision-making. The goal of this 25-year strategy is to provide federal scientists with leading-edge facilities, modern information management and information technology systems, greater access to common tools and reduced policy barriers. These 4 pillars will facilitate collaborations that enhance science excellence, enabling federal scientists to continue the important work they do on behalf of Canadians. In 2019 to 2020, PSPC has fully launched the Laboratories Canada Strategy and made significant advancements across this transformative horizontal initiative. This includes the award of contracts key to implementation valued at approximately $250 million to address science program needs and replace deteriorated federal facilities with world-class, collaborative, accessible, and sustainable science facilities. Site selection analysis was also finalized for several new facilities in the National Capital Area and work continues to develop custodianship and operating models to fund the ongoing maintenance and operation of the facilities.
Improve the accessibility of federal buildings. An initial focus will be on the evaluation of current building accessibility, followed by work to ensure the removal of physical barriers. PSPC will also pilot accessible shared office spaces, known as GCcoworking locations, as part of its modernization of government workplaces. PSPC is mandated to perform technical accessibility assessments on a portion of its Crown-owned and leased assets portfolio from 2019 to 2024, aligned with the new 2018 Canadian Standards Association for Accessibility. Assessments began in late summer 2019, with a total of 24 buildings assessed. Central to the Accessible Government Built Environment Initiative is consultation with networks and organizations representing persons with disabilities, and collaboration among federal departments. Key stakeholders from the private sector have also been involved in defining the ‘above and beyond' criteria of accessibility.
Launch the planning phase to rehabilitate the remaining Crown assets within the Parliamentary Precinct; prepare for the complete overhaul of the existing Centre Block to extend the lifecycle of the building well into the 21st century; and leverage the remaining assets in the precinct to address immediate and long-term accommodation requirements for Parliament.

PSPC continues to implement the Long Term Vision and Plan (LTVP) for the rehabilitation and modernization of Canada's Parliamentary Precinct. In 2019 to 2020, the department focused on the historic restoration of the Centre Block, undertaking and completing important enabling work, informing schematic design, as well as facilitating the commencement of demolition and abatement on the building. PSPC also initiated excavation activities in support of the phase 2 Visitor Welcome Centre. In addition, PSPC launched the planning phase to rehabilitate the 23 remaining Crown assets in the Parliamentary Precinct approaching critical failure. To guide this planning phase, PSPC launched an update to the precinct LTVP which shifts from a building-by building approach to one focused on delivering an integrated campus for Parliament. This update will enable the department to incorporate evolving conditions and requirements, take advantage of arising opportunities and ensure the LTVP reflects current government and parliamentary priorities. The LTVP update will guide decision making about future growth, development, rehabilitation and infrastructure with the underlying objective of building an integrated, modern, secure, connected, accessible and sustainable parliamentary campus.

Throughout 2019 to 2020, PSPC also continued the planning and preparation to restore and modernize the aging and underutilized assets along Sparks and Wellington streets (known as blocks 1, 2 and 3) as these will provide the swing space necessary to continue the restoration of the critical assets such as East Block and Confederation Building. This work began with block 2, leveraging an innovative design competition to be launched in 2020 to 2021, developed in partnership with the parliamentary partners, the National Capital Commission, the University of Montreal and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
Table 4: Government-wide support
Key priorities for 2019 to 2020 Achievements
Implement the Translation Bureau's quality evaluation framework to improve the linguistic quality of services. In order to enhance its capacity to deliver timely, cost effective and quality services, the Translation Bureau will continue to research and experiment with artificial intelligence and determine its applicability and future feasibility for integration into the translation workflow.

In 2019 to 2020, PSPC initiated the implementation of a new business model for linguistic services along with the testing of a new platform for end-to-end translation, terminology and interpretation services called GClingua. PSPC conducted several successful projects in collaboration with participating client departments to pilot the integration of neural machine translation and with assigned translators. PSPC offered over 150 workshops to its language professionals, including mandatory training on quality control and neural machine translation.

PSPC made significant strides towards ensuring linguistic quality; a quality evaluation framework was developed for interpretation in official languages, a report on the quality evaluation framework for the translation in official languages was published in July 2019 and the first annual Quality Evaluation Report was published in January 2020. Furthermore, in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada, PSPC conducted testing on various devices to support quality remote interpretation.

A new open contracting process for interpretation was implemented, following a lengthy consultation process with representatives of the freelance interpreter community. Moreover, through community outreach, PSPC increased and diversified its supply of Indigenous language services.
Modernize the way public servants travel for business by developing a new service model for government travel and reengineering existing processes through the Next Generation Travel Program. The department will engage all public servants around the country and use feedback to improve user experience. The Next Generation (NextGen) Travel Program has continued its work to modernize the way public servants travel for business and improve the user experience. In 2019 to 2020, NextGen travel engaged over 100 public servant clients in targeted design thinking workshops in addition to the 750 users engaged in the previous year. For example, 2 innovation labs with public servants with disabilities were held as a start to ensuring that the future service model is designed with accessibility at the forefront. As well, 7 co-creation workshops with stakeholders and users took place to develop service design blueprints which will serve as the basis of a new service model for government travel. A pilot was held and prototypes developed with the objective of reengineering existing government travel processes to improve the user experience while ensuring sound stewardship of government travel funds.
Examine the Contract Security and Controlled Goods Programs to reflect an evolving external threat environment, and develop a more client-focussed delivery approach to safeguard sensitive and strategic government information and assets accessed by the private sector.

In 2019 to 2020, PSPC Contract Security Program engaged with security and intelligence departments and agencies to leverage their expertise in support of its programs. This engagement explored policy options, raised awareness and sought common solutions to sustain the department's contribution to the national security framework. This collaboration will help to eliminate duplication of efforts among government departments, increase portability of security clearances, and ensure consistency in the Government of Canada's security measures.

The PSPC Controlled Goods Program established, reinstated and further developed stakeholder and client engagement mechanisms to inform continuous improvement of the program. For example, the Controlled Goods Program's industry engagement committee was reinstated in Spring 2019. As well, the program continues to develop elaborate risk-based approaches to deliver on targeted program enhancements with a focus on process improvements and risk mitigation.
Table 5: Procurement Ombudsman
Key priorities for 2019 to 2020 Achievements
Review the procurement practices of federal organizations to promote fairness, openness and transparency. The Office of the Procurement Ombudsman (OPO) completed 2 reviews that were launched in 2018 to 2019, and launched 2 more in 2019 to 2020. The procurement practice review reports are available on the Office of the Procurement Ombudsman website.
Review complaints from Canadian suppliers and make recommendations for the improvement of federal procurement practices. In 2019 to 2020, OPO had 4 complaints filed in accordance with the Procurement Ombudsman Regulations and thus launched 4 formal reviews. Of these reviews, one was launched and completed, 2 will be completed in early 2020 to 2021 in accordance with legislative timelines, and the other was launched and subsequently terminated, as required by the Procurement Ombudsman Regulations, when the department cancelled the contract.
Provide low-cost alternative dispute resolution services which offer an opportunity for suppliers and federal organizations to come together in a neutral setting with the purpose of finding solutions, preserving business relationships and avoiding costly litigation.

If a contractual dispute or any other issue arises between suppliers and federal officials, OPO seeks to help resolve the matter as quickly and informally as possible. If an issue is not resolved informally, OPO offers alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services.

In 2019 to 2020, OPO received a total of 9 requests for ADR services. One of these requests remains open and will be carried forward into the next fiscal year. Additionally, OPO also resolved 1 ADR process that had been launched in a previous fiscal year.
Share procurement-related information amongst federal organizations and Canadian suppliers to promote simplicity and transparency in the federal procurement process. In 2019 to 2020, OPO substantially completed 3 studies: late payments, social procurement and emergency procurement, which will be available on OPO's website in 2020 to 2021. OPO further exchanged information with stakeholders by presenting at, and participating in, multiple procurement conferences and events across the country. Additionally, in March 2020, OPO hosted its second Diversifying the Federal Supply Chain Summit in Toronto. This event attracted nearly 350 registrants from the Greater Toronto Area and across Canada.

For more information on Public Services and Procurement Canada's plans, priorities and results achieved, consult the “Results: What we achieved” section of this report.

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