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1. Mandate and RoleThe Treasury Board is a committee of the
Queen’s Privy Council for Canada. The Board consists of the President of the Treasury
Board, the Minister of Finance, and five other Ministers appointed by the Governor in
Council. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS, or the Secretariat) is the
administrative arm of the Treasury Board. It is headed by a Secretary–Comptroller
General, who reports to the President of the Treasury Board.
The Secretariat has a mandate to support the Treasury Board as a committee of
Ministers, to support the President and his office, and to fulfil the statutory
responsibilities of a central agency within government. It does this by providing programs
that carry out the legislated responsibilities of the Treasury Board. These
responsibilities come from the broad authority of the Financial Administration Act, as
well as from several other Acts: the Public Service Staff Relations Act; the Public
Service Superannuation Act; the Official Languages Act; the Employment Equity
Act; the Canadian Human Rights Act, the Federal Real Property Act; and the Public Service
Employment Act. The responsibilities under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy
Act rest with the President of the Treasury Board as Minister.
The role of TBS is to ensure continuous improvement in how the federal Government
manages its resources to achieve its objectives. Its role includes providing advice,
guidance and support to departments to help them meet their accountabilities. It also
gives advice and support to Treasury Board Ministers in the development of a
whole-government view, sets strategic directions and intervenes as necessary to achieve
government objectives. The Secretariat is responsible for three separate programs: the
Central Administration of the Public Service Program; Government Contingencies and
Centrally Financed Programs; and the Employer Contributions to Insurance Plans Program.
The Secretariat’s business lines and priorities are published in the TBS Report on
Plans and Priorities.
2) Recource Planning and Expendeture Management
The government uses the Expenditure Management System (EMS) to establish spending
priorities. The Secretariat supports the Treasury Board by making recommendations on the
allocation of approximately $50 billion in direct program expenditures encompassing
three areas: operating and capital budgets of government departments and agencies;
payments to dependent Crown corporations; and transfer payments to organizations,
individuals and corporations.
For example, the Secretariat:
- makes recommendations to the Treasury Board on allocating the Governments financial
resources in light of government priorities, fiscal targets and results achieved;
- develops and maintains accountability frameworks within which Parliament approves
resources and in light of which departments and agencies report on their use;
- prepares Estimates (Main and Supplementary) and Appropriation Bills, thereby
coordinating the process whereby the government obtains funds from Parliament;
- monitors the implementation of approved policies and programs, and advises the Treasury
Board on success in achieving intended results;
- advises the Treasury Board President, in his role as a member of Cabinet, on the
resource implications of new government policy and project initiatives while promoting
innovative management and increased efficiency and effectiveness in delivering programs;
- provides analysis and recommendations to the Treasury Board on departmental business
plans and Crown corporation corporate plans and budgets; and
- promotes regulatory reform across the Government.
Existing legislation provides ongoing spending authority for the remaining government
expenditures, which include major transfer programs such as Employment Insurance, elderly
benefits, provincial equalization payments, and the Canada Health and Social Transfer, as
well as public debt charges.
b) Service and Innovation
The new Sector of the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS), Service & Innovation, came
into being in May 1998 with the mandate to focus on government-wide approaches to
improving services to Canadians. It provide leadership for government-wide initiatives,
and, as it evolves, will become a major policy centre of TBS: a centre of expertise, a
leader, and a catalyst for public sector innovation in the delivery of programs and
services.
The new structure includes all the key strategic elements needed to work out a
government-wide strategy centred on citizens’ needs for improved service delivery,
including:
- Leadership for the Sector’s mandate provided through the Assistant Secretary’s
Office (including Visiting ADM/Special Advisor, Advisor/Working Groups, Research Program,
and Visiting Professor);
- Innovation and Quality Services Division provides leadership for continuous improvement
of service and organizational effectiveness;
- Alternative Service Delivery Division provides leadership of alternative service
delivery options, including single-window service delivery;
- Crown Corporation Policy & Information Division manages the accountability framework
for Crown Corporations and the policy issues that effect them;
- International Programs Unit leads the TBS’s international activities and
relationship;
- Federal Regional Councils’ Secretariat liaises among the ten Councils and between
the Councils and Central Agencies; and
- Planning & Integration Group provides support to the Assistant Secretary, manages
horizontal files and develops strategic tools related to the good functioning of the
Sector.
The Sector’s challenge will be to develop innovative and integrated approaches to
service delivery, improve access to government services, reduce red tape, and strengthen
accountability for performance in these areas. These priorities reflect the service
priorities of Canadian citizens. An immediate challenge will be to assist the federal
government to provide more convenient and integrated front-end services to Canadians, (a
proposal for a "Service Canada" initiative), a priority strongly endorsed by
Treasury Board Ministers in May 1998.
c) Comptrollership
The Treasury Board Secretariat has responsibility for traditional comptrollership
functions such as financial, contract, material and property management, accounting,
review, internal audit and program evaluation. The Secretariat is also responsible for
implementing modern comptrollership across the Government.
The Secretariat:
- ensures and facilitates the implementation of the recommendations of the Independent
Review Panel on the Modernization of Comptrollership through a Comptrollership
Modernization Office that helps departments and agencies with their modernization effort;
- provides leadership in financial management, contract management, risk management,
materiel management and real property management, and encourages innovative and responsive
approaches to enable all interested stakeholders to best achieve their objectives; and
- provides leadership in embedding results-oriented performance management principles and
values in departments and agencies to: identify key expected results, improve measurement
of performance and related costs, and improve reporting of results-based financial and
non-financial performance information.
d) Information Technology and Information Management
TBS provides leadership, co-ordination and broad direction in the use of information
technology across government. Working in collaboration with departments, TBS facilitates
enterprise-wide solutions to horizontal information technology and information management
issues. It is from this vantage point that the TBS serves as technology strategist and
expert advisor to Treasury Board Ministers and senior officials across government.
The Secretariat focuses in three areas: infrastructure, service to the information
technology community, and innovation. The increasing reliance on information technology in
government, as well as the greater interdependence between government departments, and
even different levels of governments, requires cooperation and partnerships to work across
the system, clearing away obstacles to effective collaboration. With the Year 2000 looming
large, the top infrastructure priority at this time is solving the Year 2000 date problem.
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