Appendix A: definitions

Appendix A: 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 document that sets out a department’s priorities, programs, expected results and associated resource requirements, covering a three year period beginning with the year indicated in the title of the report. Departmental Plans are tabled in Parliament each spring.
Departmental Result (résultat ministériel):
A change that a department seeks to influence. 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 factor or variable that provides a valid and reliable means to measure or describe progress on a departmental result.
Departmental Results Framework (cadre ministériel des résultats):
A framework that consists of the department’s core responsibilities, departmental results and departmental result indicators.
Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels):
A report on a department’s actual performance in a fiscal year against its plans, priorities and expected results set out in its Departmental Plan for that year. Departmental Results Reports are usually tabled in Parliament each fall.
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. Full time equivalents are calculated as a ratio of assigned hours of work to scheduled hours of work. Scheduled hours of work are set out in collective agreements.
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. GBA Plus is a process for understanding who is impacted by the issue or opportunity being addressed by the initiative; identifying how the initiative could be tailored to meet diverse needs of the people most impacted; and anticipating and mitigating any barriers to accessing or benefitting from the initiative. GBA Plus is an intersectional analysis that goes beyond biological (sex) and socio-cultural (gender) differences to consider other factors, such as age, disability, education, ethnicity, economic status, geography, language, race, religion, and sexual orientation.
Government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales):
For the purpose of the 2023–24 Departmental Plan, government-wide priorities are the high-level themes outlining the Government’s agenda in the 2021 Speech from the Throne: building a healthier today and tomorrow; growing a more resilient economy; bolder climate action; fighter harder for safer communities; standing up for diversity and inclusion; moving faster on the path to reconciliation and fighting for a secure, just, and equitable world.
High impact innovation (innovation à impact élevé):
High impact innovation varies per organizational context. In some cases, it could mean trying something significantly new or different from the status quo. In other cases, it might mean making incremental improvements that relate to a high-spending area or addressing problems faced by a significant number of Canadians or public servants.
Horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale):
An initiative in which two or more federal organizations are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.
Hybrid workforce (effectif hybride)
A hybrid workforce is one in which, on any given day, there will be a mixture of our employees teleworking and working on-site.
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.
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 up to the expected result.
Planned spending (dépenses prévues):
For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in the 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 a department and that focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.
Program Inventory (répertoire des programmes):
An inventory of a department’s programs that describes how resources are organized to carry out the department’s core responsibilities and achieve its planned results.
Result (résultat):
An external 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 législatives):
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.
Table of Disabilities (table des invalidités)
The Table of Disabilities is a legislated/statutory instrument used to assess the extent of a disability for the purposes of determining disability benefits. The Table considers the relative importance of a certain body part/system to assess the level of impairment and the impact that impairment has on the individual’s quality of life.
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.
 
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