Public Safety, Defence, and Immigration Portfolio Evaluation
2. Description of the Public Safety, Defence, and Immigration Portfolio
The PSDI Portfolio is one of the five portfolios that the Department of Justice Canada established to structure and manage the range of advisory, litigation, and legislative services that its legal counsel offer in support of client departments and agencies. This section includes a brief description of the PSDI Portfolio, including its components, management structure, and assigned resources.
Ultimately, the Portfolio is expected to deliver high quality legal support and services to its client departments and agencies, in accordance with the Department of Justice Act. Footnote 6 This work is expected to contribute to the Department’s strategic outcome: “A federal government that is supported by high-quality legal services.” Footnote 7 A detailed description of the PSDI Portfolio’s logic model is included in Appendix B.
2.1. Portfolio Components
The composition of the Portfolio reflects the list of departments and agencies it is expected to assist.
Figure 1: Client departments and agencies supported by the PSDI Portfolio
Figure 1 - Text equivalent
The PSDI Portfolio supports the work of the Ministers of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and National Defence.
Public Safety Canada (PS) has five agencies which report to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness: Canada Border Services Agency CBSA); Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS); Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP); Correctional Services of Canada (CSC); and the Parole Board of Canada (PBC).
The Department Citizenship and Immigration Canada reports to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
The Department of National Defence/Canadian Armed Forces (ND/CAF) and the Communications Security Establishment of Canada (CSE) report to the Minister of Defence.
As illustrated in Figure 1, there are three departments and six agencies (under the authority of three ministers), that are currently served by the Portfolio. This composition is largely the result of an incremental process that saw the Portfolio evolve to reflect significant changes to the roles and responsibilities of federal departments and agencies. Following the terrorist attacks perpetrated in New York in 2001, the August 2003 electrical blackout that affected Ontario and eight American states, the SARS epidemic, and the heightened focus on national security that was triggered, the federal government established in 2003 Public Safety and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). In response to this, the Department of Justice Canada restructured what was, until then, a single-client portfolio focusing on immigration matters, to create the Citizenship, Immigration, and Public Safety Portfolio. Footnote 8 Later on, in 2009, the DLSU serving the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces was added, which led to the current PSDI Portfolio composition. The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) of Canada was added at the same time. The CSE DLSU is a centre of expertise on cyber-related matters.
As illustrated in Figure 2, the PSDI Portfolio includes three main components, and a number of associated sub-components.
Figure 2: PSDI Portfolio Structure
Figure 2 - Text equivalent
The ADAG Office is comprised of: the Office of Business Management; the Deputy ADAG; the National Security Law Team (NLST) and the National Litigation Coordination Team (NLCT). Each of these groups in the ADAG Office reports to the ADAG.
The 9 DLSUs (Canada Border Services Agency; Canadian Security Intelligence Service; Citizenship and Immigration, Communication Security Establishment of Canada National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces, Parole Board of Canada, Public Safety Canada, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police) all report directly to the ADAG.
PSDI staff in the 6 regional offices also report to the ADAG (Atlantic Regional Office, British Columbia Regional Office, Northern Regional Office, Ontario Regional Office, Prairie Regional Office and Quebec Regional Office.
The ADAG Office: The Assistant Deputy Attorney General is responsible for the management, leadership, and direction of the DLSUs included within the Portfolio. She is also functionally responsible for all national security advisory services rendered by legal counsel (located within or outside the PSDI Portfolio), as well as for all work performed by legal counsel in regional offices when providing services to departments and agencies served by the PSDI Portfolio. The ADAG is supported by a Deputy ADAG, an Office of Business Management, and the following two support teams:
- Established in 2013, the National Security Law Team (NSLT) assists the ADAG in carrying out her functional responsibility for all national security advisory work. The Team monitors relevant issues or cases related to national security; prepares legal opinions and briefing material; and provides other types of assistance as required.
- Initially established to coordinate immigration-related litigation cases, the mandate of the National Litigation Coordinating Team (NLCT) has been expanded to include the coordination of other sensitive and complex litigation cases involving departments or agencies served by the Portfolio.
Department Legal Services Units: The primary responsibility of DLSUs is to offer advisory legal services to their respective client departments and agencies. This advisory work may relate to the ongoing management and administration of programs or activities under the authority of the department or agency, internal operations (labour law issues, human resources, grant and contribution agreements, leases and contracts, etc.), advice on litigation proceedings initiated against or on behalf of the department or agency, or the design and implementation of new policy, programs, or legislative initiatives. Legal counsel within DLSUs may also provide direct support to litigators (typically located in a regional office) in large or particularly complex files. In practical terms, legal counsel in DLSUs largely act as the bridge between employees and managers of a given department or agency and the Department of Justice Canada.
Regional offices: The primary responsibility of legal counsel in regional offices is to carry out litigation services related to legal proceedings initiated against or on behalf of federal departments and agencies. As such, they are considered part of the PSDI Portfolio insofar as the litigation work they undertake involves departments or agencies included in the Portfolio. As already noted, this work may involve DLSU legal counsel who act as a liaison between the regional litigator and the client department or agency. Legal counsel operating in regional offices may also support the advisory work provided by the DLSUs.
In addition to these key components, the PSDI Portfolio collaborates with a number of other entities within the Department of Justice Canada:
- The Civil Litigation Section (Litigation Branch) undertakes some of the litigation work carried out for the departments and agencies in the PSDI Portfolio. Essentially, they act as the regional office for eastern Ontario and the National Capital Region (NCR). As such, it complements the litigation work undertaken by regional offices. Other sections of the Litigation Branch such as the National Security Group and the International Assistance Group also regularly interact with PSDI.
- In addition to his management responsibility for the work carried out by the Civil Litigation Section, the ADAG-Litigation is functionally responsible for all litigation work relating to national security matters. In that capacity, he collaborates directly with the ADAG PSDI.
- Specialized units within Justice such as the Public Law Sector provide direct support to PSDI legal counsel (in both DLSUs and regional offices) when substantive issues of law require their expertise.
- The Senior Assistant Deputy Minister heading the Policy Sector is functionally responsible for all policy work related to national security. In that capacity, he collaborates directly with the ADAG PSDI.
2.2. Resources
At the end of the fiscal year 2013/14, the PSDI Portfolio operated with just over 750 FTEs. As indicated in Table 1, the largest number of FTEs was assigned to regional offices (432 FTEs), followed by the DLSUs (209 FTEs). The ADAG Office had 23 FTEs.
| Components | FTEsTable note a |
|---|---|
| Office of the ADAG | |
| ADAG team | 4 |
| Deputy ADAG team | 3 |
| National Litigation Coordination Team | 7 |
| National Security Law Team | 5 |
| Office of Business Management | 4 |
| Subtotal | 23 |
| Departmental Legal Services Units | |
| CBSA | 35 |
| CIC | 30 |
| CSC | 18 |
| CSE | 8 |
| ND/CAF | 42 |
| NSLAG Footnote 9 | 27 |
| PBC | 2 |
| PS | 15 |
| RCMP | 32 |
| Subtotal | 209 |
| Regional Offices | |
| Atlantic | 13 |
| Quebec | 92 |
| Ontario | 208 |
| Prairies | 41 |
| British Columbia | 76 |
| Northern | 2 |
| Subtotal | 432 |
| Other groups | |
| Civil Litigation Section | 85 |
| Public Law Sector | 5 |
| Subtotal | 90 |
| Total | 754 |
Source: Administrative data.
- Table note a
-
All numbers have been rounded and the table excludes FTEs assigned to the War Crimes Section and to any other special initiatives.
The data included in Table 1 provides an overall sense of the level of resources assigned to the PSDI Portfolio. It is important to note that the level of resources fluctuates from year to year, and even within a single fiscal year. Section 5.3.2 (Efficiency and Economy) of the report further explores these trends.
In terms of financial resources, the Department of Justice Canada allocated approximately $86 million to the PSDI Portfolio in 2013/14. Footnote 10
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