Efficiency – Charter Statements

Justice established an efficient operational framework to support the development of Charter Statements. However, since no additional financial resources have been allocated to support this work, there is a need to monitor the demand that this work places on HRLS to ensure that Charter Statements continue to be provided in a manner consistent with their purpose.

Efficiency of The Process

Justice has established an efficient process for supporting the development of Charter Statements. While no additional resources were allocated for this process, the department has successfully met the demand placed by this requirement.

Processes and protocols in place

As previously noted, Justice has incrementally built an efficient process to support the implementation of the Charter Statements legislative requirement. At the time of the evaluation, the Department had successfully developed over 140 Charter Statements prepared by HRLS legal counsel, with the support of a dedicated coordination team, and of other groups within Justice.

Having HRLS systematically informed of any emerging legislative initiative is seen as particularly critical to ensure that resources are available for the purpose of developing these statements. As was noted during interviews, this work represents only a portion of the mandate of HRLS, which must provide ongoing legal advice on Charter-related issues.

Evaluation findings indicate that the current communications between legislative drafters and HRLS are working well and contribute greatly to the efficiency of the process. Ensuring the legal counsel in all LSUs are also aware of the need to engage HRLS early in any new legislative initiative is one area that could be further strengthened.

Financial resources

Figures 3 and 4 (page 12) confirm that the level of effort dedicated to Charter Statements has steadily increased over the first four years of the evaluation period. Yet, no new resources were allocated to Justice to support this process. Since HRLS is largely responsible for developing these statements, the Section has had to redirect resources for this work.

During interviews, it was noted that HRLS, already facing high levels of demand for its services, finds itself under considerable pressure at times to ensure that Charter Statements are ready in a timely manner for the Minister.

While the experience acquired to date has allowed the Department to fine-tune its processes, ongoing monitoring would provide the necessary information to help ensure Justice has the required resources to prepare Charter Statements in a timely manner, so that they can continue to serve their intended purpose.