Departmental Performance Report 2012-13

Table of Contents

Message from the Director of Public Prosecutions

Section I: Organizational Overview

• Raison d’être
• Responsibilities
• Areas of Prosecution
• Strategic Outcome and Program Alignment Architecture
• Organizational Priorities
• Risk Analysis
• Summary of Performance
• Expenditure Profile
• Estimates by Vote

Section II: Analysis of Programs by Strategic Outcome

• Drug, Criminal Code and Terrorism Prosecution Program
• Regulatory Offences and Economic Crime Prosecution Program
• Internal Services

Section III: Supplementary Information

• Financial Statements Highlights
• Supplementary Information Tables
• Tax Expenditures and Evaluations Report

Section IV: Other Items of Interest

• Organizational Contact Information
• Additional Information

Message from the Director of Public Prosecutions

I am pleased to present the 2012-13 Departmental Performance Report of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC).

The PPSC’s mandate is to provide high-quality legal advice to investigative agencies and prosecute cases within federal jurisdiction. PPSC prosecutors and other staff fulfill this mandate in a manner that is fair, impartial, and objective, while handling a caseload of broad scope and complexity that includes many high-profile and significant files.

The report describes the PPSC’s work in carrying out its mandate over the past year in each of its program areas. It also sets outs the progress that the PPSC has made in meeting its organizational priorities. In addition, this report outlines some of the challenges the PPSC faces and the measures it has taken to respond to these challenges.

PPSC staff are guided in their work by the PPSC’s key values of integrity, excellence, respect and leadership. Through their hard work and dedication, they make an important contribution to the safety and justice of Canadian society.

Section I: Organizational Overview

Raison d’être

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada^{Endnote 1} (PPSC) is an independent prosecution service mandated to prosecute criminal and regulatory offences under federal jurisdiction. Its sole strategic outcome is the prosecution of these offences in a manner that is independent, impartial and fair.

The PPSC plays an integral role in the criminal justice system, promoting due process and working to safeguard the rights of all those who come into contact with the justice system.

The benefits to Canadians from the work carried out by the PPSC include:

• provision of timely and independent advice to federal investigative agencies and government departments on the criminal law implications of investigations and prosecutions;
• principled and independent decisions by prosecutors; and
• confidence in the administration of justice through professionally conducted prosecutions that result in judicial determinations on the merits of the evidence.

Responsibilities

The PPSC undertakes key duties on behalf of the Attorney General of Canada and the people of Canada. These key duties, to be carried out in an objective and non-partisan manner, are:

• The duty to act independently in making decisions related to criminal prosecutions – This constitutional principle recognizes that decisions as to whether a prosecution should be initiated, continued or ceased, be made solely in accordance with legal criteria related to whether there is evidence that indicates a reasonable prospect of conviction and an assessment of whether the public interest requires a prosecution. Considerations of a partisan political nature are expressly excluded from the consideration of the public interest.
• The duty to act independently in providing prosecution-related legal advice – While prosecution-related advice to law enforcement and other federal investigative agencies will take into account the agency’s legal and policy setting, prosecutors cannot be drawn into the agency’s policy making and program administration such that their ability to provide impartial, accurate and effective legal advice is undermined.

Areas of Prosecution

The PPSC prosecutes cases under federal statutes that are referred to it by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), other federal investigative agencies, and provincial and municipal police forces.

It is responsible for the prosecution of all drug offences initiated on behalf of the government of Canada under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, regardless of whether a federal, provincial, or municipal police agency lays the charges, in all provinces except Quebec and New Brunswick^{Endnote 2}. In the latter two provinces, the PPSC is responsible for drug charges laid by the RCMP only.

In all provinces and territories, the PPSC prosecutes offences under federal statutes aimed at protecting the environment and natural resources as well as the country’s economic and social health (e.g., Fisheries Act, Income Tax Act, Copyright Act, Canada Elections Act, Canadian Environmental Protection Act 1999, Competition Act, Customs Act, Excise Act, and Excise Tax Act), offences involving fraud against the government, capital market fraud offences, along with conspiracies and attempts to violate any of these statutes. In total, the PPSC may be called upon to prosecute offences under over 250 federal statutes. However, the PPSC is called upon to regularly provide prosecution services under approximately 40 of those statutes.

In the three territories, the PPSC prosecutes all Criminal Code offences as well as offences under all other federal legislation and certain territorial statutes. In the provinces, the PPSC has jurisdiction to prosecute certain Criminal Code offences, including those related to terrorism, criminal organizations, money laundering and proceeds of crime. Under arrangements with the provinces, the PPSC may prosecute Criminal Code offences that are otherwise within provincial jurisdiction when the accused also faces more serious charges within federal jurisdiction.

Performance information on each of these areas of prosecution can be found in section II of this document.

While the PPSC does not have authority to direct investigations, its core mandate includes providing prosecution-related advice to investigators for prosecutions within its jurisdiction. Such advice is crucial to ensure that investigative techniques and procedures are consistent with evolving rules of evidence and with protections under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The advantage of early prosecutorial advice is that it reduces the risk that investigative decisions, such as those about methods of obtaining evidence, will detrimentally affect the admissibility of evidence at trial or the constitutional rights of Canadians.

The PPSC handled 77,926 litigation files in 2012-13, compared to 78,473 litigation files handled in the previous year. The total for 2012-13 included 46,685 files opened during the year as well as 31,241 files carried over from previous years.

In recent years, the number of files handled by the PPSC has levelled off. However, the amount of prosecutors’ time spent on highly complex files has remained high over this period. Prosecutors spend a significant amount of time on a relatively small number of complex and time-consuming files (Figure 2). Such files include terrorism prosecutions, organized crime prosecutions, and regulatory prosecutions.

Approximately 91% of all litigation files were within the drug, Criminal Code and terrorism offences prosecution program, whereas 9% were within the regulatory offences and economic crime program.

Figure 3 provides a breakdown of files handled in 2012-13 by offence type^{Endnote 3}, whereas Figure 4 indicates the number of hours recorded by prosecutors and paralegals on litigation files in the same offence type categories.

Overall, PPSC legal staff and agents recorded a total of 925,772 hours on litigation files handled in 2012-13. However, the total number of hours shown in Figure 4 exceeds this total by 314,294 hours as individual litigation files often include multiple offences falling under more than one offence type. For example, most files involving proceeds of crime and offence-related property would be linked to files involving drug offences.

The PPSC does not control the number or type of cases referred to it for prosecution by the police and investigative agencies that lay charges under federal statutes. Its workload is largely based on these agencies’ decisions regarding investigative priorities, tactics and resource allocations. As a result, increases in enforcement resources affect the nature and volume of the PPSC’s caseload. Similarly, changes in police tactics to focus on the upper echelons of organized crime groups rather than on individuals in the lower ranks affect the complexity, duration and cost of prosecutions.

Organization

The PPSC is a national prosecution service with a network of offices across Canada. As of March 31, 2013, the PPSC had 1,024 employees, the majority of whom were staff prosecutors, paralegals, Crown Witness Coordinators^{Endnote 4} in its northern offices, and the support staff who assist them. The remainder included senior managers, administrators and corporate services staff.

The PPSC also retains the services of private-sector legal agents in locations where it does not have an office or where it is impractical or otherwise not cost-effective for staff counsel to handle cases. The work of agents is primarily in the area of drug prosecutions and is overseen by the PPSC’s Agent Affairs Program. The Program includes a centralized support unit at headquarters, as well as agent supervision units located in each regional office which are responsible for the day-to-day management of agents. The PPSC currently retains some 205 standing agent firms across Canada, representing approximately 450 individually appointed counsel. Agents are retained under fixed-term agreements. Any law firm or lawyer interested in becoming an agent can apply for a five-year term when an opening occurs.

Strategic Outcome and Program Alignment Architecture

The PPSC has one strategic outcome (SO) as illustrated in its Program Alignment Architecture (PAA) below. It has two broad prosecution programs (P) and internal services.

2013-14 Program Alignment Architecture

• O - Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
  • SO - Criminal and regulatory offences under federal law are prosecuted in an independent, impartial and fair manner.
    • P - Drug, Criminal Code, and terrorism prosecution program
    • P - Regulatory offences and economic crime prosecution program
  • SO - The following program supports all strategic outcomes within this organization.
    • P - Internal Services

Organizational Priorities

Risk Analysis

Summary of Performance

The increase from the 2012-13 Main Estimates to the Planned Spending and to the Total Authorities is attributable to additional funding received for initiatives, new and renewed collective agreements, severance pay and unspent funds from 2011-12.

The decrease between the 2012-13 Total Authorities and Actual Spending is due to funds withheld to contribute to the Government’s deficit reduction efforts ($7 million), unused contingency and operating funds for the IMET ($3.3 million), funds redistributed to 2013-14 for the relocation of offices ($4 million) and for the operating budget ($5.3 million).

Expenditure Profile

PPSC spending has varied from year to year due to withheld funds included in the total authorities but excluded from the actual spending. Figure 5 below illustrates the PPSC's spending trend (in millions) in Main Estimates, Planned Spending, Total Authorities and Actual Spending from 2010-11 to 2012-13.

Notes:

¹ Main Estimates figures are as reported in the Main Estimates for each respective year.

² Planned Spending figures are as reported in the respective Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP). Planned Spending reflects funds already brought into the PPSC's reference levels as well as funding approved in the government fiscal plan, but yet to be brought into the reference levels, at the time of the respective Report on Plans and Priorities.

³ Total Authorities reflect Main Estimates plus adjustments comprised of Supplementary Estimates and allotment transfers, adjustments to statutory amounts to equal actual spending, and internal adjustments and transfers, as reported in Public Accounts.

⁴ Actual Spending represents the actual expenditures incurred during each respective fiscal year, as reported in Public Accounts.

⁵ Budget 2010 and 2012 reductions were not included in the Main Estimates, RPP and Total Authorities information. These adjustments were reflected in Actual Spending.

Figure 6 below depicts the PPSC's spending trend over a five-year period. For the period from 2010-11 to 2012-13, Actual Spending represents the actual expenditures as reported in the Public Accounts. For 2013-14 and 2014–15, Planned Spending reflects approved funding by Treasury Board to support the programs taking into account the reductions attributable to Budget 2010 and 2012 decisions.

As seen in the charts above, the PPSC's spending from 2010-11 to 2013-14 is planned to increase from $146 million to $169 million or by 16% mainly due to additional funding received for different initiatives as well as new and renewed collective agreements.

The decrease in planned spending from 2013-14 to 2014-15 is primarily due to government decisions in Budget 2010 and 2012 and the ending of the funding for the relocation of offices.

Estimates by Vote

For information on the Public Prosecution Service of Canada’s organizational Votes and/or statutory expenditures, please see the Public Accounts of Canada 2013 (Volume II). An electronic version of the Public Accounts 2013 is available on the Public Works and Government Services Canada website.

Section II: Analysis of Programs by Strategic Outcome

Strategic Outcome

Judicial stays for abuse of process involve a disposition where the court does not allow a prosecution to proceed because of objectionable police or prosecutorial conduct and/or a violation of the rights of the accused.

Plaintiffs suing Crown prosecutors for malicious prosecution must prove, among other matters, that the prosecution was undertaken without reasonable and probable cause, and was motivated by malice or a primary purpose other than that of carrying the law into effect.

Complaints regarding the PPSC’s independence, impartiality or fairness may be made to the courts or to the PPSC under its Complaints Policy. The PPSC Complaints Policy came into effect in October 2012, and is available on the PPSC’s Internet site.

The PPSC achieved its performance targets with respect to its Strategic Outcome, as indicated by the fact that no instances of these indicators occurred during 2012-13, or during any year since its creation.

Programs

The role of a prosecutor is not to win a conviction at any cost but to put before the court all available, relevant, and admissible evidence necessary to enable the court to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused. Hence, the performance indicators and results for both the Drug, Criminal Code and Terrorism Prosecution Program (P1) and the Regulatory Crime and Economic Prosecution Program (P2) are based on the extent to which prosecutions result in a determination on the merits of the evidence.

The PPSC considers that a case is decided on its merits when:

• a judge or jury determines the guilt or innocence of an accused person after a trial;
• a judge determines after a guilty plea that a conviction or discharge is appropriate; or
• a Crown prosecutor stays or withdraws a charge as a result of an assessment that the case does not meet the test for prosecution, or as result of a plea of guilty being entered to a serious charge rendering proceedings on a less serious charge redundant.

Cases not decided on the merits are those that are stayed or quashed by the Court, and for which, as a result, there is no outcome decided by a judge or jury based on the evidence of guilt or innocence. A judicially imposed stay will generally mean discontinuance or permanent suspension of the proceedings.

The following pages describe the PPSC’s programs, with results achieved and performance highlights for 2012-13.

Program 1: Drug, Criminal Code and Terrorism Prosecution Program

This program supports the protection of society against crime through the provision of legal advice and litigation support during police investigations, and the prosecution of: (1) all drug offences under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) and any related organized crime offences throughout Canada, except in Quebec and New Brunswick, where the PPSC prosecutes such offences only where charges are laid by the RCMP; (2) proceeds of crime offences; (3) pursuant to understandings with the provinces, Criminal Code offences where they are related to drug charges; (4) all Criminal Code offences in the three territories; (5) terrorism offences; and (6) war crimes and crimes against humanity offences. This program activity also involves the promotion of federal/provincial/territorial cooperation on criminal justice issues of mutual concern.