Canadian Human Rights Commission's 2024–25 Departmental plan at a glance

A departmental plan describes a department's priorities, plans and associated costs for the upcoming three fiscal years.

• Vision, mission, raison d'être and operating context
• Read the full departmental plan
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Key priorities

• Advance anti-racism, reconciliation, accessibility, and the recognition of socio-economic rights by:
  • Engaging the public with an independent national voice for human rights in Canada and cultivating human rights knowledge and change;
  • Promoting and raising awareness on human rights in Canada, including the right to employment equity, the right to pay equity, the right to accessibility, and the human right to housing;
  • Ensuring that Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Anti-Racism (IDEA-AR) is embedded across all of our work through the commitment of our entire senior management team, including our Interim Chief Commissioner and Executive Director, and with leadership of:
    • our new Director of IDEA-AR who is responsible for developing a comprehensive measurement framework to track and report on our progress in addressing the ways that anti-Black racism and other forms of systemic racism manifest and our progress on eliminating barriers faced by people with disabilities, as part of the next phase of the Commission’s Anti-Racism Action and Accessibility Plans; and
    • our Decolonization and Anti-Racism Consultation Committee (DACC), which is an internal committee for Indigenous, Black, and other Racialized employees to provide advice and guidance on products and initiatives throughout the Commission, including internal policies and practices and external advocacy positions and resources.
  • Addressing discrimination and contributing to the elimination of employment barriers and wage discrimination in federally regulated workplaces for women, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, and racialized people;
  • Engaging with rights holders and other stakeholders to keep them informed of progress, and seek their views and advice on the further implementation of our Accessibility and Anti-Racism Plans;
  • Continuing our anti-racism work as part of our commitment to anti-racism action, which plays a pivotal role in our activities, and continuing our accessibility work to support a barrier-free environment for employees as well as a barrier-free experience for people in Canada interacting with the Commission;
  • Focusing on prevention through compliance assistance, guidance, and education; and
  • Holding Canada to its international human rights commitments through monitoring disability rights in Canada and by sharing our expertise at the international table.
• Ensure timely and meaningful access to human rights justice by:
  • Ensuring the continuous improvement of our human rights complaints process, to improve access to human rights justice for people in Canada;
  • Ensuring all work undertaken in respect of Canadian Human Rights Act complaints is informed by our Accountability Framework, which promotes internal accountability for the dismantling of barriers for Indigenous, Black, and other Racialized complainants, as well as other equity deserving groups, and furthers the ongoing implementation of the Commission’s Anti-Racism Action Plan, which specifically addresses anti-Black racism.
  • Ensuring the continuous improvement of our human rights complaints process, to improve access to human rights justice for people in Canada, including for example by:
    • Ensuring ongoing hiring and retaining of staff with lived experiences of discrimination and racism.
    • Developing training and onboarding tools to ensure all staff have the knowledge needed to process files efficiently and equitably. This includes a thorough understanding of the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion, as well as bias, trauma-informed approaches, and how to recognize subtle acts of exclusion and understand their impact.
    • Working on a new Case Management System to launch in 2026 which will improve accessibility, communication, data management, reporting, and efficiency to better provide service to Canadians and enhance our ability to analyze overall trends in race-based discrimination complaints, including systemic anti-Black racism within federally regulated sectors.
    • Continuing the collection and analysis of disaggregated demographic data about who uses our complaint process.
  • Helping people address their human rights concerns or find information about their rights, and offering the opportunity for early, effective, informal dispute resolution;
  • Assisting employees, bargaining agents and employers to resolve applications, complaints, and disputes in a timely way; and
  • Participating in the hearing and representing the public interest in cases where the issue has the potential to either affect the rights of many people in Canada or help define or clarify human rights law.
• Build effective and meaningful new regulatory capacity by:
  • Developing guidance, tools, and resources to help organizations understand and meet their human rights, employment equity, pay equity, and accessibility obligations; and
  • Establishing evidence- and risk-based, audit and inspection plans that comply with legislated requirements under the Employment Equity Act, the Pay Equity Act, and the Accessible Canada Act.
• Modernize communications, data management, and digital services to meet the needs of the new Commission by:
  • Leveraging technology and deploying modern accessible digital tools to improve business performance and service experience of our internal and external stakeholders;
  • Standardizing our case management systems;
  • Optimizing the management and use of data and information;
  • Establishing a comprehensive and reliable understanding of the scope of federally regulated entities; and
  • Establishing a system for receiving payments of administrative monetary penalties and developing the technological infrastructure to support it.

Refocusing Government Spending

In Budget 2023, the government committed to reducing spending by $14.1 billion over the next five years, starting in 2023–24, and by $4.1 billion annually after that.

While not officially part of this spending reduction exercise, the Commission will respect the spirit of this exercise by doing the following:

• Continuing to manage its budget by pursuing its efforts to reduce professional services contracts as well as spending on travel; and
• Identifying efficiencies across its business lines.

Although it is not officially part of this spending reduction exercise, the Commission notes that its efforts to respect the spirit of this exercise may be hampered by the fact that it already has inadequate baseline funding, and 2024–2025 will bring reductions in funding for two legislated mandates (the Federal Housing Advocate and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities monitoring), and with the absence of funding for a new government commitment (implementing the Arbour report).

The figures in this departmental plan reflect these reductions.

Highlights

A Departmental Results Framework consists of an organization's core responsibilities, the results it plans to achieve, and the performance indicators that measure progress toward these results.

Engagement and Advocacy

Departmental results:

• CHRC interventions and decisions influence law and support the advancement of human rights, employment equity, pay equity, and accessibility.
• Full compliance with the Paris Principles.
• People in Canada are informed of their human rights and responsibilities.

Planned spending: $4,928,351

Planned human resources: 31

As Canada's national human rights institution, the Commission is a trusted source of human rights expertise. In 2024–25, we will continue our role in being thought leaders and helping to shape the human rights agenda in Canada by being proactive and vocal. More precisely, we will:

• Continue to raise awareness about systemic racism and discrimination as well as advocate for the full realization of social-economic rights, including the right to adequate housing.
• Take advantage of our ongoing stakeholder engagement to share information about human rights and the human rights complaints process; work with respondents and complainants to identify and address human rights issues, including systemic issues; and receive feedback from users of our system to reduce barriers to the human rights complaints process.
• Continue to engage with rights holders and other stakeholders to consult them on the progress of our Accessibility Plan and our Anti-Racism Plan, and to seek their views and guidance on how to implement the two plans moving forward.

More information about Engagement and Advocacy can be found in the full departmental plan.

Complaints

Departmental results:

• People in Canada have access to a complaint system for human rights, pay equity and accessibility complaints.
• Complaints are resolved consistent with private and public interests.

Planned spending: $13,248,610

Planned human resources: 91

• In 2024–25, the Commission will continue to streamline processes and strengthen systems to improve response times and enhance the overall accessibility and effectiveness of our complaints services, informed by the needs of the people we serve.

More information about Complaints can be found in the full departmental plan.

Proactive Compliance

Departmental results:

• Employers are fostering a work environment that promotes equality of opportunities.
• Workplace parties have the tools and support to implement the pay equity plan process.
• Regulated entities have published accessibility plans, feedback mechanism and progress report.

Planned spending: $9,017,399

Planned human resources: 60

In 2024–25, the Commission will:

• Ensure sustainable and effective proactive compliance regimes under the Employment Equity Act, the Pay Equity Act, and the Accessible Canada Act, including continuing to put in place the appropriate infrastructure and systems.
• Continue to conduct various types of employment equity compliance audits to identify barriers and encourage employers to actively create equitable and inclusive workplaces where people are valued and respected.
• Continue to support the Pay Equity Commissioner and the Accessibility Commissioner with their proactive mandates.

More information about Proactive Compliance can be found in the full departmental plan.