Departmental Plan 2022–2023

On this page

• From the Minister
• From the Librarian and Archivist of Canada
• Plans at a glance
• Core responsibilities: planned results and resources, and key risks
  • Acquiring and preserving documentary heritage
  • Providing access to documentary heritage
• Internal services: planned results
• Planned spending and human resources
• Planned spending
• Planned human resources
• Estimates by vote
• Future-oriented condensed statement of operations
• Corporate information
• Organizational profile
• Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do
• Operating context
• Reporting framework
• Supporting information on the program inventory
• Supplementary information tables
• Federal tax expenditures
• Organizational contact information
• Appendix: definitions

From the Minister

As Minister of Canadian Heritage, it is my pleasure to present the 2022–23 Departmental Plan for Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Once again this year, the health crisis has profoundly influenced our lives, and it continues to affect all parts of our economy. It is with that reality in mind that the Canadian Heritage Portfolio organizations will have to continue their mission, so that Canadians can benefit from all that the arts, culture and heritage have to offer.

In this context, LAC has redoubled its efforts to make its collection available to everyone by offering more content and transforming its services, both online and in person. Thanks to this transition and the optimization of its online capacity, LAC will be able to serve more Canadians of different cultural and geographic backgrounds and respond better to their needs.

In 2022-2023, Ādisōke, the shared building project with the Ottawa Public Library, will take its next steps forward. The collaboration between these two institutions will result in an unparalleled experience for clients, giving them free and open access to rich and diverse collections, as well as inspiring spaces and fascinating programs. Ādisōke is an excellent example of the Government of Canada’s commitment to building sustainable infrastructure, much like the new storage and preservation centre in Gatineau. These projects will help reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and will lead to the construction of the first net-zero carbon federal installations.

In addition, LAC will support our government’s reconciliation efforts with First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation, particularly by improving access to their important documentary heritage. This will not only promote the revitalization and reclamation of Indigenous languages and cultures in Canada, but also an honest dialogue about the past and the search for truth.

This plan outlines the activities and responsibilities of Library and Archives Canada in the coming year. I invite you to read how LAC will fulfill the Government of Canada’s commitments and serve Canadians. Happy reading!

The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez

From the Librarian and Archivist of Canada

Here we are at the beginning of a new fiscal year, and I am delighted to be starting it with you as Librarian and Archivist of Canada. At Library and Archives Canada (LAC), 2021–22 was a year of planning, adapting and initiating a transition to new ways of doing business.

We have worked tirelessly to review our priorities and objectives since the pandemic arrived. Now is the time to build on our successes and implement the changes required to better meet the needs and expectations of Canadians. For the public to understand our role, we need to be strategic, committed and aligned with their needs. Collaboration is also paramount for leaders in our field of knowledge.

LAC has put in place a new organizational structure to demonstrate its commitment to traditional users and to meet the expectations of all new clients, while focusing on its two strategic priorities: digital optimization and service transformation.

In addition, these are exciting times on both sides of the Ottawa River, especially with the construction of the Ādisōke facility on the Ottawa side, located on the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg host nation. Its official inauguration is scheduled for 2026. An environmental flagship facility and a great showcase for sustainable infrastructure design, Ādisōke is a priority for LAC and has a prominent place in our Vision 2030 project, which will define our future path.

Other projects include the new state-of-the-art preservation and storage building under construction in Gatineau, Quebec, and improvements to the Preservation Centre vaults. These ongoing efforts are aimed at reducing the overall storage footprint of the collection and optimizing the use of space. This will ensure that our valuable Canadian documentary heritage collection remains safe and protected for hundreds of years.

As we implement our strategic priorities, we are also refining our current ways of working to prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion.

LAC firmly believes that through a combination of action and commitment, our collective efforts can make a difference in reconciling with Indigenous peoples, promoting inclusion, eliminating stigma, and combatting systemic racism and discrimination of all types.

While much work has been done on this over the years, further improvements are on the horizon to ensure that our collections reflect the diversity of our communities. The goal is not only to build a society where everyone has a place, but also to enable all Canadians to recognize themselves in our collections and have easy access to them.

Leslie Weir
Librarian and Archivist of Canada

Plans at a glance

In recent years, the digital revolution has reshaped Canada’s communities, society and economy. The rapid transformation of technology, the digital world and data has had, and continues to have, a profound impact on the lives of Canadians, changing how they access information and services, and the ways they work, live and even socialize.

A November 2021 study by Statistics Canada on Canadians’ online activities and digital skills revealed that a majority of Canadians are proficient or advanced users, and that the largest number of tech-savvy users are in the 15-to-34 age group. Not surprisingly, the smartphone is the most common way of accessing the Internet.

In a hyper-connected world where Canadians expect to access any government service at any time on any device, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) needs to make one of the most significant technological shifts in its history. Its 2022–23 Departmental Plan is built around two strategic priorities: optimizing its digital capacity and transforming its services.

1. A new vision for LAC

To implement this transition, LAC will have an entirely new vision and a strategic road map. These will guide the institution in its decision making, set the objectives it aims to achieve by 2030, prioritize the activities to be carried out, and influence its organizational culture.

LAC will continue discussions on updating the 2004 Library and Archives of Canada Act to better reflect the mandate and responsibilities that the institution intends to fulfill in the future, in acquiring and preserving Canada’s documentary heritage and making it more accessible.

2. Optimizing digital capacity

The institution will continue to modernize its infrastructure and processes for acquiring, processing and preserving large volumes of digital records and making them accessible to Canadians. In 2022–23, its Digital Asset Management System will be operational after a number of pilot projects in conjunction with publishers, Canadian universities and various federal departments over the past few years.

This optimization of LAC’s digital capacity will also contribute to acquiring, preserving and providing access to a collection that is more inclusive and more representative of Canadian society, as digital technology has become an essential tool for the creativity of individuals and communities across the country.

3. Services focused on user needs

Following the construction of Ādisōke, the new facility shared with Ottawa Public Library, LAC will continue to transform its services and public programming. These services will be modern, dynamic, intuitive, accessible, connected, safe and inclusive. They will focus on users’ needs and the user experience, both at LAC’s four service points and online.

This transition will be accompanied by expanded virtual access to the collection and to Indigenous documentary heritage. It will also help to reach more Canadians and attract new users among youth, Indigenous people, racialized people, new Canadians, people living in remote areas, and persons with disabilities.

LAC will also prioritize the implementation of responses to upcoming recommendations by the Office of the Information Commissioner regarding the backlog and delays in processing access requests under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.

Finally, with the redesign of LAC’s public programming, visitors to Ādisōke and people across the country will be able to enjoy, in person or virtually, a renewed program of exhibitions, workshops and events. These offerings will promote the discovery and understanding of the stories and histories of Canada’s communities and raise awareness of their rich documentary heritage. LAC will work with its Indigenous partners, in a spirit of openness and respect, to make Ādisōke a venue that showcases Indigenous culture, languages and knowledge.

4. On the road to reconciliation

Reconciliation with First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation as well as the implementation of the Indigenous Languages Act are also central to this transformation. Through its Listen, Hear Our Voices contribution program, LAC will help Indigenous communities to build their capacity to digitize and preserve recordings in their languages. The We Are Here: Sharing Stories initiative will support the digitization, description and accessibility of Indigenous documentary heritage preserved in national collections. LAC will also continue to adapt and transform its research support services to better meet the needs expressed, individually and collectively, by Indigenous people.

Access to Indigenous documentary heritage will enable communities to reclaim their histories and stories. It will also help non-Indigenous people to better understand Indigenous cultures and their past, including the suffering experienced over many generations. As Governor General Mary Simon noted when she read the Speech from the Throne on November 23, 2021, “Reconciliation [...] is a lifelong journey of healing, respect and understanding.”

5. Building sustainable infrastructure

As construction of the Preservation Storage Facility in Gatineau is completed in 2022–23, LAC will continue to explore options for maximizing the space currently occupied by its analog collections. It will also need to plan its infrastructure requirements so that it can preserve the growing volume of physical records that will be transferred to LAC in the coming years. In addition, LAC, in partnership with Public Services and Procurement Canada, will need to find a new home for the records currently stored at 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa.

For more information on LAC’s plans, see the “Core responsibilities: planned results and resources, and key risks” section of this plan.

Core responsibilities: planned results and resources, and key risks

This section contains information on the organization’s planned results and resources for each of its core responsibilities. It also contains information on key risks related to achieving those results.

1. Acquiring and preserving documentary heritage

Description

• Library and Archives of Canada (LAC) acquires documentary heritage of historical value and preserves it for current and future generations, as mandated in the Library and Archives of Canada Act.
• Its collection is made up of documentary heritage preserved in a variety of media and formats.
• LAC advises the Government of Canada and its institutions on the management of information and ensures that records of historical value are transferred to its collection.
• Through legal deposit, all materials submitted by Canadian publishers become part of its collection, as well as sampling of Internet content.
• Other records of national significance are acquired to document Canadian society.
• LAC uses state-of-the-art techniques and infrastructure to restore the collection and provide optimal conditions for long-term preservation. LAC also builds its capacity and expertise to ensure the availability of digital records.

Planning highlights

In 2022–23 and beyond, LAC will accelerate the optimization of its digital capacity to efficiently and securely acquire, preserve and make accessible Canada’s documentary heritage for current and future generations. By 2024, LAC must be able to acquire and preserve six times more digital information than it has in the past 15 years. Under its information management guidelines, records of archival value created in digital format on or after April 1, 2017, must be transferred to LAC digitally.

In addition, according to BookNet Canada’s study entitled The State of Publishing in Canada 2019, a growing proportion of Canadian publishers are producing digital books (91 percent). Physical materials will continue to be part of LAC’s collections, but it is now clear that Canadian society and culture are in the midst of a digital shift and that the acquisition, processing, preservation and accessibility of digital materials are now central to the institution’s mandate.

Optimizing our capacity to acquire, process and preserve digital materials

To address this new reality, LAC must continue to modernize its infrastructure and processes for acquiring materials from government departments and agencies and from private donors, published heritage from Canadian publishers, and theses deposited by Canadian universities. LAC’s planned solution is to deploy its new Digital Asset Management System (DAMS). The DAMS is a set of automated or semi-automated digital tools that support the acquisition, appraisal, description, integration, preservation and tracking of LAC’s digital collections, as well as secure access to it. The DAMS also monitors data integrity, which helps to manage and ensure the long-term preservation of digital assets.

Pilot projects with various clients have yielded extremely positive results. One of them tested the automated transfer of government documents from GCdocs. The DAMS also supports publishers and producers of cultural content by facilitating the transfer of Canadian publications through the legal deposit program. Those documents will be added to the approximately 180,000 digital publications already in the DAMS, which have been accessible since 2020 through LAC’s search tools (Aurora, Voilà and Collection Search). In addition, the DAMS will support access-to-information and privacy operations by facilitating the processing of information and its delivery to clients.

LAC will continue to fine-tune its procedures for handling born-digital records, to check their integrity after transfer or verify whether file formats may affect long-term preservation and migration. It will also continue its efforts in archiving Government of Canada websites and social media, in keeping with international best practices advocated by the Internet Archive and the International Internet Preservation Consortium. In the coming years, the institution will also need to review the range of digital formats that it can incorporate and preserve in its collections; in particular, it would like to add more audiovisual content.

Digital technology is now an essential tool for supporting the creativity of individuals and communities across Canada. As such, LAC’s digital transition will contribute to the acquisition and preservation of a collection that is more inclusive and representative of Canadian society.

Acquiring and processing a collection representative of Canada

In keeping with its Private archives acquisition orientation 2019–2024, the institution will continue to focus on analog and digital materials that intersect with the following subjects or groups that are under-represented in its collection: First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation; multicultural communities; women; Francophone culture; sexual diversity and gender expression; and regional diversity (Atlantic, Western and Northern Canada).

LAC will act on the recommendations of its Acquisitions Advisory Committee and its Youth Advisory Council, among others, and it will work with key players and creators from a variety of communities to make its collection more reflective of Canadian plurality and diversity. To this end, LAC takes a proactive approach to outreach by advising creators and communities on how to preserve their records where appropriate, informing them of best practices in digital recordkeeping, and communicating the possibility of transferring their archives to LAC or any other documentary heritage institution.

Preserving the analog collection for current and future generations

In 2022, LAC will complete construction of its Preservation Storage Facility in Gatineau and continue work on reconfiguring the vaults at its Preservation Centre.

At the same time, LAC will continue to prepare the collection for its move to the new space. More than 590,000 boxes of documentary resources, currently stored in three LAC facilities, will be moved to the new Preservation Storage Facility. To alleviate the pressure of transferring a large amount of analog material each year, the institution will move forward with its Collection Space Management Strategy (2021–2024).

It will also explore medium- and long-term options for the storage of its analog collections. LAC will need to find sustainable solutions to accommodate an annual growth of approximately 3 percent in the volume of its analog holdings and also find a way to store 97,000 linear metres of material currently housed at 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa.

Acquisition and preservation: Collaboration, outreach and support

In 2022–23, LAC will strengthen its relationships and its place in existing networks. In particular, it will take a leadership role in the network of Canadian libraries and archives and in policy discussions on information management. It will continue to provide leadership within the federal government on digital preservation issues, including participating in the Digital Preservation Working Group and responding to specific departmental needs.

Finally, in the light of the Final Report of the Canadian Collective Print Strategy Working Group, LAC will contribute to the establishment and development of a national network for the preservation of print collections in Canada.

Experimentation

Resources will be allocated to testing and developing new solutions to advance LAC’s two strategic priorities: optimizing its digital capacity and transforming its services.

Key risks

• If LAC does not renew or improve the current systems and processes that underpin its digital operations, its ability to deliver its mandate effectively and efficiently will be affected.

Some of the computer systems used by LAC to inventory and describe its collections are aging or obsolete. In addition, those systems and other applications currently used by the institution are not always compatible or integrated with each other, and they do not optimally manage the growing influx of born-digital content or the collection of analog archives. Digitally enabled tools and proven, efficient procedures are essential at all stages leading to the integration of digital materials into the LAC collection. The operationalization of LAC’s Digital Asset Management System will partially mitigate this risk by improving the capacity and interoperability of its digital infrastructure.

• If LAC does not have the capacity to meet its obligations regarding the real property portfolio it manages to preserve its collection, it may not be able to meet the growing specialized storage needs of its collection, which would jeopardize the integrity of the collection.

In 2016, LAC became the owner, manager and operator of five specialty facilities in Canada. Some of its facilities are aging and do not meet optimal standards for long-term collection storage. A new building is under construction, but it will fill up quickly.

To mitigate this risk, LAC will continue to create its building management master plan and develop a strategic action plan to anticipate the institution’s future storage needs for its analog collection. In addition, LAC will continue discussions with Public Services and Procurement Canada regarding options for housing the extensive collection currently held at 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa, which will need to be relocated in the years following the opening of Ādisōke.

Financial, human resources and performance information for LAC’s Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.

Planned human resources for acquiring and preserving documentary heritage

2. Providing access to documentary heritage

Description

• LAC provides access to its collection, while respecting legal, policy and contractual obligations.
• Using cutting-edge technologies, LAC enables Canadians to access and consult its collection and enrich their knowledge of Canada’s documentary heritage.
• LAC makes digital content available through its website and social media to improve access to its collection. As well, LAC provides online services and in-person services at its four service points.
• LAC uses innovative strategies such as crowdsourcing (Co-Lab) and the Digi-Lab to complement the digital content of its collection.
• LAC also promotes Canadian heritage by creating exhibitions that enable the public to discover its collection in cultural sites throughout Canada.
• Through the Documentary Heritage Communities Program, LAC supports memory organizations by increasing their capacity to preserve and make their collections accessible.

Planning highlights

In 2022–23 and beyond, LAC will fundamentally transform its services and make its collection increasingly accessible to Canadians. The institution is following the Policy on Service and Digital and the Government of Canada Digital Standards in improving and developing user-centric services and delivering inclusive, user-friendly access.

Making Canada’s documentary heritage more widely known and accessible

In 2022–23, the project to build a joint facility with Ottawa Public Library (OPL) will reach new milestones. When it opens in 2026, Ādisōke (the Anishinābemowin word for storytelling) will welcome over 1.7 million visitors. This 20,000 square metre facility will house OPL’s main branch and LAC’s largest service site.

Ādisōke will also include an Indigenous room, developed in collaboration with the Elders and members of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation and the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation. It will showcase Indigenous culture, languages and knowledge, and provide a gathering place for Indigenous people.

Transforming our services to make our collections ever more accessible

The Ādisōke project will be accompanied by a major overhaul of LAC’s services for the public, both on site and remotely. The institution will have to adapt its services not only to a new physical space but also for a much larger and more varied public than at 395 Wellington Street. These services will also need to be safe in a society that has changed considerably in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the use of public spaces.

These services will be modern, dynamic, intuitive, accessible, connected and inclusive. They will focus on users’ needs and the user experience, whether they are on site, sitting at their computer, or on the move with their smartphone at their fingertips. The renewed services will serve future Ādisōke users in Ottawa as well as Canadians of various age groups living in different parts of the country.

To increase virtual access to its collection, LAC will continue to digitize analog materials and Indigenous documentary heritage. It will continue to support its clients with technologies that will enable them to digitize and contextualize collections of interest to their research or communities.

LAC will also improve the accessibility and discoverability of its collection through the redesign of its website, the integration of additional datasets and new features in its Collection Search tool, and the creation of customized digital services. It will build on user experience, conduct tests and ensure that its tools and services meet the needs of users.

To help increase awareness of Canada’s rich documentary heritage, LAC will take an integrated approach to the content it publishes and shares online through its social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Flickr, and its English and French YouTube channels), its blog and its podcasts.

It will thoroughly overhaul its public programming (public exhibitions, workshops and events) to meet the needs of visitors to Ādisōke and reach out to Canadians virtually. Pluralism, diversity and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples will be an important part of this programming. LAC will make it a point to give them a voice so that their views on the past, literature and the arts are widely shared with the Canadian public, and even beyond Canada’s borders.

In short, this transformation of services and public programming will help to make LAC a more inclusive institution and reach more Canadians, and even attract new users: youth, Indigenous people, racialized people, new Canadians, people living in remote areas, and persons with disabilities.

Improving access to government records and our services in support of access-to-information and privacy requests

LAC’s responsibilities for requests under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act go well beyond those of other government departments and agencies. LAC is the custodian of billions of pages of records that it preserves on behalf of over 200 federal organizations. Over the past few years, the number and complexity of the requests have grown significantly. In fact, between April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2020, there was an increase of more than 30 percent. The COVID-19 pandemic has only added to an already large backlog in processing these requests.

These challenges, which are directly related to the unique nature of LAC’s mandate, are the subject of a systemic investigation by the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC). In 2022–23, LAC will make it a priority to implement responses to the OIC’s upcoming recommendations. To that end, it will explore new avenues to expand its capacity to deal with the unprecedented number of requests it receives and to improve processing times. It will also establish an office to manage complaints about its access-to-information and privacy services.

LAC will focus on new digital delivery systems to get documents to requesters, the creation of online access so that the public can download documents previously opened under Access to Information Act requests, and the addition of new features that will allow clients to track the progress of their access-to-information requests.

LAC will continue to support the government’s response to the settlement of the following litigation, involving searching for records in its collection:

• Canadian Armed Forces-National Defence Sexual Misconduct Class Action;
• class action in response to concerns of systemic racial discrimination and harassment in the Canadian Armed Forces;
• Federal Indian Day School Class Action.

It will implement its action plan to support Crown litigation issues. The objectives of this plan are to make other government departments and agencies aware of LAC’s mandate and to work with central agencies to involve LAC at the appropriate time in litigation involving its collection. LAC will create tools, establish procedures and acquire expertise to improve this support.

Working with partners to facilitate access to documentary heritage

LAC plans to renew partnerships and build new ones with academic, cultural and memory institutions in Canada and abroad. It will leverage these partnerships to increase digital optimization, accelerate service transformation, and improve access to and visibility of documentary heritage.

In addition, LAC will continue to work closely with Ādisōke’s partners: the City of Ottawa, Ottawa Public Library, the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation and the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation. It will continue its dialogue and strengthen its ties with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to facilitate access to documents and other resources collected by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission during its mandate.

Support for Indigenous communities and Canadian local and regional institutions

To move forward on reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, LAC will continue to implement its Indigenous Heritage Action Plan. This will contribute to one of the commitments in the Minister of Canadian Heritage’s mandate letter: to work with First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation to ensure that the Indigenous Languages Act continues to be fully implemented and is supported by long-term, predictable and sustainable funding in order to preserve, promote and revitalize Indigenous languages in Canada.

In addition, LAC will provide funding for the third call for applications to its Listen, Hear Our Voices contribution program. The program supports projects to identify, digitize and preserve recordings of Indigenous languages and textual and photographic materials, and to build the digitization and preservation capacity of organizations. This program and the We Are Here: Sharing Stories initiative, which aims to improve access to First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation content in the collection at LAC, have been renewed for three years.

LAC’s Indigenous documentary heritage initiatives are in response to several calls for justice in the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. These initiatives are helping to remove barriers to accessing materials related to Indigenous languages and cultures, thereby assisting Indigenous people in a collaborative, participatory manner that respects their institutions and knowledge.

Finally, LAC will continue to administer its Documentary Heritage Communities Program. Since 2015, this contribution program has supported Indigenous communities and Canadian local and regional heritage institutions in developing their capacity to preserve, make accessible and promote their collections.

Experimentation

Resources will be allocated to testing and developing new solutions to advance LAC’s two strategic priorities: optimizing its digital capacity and transforming its services.

Key risks

• If LAC does not continue to improve all of the services it provides (such as services to researchers, the public, the federal government, donors, libraries and publishers, and class action support), it may not fully meet the changing needs of its current and future users, and thus become less relevant.

Following the construction of Ādisōke, LAC must fundamentally rethink its service offerings. When Ādisōke opens in 2026, it is anticipated that the vast majority of visitors will be unfamiliar with LAC’s collection and services. This will be an opportunity for LAC to connect with new audiences, provided that the institution plans for this shift now.

To mitigate this risk, LAC will review its services and implement a new strategy to serve its users over the next four years. It will fundamentally transform its services by focusing on users’ needs and the user experience, and by continuously improving them.

• LAC is also at risk of lacking the capacity to meet its legal obligations regarding access to federal government records and personal information. LAC’s responsibilities in this area go well beyond those of other departments, as it is the custodian of billions of pages of records held on behalf of over 200 federal organizations.

In recent years, LAC has provided significant support to the government’s response to various court-ordered settlements. There has also been a substantial increase in the number of requests for access to records under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act. LAC has a large backlog of access requests affecting various client groups, such as researchers, former members of the Canadian Armed Forces and public service employees.

To mitigate this risk, LAC will prepare and implement an action plan to address the recommendations in the Office of the Information Commissioner’s investigation report, in particular regarding the backlog and delays in processing requests.

The financial, human resources and performance information for LAC’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

The net change in planned spending between fiscal years is mainly due to changes in the financial profiles for the following:

• The partnership between LAC, Ottawa Public Library and the City of Ottawa for the Ādisōke joint facility project; the financial profile includes a total of $48.3 million in additional reserve funds for construction costs to carry out this project (2022–23 to 2024–25);
• The initiative to implement the Federal Pathway to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls announced in Budget 2021 (2021–22 to 2024–25).

The financial, human resources and performance information for LAC’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

The financial, human resources and performance information for LAC’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Internal services: planned results

Description

Internal services are the services that are provided within a department so that it can meet its corporate obligations and deliver its programs. There are 10 categories of internal services:

• management and oversight services
• communications services
• legal services
• human resources management and security services
• financial management services
• information management services
• information technology services
• real property management services
• materiel management services
• acquisition management services

Planning highlights

Internal services will support program delivery and the strategic priorities of optimizing LAC’s digital capacity and transforming its services.

Optimization of information technology

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about major changes that have highlighted the need for online services and remote work. According to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s Digital Operations Strategic Plan: 2021-2024, the government needs to build on the momentum of these changes by being agile and building user-centric services to meet the needs of Canadians and make digital government a reality. It also needs to be actively prepared to respond to any other disruptions that may occur.

One of the pillars of this strategic plan is the modernization of existing information technology (IT) systems, as they support productivity, access to quality data, and services and programs for Canadians. Ideally, those systems should be easy to use and maintain, stable, reliable, secure and flexible.

To better equip its staff and participate in the transformation of digital services and programs, LAC will focus on the deployment of cloud-based infrastructure. It will pay special attention to the cybersecurity of its IT systems, in accordance with digital government policies and standards, to address privacy, confidentiality and security risks.

In conjunction with Ādisōke’s partners, LAC will begin to identify and plan for the future IT needs of the new joint facility. In addition, when the analog collections are moved to the Preservation Storage Facility in Gatineau, LAC will ensure that the collection can be tracked in the IT systems and retrieved at any point in the process.

Managing our real property portfolio

LAC will continue to develop its building management master plan and the accompanying strategic action plan. Since 2016, it has owned, managed and operated five specialty facilities across Canada. One building is under construction (the Preservation Storage Facility in Gatineau), and a second one will be soon (Ādisōke). In particular, the master plan will identify and plan for the future storage needs of the institution’s analog collection (which, it should be noted, is likely to grow at an annual rate of about 3 percent for some years to come) and evaluate the current real property portfolio and its performance against the government’s policy and sustainable development targets.

In December 2020, LAC was informed by Public Services and Procurement Canada that it would have to vacate 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa. In addition to being a service point, this building is used to store tens of thousands of linear metres of documentary resources. Moving a collection of this magnitude is a major challenge for the institution. In 2022–23, LAC will continue to identify and analyze options for housing records not selected for inclusion in the collection on display at Ādisōke.

Building on the lessons learned during the pandemic, which saw staff adapt quickly to remote work and health measures, LAC launched “The Future of Work at LAC” initiative. This initiative will be aligned with Vision 2030 and will consist of an in-depth discussion on work methods and worksites after the pandemic. The discussion will focus on four main themes: organizational culture, staff, purpose and workplace.

A welcoming, respectful and diverse work environment

LAC will continue its initiatives to promote and maintain a healthy, safe and respectful work environment. The harassment and violence provisions in the Canada Labour Code (as amended by Bill C-65) and the new Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations came into force on January 1, 2021. The Canada Labour Code amendments resulted in a number of changes to the legislative, regulatory and policy framework governing federal workplaces. LAC will continue to execute its strategy to incorporate the new requirements into its risk prevention program. A workplace harassment and violence prevention policy has been developed and implemented. In addition, employees and managers have received relevant training.

To provide employees with a more representative and inclusive workplace at all decision-making levels, within each occupational group and across the institution, LAC will continue to implement its 2021–24 First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation Recruitment and Retention Strategy. This strategy is based in part on the following:

• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
• United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles;
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action;
• Principles respecting the Government of Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples;
• Gina Wilson’s report entitled Many Voices One Mind: a Pathway to Reconciliation, which examines issues and opportunities for Indigenous employees in the public service.

Other guiding principles of this strategy include the importance for LAC to recognize and value the lived experiences, knowledge and professional development of Indigenous employees, and their connections and responsibilities to their nations and networks. LAC will also promote understanding of the various Indigenous cultures and perspectives, and it will actively work to eliminate all forms of systemic racism, prejudice, bias and micro-aggressions in the work environment.

Planned spending and human resources

This section provides an overview of the organization’s planned spending and human resources for the next three fiscal years and compares planned spending for 2022–23 with actual spending for the current year and the previous year.

Planned spending

Departmental spending 2019–20 to 2024–25

The following graph presents planned spending (voted and statutory expenditures) over time.

 

 

Figure 7 - Text version

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) spending trend (dollars)

	2019—20	2020—21	2021—22	2022—23	2023—24	2024-25
Statutory	11,894,413	12,475,871	12,085,871	12,274,023	12,372,762	11,946,881
Voted	122,459,782	117,903,335	151,583,593	210,049,001	172,452,309	136,008,482
Total	134,354,195	130,379,206	163,669,464	222,323,024	184,825,071	147,955,363

The variation in planned spending is mainly due to changes in the financial profiles for the following:

• The implementation of the Federal Pathway to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls announced in Budget 2021 (2021–22 to 2024–25);
• The real property portfolio, including the construction of a new building for the storage and preservation of analog documents in Gatineau; the financial profile for 2022–23 includes an anticipated substantial completion payment of $36.1 million for this construction project;
• The partnership between LAC, Ottawa Public Library and the City of Ottawa for a joint facility project (Ādisōke); the financial profile includes $48.3 million in additional reserve funds for construction costs (2022–23 to 2024–25).

In general, most of the planned budget variations are due to salary adjustments resulting from new collective agreements and the following initiatives:

• Preservation of Indigenous languages and cultures announced in Budget 2017 (2017–18 to 2020–21);
• Acquisition, processing, preservation and accessibility of the private records of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper (2017–18 to 2021–22);
• Support for the Government of Canada’s response to the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Purge Class Action Settlement (2018–19 and 2019–20);
• Implementation of the Federal Pathway to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls announced in Budget 2021 (2021–22 to 2024–25);
• Real property portfolio, including the construction of a new building for the storage and preservation of analog documents in Gatineau; the financial profile for 2022–23 includes an anticipated substantial completion payment of $36.1 million for this construction project;
• Partnership between LAC, Ottawa Public Library and the City of Ottawa for a joint facility project (Ādisōke); the financial profile includes $48.3 million in additional reserve funds for construction costs (2022–23 to 2024–25).

Planned human resources

Estimates by vote

Information on LAC’s organizational appropriations is available in the 2022–23 Main Estimates.

Future-oriented condensed statement of operations

The future oriented condensed statement of operations provides an overview of LAC’s operations for 2021–22 to 2022–23.

The forecast and planned amounts in this statement of operations were prepared on an accrual basis. The forecast and planned amounts presented in other sections of the Departmental Plan were prepared on an expenditure basis. Amounts may therefore differ.

A more detailed future oriented statement of operations and associated notes, including a reconciliation of the net cost of operations with the requested authorities, are available on LAC’s website.

The $9.5 million increase in net cost of operations is mainly due to the following elements:

• An increase of $7.6 million for the Real Property Portfolio;
• An increase of $3.2 million for the implementation of the Federal Pathway to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls;
• A decrease of $1.1 million for the sunsetting of funding for the private records of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper; and
• A decrease of $0.6 million for salary adjustments following the ratification of collective agreements.

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister: The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Canadian Heritage

Institutional head: Leslie Weir, Librarian and Archivist of Canada

Ministerial portfolio: Department of Canadian Heritage

Enabling instrument: Library and Archives of Canada Act, S.C. 2004, c. 11

Year of incorporation: 2004

Acronym: LAC

Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do

Information on LAC’s raison d’être, mandate and role is available on LAC’s website.

Information on LAC’s mandate letter commitments is available in the Minister’s mandate letter.

Operating context

Information on the operating context is available on LAC’s website.

LAC’s Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory for 2022–23 – text version

This image depicts LAC’s Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory for 2022—23. The two Core Responsibilities are presented at the highest level above, accompanied by their Departmental Results and the indicators used to measure them. The programs and their indicator are presented at the level below.

Supporting information on the Program Inventory

Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to LAC’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on LAC’s website:

• United Nations 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals
• Details on transfer payment program
• Gender-based analysis plus

Federal tax expenditures

LAC’s Departmental Plan does not include information on tax expenditures.

Tax expenditures are the responsibility of the Minister of Finance. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for government wide tax expenditures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures. This report provides detailed information on tax expenditures, including objectives, historical background and references to related federal spending programs, as well as evaluations, research papers and gender-based analysis plus.

Organizational contact information

Mailing address:
Library and Archives Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa ON K1A 0N4
Canada
Telephone: 613-996-5115 or 1-866-578-7777 (toll-free in Canada and the United States)
Fax: 613-995-6274
Email: reference@bac-lac.gc.ca
Website: www.bac-lac.gc.ca

Appendix: 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.

experimentation (expérimentation)

The conducting of activities that explore, test and compare the effects and impacts of policies and interventions in order to inform decision-making and improve outcomes for Canadians. Experimentation is related to, but distinct from, innovation. Innovation is the trying of something new; experimentation involves a rigorous comparison of results. For example, introducing a new mobile application to communicate with Canadians can be an innovation; systematically testing the new application and comparing it against an existing website or other tools to see which one reaches more people, is experimentation. 

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; and understand how factors such as sex, race, national and ethnic origin, Indigenous origin or identity, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic conditions, geography, culture and disability, impact experiences and outcomes, and can affect access to and experience of government programs.

government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)

For the purpose of the 2022–23 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.

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.

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.

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.