Ontario Human Rights Commission Business Plan 2023–24 – 2025–26

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4. Key performance indicators and measurements

1. Mandate

The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) was established in 1961 as an arm’s-length agency of government, with a provincewide legislative mandate to promote, protect and advance human rights in Ontario based on 17 prohibited grounds of discrimination, and five social areas covered by the Ontario Human Rights Code (Code), including private and public services, employment, and housing/accommodation. It is one pillar of Ontario’s human rights system, working alongside the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) and the Human Rights Legal Support Centre (HRLSC), and is regarded as a leader among human rights commissions across the country, having achieved, over its 60-year history, major successes in advancing human rights in Ontario.

The Code gives the OHRC a broad statutory mandate. This includes the authority to work in the broader public interest to identify and eliminate discriminatory practices, and bring about broad, systemic change to create a culture of human rights accountability.

To undertake its mandate, the OHRC develops policies and provides public education, monitors human rights issues, and conducts research and analysis. While it does not deal with individual human rights complaints, the OHRC can initiate public inquiries, bring forward systemic cases, or intervene in cases before tribunals or courts on systemic issues of broad public interest.

Section 29 of the Code states that the functions of the OHRC are to advance policies that promote and recognize the dignity and worth of every person and the primacy of equality of rights and opportunities for all by:

Developing and conducting programs for public information and education on awareness and understanding of the Code and to support preventing and eliminating discriminatory practices
Undertaking and supporting research into discriminatory practices and making recommendations to prevent such practices
Examining and reviewing any statute or regulation, program or policy made by or under a statute, and make recommendations where, in its opinion, they are inconsistent with the intent of the Code
Initiating reviews and inquiries into incidents of tension or conflict in a community, institution, etc., making recommendations, and encouraging and coordinating plans, programs and activities to reduce or prevent such incidents
Promoting, assisting and encouraging public and private entities to engage in programs to alleviate tension and conflict related to a prohibited ground of discrimination
Designating programs as special programs in accordance with section 14 of the Code
Approving policies under section 30 of the Code
Making applications to the HRTO under section 35 of the Code
Reporting to the public of Ontario on the state of human rights in Ontario
Performing the functions assigned to the OHRC under the Code or any other act.

OHRC vision, mission and values

Vision: An inclusive society where human rights are a lived reality and where all people are valued and treated with dignity and respect, feel a sense of belonging, and take responsibility for promoting and protecting human rights.

Mission: To create a climate of understanding and mutual respect for the dignity of all people by promoting and protecting human rights in Ontario by addressing systemic discrimination.

Values:

Social justice: Be courageous, creative, nimble, and steadfast in addressing systemic issues that affect Ontarians and perpetuate inequality, discrimination and injustice.
Relationships: Build and sustain respectful, trusting and constructive relationships with rights- and duty-holders to advance human rights.
Collaboration: Collaborate and partner with groups, organizations and institutions, including the human rights system, to maximize our collective impact.
Integrity: Be principled and independent in advancing and securing substantive equality.
Accountability: Be transparent and accountable to the people of Ontario in pursuing our mandate and being efficient and responsible in our use of resources.

The OHRC’s mandate, vision, mission and values align with those of the Ministry of the Attorney General, including the vision of an innovative, sustainable and responsive justice system that inspires public confidence and upholds the rule of law.

OHRC governance and operation

Under the Code, the OHRC is composed of Commissioners, who are persons appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council (LGIC). Commissioners have knowledge, experience or training in human rights law and issues, and broadly reflect the diversity of Ontario’s population. The LGIC also appoints a Chief Commissioner.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Attorney General and the Chief Commissioner, on behalf of the OHRC, sets out the OHRC’s accountability to, and independence from, government. Under section 11.2 of the MOU, the Chief Commissioner’s responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Keeping informed of human rights issues and trends, domestic and, as appropriate, international, and of the activities, performance and expenditures of the OHRC to advise and make recommendations to the Minister
Meeting with the Minister to discuss possible corrective action if the OHRC forms the opinion that serious questions of public importance have arisen about the government's compliance with the Code
Ensuring that the OHRC carries out its affairs in accordance with the Code
Developing performance measures and targets for the OHRC
Ensuring that public funds are used with integrity and honesty
Carrying out effective public communication as the OHRC's chief spokesperson
Communicating OHRC policy and strategic directions to the Executive Director
Providing leadership to the Commission and monitoring the performance of the OHRC to ensure the implementation of its goals and long-term vision
Ensuring through the Executive Director that conflict of interest rules, approved by the Conflict of Interest Commissioner, are in place for Commission staff and that Commission policies are publicly available
Ensuring that the Executive Director's performance contract is in place and that it sets out the Executive Director's responsibilities and reporting obligations and the standards he or she is to meet in carrying them out
Keeping the Minister informed of pending appointment vacancies, and offering recommendations for appointments and reappointments
Submitting the OHRC's annual report to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in accordance with section 31.6(2) of the Code.

As noted above, the Commissioners broadly reflect the community. They are responsible for helping the Chief Commissioner provide strategic leadership, including setting the OHRC’s goals, objectives and strategic direction. For example, 11.3 a, b, c read:

a. ensuring that the Commission fulfills the functions assigned to it by section 29 of the Code;

b. fulfilling their responsibilities under the PSOA in respect of ethical conduct and political activity; and

c. consulting, as appropriate, with interested and affected parties on the Commission’s goals, objectives, strategic directions, rules and procedures.

OHRC staff engage with community members regularly to consult and educate. This includes:

Meeting and engaging with community and advocacy groups and people with lived experience and expertise to inform our ongoing work (for example, through meetings with individuals, community and stakeholder meetings, roundtable sessions, and online surveys)
Making presentations to community groups and human rights duty-holders
Taking part in OHRC-led sessions and events, such as “Taking it Local” training days
Attending community events on behalf of the OHRC
Responding to mail and email correspondence as well as telephone and website inquiries
Engaging with the HRTO and HRLSC about the provincial human rights system via regular three-pillar meetings
Engaging with the public on social media.

OHRC staff also support and engage with public- and private-sector entities (e.g., government ministries, not-for-profit organizations, major employers, academic institutions, community groups), and members of OHRC advisory groups, to establish and maintain strong and impactful relationships, partnerships and collaborations required to support developing human rights-related accountability mechanisms and to further advance human rights in various sectors of Ontario society.

2. Staffing

The OHRC adheres to all Ontario Public Service (OPS) policies, directives and guidelines related to human resources management, and works with the Ministry of the Attorney General to comply with all applicable administrative standards.

Over the next three years, the OHRC will continue to manage its budget, while ensuring it has the capacity and appropriate resources in place to meet current and future business needs, including meeting the goals and objectives of its revitalized Strategic Plan (2023–25).

OHRC organizational structure and staff composition

Commissioners

On August 19, 2021, Patricia DeGuire was appointed Chief Commissioner for a term of two years.

The Chief Commissioner, who is the only full-time Commissioner appointee, oversees all other part-time Commissioner appointees.

Part-time Commissioners	Tenure
Part-time Commissioners	From	To
Violetta Igneski	January 9, 2020	January 10, 2025
Randall Arsenault	January 9, 2020	January 8, 2025
Jewel Amoah	May 28, 2020	May 28, 2025
Brian Eyolfson	November 12, 2020	November 13, 2025
Gary Pieters	March 25, 2021	March 25, 2026

OHRC’s current organizational structure

Office of the Chief Commissioner

Chief Commissioner
Special Advisor to the Chief Commissioner
Administrative Scheduling Coordinator

Executive Director’s Office

Executive Director and Chief Legal Counsel
Executive Advisor
Administrative Coordinator

Centralized Corporate Services

Chief Administrative Officer
IT Technical Lead
Technical Support Analyst
Financial Analyst
Coordinator, Administrative Services

Communications and Issues Management

Manager
Team Lead, Communications and Issues Management
Senior Strategic Communications Advisor
Issues and Media Relations Officer (Des)
Senior Communications Officer
Stakeholder Relations and Outreach Officer
Analyst Issues Coordinator
Web Developer Editor

Legal Services and Inquiries

Manager
Counsel
Counsel
Counsel
Counsel
Counsel
Counsel
Counsel
Legal Secretary
Inquiry Analyst
Inquiry Analyst (Des)
Articling Student*
IPC Law Student*

Policy, Education, Monitoring and Outreach

Director
Administrative Assistant
Senior Policy Analyst
Senior Policy Analyst
Senior Policy Analyst
Senior Policy Analyst
Senior Policy Analyst (Des)
Electronic Education Specialist
Policy Analyst

The OHRC has 49 FTEs, however, some positions have not been filled due to ongoing funding pressures on the OHRC’s budget.

*Not included in Active Headcount or FTE position cap.

Employees

Representation category	Active headcount		FTE positions (cap)
Representation category	Regular	Fixed-term	Regular	Fixed-term
ALOC	5	2	7	0
AMAPCEO	9	4	23	0
MCP	4	2	5	0
OIC	1	0	1	0
OPSEU	4	1	12	0
SMG	1	0	1	0
TOTAL STAFF	24	9	49	0
			[Based on Workforce Information Network (WIN) data as of December 31, 2022]

The active headcount includes numbers that represent OHRC positions that are filled as of December 31, 2022. The numbers under FTE positions (cap) represent the total number of FTE positions the OHRC has.

Over the past few years, including in fiscal year 2022–23, the OHRC has had to employ vacancy management to fund its business-related projects/initiatives. Evolving business needs and funding requirements as well as structural deficits have led to operational pressures and having to forego key opportunities in the work of the OHRC.

To ensure the OHRC can continue to operate effectively and meet its mandate and priority objectives, it is working with the Ministry to review the organization’s funding and resourcing requirements. It is also implementing business improvement strategies and optimization initiatives to further enhance efficiency and operational effectiveness. This includes the recent migration of OHRC IT services to the OPS IT services offering, a major transformation project that will result in greater virtual collaboration, information-sharing, work integration and process efficiencies as well as tangible cost savings over time.

3. Three-year financial plan

The OHRC complies with Treasury Board/Management Board of Cabinet and Ministry of Finance directives on financial management and accountability. The OHRC works with the Ministry of the Attorney General to meet all applicable reporting requirements. The OHRC is responsible for ensuring that the actions it takes to fulfill its statutory mandate are in accordance with its authority under the Code and otherwise lawful.

The OHRC is accountable to the Legislative Assembly through its annual reports, and to the Attorney General through regular financial and administrative reporting.

The OHRC is continuing its efforts to address human rights issues across Ontario. The OHRC focuses on complex and high-profile issues. As well, there are emerging issues, which are growing exponentially and are critical in scope (for example, hate and antisemitism). These require significant investments in time and resources. As noted above, the OHRC is in the process of reviewing its budgetary needs including strategies to address staffing pressures to ensure it continues to have the ability to effectively meet its provincewide mandate to address discrimination across the Code’s 17 grounds and five social areas.

Notwithstanding these resource constraints, over the next three years, the OHRC will work towards meeting its objectives with careful consideration towards maintaining expenditures within its current funding envelope by:

Managing position vacancies (e.g., delaying and/or foregoing backfilling vacated positions)
Using employee attrition, and building capacity to reduce staffing costs (e.g., enabling staff to take on the responsibilities of vacated positions by supporting ongoing learning and development)
Increasing its use of digital resources to disseminate information (more cost-effective than traditional printing)
Making all policy documents available in downloadable and accessible formats (to reduce printing costs, unless required as an accommodation under the Code)
Using video conferencing technology (e.g., Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.) / teleconferences/webinars/webcasts for public education and stakeholder engagement-related activities in place of in-person meetings/events where possible, to reduce travel costs
Pursuing business opportunities where cost recovery is possible
Optimizing systems and processes to further reduce operating costs
Using internal resources where possible to perform some previously outsourced tasks (e.g., publication design, consulting services, etc.)
Prioritizing initiatives and partnering with other organizations to reduce or share costs on joint projects/initiatives
Using a business-critical lens to assess all expenditure requests and looking for efficiencies and cost-reduction options at every stage of the business planning and implementation process.

Further strategies may be required to reduce operational costs in the annual budget to address growing structural deficit and budgetary pressures. This may result in the OHRC facing additional challenges in meeting the priority objectives set out in its revitalized Strategic Plan (2023-25).

Three-year outlook

Throughout 2022, the OHRC was engaged in a planning exercise to develop a strategic plan for the next three years (2023–25) which will help to establish priorities and guide the OHRC’s work. This planning process had three goals which were to:

Ensure that the OHRC’s actions in the short term continue to be relevant, align with current and emerging needs, meet the expectations of OHRC stakeholders, and enable the OHRC to fulfill its mandate effectively, while supporting its future growth.
Determine what specific capacities and resources the OHRC needs in place to meet its current and future business needs.
Set out clearer objectives with a built-in evaluation framework to provide more concrete guidance in the OHRC’s work, to more effectively align/assign resources, to make it easier to evaluate whether the OHRC is on track to reach its goals, and to ensure greater outcomes through more targeted actions.

To enable the strategic planning aims to be achieved, an assessment of the relevance of existing strategic plan priorities was conducted, taking into consideration current human rights issues and trends. The OHRC also assessed its business and operational environment to identify specific capacities and resources that it needs in place to achieve its goals in the short and long term.

The significant relevance and status of the work flowing from three priorities of the current Strategic Plan, education, criminal justice, and Indigenous reconciliation, necessitated continuing to work on them. As well, the planning exercise provided a timely opportunity to review and reframe the plan in a way that integrates other emerging human rights concerns, and to explore new ways of meeting business objectives.

Consultation activities, including key informant interviews, focus groups and surveys, were used to engage with and seek insights and perspectives from more than 200 individuals representing diverse groups, organizations and institutions across the province.

Through this process, the OHRC has identified five priority areas and an overarching enabler priority focused on building organizational capacity for the next three years to achieve its mandate. They are:

Reconciliation: Build sustaining, respectful and trusting relationships with Indigenous communities[1] to advance reconciliation and substantive equality
Criminal justice: Advance human rights and reduce systemic discrimination in the criminal justice system by requiring accountability and institutional change
Health and well-being: Address discrimination in the areas of health, housing and employment by enabling duty-holders to act on their human rights obligations
Education: Strengthen a commitment to human rights in Ontario by addressing discrimination in the education system
Human rights culture: Promote a culture of human rights through education and engagement
Organizational impact: Build an efficient and sustainable organization to achieve our mandate

This revitalized strategic plan will provide a framework allowing the organization to be creative and nimble while remaining steadfast and focused and identifying the key activities, related expenditures, and resource requirements needed over the next three years.

Budget

Based on the operational requirements expected to achieve the outcomes set out in the 2023-25 strategic plan, the OHRC currently anticipates its next three years will require funding allocations as follows:

Expense category	2023–24		2024–25		2025–26
	Budget	Estimates	Budget	Estimates	Budget	Estimates
	($M)	($M)	($M)	($M)	($M)	($M)
Operating
Salaries & Wages (S&W)	4.4896	4.3251	4.5069	4.3605	4.5069	4.3605
Benefits	0.3951	0.4758	0.3907	0.4797	0.3907	0.4797
Other Direct Operating Expenses (ODOE)
Transportation & Communications (T&C)	0.1932	0.0900	0.1932	0.0950	0.1932	0.0990
Services	0.4048	0.6000	0.4052	0.5680	0.4052	0.5630
Supplies & Equipment (S&E)	0.0282	0.0200	0.0282	0.0210	0.0282	0.0220
TOTAL Operating	5.5109	5.5109	5.5242	5.5242	5.5242	5.5242

4. Key performance indicators and measurements

The following five key performance indicators (KPIs) and measurements will be used to support the OHRC in demonstrating progress toward identified goals and outcomes, using specific, fixed and quantifiable measures of success to make it possible to track the agency’s performance over the next three years.

Reconciliation

Outcomes	Performance measures	Baseline	Targets
The OHRC is a trusted ally to Indigenous communities in the work of reconciliation	Percentage of Indigenous partners who agree that the OHRC maintains relevant and effective relationships	N/A	5% increase in the number of Indigenous partners who agree that the OHRC maintains relevant and effective relationships based on the results of the biennial survey

Criminal justice and Health and well-being

Outcomes

Performance measures

Baseline

Targets

Duty-holders have and use accessible, relevant and practical human rights tools

Percentage of duty-holders who report having accessed relevant and practical human rights tools

N/A

10% increase in the number of duty-holders who report they have accessed relevant and practical human rights tools

Education

Outcomes

Performance measures

Baseline

Targets

Duty-holders in the education system are implementing changes that address systemic discrimination

Percentage of school boards that have a plan to implement the Right to Read recommendations

Year-over-year increase to 100% by year two (75% in year 1 and 100% in year 2) of school boards having a plan to implement the Right to Read recommendations

Improved opportunities and outcomes for students disproportionately affected by discrimination in Ontario

Human rights culture

Outcomes	Performance measures	Baseline	Targets
The public is more knowledgeable about human rights	Public satisfaction with the OHRC’s products	N/A	80% satisfaction with OHRC products

Organizational impact

Outcomes

Performance measures

Baseline

Targets

Improved employee experience

Percentage increase in employee experience rates

69.5%

2% increase in the employee experience rate based on the results of the biennial employee experience surveys

5. Communications plan

The OHRC will make its revitalized Strategic Plan public in early January 2023 and remains committed to ongoing outreach, public education, and relationship-building with the public, key stakeholders, and community groups. This approach will ensure its goals and objectives remain relevant, timely, and community-informed. Further, targeted communication strategies concerning planned initiatives and activities will be developed and rolled out to support the OHRC’s public-facing engagements as required.

[1] i.e., First Nations, Métis, Inuit and urban Indigenous.