Program directory · Department of Justice Canada
Advisory Services
- Department
- Department of Justice Canada
- Program code
- BNX03 (JUS)
- Core responsibility
- Legal Services
- In Departmental Plans
- 2018-19 – 2026-27 · New since an earlier plan
What it does
Abbreviated version: Legal advisory services are integral to Justice Canada’s role in supporting the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada as Government’s chief law officer in terms of ongoing governmental operations and in the development of legislation, policies, programs and services for Canadians. Legal advisory services assist the Government in achieving its objectives in accordance with the law and in ensuring that it meets its constitutional obligations (including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) and international obligations. Legal advisory professionals work in close collaboration with client departments and agencies in order to provide high quality bilingual and bijural legal services to support clients in achieving their departmental priorities. Legal advisory professionals also work with their Justice Canada colleagues to ensure the integration and coherence of advisory, legislative, policy and litigation advice in various legal areas. Legal advisory professionals also provide assistance to the Government in identifying its legal risks, thus helping client departments and agencies in factoring legal risks and implications into their chosen courses of action in delivering policies, programs and services to Canadians.
Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.
History and lineage
First appears in GC InfoBase's actual spending by program in 2018-19. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).
| Program | Relation | Years with data | Actual spending over those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advisory Services | This program | 2018-19 – 2028-29 | $869M |
No earlier or later program in the same department has a similar name.
Significant changes in scope and budget
Detected from the data: renames between plans, programs it appears to replace, merge with or split into (matched by name), year-over-year changes in spending of at least 25% and $5M, or in employees of at least 20% and 25 FTEs, linked budget measures, and results indicators added or dropped.
| Year | What changed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | Indicators added: Client satisfaction mean rating on the overall quality of legal advisory services; Client satisfaction mean rating on the responsiveness of legal advisory services; Client satisfaction mean rating on the timeliness of legal advisory services; Client satisfaction mean rating on the usefulness of legal advisory services | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2022-23 | Indicators dropped: Client satisfaction mean rating of 8.0 (or greater) on a 10-point scale on the overall quality of legal services.; Client satisfaction mean rating of 8.0 (or greater) on a 10-point scale on the performance of legal services against the Service Standards for the Provision of Legal Services in Government. | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2024-25 | Spending $230M, against $105M in 2023-24 (+119%). | Actual spending (GC InfoBase) |
| 2025-26 | Planned spending $127M, against $230M in 2024-25 (−45%). | Latest Departmental Plan |
Success criteria
The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.
Historical: targets against results
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | ≥ 8 | 2023 | 8.6 | Met |
| 2023-24 | ≥ 8 | 2024 | 8.7 The 2023–24 result reflects interim feedback collected during Cycle V of the Client Feedback Survey. | Met |
| 2024-25 | ≥ 8 | 2025 | 8.6 The 2024–25 result reflects final feedback collected during Cycle V of the Client Feedback Survey. | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | ≥ 8 | 2023 | 9 | Met |
| 2023-24 | ≥ 8 | 2024 | 8.3 The 2023–24 result reflects interim feedback collected during Cycle V of the Client Feedback Survey. | Met |
| 2024-25 | ≥ 8 | 2025 | 8.1 The 2024–25 result reflects final feedback collected during Cycle V of the Client Feedback Survey. | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | ≥ 8 | 2023 | 8.4 | Met |
| 2023-24 | ≥ 8 | 2024 | 8.4 The 2023–24 result reflects interim feedback collected during Cycle V of the Client Feedback Survey. | Met |
| 2024-25 | ≥ 8 | 2025 | 8.3 The 2024–25 result reflects final feedback collected during Cycle V of the Client Feedback Survey. | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | ≥ 8 | 2023 | 8.7 | Met |
| 2023-24 | ≥ 8 | 2024 | 8.8 The 2023–24 result reflects interim feedback collected during Cycle V of the Client Feedback Survey. | Met |
| 2024-25 | ≥ 8 | 2025 | 8.6 The 2024–25 result reflects final feedback collected during Cycle V of the Client Feedback Survey. | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | ≥ 8 | 2020 | 8.5 The results from the Client Feedback Survey show that the Department exceeded the target of 8.0 in 2019-20. Advisory: 8.5; Litigation: 8.4; Legislative: 8.6; Regulatory: 8.4 | Met |
| 2020-21 | ≥ 8 | 2020 | 8.6 The result presented for 2020-21 reflects interim feedback collected during Cycle IV of the Department of Justice Canada Legal Services Client Feedback Survey and shows that the Department exceeded the target of 8.0. | Met |
| 2021-22 | ≥ 8 | 2022 | 8.6 The result presented for 2020-21 reflects interim feedback collected during Cycle IV of the Department of Justice Canada Legal Services Client Feedback Survey and shows that the Department exceeded the target of 8.0. | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | ≥ 8 | 2020 | 8.4 The result shown is the average of the performance standards ratings for the legal services provided by the Department of Justice Canada. The ratings are the following: Responsiveness/Accessibility: 8.7; Usefulness: 8.4; Timeliness: 8.2. The results from the Client Feedback Survey show that the Department exceeded the target of 8.0 in 2019-20. | Met |
| 2020-21 | ≥ 8 | 2020 | 8.7 Results presented in previous Departmental Results Reports for the performance of legal services against the service standards were disaggregated by service dimension (responsiveness/accessibility, usefulness, and timeliness). These results have since been aggregated into a single indicator for the performance of legal services against service standards. In doing so, a weighting strategy was appl… | Met |
| 2021-22 | ≥ 8 | 2022 | 8.8 The result presented for 2021-22 reflects interim feedback collected during Cycle IV of the Department of Justice Canada Legal Services Client Feedback Survey and shows that the Department exceeded the target of 8.0. A weighting strategy was applied to ensure accurate representation of client feedback. The disaggregated ratings are the following: Responsiveness/Accessibility: 9.0; Usefulness: 8.8… | Met |
Current: the 2026-27 plan's targets
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 8 | 2027 | — | Planned |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 8 | 2027 | — | Planned |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 8 | 2027 | — | Planned |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 8 | 2027 | — | Planned |
Future goals: targets due after 2026-27
No targets with a later due date.
Spending and employees: planned against actual
Spending
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | $88.3M | $113M |
| 2019-20 | $92.9M | $104M |
| 2020-21 | $99M | $103M |
| 2021-22 | $104M | $109M |
| 2022-23 | $106M | $106M |
| 2023-24 | $110M | $105M |
| 2024-25 | $106M | $230M |
| 2025-26 | $127M | — |
| 2026-27 | $124M | — |
| 2027-28 | $117M* | — |
| 2028-29 | $115M* | — |
Employees (FTEs)
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | 1,503 | 1,215 |
| 2019-20 | 1,219 | 1,254 |
| 2020-21 | 1,260 | 1,315 |
| 2021-22 | 1,318 | 1,373 |
| 2022-23 | 1,388 | 1,440 |
| 2023-24 | 1,496 | 1,483 |
| 2024-25 | 1,491 | 1,528 |
| 2025-26 | 1,523 | — |
| 2026-27 | 1,493 | — |
| 2027-28 | 1,486* | — |
| 2028-29 | 1,483* | — |
Planned spending, plan by plan
Each row is one year's Departmental Plan and its forecast for the next three fiscal years; read a column down to see how the forecast for one year changed. The last row is what was actually spent. Click an amount for its source. Biggest changes in federal spending plans
| Plan | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 plan | $88,312,338 | $88,312,338 | $88,357,016 | ||||||||
| 2019-20 plan | $92,944,044 | $92,988,721 | $92,988,721 | ||||||||
| 2020-21 plan | $99,042,389 | $101,802,489 | $102,493,724 | ||||||||
| 2021-22 plan | $104,436,053 | $105,139,635 | $105,139,635 | ||||||||
| 2022-23 plan | $106,417,783 | $106,417,783 | $106,332,426 | ||||||||
| 2023-24 plan | $110,071,610 | $109,986,113 | $109,584,394 | ||||||||
| 2024-25 plan | $105,668,126 | $104,066,463 | $103,377,677 | ||||||||
| 2025-26 plan | $126,728,477 | $126,218,318 | $126,218,318 | ||||||||
| 2026-27 plan | $123,975,754 | $116,592,789 | $115,151,177 | ||||||||
| Actual | $112,686,969 | $103,606,031 | $102,594,979 | $109,274,705 | $106,023,251 | $105,014,651 | $229,886,252 |
Actual spending is from Departmental Results Reports and the Public Accounts, as published in GC InfoBase. FTEs are full-time equivalents.
