2020–21 Departmental Results Report
Department of Justice Canada

These updates also account for revised data for those same reporting periods. These are not corrections of errors, but rather improvements in data quality made possible by the availability of new information.

• The 2020-21 actual result for the Departmental Result Indicator “Canada’s international ranking with respect to the rule of law” under the Departmental Result “Justice Canada laws and policies abide by the rule of law and promote respect for rights and a fair, accessible and relevant legal framework in Canada” has been revised from “Not Available” to “8.6% (12th/139)”. The footnote for the indicator has been updated to “Eleven countries were added to the Rule of Law Index 2021 according to the World Justice Project.”
• The 2020-21 actual result for the Departmental Result Indicator “Number/percentage of court-imposed community-based sentences as compared to number/percentage of incarceration sentences” under the Departmental Result “The criminal justice system supports alternative ways of responding to the causes and consequences of offending” has been revised from “Not Available” to “44% of adults received a custodial sentence”. The footnote for the indicator has been updated to “In 2020–21, 44% of adults found guilty of a Criminal Code offence (excluding traffic offences) received a custodial sentence (Statistics Canada, Table 35-10-0031-01 Adult criminal courts, guilty cases by most serious sentence).”
• The 2020-21 actual result for the Departmental Result Indicator “Percentage of individuals who were referred to an Indigenous justice program and participated in the program” under the Departmental Result “The criminal justice system supports alternative ways of responding to the causes and consequences of offending” has been revised from “Not Available” to “70%”. The footnote for the indicator has been updated to “As Indigenous partners were severely impacted during COVID-19, a number of funded programs were closed for a majority of the pandemic or worked at a reduced capacity. As a result, many were unable to provide the Department with their statistical reports for 2020-21.”
• The 2020-21 actual result for the Departmental Result Indicator “Percentage of youth court cases receiving a non-custodial (community-based) sentence as compared to previous reported years under the Departmental Result” under the Departmental Result “The criminal justice system supports alternative ways of responding to the causes and consequences of offending” has been revised from “Not Available” to “90%”. The footnote for the indicator has been updated to “In 2020–21, 10% of youth found guilty of a Criminal Code offence (excluding traffic offences) received a custodial sentence, whereas 90% received a non-custodial (community-based) sentence (Statistics Canada, Table 35-10-0042-01 Youth courts, guilty cases by most serious sentence).”
• The 2020-21 actual result for the Departmental Result Indicator “Number of times duty counsel provide assistance in criminal matters” under the Departmental Result “Canadians in contact with the justice system have access to appropriate services enabling a fair, timely and accessible justice system” has been revised from “Not Available” to “670,286”. The footnote for the indicator has been updated to “The Legal Aid in Canada 2020–21 report shows that the number of duty counsel assists dropped by 38% in 2020-21 in the wake of the pandemic and with the closure of the courts.”
• The 2020-21 actual result for the Departmental Result Indicator “Number of full service criminal legal aid applications approved” under the Departmental Result “Canadians in contact with the justice system have access to appropriate services enabling a fair, timely and accessible justice system” has been revised from “Not Available” to “199,767”. The footnote for the indicator has been updated to “Based on data from the Legal Aid in Canada 2020–21 report. Criminal legal aid applications and approvals both declined by 18% from the previous year, mainly due to COVID‑19 disruptions such as court closures. Some of the decrease is also linked to provincial policy and service delivery changes. This decline does not reflect a reduction in legal aid services.”
• The footnote for the 2020-21 actual result for the Departmental Result Indicator “Percentage of Canadians who think that the criminal justice system is a) fair and b) accessible” under the Departmental Result “Justice Canada laws and policies abide by the rule of law and promote respect for rights and a fair, accessible and relevant legal framework in Canada” has been updated to “The 2021 National Justice Survey asked respondents to rate their confidence “today” (on the day surveyed), but also “before the pandemic”. The percentages reported above for 2020-21 reflect responses as to confidence “on the day surveyed”. These results represent a notable decrease from the responses received as to confidence “before the pandemic” (55% and 62%, respectively), which more closely aligned with previous years’ results. The decrease in percentages from 2018-19 to 2020-21 could have been influenced by several factors, such as separating the question into confidence pre- and post-pandemic, impacts of the pandemic, or other sociopolitical factors, notably, increased attention to systemic racism in the criminal justice system.”

Other corrections to the “Results achieved” tables have been made for accuracy and simplicity.

• The 2020-21 actual result for the Departmental Result Indicator “Client satisfaction mean rating of 8.0 (or greater) on a 10-point scale on the overall quality of legal services.” under the Departmental Result “Departments and agencies receive high-quality legal services” has been simplified to show one aggregate result to align with GC Infobase. The footnote for the indicator has been updated to include the disaggregated results: “Results presented in previous Departmental Results Reports for overall quality of legal services were disaggregated by service type (advisory, litigation, legislative drafting, and regulatory drafting). These results have since been aggregated into a single indicator for the overall quality of legal services. In doing so, a weighting strategy was applied to ensure accurate representation of client feedback. 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. The disaggregated ratings are the following: Advisory: 8.6; Litigation: 8.4; Legislative: 8.6; Regulatory: 8.8.”
• The 2020-21 actual result for the Departmental Result Indicator “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” under the Departmental Result “Departments and agencies receive high-quality legal services” has been simplified to show one aggregate result to align with GC Infobase. The footnote for the indicator has been updated to include the disaggregated results: “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 applied to ensure accurate representation of client feedback. 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. The disaggregated ratings are the following: Responsiveness/Accessibility: 9.0; Usefulness: 8.6; Timeliness: 8.4.”
• The language used in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 actual result footnotes for the Departmental Result Indicator “Number/percentage of court-imposed community-based sentences as compared to number/percentage of incarceration sentences” under the Departmental Result “The criminal justice system supports alternative ways of responding to the causes and consequences of offending” have been standardized for greater accuracy. Instead of “[…] guilty under the Criminal Code […]”, the footnotes now state “[…] guilty of a Criminal Code offence […]”.
• The language used in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 actual result footnotes for the Departmental Result Indicator “Percentage of youth court cases receiving a non-custodial (community-based) sentence as compared to previous reported years” under the Departmental Result “The criminal justice system supports alternative ways of responding to the causes and consequences of offending” have been standardized for greater accuracy. Instead of “guilty under the Criminal Code”, the footnotes now state “[…] guilty of a Criminal Code offence […]”.
• Plaintext URLs were removed from footnotes 4, 5, 14, 15, 18, 20, 22, 26, 27, 30, 31, 38, and 39.