Update: Cost of New Federal Leave for COVID-19

On July 24, 2020 the PBO reported on costs incurred from the Government’s policy of allowing employees to use pay code 699 paid leave for other reasons. Guidance from the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) allows for employees to request 699 leave for a variety of reasons including being sick with COVID-19, having to quarantine, not being able to access the technology they need to complete their work, and having to care for dependents.

Our original cost estimate included data up to the end of May 2020.  The Government subsequently shared data for June, as well as a breakdown of monthly leave by department through information request IR0504 (July 2020). The PBO has requested updated monthly data and will continue to monitor personnel expenditures as part of its mandate to provide independent and non-partisan analysis to Parliament.  

The Government has now provided us with monthly data from March to June for 72 of the 88 federal public service organizations governed by the Financial Administration Act Schedules I, IV and V.  These 72 organizations represent 88% (265,817) of federal public servants. For all weeks the number of hours used was revised from the previous data provided. All revisions were upward except for the week of March 16th, where reported hours decreased by 103.  It is still unclear why some federal organizations are unable to provide data.

Consistent with our prior findings, use of 699 leave continues to decrease (Figure 1-1).  As can be seen, after reaching a peak of 1.57 million hours in the week ending April 5, the number of weekly hours of leave has decreased by 84% to 254 thousand hours in the last week of June.

The Treasury Board was unable to provide actual personnel expenditures for the survey period.  Using 2018-2019 personnel expenditure data provided through information request IR0074 (February 2012), the PBO estimates a cost of $828 million between March and June for leave taken under code 699, inclusive of pension and other benefits. [i]  This includes PBO’s extrapolation of costs for the departments for which no data are available.

The calculations shown in Table 1-1 represent a 71% increase from our previous estimate due to the additional months and the inclusion of pension and benefit costs.

As previously reported, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is responsible for most of the 699 leave. Table 1-2 shows the five organizations with the highest hours used per month and their respective percent of total hours.  The CRA continues to account for a decreasing share of hours used, from 79% in March to 46% in June.  Most departments reported their total highest hours in either April or May, and all but 9 of the departments reported fewer hours used in June than in April.

Considerations

As noted above, the data received for this update contained revisions from our original reporting. TBS has informed the PBO that departments report data at irregular intervals, and they expect leave usage will fluctuate, until all organizations have caught up with their data entry of leave transactions. Notably, data for the first week of July (June 29th to July 5th) contained significantly fewer departments than previous weeks and is likely incomplete.  For this reason, our expenditure estimates only cover the period from March 9th to June 28th.

There are two scenarios where leave may be reported under a different period than it is taken. First, if an employee takes leave across two or more months the leave will be captured based on the month of the end date. Second, if an employee submits multiple periods of leave in one transaction the leave will be captured as occurring on one date. Because of these data quality issues, there are instances where the amount of leave used per-employee cannot be reconciled by the estimated work hours for the period on a per-department level. The PBO was not informed of this before publishing our initial report.

The PBO also requested, but did not receive, information on the type of leave being taken (leave for technology reasons, sick leave, family leave, etc.) for departments other than the CRA (which has already provided this information). TBS specified that only two of the 88 departments and agencies currently have the system capabilities to provide a breakdown of the authorized reasons for extending “Other Paid Leave”.

Finally, as previously indicated (notably in media interviews), the number of hours claimed under leave code 699 is almost certainly an underestimation of the loss of work hours due to the pandemic.  As stated in our July report, the Canada Revenue Agency was able to continue many of its core operations despite claiming by far the most hours of 699 leave.  This is due to a strong culture of monitoring time spent on specific activities.  It is therefore highly likely that other federal organizations not completing core operating functions like meeting legislated timelines for access to information requests are severely under-reporting the extent of hours of work lost due to the pandemic.

Appendix A – Hours of 699 Leave Requested

March 9th – July 5th*

Department 

March**

April**

May**

June**

 July**

Administrative Tribunals Support Service of Canada

635

7,437

2,779

1,323

-  

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

7,685

31,956

61,164

17,519

7,117

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

-  

158

1,101

-  

-  

Canada Border Services Agency

92,643

141,154

147,551

97,608

9,209

Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions

-  

336

-  

-  

-  

Canada Revenue Agency

2,177,300

3,195,370

2,256,369

731,519

4,889

Canada School of Public Service

701

3,916

4,330

1,569

-  

Canadian Heritage

1,578

40,455

33,918

13,052

818

Canadian Institutes of Health Research

-  

772

1,053

827

-  

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

-  

1,888

4,816

339

-  

Canadian Space Agency

1,567

2,353

4,432

2,321

-  

Canadian Transportation Agency

-  

-  

1,554

-  

-  

Correctional Service Canada

104,325

340,880

402,067

198,429

24,144

Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

2,390

10,111

15,736

5,500

727

Department of Justice Canada

9,747

26,443

46,626

20,639

3,697

Elections Canada

1,175

4,175

3,173

849

-  

Employment and Social Development Canada

91,979

145,954

137,484

44,267

5,489

Environment and Climate Change Canada

5,128

15,902

35,533

15,240

3,154

Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario

-  

275

1,087

748

-  

Global Affairs Canada

-  

7,790

13,641

2,445

-  

Health Canada

13,854

45,101

65,626

30,783

5,356

Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

1,764

4,457

91,431

16,775

-  

Indian Oil and Gas Canada

-  

4,951

4,990

2,129

-  

Infrastructure Canada

219

565

1,582

635

-  

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

4,002

6,419

6,332

2,961

507

Library and Archives Canada

239

10,926

10,255

-  

-  

National Defence

10,336

33,658

44,818

25,346

2,298

National Energy Board

788

2,548

3,361

1,614

-  

National Research Council Canada

20,019

33,762

40,056

24,854

1,916

Natural Resources Canada

3,473

13,867

22,136

19,195

4,480

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Canada

308

437

2,033

917

-  

Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages

324

1,059

1,225

784

-  

Office of the Governor General's Secretary

593

1,323

-  

-  

-  

Other***

2,269

1,766

4,510

3,508

3,423

Parks Canada

20,335

66,178

98,837

42,997

-  

Parole Board of Canada

570

4,934

12,037

663

-  

Privy Council Office

-  

1,963

1,734

659

-  

Public Health Agency of Canada

2,774

8,758

12,768

5,808

1,063

Public Prosecution Service of Canada

2,590

6,849

8,698

3,063

363

Public Safety Canada

351

1,131

3,143

1,755

167

Public Service Commission of Canada

257

6,874

10,938

5,580

169

Public Services and Procurement Canada

12,475

15,579

14,759

5,898

992

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Civilian Staff)

23,607

122,082

109,240

61,160

8,451

Shared Services Canada

3,769

9,477

16,812

10,199

2,301

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

-  

265

1,764

656

-  

Statistical Survey Operations

31,127

90,005

111,974

70,985

3,766

Statistics Canada

72,701

131,043

155,082

52,668

5,754

Transport Canada

5,909

20,314

26,499

13,069

1,719

Transportation Safety Board of Canada

-  

-  

270

-  

-  

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

7,765

14,695

18,084

9,635

582

Veterans Affairs Canada

7,645

41,486

78,969

27,332

1,974

Women and Gender Equality Canada

-  

273

749

247

-  

Total

2,746,918

4,680,068

4,155,125

1,596,071

104,524

 

* The data provided reflects the available information as of July 14th, 2020 and will continue to evolve as organizations continue to input leave.

** Data was received on a weekly basis therefore March refers to March 9th to 29th, April refers to March 30th to April 26th, May refers to April 27 to May 31st, June refers to June 1st to June 28th, and July refers to June 29 to July 5th.

*** In order to respect the data privacy of employees, departments/agencies with 10 or fewer employees using 699 leave were grouped together as Other. These departments/agencies are: Military Grievances External Review Committee, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada, Canadian Human Rights Commission, Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada, Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, Copyright Board Canada, Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada, Offices of the information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada, Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat, International Joint Commission, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada, and National Film Board. The total reported under Public Safety Canada also includes data from the following 3 departments: The Correctional Investigator Canada, RCMP External Review Committee, and Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP. For the same privacy reasons, some organizations in the table have a dash (-) for some months. Their number of hours was also included in “Other” for these months.

Appendix B – Count of Employees Using 699 Leave

March 9th – July 5th*

Department 

March**

April**

May**

June**

July**

Administrative Tribunals Support Service of Canada

29

76

65

36

-  

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

299

566

618

369

122

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

-  

14

23

-  

-  

Canada Border Services Agency

2,771

2,813

2,145

1,731

599

Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions

-  

14

-  

-  

-  

Canada Revenue Agency

36,654

34,651

29,035

16,375

193

Canada School of Public Service

42

122

97

50

-  

Canadian Heritage

58

610

501

286

44

Canadian Institutes of Health Research

-  

20

25

18

-  

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

-  

71

93

18

-  

Canadian Space Agency

66

87

129

84

-  

Canadian Transportation Agency

-  

-  

20

-  

-  

Correctional Service Canada

3,088

6,178

5,557

3,652

895

Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

68

200

200

170

36

Department of Justice Canada

469

840

949

615

156

Elections Canada

45

80

68

43

-  

Employment and Social Development Canada

3,674

3,256

2,147

1,427

316

Environment and Climate Change Canada

306

564

741

538

110

Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario

-  

11

17

15

-  

Global Affairs Canada

-  

153

185

64

-  

Health Canada

617

1,124

1,225

875

273

Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

59

86

545

387

-  

Indian Oil and Gas Canada

-  

51

40

29

-  

Infrastructure Canada

14

30

34

23

-  

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

188

214

116

79

28

Library and Archives Canada

15

300

255

-  

-  

National Defence

327

520

535

473

54

National Energy Board

68

114

115

85

-  

National Research Council Canada

689

793

765

657

194

Natural Resources Canada

164

342

404

380

146

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Canada

21

27

43

34

-  

Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages

15

21

23

21

-  

Office of the Governor General's Secretary

18

23

-  

-  

-  

Other***

107

57

58

71

89

Parks Canada

641

1,167

1,439

1,002

-  

Parole Board of Canada

25

70

65

19

-  

Privy Council Office

-  

30

19

13

-  

Public Health Agency of Canada

118

204

219

152

36

Public Prosecution Service of Canada

147

222

191

113

25

Public Safety Canada

14

39

61

56

12

Public Service Commission of Canada

18

196

259

181

14

Public Services and Procurement Canada

584

510

360

270

52

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Civilian Staff)

863

1,885

1,488

1,090

341

Shared Services Canada

188

318

454

306

82

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

-  

12

35

22

-  

Statistical Survey Operations

1,291

1,399

1,410

1,277

308

Statistics Canada

2,251

2,368

1,911

1,192

297

Transport Canada

248

482

546

406

91

Transportation Safety Board of Canada

-  

-  

11

-  

-  

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

293

349

339

253

54

Veterans Affairs Canada

263

892

854

624

113

Women and Gender Equality Canada

-  

18

23

15

-  

Total

56,815

64,189

56,457

35,596

4,680

 

* The data provided reflects the available information as of July 14th, 2020 and will continue to evolve as organizations continue to input leave. Employee count indicates the number of employees who requested at least one type of COVID-related 699 leave since March 15th, 2020.

** Data was received on a weekly basis therefore March refers to March 9th to 29th, April refers to March 30th to April 26th, May refers to April 27 to May 31st, June refers to June 1st to June 28th, and July refers to June 29 to July 5th.

*** In order to respect the data privacy of employees, departments/agencies with 10 or fewer employees using 699 leave were grouped together as Other. These departments/agencies are: Military Grievances External Review Committee, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada, Canadian Human Rights Commission, Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada, Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, Copyright Board Canada, Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada, Offices of the information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada, Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat, International Joint Commission, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada, and National Film Board. The total reported under Public Safety Canada also includes data from the following 3 departments: The Correctional Investigator Canada, RCMP External Review Committee, and Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP. For the same privacy reasons, some organizations in the table have a dash (-) for some months. Their employee count was also included in “Other” for these months.    

 

[i] The PBO’s prior estimate only accounted for salary at and average cost of $309 per employee per day. The average cost across government inclusive of pension, benefits, and other personnel costs is $481 per employee per day. Per-department costs were used in the estimate whenever possible. The CRA has lower than average per-employee costs which decreased the overall average cost.