Performance Measures

The AGCO’s approach to performance measurement enables the agency to improve program effectiveness by promoting a focus on results, service quality and value for money through continued targeting, monitoring, and evaluation of results.

Performance measures are an integral component of the AGCO’s strategic planning process. Effective strategic planning requires continuous feedback on progress towards achieving stated objectives, through performance measures based on the five Strategic Goals identified in the AGCO Strategic Plan.

In keeping with the principle of a ‘critical few’ performance measures, the selected measures are intended to provide a broad overview of the AGCO’s activities, but are not intended to measure all facets of the agency’s operations. As part of the enhanced planning framework, the AGCO will continue to develop performance measures for its corporate and divisional plans.

The results from 2018-2019 performance measures that follow demonstrate that the AGCO has met or surpassed minimum agency targets in every respect. The achievement of these measures is the result of a number of overarching initiatives at the AGCO, including:

  • the introduction of additional business lines in iAGCO, the AGCO’s online licensing and registration system
  • a focus on stakeholder engagement and an enhanced approach to stakeholder education
  • a modern regulatory approach which is risk-based, compliance-focused, and outcomes-based
  • the introduction of numerous services to support a rewarding workplace for employees.

Operational Performance:  Table 3 - AGCO Performance Measures 2018-19

Table 3 – AGCO Performance Measures 2018-19

Strategic

Goal Supported

Performance Measure

Five Year Planning

Cycle Target

Results
2018-19
Modern
Regulator
Percentage of compliance matters resolved through the Letter of Incident (LOI) process without a request for hearing. Maintain the ratio of compliance matters resolved through LOI process without request for hearing at an average of 90%. 94% compliance matters resolved through LOI process exceeds AGCO target
Percentage of high-risk infractions following transition to a compliance-based operating model. Maintain an average 30% decrease in infractions compared to benchmark data. 85% decrease in high risk infractions compared to benchmark exceeds AGCO target
Value for
Money
Average gaming and liquor application turnaround time. Average turnaround time meets or is better than AGCO Standard (30 days). Liquor: 13.25 days
Gaming: 12 days
is lower than AGCO Standard for turnaround.
Average electronic gaming lab testing turnaround time. Average turnaround time meets or is better than comparable jurisdictions (New Jersey = 53 days, Michigan = 52 days, and Nevada = 35 days). 20 days average turnaround, better than all comparable jurisdictions.
Strategic
Engagement
Percentage of stakeholders indicating a high level of engagement following AGCO consultations using a Stakeholder Engagement Plan. Percentage stakeholders reported feeling engaged/highly engaged during stakeholder consultations averages 80%. 88% of stakeholders participating in the Cannabis Webinar Series reported feeling engaged/highly engaged, exceeding AGCO target.
93% of stakeholders participating in the Municipal Engagement Webinar Series reported feeling engaged engaged/highly engaged, exceeding AGCO target.
Quality
Service
Experience
Overall customer satisfaction with iAGCO, the AGCO’s new automated online licensing and registration solution. Percentage of customers reporting feeling satisfied with iAGCO averages 80%. 93% of customers indicate they are satisfied with iAGCO, exceeding AGCO target.
Percentage of gaming operators indicating excellent level of satisfaction with AGCO testing and lab services. Increase percentage of gaming operators indicating excellent level of service to 75%. 100% of gaming operators indicating excellent level of service exceeds AGCO target.
Rewarding
Workplace
Time to Fill Vacancies (Weeks). Average time to fill vacancies meets or is better than AGCO internal target (8 weeks). 6.7 weeks average time taken to fill vacancies exceeds AGCO target.
Number of Training Hours Per Employee. Average number of training hours taken per employee meets or exceeds AGCO target (15.75 hours). 19.08 hours of training per employee exceeds AGCO target.

 

Operational Performance - IEB

The Investigation and Enforcement Bureau (IEB) is comprised of OPP Officers, fully integrated as a Bureau within the AGCO. The OPP Bureau is assigned to the AGCO and is fully integrated into AGCO operations, to streamline, standardize and improve investigative response. The IEB is comprised of the Investigations Branch (IB) and the Intelligence and Investigative Support Branch (IISB). These branches provide investigative expertise and effective information sharing to external law enforcement, regulatory and industry stakeholder agencies to ensure integrity and public safety within AGCO regulated industries.

IEB Investigation Branch

Occurrences

TABLE 4 – Number of IEB Investigations

 

2017-18

2018-19

iGaming

21

33

Charitable Gaming

30

21

Liquor Licence Holders and Applicants

127

110

Lottery Insider Wins

49

55

Lottery Suspicious Wins

83

87

Other Lottery Investigations

109

167

Additional Investigations Reviewed and Referred to AGCO

 Regulatory Compliance for Follow Up

143

32

 
 

Gaming Enforcement Branch

Gaming Investigation Units

TABLE 5 – Occurrences at Casinos and Slot Machine Facilities

 

2017-18

2018-19

Total Investigations

8,507

9,424

Total Criminal Code Offences

3,262

2,291

Alleged Cheat-at-Play Instances

108

179

Cheat-at-Play Charges Laid

20

19

Total Non-Criminal Code Related Offences 

  • These occurrences involved provincial statute investigations or violations, such as the LLA, Trespass to Property Act, and Mental Health Act.
  • Not included are requests to assist local police with non-gaming related investigations. Only those events that result in a report being filed are considered to be reportable occurrences by the AGCO’s Investigation and Enforcement Bureau.

5,245

7,133

In 2018-2019, there were a total of 1,123 other calls for police assistance, including calls for medical emergencies, police information and abandoned children.
 

Eligibility Investigations Unit (EIU)

TABLE 6 – Eligibility Investigations

 

2017-18

2018-19

Investigations - Gaming

Include files on gaming related and non-gaming related suppliers, racing teletheater investigations, investigations on gaming site employees, and lottery retailer investigations

531

518

Outside Agency Assist Checks

These checks provide investigative assistance to external law enforcement agencies.

725

562

 

Strategic Partnerships

Compliance Services (CS) recognizes the benefits of collaborative working relationships with police services and other regulatory bodies. Throughout 2018-2019, CS continued to seek out new strategic partnerships and collaborative approaches to promote compliance among all sectors regulated by the AGCO. 

In this fiscal year, CS led the implementation of the Ottawa Compliance Project focusing on the ByWard Market area, in collaboration with municipal compliance bodies including by-law, public health, fire, and police. The project established baseline awareness seminars for front-line compliance personnel to increase their awareness of key compliance concerns for the participating agencies and established an efficient process to refer items of concern to the responsible agency. Based on the results of this pilot, further opportunities to partner with additional communities will be explored.

Operational Performance – By Sector

Service Strategy and Experience

In March 2019, the AGCO created a new Service Strategy and Experience Branch to initially build upon and complete through the objectives of Service Experience 2020, an agency-wide initiative to define and deliver an optimal service and regulatory experience to its customers. Service Experience 2020 plans to elevate the agency's service to customers, across all lines of business, by enhancing the way the AGCO supports its customers at every point of interaction based on Guiding Principles to establish customer-centred services with clear service standards, offer multiple channels of contact, to be “digital by default,” and include self-help options.

iAGCO and Service Improvements

To create a more streamlined and digital experience for AGCO applicants and registrants, the agency continued its phased approach to iAGCO online services:

  • Phase 1 was launched on May 29, 2017 for SOP applications and Liquor manufacturers’ licensing
  • Phase 2: January 29, 2018 for all Liquor licences. Online submission of complaints and inquiries was also introduced in this phase
  • Phase 3: November 19, 2018 for lottery and gaming registrants and January 14, 2019 for cannabis applicants.

As of January 2019, the online submission rate for liquor applicants was 93%. In addition, 79% of gaming application were processed online. Low risk applicants now have quicker application turnaround timelines resulting from auto-issuance and auto-renewals of licences.

In 2018-2019, 95% of Special Occasion Permits, and 41% of liquor licence renewals were issued automatically. The current auto renewal rate for gaming registrations is 60%.

iAGCO improves customer service by allowing those who do business with the AGCO to apply for and manage their licences, registrations and permits online, anytime from anywhere by accessing the iAGCO online portal. 93% of AGCO customers report satisfaction with their experience using the iAGCO portal.

The submission of regulatory notifications, liquor licence objections, cannabis public submissions, general inquiries and complaints are now conducted online through iAGCO

TABLE 7 – iAGCO & Service Improvements

 

iAGCO submissions

Regulatory Notifications

8,666

Liquor objections

793

Complaints

2217

Inquiries

33,536

Cannabis submissions

(from the public and municipalities)

181

Total

45,393

Complaints & Inquiries

The AGCO’s updated Complaints & Inquiries Handling Policy focuses on complaints analysis and continuous improvement to improve evidence-based decision making. Through regular performance monitoring, the AGCO’s average turnaround for addressing complaints about regulated entity compliance and licensing and registration was reduced by 44% over the previous fiscal year from 69.9 to 39.3 days. 

TABLE 8 – Operational Performance by Sector: Customer Service

The AGCO is committed to supporting the public and stakeholders through effective front-line customer service support.

 

2017-18

2018-19

Number of telephone contacts

104,333

100,384

Walk-in customers (Head Office)

13,909

8,927

Self-Help (using automated voice messaging system)

20,039

33,386

iAGCO submissions

n/a

45,393

AGCO web site visits

864,897

1,754,979

 

The AGCO continued its commitment to improving the customer experience, with the launch of call-monitoring technology to monitor and improve the quality of customer calls. 

Strategic Engagement

Stakeholder engagement is a key component of the delivery of AGCO priority projects and decision-making. The AGCO shares information and educates stakeholders to ensure overall understanding of regulatory requirements and improve regulatory outcomes and compliance. This engagement supports the AGCO’s compliance-focused and risk-based regulatory approach with increased service quality and collaboration.

Stakeholder engagement, education, and training activities include hosting of webinars and national/international delegations, consultations and industry stakeholder information sessions as well as participation in industry related forums and conferences and facilitation of working groups.

TABLE 9 – Quarterly Strategic Engagement Activities

Engagement per Quarter

Total Engagement Activities

Q1 April – June 2018

25

Q2 July – September 2018

8

Q3 October – December 2018

40

Q4 January – March 2019

12

Total

85

 

In addition to targeted industry outreach, the AGCO developed a comprehensive municipal engagement strategy to engage in a focused and coordinated manner with municipalities on its regulatory frameworks for liquor, cannabis and charitable gaming. The strategy included a municipal webinar series aimed at strengthening the AGCO’s relationship with municipalities by engaging on key AGCO regulatory activity topics and issues to address the interests of municipalities. Webinar topics ranged from explaining the role of the AGCO to education surrounding the charitable gaming regulatory framework and the newly regulated cannabis industry. Overall, there were over 900 municipal registrations for the four municipal webinars with an average participant satisfaction rate of 94%.

The 2018-2019 racing season also saw the first full year of implementation of two key reforms to the review of the Rules of Racing that arose out of the industry-wide “Moving Ahead: Horse Racing Regulation in Ontario working group activities that took place in 2017:

  • Measures to streamline the Equine Drug Program process, including changes to penalty guidelines so that they better reflect the severity of equine drug violations and better protect equine athletes. Preliminary results indicate that 94% of positive tests were resolved through a settlement process, and therefore without appeal to the Horse Racing Appeal Panel, compared to 31% in FY 2016/17; 17 of 18 positive tests from April 21 to Dec 31, 2018 were settled
  • Standards-based rules related to temperature, including requirements for race cancellation and other measures intended to ensure the well-being of horses and people who may be impacted by extreme temperature. Performance measures related to goals such as enhanced race horse welfare and increased transparency regarding race cancellations were designed, and data collection is underway. 

During 2018-2019, the AGCO continued its engagement with industry stakeholders as it worked toward implementation of other key reforms explored as part of AGCO’s review of the Rules of Racing. This included:

  • Receiving input from industry associations, racetrack management, veterinarians and other stakeholders to help inform new standards-based rules requiring that horses in Ontario are free of medications, as well as new provisions concerning the invalidating of claims in instances where a horse dies or is euthanized on the racetrack. Feedback received has informed the implementation and ongoing evaluation of these changes
  • Insights from jockeys, racetrack management and medical professionals contributed to the design of a Concussion Protocol Pilot that is to be held at thoroughbred racetracks for the duration of the 2019 racing season. This protocol is intended to safeguard jockeys and race horses, and raise awareness and understanding of concussions and associated health risks.