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The Year in Review: 2020-21
Courts Administration Service
Supporting the delivery of justice for all Canadians
2019-20 Annual Report
Over the course of last year, we provided innovative ways of delivering justice remotely and online as well as ensuring safe access to our court facilities and courtrooms for in-person appearances.
We very successfully transitioned to working virtually and delivering services to the Courts and Canadians through various digital means to enable continued access to justice. The capacity of the Courts to receive the electronic submission of documents was enhanced with the release of a new e-filing portal on the FC website and improvements made to the TCC’s e-filing portal. An online payment option for filing fees was also introduced as part of the FC e-filing portal. Two new fully digital e-courtrooms were built in Ottawa this year for the FC and CMAC. These courtrooms are equipped with fully integrated IT infrastructure to support virtual hearings and trials, including video conferencing, digital screens, computer workstations, internet connectivity, and digital audio recording systems.
We accelerated the digitization of court documents and converted active and priority files to digital format to support virtual proceedings. We also expanded our e-trial toolkit and implemented SharePoint allowing litigants and the Courts to share and access digital court files in virtual proceedings. Our multi-year project to implement a new Courts and Registry Management System (CRMS) advanced with preparatory work to define court requirements and activate the procurement process, including a request for information from the industry.
We advanced our plans to build a new state-of-the-art federal courthouse in Montréal by 2027. In Ottawa, we built new judicial chambers for the FC, constructed three new courtrooms for the FC and CMAC, and acquired and set-up additional office space for the TCC. We also improved the security and accessibility at our Calgary court facilities.
CAS’s diverse and skilled workforce is the foundation of our success. We are committed to providing employees with the knowledge, tools, and the work environment they need to perform their jobs effectively and efficiently. Over the past year, we continued our recruitment efforts and invested in the training and well-being of our workforce. We launched a mental health series providing employees with events, training, and services offered monthly to promote mental health and wellbeing at CAS. A new corporate learning management system was introduced, empowering employees to better track training needs based on their career paths and aspirations. A five-year Anti-Racism Strategy was developed and implemented to take action to build a workplace that fosters diversity and inclusion by addressing systemic racism, unconscious biases and other forms of discrimination.