Supplementary Information Tables 2018-19

Supplementary Information

Raison d’être

The Courts Administration Service (CAS) was established on July 2, 2003, with the coming into force of the Courts Administration Service Act, S.C. 2002, c. 8 (CAS Act). CAS’s raison d’être is to provide administrative services to four superior courts of record — the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA), the Federal Court (FC), the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada (CMAC) and the Tax Court of Canada (TCC) — the Courts. Placing administrative services at arm’s length from the Government of Canada safeguards judicial independence and enhances accountability for the use of public money. CAS recognizes the independence of the Courts in the conduct of their own affairs and aims to provide each with quality and efficient judicial, registry, and administrative services.

Mandate and role

As stated in section 2 of the CAS Act, CAS is mandated to:

• facilitate coordination and cooperation among the FCA, the FC, the CMAC and the TCC for the purpose of ensuring the effective and efficient provision of administrative services;

• enhance judicial independence by placing administrative services at arm’s length from the Government of Canada and by affirming the roles of Chief Justices and judges in the management of the Courts; and

• enhance accountability for the use of public money in support of court administration while safeguarding the independence of the judiciary.

Operating context and key risks

In 2018–19, the following had the greatest impact on the environment within which CAS operates.

Judicial Independence

Judicial independence is a cornerstone of the Canadian judicial system. Under the Constitution, the judiciary is separate from and independent of the executive and legislative branches. Judicial independence is a guarantee that judges will make decisions free of influence and based solely on facts and law. It has three components: security of tenure, financial security and administrative independence.

The CAS Act enhances judicial independence by placing administrative services at arm’s length from the Government of Canada and enhances accountability for the use of public money. Therefore, safeguarding the principle of judicial independence is a key operational consideration for CAS when providing services to the Courts, as well as in supporting the roles of the Chief Justices and judges in the management of the Courts.

Distinct requirements of the Courts

Services required by the judiciary — including registries, hearing-related activities, legal counsel, judicial administrators, law clerks, jurilinguists, judicial assistants, library personnel and court attendants — are provided as directed by the Chief Justices. The national and itinerant nature of the Courts also requires CAS to provide support to members of the Courts and deliver court and registry services in various locations across the country. As such, the individual and unique requirements of each of the Courts, the distinct nature of the Courts’ business, and the characteristics of the Canadian judicial system, are all factors that CAS must consider when delivering services to the Courts.

Volume and complexity of cases before the Courts

The volume of cases before the Courts is a key factor for the level of support required from CAS, particularly in terms of registry and judicial services. This volume can be somewhat unpredictable, as changes in legislation and regulations, policy decisions, as well as precedents from judgements can all influence the number of cases submitted before the Courts. In addition, the nature and increasing complexity of the cases filed can considerably impact the workloads of the Courts and registries, particularly in those related to national security, intellectual property, Aboriginal claims, taxation and immigration — which exacerbate pressures on staff, including judicial and registry support.

Demands for e-services and e-courts

Today, people routinely conduct business online and demand the same services from the government as they receive from private sector organizations. Members of the Courts, litigants and the legal community expect to be able to use modern technologies and electronic tools. Emerging technologies and new trends in providing e-services are key considerations for CAS in its service delivery and systems. However, legacy systems currently employed by CAS offer very limited functionality to accommodate e-services and e-courts. Therefore, CAS will continue to pursue efforts to acquire and implement a modern Courts and Registry Management System (CRMS) that will enable the Courts and CAS to work digitally and to deliver e-services to Canadians. These measures are in line with Treasury Board’s priority to improve government operations and service delivery, including developing a new digital policy to make government more service oriented, open, collaborative, accessible, and digitally enabled.

Service delivery capacity

CAS’s ability to provide the required level of mandated services to meet the operational needs of the Courts, as well as associated services to litigants and their legal counsel, is dependent on available financial and human resources. Funding received in Budget 2018 has allowed CAS to restore its capacity particularly in judicial and registry services. CAS will continue with its efforts to ensure that the organization has in place the resources necessary to deliver the level of mandated services required by the Courts. This will include seeking funding for initiatives necessary for the long-term operations of the Courts and CAS such as a modern CRMS.

Workforce

CAS’s ability to provide the level of mandated services required by the Courts also depends on the strength of its workforce. Much of the work undertaken at CAS requires specialized skills and strong knowledge of the legal/judicial environment, as well as technical knowledge in the respective jurisdictions of the Courts. Given the unique skill sets required, CAS must often compete with other courts across Canada or other federal departments to attract and retain skilled employees. Additionally, CAS has a mature workforce. The average age of the workforce is 44 (excluding law clerks) and approximately 24% of CAS employees will become eligible for retirement in the next five years.

Key Risks

CAS has in place a risk management process through which corporate risk profiles are developed and used annually to create an Enterprise Risk Management Framework for the fiscal year. This process is applied consistently throughout CAS and engages the most senior levels of the organization — the Chief Justices of the Courts, the Departmental Audit Committee, the Executive Committee, and the Senior Management Committee — in the identification and evaluation of the most pertinent risks for the organization, and the determination of appropriate response strategies to effectively manage these risks. Assigned risk owners are responsible for monitoring risks and the effectiveness of mitigation strategies, and presenting quarterly reports to the Executive Committee.

^{1. At the time of publication, CAS had been accorded in-year funding of $52 million over five years beginning in 2019–20 and $6.7 million ongoing to support the acquisition, implementation and operation of a modern CRMS.↩}

Access to Justice

There is a risk that access to justice could be compromised by insufficient financial resources and in turn impact the judicial independence of the Courts.

Factors driving this risk in 2018–19 included nondiscretionary work associated with the escalation in the number of multi-day hearings; a large number of self-represented litigants across all Courts; the effects of legislative and regulatory changes and amendments to the Court Rules on workloads; the number of documents received by the Courts; ongoing public demands for online services; the number of decisions that CAS has to translate and the requirement to support Canada’s fiscal objectives.

Ongoing program integrity funding in Budget 2018 has in large part mitigated this risk by providing a stable resource base for a number of areas critical to delivering CAS’s core mandate. In addition, CAS received funding in Budget 2019 for other important initiatives including a slight increase for the translation of Court decisions and the relocation of the federal courthouse in Montréal.

However, due to the ongoing requirement for funding for a modern CRMS, in the short-term, CAS will maintain its efforts to address this need. CAS will also continue to assess its ongoing requirement for translation.

Courts and Registry Management System

There is a risk that system applications and infrastructure will be unable to respond to the current and evolving requirements of the courts, litigants and CAS, impacting service delivery efficiency and access to justice.

The inefficiency of legacy systems to meet current needs, the susceptibility to system failures, potential of IT security incidents, an ongoing lack of dedicated funding for a modern CRMS, and the growing public demand for digital service, were all factors that continued to drive this risk. To mitigate this risk, CAS continued to advance its efforts in 2018–19 to secure funding to implement a new CRMS.²

In light of the continued risks with current systems, it was determined the likelihood and impact of this risk was increasing by the end of 2018–19.

Human Resources Management

There is a risk that a lack of succession planning, insufficient capacity, high staff turnover, workload pressures, work culture and work environment will negatively impact the wellness and productivity of employees.

Factors driving this risk in 2018–19 included the need to continue to invest in succession planning, insufficient staff capacity, high staff turnover, workload pressures, and to improve work culture and work environment.

Several mitigation strategies were implemented during the fiscal year to address this risk. These included staffing positions identified for program integrity funding; completing CAS’s succession planning strategy and making significant progress on the work description review; delivering a number of training and awareness events on mental health / workplace wellness; and developing and implementing an action plan to respond to employee needs identified in the 2017 Public Service Employee Survey (PSES).

The mitigation strategies adopted were successful in decreasing the likelihood and impact of this risk by the end of 2018–19.

^{2. Ibid. ↩}

Information Management

There is a risk of loss, damage or inability to access records of business value or historical jurisprudence and in turn impact decision-making.

Factors driving this risk in 2018–19 included the need to implement a modern document management system (DMS) for CAS and the Courts; the volume of court documents processed and managed by CAS; and the large volume of paper documents archived by CAS. Risk mitigation strategies, including the roll-out of a DMS for all corporate services; continued work with the document retention standards; and exploring the potential for the digitization of archival court documents were implemented over the course of the fiscal year.

The mitigation strategies adopted were successful in decreasing the likelihood and impact of this risk by the end of 2018–19.

Security

There is a risk that the security of members of courts, court users and CAS employees, facilities, information and IT could be compromised.

In 2018–19, the evolving security requirements and the results of a number of threat analyses continued to drive this risk. A variety of mitigation strategies were implemented over the course of the fiscal year to respond to this risk. These included the continued implementation of the Court Security Officer (CSO) program; application of CAS’s standardized methodology and approach to establishing security measures for high-risk hearings and events; the review of Business Continuity Plans (BCP) and update of the BCP policy; and maintaining solid partnerships that strategically position the organization within various high-level committees that support security-related initiatives. In addition, the vast majority of security enhancements identified as part of funding allocated in Budget 2015 were completed.

The mitigation strategies adopted were successful in decreasing the likelihood and impact of this risk by the end of 2018–19.

Gender based analysis plus