Courts Administration Service’s 2023‑24 Departmental Results Report: At a glance
A departmental results report provides an account of actual accomplishments against plans, priorities and expected results set out in the associated Departmental Plan.
[Read the full departmental results report]
Key priorities
Courts Administration Service’s (CAS’s) top priorities for 2023‑24 were as follows and aligned with our 4 pillars:
SERVICE EXCELLENCE—Provide consistent, quality and timely client-centric services. Modernize our practices, processes and tools and integrate new business and technological solutions.
- Streamlining processes, modernizing tools and gaining operational efficiencies in order to lessen administrative burden;
- Establishing and monitoring service standards, and taking steps to improve performance against those standards; and
- Embedding change management principles and practices in program and project initiatives.
DIGITAL COURTS—Deliver information technology solutions that provide for the effective management of court business, offer self-service to litigants and improve access to justice.
- Employing enterprise architecture principles to build a “suite” of solutions—common across all Courts when possible, tailored where needed—to incrementally replace the Courts’ legacy systems;
- Finalizing a strategy to leverage cloud-based platforms in order to accelerate the delivery of digital solutions and benefit from cloud-inherent security and disaster recovery capabilities; and
- Establishing more robust information management and data science practices to enable more data-driven decision-making.
COURT FACILITIES—Deliver modern, equipped, accessible and secure federal court facilities across Canada.
- Commencing multi-year projects to build a new courthouse in Montréal and expand national court facilities in Toronto;
- Continuing to implement consistent e-courtroom capability in 7 additional courtrooms across Canada; and
- Beginning the design for new national court facilities in Victoria and Saskatoon, an expansion in Winnipeg, and the modernization of headquarters in Ottawa.
OUR PEOPLE—Attract, retain and develop a highly skilled, diverse and engaged workforce. Optimize our work environment and strengthen management excellence.
- Attracting, developing, retaining and engaging a highly skilled and diverse workforce;
- Reviewing, updating and improving registry training;
- Launching a Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan; and
- Strengthening leadership and management excellence to ensure sound financial stewardship and foster a culture of learning and continuous improvement.
Highlights
In 2023‑24, total actual spending (including internal services) for CAS was $125,127,669 and total full-time equivalent staff (including internal services) was 841. For complete information on CAS’s total spending and human resources, read the “Spending and human resources” section of the full departmental results report.
The following provides a summary of the department’s achievements in 2023‑24 according to its approved Departmental Results Framework. A Departmental Results Framework consists of a department’s core responsibilities, the results it plans to achieve and the performance indicators that measure progress toward these results.
Core responsibility: Administration services for the federal Courts.
Actual spending: $83,695,159
Actual human resources: 597
Departmental results achieved
Members of the Courts are provided with the required information and support services to hear matters and render decisions.
In 2023‑24, CAS achieved the following key results:
- Began planning and design of a suite of solutions to modernize court operations and reduce legacy system risks.
- Increased efforts to modernize court facilities after receiving historic-level investments and expanded information technologies in existing courtrooms to streamline court proceedings.
- Developed an HR Strategy and a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, which together will guide actions to build a workforce with the right skills to fulfill CAS’s mandate, while addressing all forms of racism and discrimination and nurturing a sense of inclusion in the workplace.
Members of the Courts, court users and the public can access court services, court decisions and processes electronically without undue delays.
In 2023‑24, CAS achieved the following key results:
- Prepared for the expanded legal obligations stemming from legislative amendments to the Official Languages Act, which required that all court decisions of precedential value be made available to the public simultaneously in both official languages.
- Streamlined processes, increased our complement of jurilinguists, and began plans to pilot new translation technologies, to respond to a backlog in translating and revising court decisions.
- Increased digital filings of court documents and made some court hearings more open and accessible online.
The Courts maintain their ability, as the government’s independent judicial branch, to protect judicial independence.
In 2023‑24, CAS achieved the following key results:
- Conducted a review of cloud contracts to ensure both judicial independence and the safeguarding of judicial information as we pursue digital business transformation leveraging cloud-based solutions and services.
- Introduced a Hearing Risk Management Program, designed to enhance training for CAS employees who provide direct support to the safety and security of the judiciary.
- Developed plans to improve our data maturity and strengthen our ability to manage fraud risks in order to guard against the erosion of public trust and preserve the integrity of public records.
More information about Administration services for the federal Courts can be found in the “Results what we achieved” section of the full departmental results report.
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