Departmental Plan 2024-25

On this page

• From the Chief Administrator and Chief Executive Officer

• Plans to deliver on core responsibilities and internal services

  • Administration services for the federal Courts

  • Internal services

• Planned spending and human resources

  • Spending

  • Funding

  • Future-oriented condensed statement of operations

  • Human resources

• Corporate information

• Supplementary information tables

• Federal tax expenditures

• Definitions

From the Chief Administrator and Chief Executive Officer

It is my pleasure to present the 2024‑25 Departmental Plan outlining the Courts Administration Service’s (CAS) expenditure plan for the upcoming fiscal year. It also describes our priorities, planned results and associated resource requirements. As the department mandated to deliver the operations of the 4 federal Courts, CAS plays a crucial role in enabling their essential judicial functions. Our efforts are guided by the solemn purpose of safeguarding judicial independence while ensuring the optimal use of public funds for the delivery of effective and efficient Court services for Canadians.

Now in my fourth year as Chief Administrator and Chief Executive Officer, together with my leadership team, I am dedicated to addressing the priorities that matter most to the Courts and Canadians. These priorities include providing consistent, high quality, digitally-enabled services; leveraging technology to shape a modern and user-centric court experience; and developing secure, modern, accessible, and environmentally responsible court facilities in cities across the country.

With ‘service’ embedded in our name, service excellence continues to stand out as our key area of focus. Our commitment to consistently meet and exceed the expectations of Members of the Courts and those appearing before or engaging with the judicial system remains paramount. This year, we will enhance the measurement and reporting of excellence by defining and updating service standards and diligently monitoring our performance against these criteria. In 2024‑25, we will also ensure that the digital promise translates into tangible results, aligning with the evolving needs of the justice system and the dynamic digital landscape. While technology holds the potential to significantly enhance and transform court operations and services, realizing these benefits comes with challenges.

As provider of administrative services to Canada’s national, bijural and bilingual Courts, CAS is fully committed to ensuring access to court decisions in both official languages. We strive to ensure all decisions of the Courts are made available in both official languages as quickly as possible to meet the expectations of litigants and Canadians. Funding constraints and difficulties in recruiting skilled talent have made this challenging. In 2024‑25, Bill C-13, An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act will expand obligations of the Courts to make decisions of “precedential value” available simultaneously in both official languages. We are actively exploring funding options to support our current and future translation services. At the same time, CAS has developed an ambitious plan to guide our response including exploring the use of artificial intelligence to enhance translation capacity.

In the years ahead, we will continue a generational transformation of our physical infrastructure, involving the upgrade and construction of new court facilities, the addition of courtrooms, and equipping existing courtrooms with full e-court functionality. Expanding our court facilities and making them more sustainable, accessible, digital, and secure, ensures the needs of the Courts, employees, litigants, and Canadians are met, and in turn, promotes greater access to the justice system.

Amidst significant budget constraint within the Government of Canada, CAS remains committed to responsible fiscal management, ensuring efficient and effective support for the Courts that is innovative, agile, and resilient. As we navigate challenges and opportunities in the upcoming year, our dedicated and talented employees play a pivotal role in realizing our plans and priorities. We will continue to cultivate a highly diverse and inclusive workplace, where employees are inspired, empowered, and equipped to serve the Courts and Canadians with excellence both now and into the future.

I extend a warm welcome to the Honourable Yves de Montigny, the recently appointed Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal, succeeding the Honourable Marc Noël, who retired as of August 1, 2023. My team and I wish Chief Justice de Montigny the very best and offer our unwavering support.

I express gratitude for the ongoing collaboration and support of the Chief Justices, Associate Chief Justices, and all Members of the Courts. Their steadfast commitment to a fair, impartial and independent judiciary is invaluable, and their partnerships instrumental to our ongoing success. I am confident that, together, we will continue to enhance access to justice, rule of law, independence of the courts and the public’s trust—fundamental principles of democracy that breathe life into Canada’s judicial branch of government.

Darlene H. Carreau LL.B.
Chief Administrator and Chief Executive Officer

Plans to deliver on core responsibilities and internal services

Core responsibilities and internal services:

• Administration services for the federal Courts
• Internal services

Administration services for the federal Courts

In this section

• Description
• Quality of life impacts
• Results and targets
• Plans to achieve results
• Key risks
• Snapshot of planned resources in 2024‑25
• Related government priorities
• Program inventory
• Summary of changes to reporting framework since last year

Description
CAS provides timely and efficient judicial, registry, court security and electronic court services to the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court, the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada and the Tax Court of Canada; coordinates the provision of services among the 4 courts; and safeguards the independence of the Courts by placing administrative services at arm’s length from the Government of Canada.

Quality of life impacts
CAS makes an important contribution to Canada’s Quality of Life Framework. By providing administrative services to the federal Courts, CAS contributes to the domain of “Good governance”, and in the subdomain of “Democracy and institutions”, through the activities mentioned in the core responsibility description.

CAS’s results will factor into the “Confidence in institutions” indicator: Proportion of the population by level of confidence in selected types of institutions.

Results and targets
The following tables show, for each departmental result related to administration services for the federal Courts, the indicators, the results from the 3 most recently reported fiscal years, the targets and target dates approved in 2024‑25.

Table 1: Indicators, results and targets for departmental result

Members of the Courts are provided with the required information and support services to hear matters and render decisions.

Plans to achieve results
In 2024‑25, CAS’s plans to achieve this result rest within the following strategic areas:

Digital courts:

• Stabilizing and incrementally modernizing our legacy systems.
• Where appropriate, leveraging cloud-based platforms to accelerate delivery.

Our people:

• Continuing a multi-year plan to modernize our registry training program to ensure practical, procedural training is provided to both new staff and refresher training for existing staff based on documented procedures.
• Developing modern and agile staffing strategies to recruit, retain and develop highly skilled employees in registry and judicial services.

Court facilities:

• Modernizing court facilities by designing adaptive, flexible spaces that meet user needs.
• Seeking certifications including LEED Gold to promote environmental sustainability and Well Silver (or equivalent) to promote employee wellness.

Service excellence:

• Developing CAS’s service standards and monitoring performance against them.
• Documenting and standardizing registry business processes and procedures to ensure national operational coherence and efficiency.
• Capturing user feedback to continuously improve the quality of our services.
• Leveraging technology, service and business optimizations appropriately to find efficiencies, and improve the performance and accessibility of services.

Table 2: Indicators, results and targets for departmental result:

Members of the Courts, court users and the public can access court services, court decisions and processes electronically without undue delays.

Plans to achieve results
In 2024‑25, CAS’s plans to achieve this result rest within the following strategic areas:

Digital courts:

• Improving existing e-filing and e-pay capabilities and developing new digital solutions to expand self-service options for litigants.
• Improving existing and developing new solutions to support the registries and Members of the Courts.

Our people:

• Boosting digital, data and service literacy and organizational capabilities.

Court facilities:

• Expanding e-court functionality in courtrooms.

Service excellence:

• Implementing a multi-year plan to incorporate technology including AI for translation, improved processes, increased jurilinguist capacity, partnerships, and a quality management system, to respond to new legislative requirements under the OLA.

Table 3: Indicators, results and targets for departmental result

The Courts maintain their ability, as the government’s independent judicial branch, to protect judicial independence.

Plans to achieve results
In 2024‑25, CAS’s plans to achieve this result include:

Digital courts:

• Establishing memoranda of understanding with Public Services and Procurement Canada and Shared Services Canada to recognize the independence of the Courts as it relates to the procurement and use of digital technology, including cloud-based solutions.
• Strengthening cybersecurity and disaster recovery capabilities to safeguard CAS’s information and systems from the ever changing and more complex cybersecurity landscape.

Our people:

• Attracting and retaining cybersecurity talent.
• Delivering cybersecurity awareness programs to CAS employees and Members of the Courts, and producing communications to remind employees of cybersecurity best practices.

Court facilities:

• Enhancing the physical security of facilities where required.

Service excellence:

• In anticipation of development of a National Capital Region Judicial Precinct, continuing to collaborate with Public Services and Procurement Canada, the Department of Justice, the Supreme Court of Canada, the Parliamentary Precinct, and Parliamentary Protective Services on requirements and plans.
• Improving the resiliency and continuity of our services through refreshed business continuity plans and enhanced threat and risk assessment practices.

The financial, human resources and performance information for CAS’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Key risks

Evolving expectations for services
Current organizational capacity and resourcing will not enable the organization to keep up with the evolving expectations of Canadians, Courts and its employees. CAS is mitigating the risk through its Strengthening Service and Digital Capacity Initiative, and the Court Facilities Modernization Program.

Security and privacy
The security and privacy expectations of Members of the Courts, court users, and employees may not be met. CAS is mitigating the risk by advancing on the judicial precinct work that is currently underway, continuing to improve upon the "Security Awareness Briefings,” and lastly by creating a method to empirically measure the level of satisfaction of the Members of the Courts with the security afforded to them in discharging their judicial functions.

Disaster recovery and business continuity
The organization will not be able to maintain an acceptable level of service in the event of disruption. CAS is mitigating the risk by revising the Business Continuity Plan to clarify roles and responsibilities and to identify additional mitigation and preparedness needs. In addition, CAS plans to update the operational contingency plans, threat risk assessments, legacy system risks, and the risk assessment of cyber and infrastructure.

Information for decision-making
Authoritative data and information for decision-making will not be available. CAS is mitigating the risk by launching a service and data program to improve data literacy and empower service owners to better leverage data to drive decision-making, as well as develop service performance dashboards for CAS’s most important services. Lastly, CAS will finalize an Activity Based Costing analysis to better determine the demand for registry officers and judicial assistants for the department.

Coming into force of Bill C-13
Bill C-13, An Act to amend the Official Languages Act, created a new requirement for decisions of “precedential value” to be issued simultaneously in both official languages starting in June 2024. This presents additional funding pressures for the organization, as CAS is already under-resourced in meeting current official languages obligations. Without timely access to additional funding, there may be further delays in the issuance and posting of decisions, which would negatively affect access to justice. To mitigate the risk, CAS has developed a C-13 Roadmap built on 3 pillars (HR and Partnerships, Process improvement and Quality, as well as Technologies and Information Management).

Organizational funding levels
There is a risk that organizational funding is inadequate to fulfil our mandate. To mitigate this risk, CAS continues to address the risks associated with the lack of financial flexibility by implementing internal mitigation strategies such as baselining budgets, establishment of multi-year budgets, reorganizing and realigning services, reallocating resources, and regular reassessment of priorities, exploring alternate funding models while seeking efficiencies wherever possible.

Snapshot of planned resources in 2024‑25

• Planned spending: $129,813,972
• Planned full-time resources: 600

Related government priorities

Gender-based analysis plus

CAS is implementing GBA Plus to strengthen the systemic integration of sex, gender and diversity considerations into its initiatives, departmental culture and operations. In 2024‑25, CAS will:

• Develop an Information, Data and GBA Plus Strategy to better consider diverse experiences and identify impacts to improve outcomes for diverse groups. The strategy will facilitate data collection to help better assess needs, identify gaps for different programs, and improve decision-making.
• Use GBA Plus to support the development of responsive and inclusive policies, programs and initiatives including ensuring our facilities modernization program is inclusive and eliminates any physical barriers that would prevent or diminish the ability of Members of the Courts, litigants, employees, and Canadians from fully participating in the judicial system.
• Integrate GBA Plus analysis into Cabinet proposals and submissions to the Treasury Board to strengthen these proposals and their outcomes.

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

The CAS 2023‑27 Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy (DSDS) outlines the organization’s sustainable development goals, targets, short-term milestones and implementation strategies. It is the first such strategy for CAS and the first to be developed under a strengthened Federal Sustainable Development Act. The DSDS sets out the actions that CAS is committed to taking to make progress toward its goals and targets.

The DSDS also aligns with the Government of Canada’s sustainable development priorities, including achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. It will continue to evolve over time and is informed by the consultations on the 2022‑26 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy conducted from March 11 to July 9, 2022. To reflect future policy decisions, the online version of the DSDS will be updated to incorporate new or renewed targets.

Over the next 4 years, CAS will continue to implement the DSDS following the department’s mandates. How the Strategy has been implemented and the progress made toward its goals and targets will be updated and published on the departmental website.

The plans outlined in the DSDS contribute to implementing the Government of Canada’s 2030 Agenda as well as the advancement of SDG 10, 12 and 13. The table below outlines some of CAS’s plans.

More information on CAS’s contributions to Canada’s Federal Implementation Plan for the 2030 Agenda and the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy can be found in our Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy.

Program inventory

Administration services for the federal Courts is supported by the following programs:

• Judicial services
• Registry services
• E-court
• Security

Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to CAS’s program inventory is available on GC Infobase.

Summary of changes made to reporting framework since last year

There were no changes to reporting framework since last year.

Internal services

In this section

• Description
• Plans to achieve results
• Snapshot of planned resources in 2024‑25
• Related government priorities

Description

Internal services are the services that are provided within a department so that it can meet its corporate obligations and deliver its programs. There are 10 categories of internal services:

• management and oversight services
• communications services
• legal services
• human resources management services
• financial management services
• information management services
• information technology services
• real property management services
• materiel management services
• acquisition management services

Plans to achieve results

In 2024‑25, CAS will undertake the following select initiatives to achieve results in internal services:

• Articulate an HR strategic plan beginning in 2024‑25, identifying strategic priorities and actions, to help inform and prioritize investment decisions and support human resource development activities.
• Continue to strengthen our internal processes, driving leadership accountability and improving our ability to make timely, data-informed decisions.
• Embed change management discipline and practices into CAS’s initiatives and projects.
• Deliver timely, high quality and strategic internal and external communications.
• Modernize operational training, to bolster employee development and retention.
• Carry out the initiatives and actions set out in the CAS Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan to achieve our goals of diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism.
• Implement CAS’s first Accessibility Plan 2022‑2025, addressing the priority areas identified in the Accessible Canada Act: employment, the built environment, information and communication technologies, communication, procurement of goods, services and facilities, design and delivery of programs and services, and transportation.
• Establish effective information management policies and best practices to foster informed decision-making; facilitate accountability, transparency, and collaboration.
• Maintain an in-house internal audit capacity that provides objective assurance and advice on governance, risk management and control processes to enhance the organization's long-term success in fulfilling its mandate.

Snapshot of planned resources in 2024‑25

• Planned spending: $38,286,646
• Planned full-time resources: 271

Related government priorities

Planning for contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

CAS has awarded at least 5% of their total value of contracts to Indigenous businesses for the last 3 years. CAS’s procurement team is bringing updates to its current internal policies to create more awareness and opportunities with Indigenous businesses. Furthermore, to improve upon CAS’s existing procurement plans with Indigenous businesses, CAS’s procurement team is currently working in collaboration with its largest business owners to create more opportunities for Indigenous businesses.

Planned spending and human resources

This section provides an overview of CAS’s planned spending and human resources for the next 3 fiscal years and compares planned spending for 2024‑25 with actual spending from previous years.

In this section

• Spending
• Funding
• Future-oriented condensed statement of operations
• Human resources

Spending

Table 4: Actual spending summary for core responsibilities and internal services ($ dollars)

The following table shows information on spending for each of CAS’s core responsibilities and for its internal services for the previous 3 fiscal years. Amounts for the current fiscal year are forecasted based on spending to date.

Table 5: Budgetary planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)

The following table shows information on spending for each of CAS’s core responsibilities and for its internal services for the upcoming 3 fiscal years.

Table 6: 2024‑25 budgetary gross and net planned spending summary (dollars)

The following table reconciles gross planned spending with net planned spending for 2024‑25.

Funding

Figure 1: Departmental spending 2021‑22 to 2026‑27

The following graph presents planned spending (voted and statutory expenditures) over time.

Estimates by vote

Information on CAS’s organizational appropriations is available in the 2024‑25 Main Estimates.

Future-oriented condensed statement of operations

The future-oriented condensed statement of operations provides an overview of CAS’s operations for 2023‑24 to 2024‑25.

The forecast and planned amounts in this statement of operations were prepared on an accrual basis. The forecast and planned amounts presented in other sections of the Departmental Plan were prepared on an expenditure basis. Amounts may therefore differ.

A more detailed future-oriented statement of operations and associated notes, including a reconciliation of the net cost of operations with the requested authorities, are available at Courts Administration Service.

Table 7: Future-oriented condensed statement of operations for the year ending March 31, 2025 (dollars)

CAS’s total expenses are estimated to decrease from $158,532,629 in 2023‑24 to $154,809,217 in 2024‑25, a variance of $3,723,412 (-2.3%). The 2 major categories of expenses are mainly for salary and employee benefit expenses, and operating expenses.

• Salary and employee benefit expenses: Salary and employee benefit expenses are estimated to increase from $90,783,010 in 2023‑24 to $91,123,937 in 2024‑25, a variance of $340,927 (0.4%). This variance is considered immaterial.
• Operating expenses: Operating expenses are estimated to decrease from $67,749,619 in 2023‑24 to $63,685,280 in 2024‑25, a variance of $4,064,339 (-6%). The decrease in expenses from 2023-24 to 2024‑25 is mainly attributed to the capitalisation of tangible capital assets related to the Facilities Modernisation Program ‑ Phase 1. The decrease is also explained by the reduction of the amortization charges of fully amortized assets in 2023‑24.

CAS’s total revenues are estimated to be $0 for both 2023‑24 and 2024‑25. The totality of the CAS’s revenues are earned on behalf of Government (i.e., non-respendable revenues). Further details on CAS’s non-respendable revenues can be found in the detailed Future-Oriented Statement of Operations and associated note.

Human resources

Table 8: Actual human resources for core responsibilities and internal services

The following table shows a summary of human resources, in full-time equivalents (FTEs), for CAS’s core responsibilities and for its internal services for the previous 3 fiscal years. Human resources for the current fiscal year are forecasted based on year to date.

Table 9: Human resources planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services

The following table shows information on human resources, in full-time equivalents (FTEs), for each of CAS’s core responsibilities and for its internal services planned for 2024–25 and future years.

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister: The Honourable Arif Virani, P.C., K.C., M.P.
Institutional head: Darlene H. Carreau LL.B., Chief Administrator and Chief Executive Officer
Ministerial portfolio: Justice
Enabling instrument: Courts Administration Service Act, S.C. 2002, c. 8vi
Year of incorporation / commencement: 2003

Organizational contact information

Mailing address
Courts Administration Service
D’Arcy McGee Building
90 Sparks Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0H9
Telephone: 613-567-7010
Email: info@cas-satj.gc.ca
Website: Courts Administration Service

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on CAS's website:

• Gender-Based Analysis Plus

Information on CAS’s departmental sustainable development strategy can be found on CAS’s website.

Federal tax expenditures

CAS’s Departmental Plan does not include information on tax expenditures.

Tax expenditures are the responsibility of the Minister of Finance. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for government wide tax expenditures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures.

This report provides detailed information on tax expenditures, including objectives, historical background and references to related federal spending programs, as well as evaluations, research papers and gender-based analysis plus.

Definitions

appropriation (crédit)
Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

budgetary expenditures (dépenses budgétaires)
Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, organizations or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.

core responsibility (responsabilité essentielle)
An enduring function or role performed by a department. The intentions of the department with respect to a core responsibility are reflected in one or more related departmental results that the department seeks to contribute to or influence.

departmental plan (plan ministériel)
A document that sets out a department’s priorities, programs, expected results and associated resource requirements, covering a 3 year period beginning with the year indicated in the title of the report. Departmental Plans are tabled in Parliament each spring.

departmental result (résultat ministériel)
A change that a department seeks to influence. A departmental result is often outside departments’ immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.

departmental result indicator (indicateur de résultat ministériel)
A factor or variable that provides a valid and reliable means to measure or describe progress on a departmental result.

departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)
A framework that consists of the department’s core responsibilities, departmental results and departmental result indicators.

Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)
A report on a department’s actual performance in a fiscal year against its plans, priorities and expected results set out in its Departmental Plan for that year. Departmental Results Reports are usually tabled in Parliament each fall.

full time equivalent (équivalent temps plein)
A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person year charge against a departmental budget. Fulltime equivalents are calculated as a ratio of assigned hours of work to scheduled hours of work. Scheduled hours of work are set out in collective agreements.

gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS Plus])
An analytical tool used to support the development of responsive and inclusive policies, programs and other initiatives. GBA Plus is a process for understanding who is impacted by the issue or opportunity being addressed by the initiative; identifying how the initiative could be tailored to meet diverse needs of the people most impacted; and anticipating and mitigating any barriers to accessing or benefitting from the initiative. GBA Plus is an intersectional analysis that goes beyond biological (sex) and socio-cultural (gender) differences to consider other factors, such as age, disability, education, ethnicity, economic status, geography, language, race, religion, and sexual orientation.

government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)
For the purpose of the 2024–25 Departmental Plan, government-wide priorities are the high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the 2021 Speech from the Throne: building a healthier today and tomorrow; growing a more resilient economy; bolder climate action; fighter harder for safer communities; standing up for diversity and inclusion; moving faster on the path to reconciliation and fighting for a secure, just, and equitable world.

Indigenous business
As defined on the Indigenous Services Canada website in accordance with the Government of Canada’s commitment that a mandatory minimum target of 5% of the total value of contracts is awarded to Indigenous businesses annually.

non budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)
Net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.

performance (rendement)
What an organization did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the organization intended to achieve, and how well lessons learned have been identified.

plan (plan)
The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how an organization intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally, a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead up to the expected result.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)
For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in the Main Estimates.

A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.

program (programme)
Individual or groups of services, activities or combinations thereof that are managed together within a department and that focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.

program inventory (répertoire des programmes)
An inventory of a department’s programs that describes how resources are organized to carry out the department’s core responsibilities and achieve its planned results.

result (résultat)
An external consequence attributed, in part, to an organization, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single organization, policy, program or initiative; instead, they are within the area of the organization’s influence.

statutory expenditures (dépenses législatives)
Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.

target (cible)
A measurable performance or success level that an organization, program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period. Targets can be either quantitative or qualitative.

voted expenditures (dépenses votées)
Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an Appropriation Act. The vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.