Quarterly Financial Report - For the quarter ended June 30, 2022

Statement outlining results, risks and significant changes in operations, personnel and programs

Introduction

This quarterly report should be read in conjunction with the Main Estimates. It has been prepared by management as required by section 65.1 of the Financial Administration Act and in the form and manner prescribed by Treasury Board. This quarterly report has not been subject to an external audit or review.

The role of the Courts Administration Service (CAS) is to provide administrative services to four superior courts of law: the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court, the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada and the Tax Court of Canada. Further details on CAS’ programs can be found in the 2022-23 Main Estimates.

Basis of Presentation

This quarterly report has been prepared by management using an expenditure basis of accounting. The accompanying Statement of Authorities includes CAS’ spending authorities granted by Parliament and those used by the organization consistent with the 2022-23 Main Estimates. This quarterly report has been prepared using a prescribed financial reporting framework designed to meet financial information needs with respect to the use of spending authorities.

The authority of Parliament is required before monies can be spent by the Government. Approvals are given in the form of annually approved limits through appropriation acts or legislation in the form of statutory spending authority for specific purposes.

CAS uses the full accrual method of accounting to prepare and present its annual departmental financial statements that are part of the departmental results reporting process. However, the spending authorities voted by Parliament remain on an expenditure basis.

Highlights of fiscal quarter and fiscal year to date (YTD) results

Significant Changes to Authorities available for use for the fiscal year

As illustrated in the Statement of Authorities and the Departmental Budgetary Expenditures by Standard Object tables at the end of this report, yearly authorities available for use as at June 30, 2022 increased by $5,451 thousand (6%) compared to the same quarter in 2021-22, from $93,856 thousand to $99,307 thousand.

The increase in authorities is mainly related to $2,180 thousand of funding received to enhance the capacity of Superior Courts and includes support staff for judges. The increase also includes $1,800 thousand in funding for leasehold improvements in Toronto, and $1,599 thousand in funding to support the delivery of justice for facilities related projects. Other increases include $308 thousand in contributions to employee benefit plans (EBP), $228 thousand for compensation for collective bargaining and $84 thousand for other various smaller initiatives.

The above increases are partly offset by the decrease in funding for Canada’s Borders and Asylum System of $394 thousand and for a Courts and Registry Management System for the Courts of $354 thousand.

Significant Changes to Expenditures

Figure 1 presents current and prior fiscal year expenditures compared to annual authorities at the end of the first quarter. These results are discussed in the section below.

First-quarter Expenditures

As illustrated in Figure 1, first-quarter expenditures increased by $854 thousand (4%) compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, from $20,530 thousand to $21,384 thousand. As a result, 22% of the yearly authorities available for use were expended during the first quarter of 2022-23, which is consistent to the same quarter of 2021-22.

Significant variances¹ in expenditures are explained as follows:

Transportation and communications

The year-to-date expenditures related to transportation and communications increased by $152 thousand (63%) compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, from $241 thousand to $393 thousand. This increase was mainly due to the increase in travel in line with the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions being lifted. The travel represents a return to regular travel required for registry and judicial activities.

Rentals

The year-to-date expenditures related to rentals increased by $698 thousand (70%) compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, from $1,003 thousand to $1,701 thousand. This increase was mainly due to the increase in renewal fees of annual software license and maintenance fees.

Acquisition of land, building and works

The year-to-date expenditures related to acquisition of land building and works increased by $12 thousand (157%) compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, from $7 thousand to $19 thousand. This increase, considered immaterial in value, is due to the timing of leasehold improvements for reconfiguration of office buildings for which costs will be incurred later in the fiscal year.

Acquisition of machinery and equipment

The year-to-date expenditures related to acquisition of machinery and equipment decreased by $70 thousand (-50%) compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, from $139 thousand to $69 thousand. In the previous fiscal year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were significant acquisitions of informatics equipment, resulting in a comparative decrease in these expenditures in 2022-23.

Remaining expenditures (personnel, information, professional and special services, repair and maintenance, utilities, materials and supplies, and other subsidies and payments)

Immaterial variances compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year are the results of the COVID-19 pandemic and the timing of the delivery of goods and services.

¹Significant variances are defined as variances by standard object that are greater than $250 thousand or 25%.

Risks and Uncertainties

The majority of non-personnel expenses incurred by CAS are contracted costs for services supporting the judicial process, court hearings, court security and e-courts. These costs include translation services, protection services, informatics services, court reporters, transcripts, deputy judges, court ushers and court facility rentals. These costs are mostly driven by the volume, type and duration of hearings conducted in any given year, which are non-discretionary and can limit the organization's financial flexibility.

Following consultations with the industry and refinement of the Courts and Registry Management System (CRMS) project, new risks were identified regarding the feasibility to continue as planned with the initial scope and approach of the CRMS project. In order to attenuate these risks, CAS is closing the existing project to focus on strengthening the foundations. CAS will start by increasing internal capacity within the digital transformation team, confirm the approach and scope through a new definition phase and than move ahead with the implementation phase. Network infrastructure enhancements were also undertaken to modernize digital services and prepare for the new CRMS.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in governments worldwide enacting emergency measures to combat the spread of the virus. During the quarter, CAS supported the Courts in providing critical services and addressing backlogs as applicable. Given that measures to combat the spread of the virus, including hybrid/virtual proceedings and other investments to better support the Courts (e-filing, digital documents, online services), are expected to continue for the foreseeable future, CAS has identified the need for ongoing funding beyond 2022-23 to support the new ways to conduct proceedings and support the Courts. In addition, the pandemic resulted in other operational challenges such as staff shortages, longer delays within the supply chain and significant increases in costs due to inflation and or unavailability of specific equipment. The operational and financial impacts of these operational challenges are monitored closely to mitigate the risks. The duration and global impact of the COVID-19 outbreak are unknown at this time.

CAS continues to address the risks to its program integrity, including 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. CAS has developed an efficient Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process, which includes management participation at the organization’s highest levels. The ERM process allows management to identify, evaluate and mitigate key risks to achieving its mandate and organizational priorities, and drives resource allocation accordingly.

Significant changes in relation to operations, personnel and programs

The COVID-19 pandemic has created additional pressures on CAS’ capacity to ensure efficient and effective modernized and e-enabled services for the Courts, while protecting health and safety.

Approval by Senior Officials

Approved by:

(Ottawa, Canada)
(August 26, 2022)

¹ - Includes only Authorities available for use and granted by Parliament at quarter-end.

Groupings can change between quarters due to materiality of initiatives.

Amounts may not balance with other public documents due to rounding.

Date modified:

2022-08-26