Departmental Plan 2023-24

Table of Contents

• From the Chief Administrator and Chief Executive Officer

• Plans at a glance

• Core responsibilities: planned results and resources, and key risks

• Internal services: planned results

• Planned spending and human resources

  • Planned spending

  • Planned human resources

  • Estimates by vote

  • Future-oriented condensed statement of operations

• Corporate information

  • Organizational profile

  • Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do

  • Operating context

  • Reporting framework

• Supporting information on the program inventory

• Supplementary information tables

• Federal tax expenditures

• Organizational contact information

• Appendix: definitions

• Endnotes

From the Chief Administrator and Chief Executive Officer

On behalf of the Courts Administration Service (CAS), it is my pleasure to present our 2023–24 Departmental Plan. This plan provides parliamentarians and Canadians with insight into our activities and planned results for the upcoming year.

Since its establishment in 2003, CAS has delivered timely and efficient services in support of the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court, the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada and the Tax Court of Canada (referred to collectively as the “Courts”), as well as to Canadians, while safeguarding judicial independence—a cornerstone of the Canadian judicial system and our democracy.

The coming year will be an important milestone for CAS as we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary. This will be an opportunity for us to recognize our accomplishments over the previous 2 decades and to reflect on how we may better serve the Courts and Canadians in the future.

Over these 20 years, perhaps nothing has shaped us more than the pandemic. In the face of public health limits on in-person proceedings and requirements to digitize and modernize court proceedings, CAS met the moment by implementing numerous innovations at an accelerated pace, resulting in sweeping and enduring changes to court proceedings and operations. As we move forward, we will continue to leverage the innovations and service improvements that we implemented over the past few years. This will manifest as a more modern digital experience in which we enable administrative and procedural aspects of the Courts’ functions with Internet-based tools and advanced technologies. For example, we will continue expanding the Courts’ capacity to receive electronic documents and payments, digitizing court documents, and adding to our range of self-service offerings for Canadians as well as modern technical infrastructure in courtrooms to facilitate a seamless digital experience—online, in courtrooms and in virtual proceedings. 

We are particularly proud to be offering Canadians a more modern experience in terms of the built environment in our court facilities and courtrooms. We are launching a 5-year program to build, expand and modernize our court facilities and courtrooms across Canada. In 2023, we will be breaking ground to build a new courthouse in Montréal. We will also begin the expansion of our national court facilities in Toronto, and we are in the early planning stages of new national court facilities in Victoria and Saskatoon. This represents an unprecedented investment in physical infrastructure for the Courts, which is pivotal to our ongoing efforts to deliver excellent, modern, secure and accessible court services. 

In 2023–24, CAS will continue to implement measures to develop an agile workforce that is knowledgeable, skilled, respectful and reflective of Canada’s rich diversity. Our plans include recruiting, developing, engaging and retaining talent and the future leaders who will contribute to our success.

Service excellence will continue to be at the centre of all that we do, and in 2023–24, we will be focusing on strengthening our service culture. This will involve establishing service standards, improving our training program for registry officers, as well as preparing for the potential amendments to the Official Languages Act. The insights that we gain from these efforts will inform the design, delivery and continuous improvement of our services.

For Canadians, our efforts enhance and safeguard access to justice and judicial independence, both of which are core values of the Canadian justice system and a pillar of the rule of law in our democracy. CAS remains vigilant in serving the Courts with excellence and meeting the modern expectations of Canadians in a time of challenge and opportunity.

I continue to appreciate and rely on the expertise and dedication of our employees and the invaluable collaboration of the Chief Justices and the members of the Courts as we advance the Courts’ priorities in the year ahead.

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

Plans at a glance

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the implementation of plans for modernization, and the urgent need to pivot, adapt, and adjust predominated planning efforts in recent years. In 2023–24, CAS will become a more modern, innovative and responsive organization, poised for continuous improvement and steadfast in its mission to provide timely and quality registry, judicial and corporate services to the Courts, litigants and Canadians.

CAS’s Departmental Results Framework (DRF) sets out a single core responsibility: administration services for Canada’s federal courts. Specifically, these superior courts are 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), referred to collectively as “the Courts.”

The DRF also articulates the results that CAS currently plans to achieve over the course of the next number of years:

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

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

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

In 2023–24, 4 strategic priorities will continue to guide CAS’s plans to deliver on its core responsibility of providing administration services to the Courts: digital courts and virtual hearings, national court facilities and courtrooms, workforce of the future and service excellence. These multi-year priorities will be advanced in the coming year as summarized below.

DIGITAL COURTS—Deliver information technology (IT) solutions that provide for the effective management of court business, offer self-service to litigants and improve access to justice.

As the public embraces advanced technologies and integrates them into the fabric of their personal and professional lives, the demand on government organizations for technology-based services is rapidly increasing. The public expects no less of courts. Today, Canadians expect to use modern technology to increase convenience, reduce costs, and improve access to justice.

CAS is on a path to deliver digital solutions and services that put people at the centre of service design and build—not only for the Courts and Court staff, but also for all users of the Courts, namely counsel, litigants, and Canadians.  

Priorities in 2023–24 include:

• Employing enterprise architecture principles to build a “suite” of solutions—common across all Courts when possible, tailored where needed—to incrementally replace CAS’s 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.

NATIONAL COURTHOUSES AND COURT FACILITIES—Deliver modern, equipped, accessible and secure federal court facilities across Canada.

In 2022–23, CAS secured a historic level of investment and set out a multi-year plan to address medium- to long-term requirements for modern, equipped, accessible and secure court facilities and courtrooms across Canada. In 2023–24, CAS will continue the implementation of the National Courts Facilities Modernization Program. 

Highlights for 2023–24 include:

• 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.

WORKFORCE OF THE FUTURE—Attract, retain and develop a highly skilled, diverse and engaged workforce. Optimize our work environment and strengthen management excellence.

Our highly skilled, diverse and inclusive workforce is what makes us a high-performing and agile organization. CAS will ensure that it is equipped to deliver court services today and into the future while ensuring sound stewardship of the resources entrusted to us. CAS will continue to invest in its people and support them with the right tools and the expertise that they need to thrive.

Priorities in 2023–24 include:

• 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.

SERVICE EXCELLENCE—Provide consistent, quality and timely client-centric services. Modernize our practices, processes and tools and integrate new business and technological solutions.

CAS’s vision to be recognized as a national and international model of excellence in judicial administration drives this priority. In building a model of service excellence, CAS will provide consistent, quality and timely client-centric support services to the Courts, particularly in terms of the judicial and registry services offered to judges, litigants and Canadians.

Service excellence is a shared commitment to continuous improvement in the way that CAS understands, responds to, and meets those expectations. As the administration and operations arm of the Courts, CAS has established a reputation for the quality of its operations and client service. It is constantly improving the way it works, with the goal of providing a consistently excellent service experience.

To this end, in 2023–24, CAS will continue and expand efforts with respect to: 

• 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. 

Overall, CAS’s strategic direction charts the path forward for modernizing access to justice by capitalizing on new and emerging technology and positioning the organization to plan, manage, and use its strategic assets in innovative ways in order to deliver better services while delivering maximum value.

For more information on CAS’s plans, see the “Core responsibilities: planned results and resources, and key risks” section of this plan.

Core responsibilities: planned results and resources, and key risks

This section contains information on the department’s planned results and resources for each of its core responsibilities. It also contains information on key risks related to achieving those results.

Administration services for the federal courts

Description

Provide 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; coordinate the provision of services among the 4 courts; and safeguard the independence of the Courts by placing administrative services at arm’s length from the Government of Canada.

Planning highlights

The following outlines the key initiatives that CAS plans to undertake to support its core responsibility—providing administration services for the federal courts. Each initiative supports the achievement of CAS’s expected departmental results.

DIGITAL COURTS—Deliver IT solutions that provide for the effective management of court business, offer self-service to litigants and improve access to justice.

The pace and scale of the digital transformation needed to modernize the Courts is significant. In 2023–24, CAS will focus on aligning with modern digital practices and the principles set forth in the Government of Canada’s Digital Ambition 2022 and its Digital Standards.

CAS will build capacity and capabilities in modern areas (e.g., data science, user-centric design, cloud), and add new and modern tools to its digital toolbox, including tools to exchange files and accept payments from litigants and their representatives and to enable self-service transactions.

In 2023–24, CAS will be:

• Making use of advanced technologies, such as citizen development platforms and robotics process automation, to quickly deploy solutions that reduce burdensome and error-prone manual processes and help reduce backlogs of cases, including immigration cases;

• Employing enterprise architecture principles to build a “suite” of solutions, common across all the Courts when possible; the final integration and configuration of the suite of solutions will be unique to each Court;

• Finalizing a strategy to leverage cloud-based platforms in order to accelerate the delivery of digital solutions and benefit from inherent security and disaster recovery capabilities;

• Establishing more robust information management and data science practices to enable more data-driven decision-making; and

• Building service design capabilities to redesign services for client-centricity, digital enablement, and online availability and uptake, including the delivery of a new digital solution to improve the experience for applicants to the Law Clerk Program.

NATIONAL COURTHOUSES AND COURT FACILITIES—Deliver modern, equipped, accessible and secure federal court facilities across Canada.

Court and registry services are offered in every province and territory through a network of 13 permanent offices, 2 courtrooms at the Supreme Court of Canada building, and agreements with 8 provincial and territorial courts. Historic investments over the next 5 years will propel court facilities into modernity, providing healthier environments; improving security, accessibility, sustainability; and incorporating the digital technology necessary to optimize electronic court business and further facilitate virtual appearances. This type of transformation is integral to ensuring access to justice for Canadians.

In 2023–24, CAS will be advancing the following priorities:

• Breaking ground for a new courthouse in Montréal;

• Beginning the expansion of national court facilities in Toronto;

• Implementing 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.

WORKFORCE OF THE FUTURE—Attract, retain and develop a highly-skilled, diverse and engaged workforce. Optimize our work environment and strengthen management excellence.

A constant and rapid pace of change requires an organization to be both agile and high-performing. Success lies in CAS’s ability to keep abreast of the evolving innovation landscape and in turn be responsive to the changing needs and expectations of the Courts and Canadians.

At the same time, CAS has a responsibility to ensure that its workforce has the right digital skills and tools, forward-thinking leaders, and enabling governance models to create the conditions in which it can rapidly collaborate, improve, and innovate in the new digital reality.

To better serve the Courts with a capable and high-performing workforce, CAS will continue to provide a healthy and inclusive work environment where employees feel respected and valued.

In 2023–24, CAS is focusing on the following priorities, which are summarized here and expanded upon below:

• Developing a robust, multi-year strategic human resources plan designed to anticipate future skills and workforce requirements;

• Attracting, retaining and developing a highly skilled, diverse and engaged workforce;

• Improving the training program for registry officers; and

• Launching and implementing a Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan.

CAS will continue to invest in innovative measures to recruit, retain and develop a highly skilled, diverse, and bilingual workforce. Emphasis will be placed on building the skills and talents of employees, including through opportunities for learning and developing their knowledge, skills, and capabilities, and on developing leadership and change management competencies. Efforts will also be deployed to equip employees with the tools necessary for success in a post-pandemic workplace.

Effective and timely training is also vital to retaining and developing a highly skilled workforce.  It allows for the realization of service excellence and helps to protect and enhance judicial independence. CAS will prioritize improvements to its training for registry officers and will begin to implement a multi-year plan to fully modernize its registry training program.

In 2023–24, CAS will continue the implementation of its first Accessibility Plan (2022–2025), which addresses barriers to accessibility while ensuring that new ones are not emerging. The actions to be taken as part of the accessibility plan contribute to allowing CAS’s workforce, as well as the people it serves, access to barrier-free programs, services and physical environments. CAS will also implement the key activities included in its Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan and will be launching and implementing an Employment Equity Plan based on an employment systems review conducted in 2022. These plans, in addition to related strategies, activities, promotion, training and awareness-raising, will contribute to embedding diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-racism and accessibility into CAS’s organizational culture and to ensuring that its employment programs, policies and practices are accessible, equitable and transparent.

SERVICE EXCELLENCE—Provide consistent, quality and timely client-centric services. Modernize our practices, processes and tools and integrate new business and technological solutions.

The benefits that will be realized as CAS transitions away from a historically paper-dependent organization to a modern, digital court organization are significant; however, this transition will bring about substantial and complex cultural challenges. CAS is building a culture of service excellence that provides a consistent, quality and timely client-centric services experience to the Courts. This particularly relates to the judicial and registry services offered to judges, litigants and Canadians.

In 2023–24, CAS will focus on the following priorities:

• Improving proactive feedback loops with members of the Courts and with external stakeholders to ensure that client feedback is collected and used to inform design, delivery and continuous improvement of services;

• Rolling out the first department-wide service identification exercise in order to advance understanding of the internal and external services landscape. This will serve as the framework for service data collection to inform service quality management as well as assist in streamlining processes, modernizing tools and gaining operational efficiencies;

• Implementing a business intelligence platform and service management best practices to lay the foundation for the establishment of service standards and related targets and performance information for all services;

• Embedding change management principles and practices in program and project initiatives and providing change management and project management training; and

• Preparing for the potential coming into force of Bill C-13, An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act, which would expand the obligations placed upon the Courts to make decisions “of precedential value” available simultaneously in both official languages. Plans to respond to these obligations include streamlining processes, entering into new partnerships with post-secondary educational institutions to create internship opportunities for jurilinguists, and experimenting with new technologies for machine translation.

Gender-based analysis plus

CAS is committed to using a Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) lens in developing policies, programs and initiatives, including considering differentiated impacts on diverse groups of women, men and non-binary people. The CAS Responsibility Center for developing, monitoring and implementing GBA+ practices is the Human Resources Directorate, which is responsible for collaborating with other portfolio leads within the organization to develop an approach to ensure the proper application of GBA+ analysis in decision-making.

The Courts’ primary responsibility is to administer justice by ensuring that disputes brought before them are settled in accordance with Canada's laws and founded upon Constitutional and Rule of Law principles. Stakeholders bringing matters before the Courts represent a cross-section of the Canadian population. While programs do not currently collect sufficient data to undertake gender-based analysis, in 2023–24, CAS is assessing methods for collecting data to track and report on the effects of its programs on different genders and diverse groups. CAS will also include enhanced GBA+ in budget requests and Treasury Board submissions.

In 2023–24, CAS is launching a 5-year program to build, expand and modernize our court facilities and courtrooms across Canada. In consideration of the differentiated needs of diverse groups of women, men and non-binary people, our program will include GBA+ in decision-making. For example, it is expected that our new court facilities will include gender-neutral bathrooms/robing rooms, which will provide a safe and private spaces that are inclusive and accessible to all.  

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

CAS is contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Diversity inclusion anti-racism committee

In line with its commitment to upholding the highest standards of work ethics and values, CAS established the Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism Committee (DIAC). The DIAC is an advisory committee that engages with CAS leadership and maintains ongoing discussions on various CAS strategies and action plans related to diversity, inclusion, employment equity, accessibility and anti-racism.

CAS is committed to having a workforce that is representative of Canada’s diversity and of the public we serve. It endeavours to achieve equity in the workplace and to ensure full representation of the 4 employment equity designated groups: women, Aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities.

Accessibility Plan 2022–2025

CAS published its first Accessibility Plan 2022–2025. This 3-year plan outlines the specific actions it will take as an organization to identify and remove barriers to accessibility, while ensuring it does not create new ones.

Updated CAS facilities

In 2023–24, CAS will begin to implement a multi-year plan to expand and improve national court facilities, including courtrooms, made possible after securing an historic investment in facilities and infrastructure. This will improve access to justice for Canadians across the country as well as ensure the accessibility, security and sustainability of our court facilities.

Innovation

CAS embraces a culture of innovation to find “what works” in real-world settings in order to achieve value for money while improving access to justice for Canadians. CAS has introduced a Champion for Innovation role, and the organization is very intentionally looking to promote and prioritize a culture of innovation. Examples of innovations being pursued in 2023–24 include:

Leveraging automation

Novel capabilities are being developed to add tools to CAS’s digital toolbox in order to best serve the Courts. These capabilities include deploying modern technologies, such as citizen development platforms and robotics process automation, which will allow us to reduce the need for burdensome and error-prone manual interventions in court operations.

New digital solution to support the Law Clerk Program

In partnership with the FCA, the FC, and the CMAC, CAS will continue to enhance its new, modern, accessible and secure Law Clerk Program digital app, which will improve usability and further reduce workload, freeing up staff to focus on higher value-added work. Innovations will include the addition of a new administrative portal to allow Law Clerk Program staff to manage the workflow of law clerk applications through their lifecycle, as well as features to enhance the management of schedules.

Key risks

Workforce structure and capabilities

There is a risk that CAS’s current organizational structure, staffing complement and workforce capabilities may not align with the service needs of the Courts and Canadians.

External and internal factors drive this risk. External factors are the competitive job market and the widespread labour shortage. Internal factors include the nature of current training, tools and processes. CAS is mitigating this risk by mapping and improving HR business processes, including staffing processes, reviewing position classifications, improving registry training, modernizing office spaces, and modernizing the suite of employee tools in order to improve the workplace experience.

Funding model

There is a risk that CAS’s current funding model will constrain its ability to meet its legal obligations, and hamper its ability to plan and execute improvements that would benefit the Courts and Canadians.

Key factors driving this risk include lack of service performance measures to assess and demonstrate resource needs, the increasing scope and volume of cases before the Courts, and evolving public demands for digital/online/in person services. CAS is mitigating this risk by assessing options to establish an appropriate funding model for the Courts and CAS.

IT and facilities transformation

There is a risk that CAS will not realize return-on-investment for its IT transformation program or implementation of its court facilities modernization program.

Key factors driving this risk include the pace and scope of the changes required, evolving demand for digital enablement, resources diverted to maintain the legacy systems that remain in use, and the current level of project management capabilities in the organization. CAS is mitigating this risk by applying lessons learned from previous large projects horizontally across all transformational projects, building project management capacity in the organization, and improving the programs’ governance regime.

Planned results for administration services for the federal courts

The following table shows, for administration services for the federal courts, the planned results, the result indicators, the targets and the target dates for 2023–24, and the actual results for the 3 most recent fiscal years for which actual results are available.

The financial, human resources and performance information for the Courts Administration Service’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase ^{Footnote i}.

^{[1] Represents the average for the FCA and the FC. Results are not included for the CMAC as the sample size is too small to be statistically significant. The TCC does not track performance data for this indicator.}

^{[2] The percentage is lower than it previously was due to a high volume of court decisions to be translated, in addition to system limitations in mining data that affected the posting of decisions.}

^{[3] Represents the average of court documents filed electronically across the Courts.}

^{[4] Measurement of these results has been deferred.}

^{[5] Measurement of these results has been deferred.}

Planned budgetary spending for administration services for the federal courts

The following table shows, for administration services for the federal courts, budgetary spending for 2023–24, as well as planned spending for that year and for each of the next 2 fiscal years.

Financial, human resources and performance information for Courts Administration Service’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase ^{Footnote ii}.

Planned human resources for administration services for the federal courts

The following table shows, in full‑time equivalents, the human resources the department will need to fulfill this core responsibility for 2023–24 and for each of the next 2 fiscal years.

Financial, human resources and performance information for Courts Administration Service’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase ^{Footnote iii}.

Internal services: planned results

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

Planning highlights

Management and oversight services

In 2023–24, CAS will implement a new project management strategy to improve the quality of the services offered to the Courts. This strategy will encompass updated policy instruments (e.g., CAS Directive on Investment and Project Management), the renewal of the Investment Review Board mandate, and an improved standardized process for assessing the status of projects in terms of scope, budget, and timelines.

Human resources management services

In 2023–24, CAS will:

• Implement its new Official Languages Strategic Plan as per the Official Languages Act;

• Develop and implement a Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan and an Employment Equity Plan in alignment with the Government of Canada’s priorities and call to action;

• Develop a Learning Strategy, which will include a process to identify and prioritize the learning needs of all employees (e.g., executives, managers/supervisors and employees);

• Develop and implement a Staffing Strategy, which will include a component that will highlight learning products, resources, and tools;

• Continue the implementation of the Accessibility Plan in accordance with the Accessible Canada Act; and

• Develop and implement strategies and tools to support employee wellness, such as a new Mental Health Strategy, a renewed Values and Ethics Program, and the Hazard Prevention Program, which complies with Part XIX of the Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.

Financial management services

In 2023–24, CAS will:

• Upgrade and stabilize financial systems;

• Improve budget allocation and monitoring to ensure that it is delivering services in the most efficient and effective way possible across the Courts; and 

• Explore options for a new funding model.

Real property management services

In 2023–24, CAS will:

• Implement the National Courts Facilities Modernization Program, which will result in modernized facilities in Toronto, Montréal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Halifax, as well as new facilities in Saskatoon and Victoria. Included in the scope at these facilities is the conversion of courtrooms (new or refitted) into e-courtrooms;

• Implement a structured national lifecycle approach for facilities management, including projects and the acquisition of assets; and

• Implement greening and wellness measures (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and WELL certifications) in all modernized facilities, which will offer a healthier and more satisfying environment for employees, judges, litigants and Canadians.

Planning for Contracts Awarded to Indigenous Businesses

CAS plans to meet the objective of awarding at least 5% of the value of contracts to Indigenous businesses for the 2023–24 fiscal year. When developing its procurement plan, CAS actively pursued opportunities to engage Indigenous businesses. As a result, CAS has connected with Indigenous company owners, fostered business relationships, and developed enduring working partnerships.

The following table shows in % the actual, forecasted and planned value for the target.

Planned budgetary spending for internal services

The following table shows, for internal services, budgetary spending for 2023–24, as well as planned spending for that year and for each of the next 2 fiscal years.

Planned human resources for internal services

The following table shows, in full‑time equivalents, the human resources the department will need to carry out its internal services for 2023–24 and for each of the next 2 fiscal years.

Planned spending and human resources

This section provides an overview of the department’s planned spending and human resources for the next 3 fiscal years and compares planned spending for 2023–24 with actual spending for the current year and the previous year.

Planned spending

Departmental spending 2020–21 to 2025–26

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

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

The following table shows information on spending for each of Courts Administration Service’s core responsibilities and for its internal services for 2023–24 and other relevant fiscal years.

Table Note: Planned Spending for 2023–24 and beyond exclude all Treasury Board central vote funding (Operating Budget Carry Forward and expenditures such as severance pay and parental benefits).

The increase from 2021–22 to 2022–23 forecast spending is mostly due to additional funding received for new judicial positions and supporting the response to the report of the 2021 Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission as well as for the critical operating requirements (COVID-19) and Compensation for collective bargaining (EX's).

The decrease between 2022–23 forecasted spending and the 2023–24 Main Estimates is mainly attributable to a one-time funding reprofile for COVID-19 in 2022–23 and the sunsetting of the funding received to enhance the integrity of Canada’s borders and asylum system. In addition, the forecasted spending in 2022–23 also includes expenditures to date related to authorities received from Treasury Board central votes. These central vote allocations (operating budget carry forward, ratified collective bargaining agreements) are excluded from the planned spending information due to their unpredictability.

The decrease in planned spending starting in 2024–25 is attributable to the one-time funding reprofile for new judicial positions and supporting the response to the report of the 2021 Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission.

Planned human resources

The following table shows information on human resources, in full-time equivalents (FTEs), for each of Courts Administration Service’s core responsibilities and for its internal services for 2023–24 and the other relevant years.

The increase between 2021–22 and 2022–23 planned FTEs is a direct result of funding received for new judicial positions and supporting the response to the Report of the 2021 Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission. The increase between 2022–23 and 2023–24 is due to the full implementation for new judicial positions and supporting the response to the report of the 2021 Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission offset by the sunsetting of asylum funding and the expiration of one-time COVID funding. The reduction in planned FTEs starting in 2024–25 is due to an expiring reprofile for new judicial positions.

Estimates by vote

Information on Courts Administration Service’s organizational appropriations is available in the 2023–24 Main Estimates ^{Footnote iv}.

Future-oriented condensed statement of operations

The future‑oriented condensed statement of operations provides an overview of Courts Administration Service’s operations for 2022–23 to 2023–24.

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 on Courts Administration Service’s website ^{Footnote v}.

Forecast and planned results were determined based on an analysis of actual expenditures, results of internal forecasting exercises and prior year trends. With all assumptions, there is a measure of uncertainty surrounding them and this uncertainty increases as the forecast horizon extends.

The outbreak of the Coronavirus disease COVID-19 has resulted in governments worldwide enacting emergency measures to combat the spread of the virus. These measures, which include the implementation of travel bans, self-imposed quarantine periods and social distancing, have caused material disruption to businesses globally resulting in an economic slowdown. CAS received additional funding in 2022–23 for operating costs associated with sanitization expenses, physical distancing measures and virtual court business.

The CAS’s total expenses are estimated to decrease from $141,945,552 in 2022–23 to $133,046,205 in 2023–24, a variance of $8,899,347 (-6%). 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 decrease from $79,475,217 in 2022–23 to $71,537,779 in 2023–24, a variance of $7,937,438 (-10%). This variance is mainly attributable to one-time funding in 2022–23 for specific projects, retroactive pay related to collective agreements signed during the year and funding sunsetting in 2022–23.

• Operating expenses: Operating expenses are estimated to decrease from $62,470,335 in 2022–23 to $61,508,426 in 2023-24, a variance of $961,909 (-2%). This variance is mainly attributable to one-time funding in 2022–23 for specific projects and COVID-19 offset by increase in funding related to new judicial appointments.

CAS’s total revenues are estimated to be $0 in both 2022–23 and 2023–24. 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 notes.

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister: The Honourable David Lametti, Q.C., P.C., M.P.

Institutional head: Darlene H. Carreau, Chief Administrator and Chief Executive Officer

Ministerial portfolio: Justice

Enabling instrument(s): Courts Administration Service Act, S.C. 2002, c. 8 ^{Footnote vi}

Year of incorporation / commencement: 2003

Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do

Information on Courts Administration Service’s raison d’être, mandate and role is available on the CAS website ^{Footnote vii}.

Information on Courts Administration Service’s mandate letter commitments is available in the Minister’s mandate letter ^{Footnote viii}.

Operating context

Information on the operating context is available on the CAS website ^{Footnote ix}.

Reporting framework

Courts Administration Service’s approved departmental results framework and program inventory for 2023–24 are as follows.

Supporting information on the program inventory

Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to Courts Administration Service’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase ^{Footnote x}.

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on Courts Administration Service’s website ^{Footnote xi}:

• Gender-based analysis plus

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

Federal tax expenditures

Courts Administration Service’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 ^{Footnote xii}. 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.

Organizational contact information

Mailing address

Courts Administration Service
90 Sparks Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H9
Canada

Email: Info@cas-satj.gc.ca

Website: http://www.cas-satj.gc.ca

Appendix: definitions

appropriation (crédit)

Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

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. Full‑time 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.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

An initiative in which 2 or more federal organizations are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.

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.