Section 8 of the CAS Act provides that the Chief Justices are responsible for the judicial functions of their Courts; this includes the power to determine the sittings of the court, assign judges to sittings, determine the sitting schedules and places of sittings for judges and determine the total annual, monthly and weekly workload of judges. Moreover, officers, clerks and employees of CAS act at the direction of the respective Chief Justices in matters that are assigned by law to the judiciary.
Section 9 (1) of the CAS Act provides that a Chief Justice may issue binding directions in writing to the Chief Administrator with respect to any matter within the Chief Administrator’s authority.
In 2017–18 the Chief Administrator received four such binding directions from the Chief Justice of the Tax Court of Canada: payment approval for the legal services of counsel retained by the Chief Justice; staffing of law clerks at the TCC; timelines for opening of a new TCC office in Hamilton, Ontario; and timelines to implement security enhancements in the lobby and parking garage of the TCC headquarters in Ottawa. The Chief Administrator developed measures to satisfy three of the directives received and continues to work towards addressing the fourth directive relating to the staffing of law clerks’ positions.