Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada 2024-25 Departmental Plan

• From the Commissioner
• Plans to deliver on core responsibility and internal services
  • Support to federally appointed judges
  • Internal services
• Planned spending and human resources
  • Spending
  • Funding
  • Future-oriented condensed statement of operations
  • Human resources
• Corporate information
• Supplementary information table
• Federal tax expenditures
• Definitions

Plans to deliver on core responsibility and internal services

Core responsibility and internal services:

• Support to federally appointed judges
• Internal services

Support to federally appointed judges

In this section

• Description
• Quality of life impacts
• Results and targets
• Plans to achieve results
• Snapshot of planned resources in 2024-25
• Related government priorities
• Program inventory

Description

To provide services and support to the federally appointed judges in a manner which contributes to the independence of the judiciary and the confidence of Canadians in our judicial system.

Quality of life impacts

Domain: Good Governance

Indicators: Confidence in institutions, representation in senior leadership positions, access to fair and equal justice

Results and targets

The following tables show, for each departmental result related to Support to federally appointed judges, the indicators, the results from the three most recently reported fiscal years, the targets and target dates approved in 2024–25.

Table 1: Indicators, results and targets for departmental result Federally-appointed judges are provided with centralized services in a timely and effective manner

Indicator	2020–2021 result	2021–2022 result	2022–2023 result	Target	Date to achieve
% of judges’ allowances processed within the 10-day service standard	83%	76%	43%	90%	March 2025

Table 2: Indicators, results and targets for departmental result The judicial appointments process is managed efficiently

Indicator	2020–2021 result	2021–2022 result	2022–2023 result	Target	Date to achieve
% of candidate applications ready to be evaluated within 3 months of reception	Over 95%	Over 95%	Over 95%	Over 95%	March 2025

Table 3: Indicators, results and targets for departmental result The judicial conduct review process is completed in a timely and effective manner

Indicator	2020–2021 result	2021–2022 result	2022–2023 result	Target	Date to achieve
% of complaints reviewed within six months	97%	92%	94%	80%	March 2025

Table 4: Indicators, results and targets for departmental result CJC ensures that federally-appointed judges have access to relevant training and learning opportunities

Indicator	2020–2021 result	2021–2022 result	2022–2023 result	Target	Date to achieve
% of judges who reported to the CJC that their training and learning needs were met	90%	90%	90%	90%	March 2025

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

Plans to achieve results

The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs is committed to providing services to approximately 1,200 federally appointed judges across Canada as well as approximately 1,100 pensioners and their survivors. In addition to the operational requirements to ensure that the judges’ are remunerated and reimbursed for expenses incurred in executing the duties of their office, we also provide support and services in areas of Judicial Appointments, International Cooperation, Judges’ Language Training and Federal Courts Reports.

FJA, also at arm’s length, provides support services to the Canadian Judicial Council as they focus on the training of judges and the oversight into the investigations and inquiries into the conduct of federally appointed judges.

These activities as a whole ensure that Canadians are served by a judiciary that meets their needs and impact our outcomes both domestically and on the international stage.

Judicial Appointments Secretariat

Within its overall responsibility for the administration of the judicial appointments process on behalf of government, FJA manages over 50 meetings per year across 17 Judicial Advisory Committees throughout Canada. However, due to recent increases in the number of applications received, and several newly appointed judicial advisory committees, we anticipate an increased number of committee meetings during 2024-25. Our office will continue to provide resources and training to assist committee members in assessing candidates and creating a pool of qualified candidates that is gender-balanced and reflective of the diversity of each jurisdiction for appointment to superior courts.

Supreme Court of Canada Appointments Process

For 2024-25, while there is currently no indication of an impending vacancy on the Supreme Court of Canada, we stand ready to assist the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice in supporting the Independent Advisory Board for the Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments, in the event a vacancy arises.

International Cooperation

In 2024-25, FJA is committed to reinforcing its contribution to global judicial reform, leveraging the Canadian judiciary’s reputation to promote judicial independence, rule of law, and legal integrity. Following the successful implementation of a pilot project in the previous year, FJA will proceed with a 5-year Technical Assistance Program (TAP) initiative funded by Global Affairs Canada. This project will focus on onboarding at least three countries annually for 12-month engagements with the aim to fortify judicial administration and enhance public trust in judiciaries worldwide. Our strategic focus will be on enhancing judicial cooperation, expanding the reach of the TAP initiative, and facilitating international judicial exchanges, thereby strengthening Canada’s leadership in global judicial integrity and reform.

Additionally, FJA will facilitate international exchanges and welcoming delegations from other countries, such as the planned visit by the National Courts Administration of Lithuania in 2024. FJA’s International Programs Secretariat will also continue to assist Canadian courts by vetting requests for access to Canadian courts and judges from international entities.

Judges’ Language Training

Judges’ Language Training (JLT) will continue its mandate by offering both individual and immersion sessions in both official languages. Teaching materials are tailored to individual learning needs and are subject to rigorous quality control. Attention is focused on ensuring that learning modules and materials are regularly updated and adapted to reflect changes in the field of law, legal terminology and diversity within the population.

The Action Plan to Enhancing the Bilingual Capacity of the Superior Court Judiciary, introduced in 2017, assigned FJA the responsibility for the linguistic assessment of judicial candidates for superior court appointments as well as for those applying for appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada. We intend to continue to systematically evaluate all those who identify themselves as bilingual, to ensure consistency in meeting the profile as set out in the Action Plan.

Federal Courts Reports

For 2024-25, the Federal Courts Reports will continue to make available to Canadians access to the summary decisions of the Federal Court of Appeal and the Federal Court of Canada, with a focus on the timely publication of decisions and the quality of its website.

Canadian Judicial Council

Fiscal year 2024-25 will mark the first statutory reporting period under the new judicial conduct regime as legislated through the enactment of Bill C-9, An Act to amend the Judges Act, on June 22, 2023. As such, a key priority for the Canadian Judicial Council and its Secretariat staff will be to fully implement and operationalize concomitant new procedures and supporting processes as detailed in the Chief Justice of Canada’s message included in Council’s annual report. The challenges of this undertaking are compounded by the fact that in 2023-24 the Council experienced a significant change in its membership as several Chief Justices took to retirement. The Secretariat staff is mitigating this risk by ensuring all new members are integrated in a meaningful way with regard to the vision for Council, its function to build public confidence, and the respective roles of each member in advancing it.

Snapshot of planned resources in 2024–25

• Planned spending: $788,073,257
• Planned full-time resources: 60.5

Related government priorities

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

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

Program inventory

Support to Federally Appointed Judges is supported by the following programs in the program inventory:

• Payments pursuant to the Judges Act
• Federal Judicial Affairs
• Canadian Judicial Council

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

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

Compensation, Benefits, and Human Resources

FJA has adopted and continues to operate using a hybrid work model. Employees attend on site a minimum of 2 days per week. We intend to continue with this arrangement unless there is operational requirement or Treasury Board Secretariat mandate to effectuate a change.

Our commitment to a workplace that is free from harassment, violence and discrimination, as well as the promotion of diversity, inclusion, employment equity and accessibility continue to be of primary importance. In the coming year, we will launch the new Self-ID form to gain a better understanding of our workforce in terms of representation gaps to guide our actions on hiring, training and career development. The new form will include new categories and updated definitions for gender, 2SLGBTQIA+, disability, racial and ethnic origin.

Though the PA group conversion has been postponed with no firm date of implementation yet, we will continue to keep our work descriptions and evaluations up to date in readiness. To date FJA has reviewed 33 of its 45 PA group job descriptions and has formally evaluated and classified 30 of them under the PA group classification criteria.

To facilitate staffing and leverage available resources, we will use staffing tools such as inventories for administrative positions to fill immediate and short-term needs.

FJA will participate in and prepare for a number of upcoming initiatives in the 2024-25 year:

• Transition of dental benefits for retired judges and their survivors, to Canada Life effective July 1, 2024.
• Communications and outreach to active judges and Judicial Advisory Committee members to register for MyGCPay so that they can access their pay stubs and their tax slips online. This will reduce printing and postage costs and green operations.
• User Acceptance Testing of the infrastructure that supports the Phoenix pay system as this upgrade is expected to go live in September 2024.

Finance and Administration

The intent and plan had been to upgrade our financial system of record, FreeBalance, in fiscal year 2023‑24. However, shifting timelines with the vendor in onboarding other small department and agency clients meant that we were unable to initiate the activity until the fourth quarter of that year. We anticipate that we will finalize the implementation by the third quarter of the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Information Technology

FJA provides a secure and independent networking platform for federally appointed judges. In 2024-25, we will continue to build and move forward with the implementation of the platform’s modernization leveraging, Microsoft’s M365 technology. Judges will have access across their devices (desktops, laptop and mobile). Our goal is to complete the pilot testing phase in the spring of 2024 and proceed with the full rollout by the end of the year.

Snapshot of planned resources in 2024-25

• Planned spending: $726,800
• Planned full-time resources: 5.5

Related government priorities

Planning for contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

While in prior years FJA procurement personnel have engaged in activities to increase, identify and target areas providing opportunities for procuring with indigenous vendors, in 2024-25 we will focus efforts on ensuring compliance with the mandatory minimum target of 5% on indigenous procurement.

These efforts will include amongst other things:

• using tools, such as published vendor inventories that readily identify indigenous led business providing service in the areas in which our organization seeks to procure goods and services; and
• ensuring that our requests for proposals are conducted in a manner that is transparent and inclusive so as to solicit a broader base of vendors that may otherwise have been excluded.

FJA procurement personnel will continue to train and educate themselves in the on-going requirement of this initiative ensuring to provide orientation and advise management in the identification and planning of their procurement needs.

Planned spending and human resources

This section provides an overview of FJA’s planned spending and human resources for the next three 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 5: Actual spending summary for core responsibility and internal services ($ dollars)

The following table shows information on spending for each of FJA’s core responsibility and for its internal services for the previous three fiscal years. Amounts for the current fiscal year are forecast based on spending to date.

Core responsibility and internal services	2021–2022 actual expenditures	2022–2023 actual expenditures	2023–2024 forecast spending
Support to federally appointed judges	670,056,134	711,434,952	733,257,988
Subtotal	670,056,134	711,434,952	733,257,988
Internal services	726,800	726,800	726,800
Total	670,782,934	712,161,752	733,984,788

The actual spending for the department increases over each reporting period largely as a result of statutory provisions in the Judges Act as they relate to the annual increase in the salaries of federally appointed judges as a function of the industrial aggregate index applied on April 1 of each year and the increase in pension payments to retired judges and survivors as a function of the annual indexation applied on January 1 of each year.

Table 6: Budgetary planning summary for core responsibility and internal services (dollars)

The following table shows information on spending for each of FJA’s core responsibility and for its internal services for the upcoming three fiscal years.

Core responsibility and internal services	2024-25 budgetary spending (as indicated in Main Estimates)	2024-25 planned spending	2025-26 planned spending	2026-27 planned spending
Support to federally appointed judges	788,073,257	788,073,257	834,424,455	871,453,414
Subtotal	788,073,257	788,073,257	834,424,455	871,453,414
Internal services	726,800	726,800	726,800	726,800
Total	788,800,057	788,800,057	835,151,255	872,180,214

The planned spending for the department increases over each reporting period largely as a result of statutory provisions in the Judges Act as they relate to the annual increase in the salaries of federally appointed judges as a function of the industrial aggregate index applied on April 1 of each year and the increase in pension payments to retired judges and survivors as a function of the annual indexation applied on January 1 of each year.

Funding

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

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

Spending for the department increases over each reporting period largely as a result of statutory provisions in the Judges Act as they relate to the annual increase in the salaries of federally appointed judges as a function of the industrial aggregate index applied on April 1 of each year and the increase in pension payments to retired judges and survivors as a function of the annual indexation applied on January 1 of each year.

Estimates by vote

Information on FJA’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 FJA’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 on FJA’s website.

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

Financial information	2023–24 forecast results	2024–25 planned results	Difference (2024–25 planned results minus 2023–24 forecast results)
Total expenses	735,809,000	790,147,000	54,338,000
Total revenues	20,459,000	20,459,000	-
Net cost of operations before government funding and transfers	715,350,000	769,688,000	54,338,000

In 2023-24, total forecasted expenses include $719.3 million for salaries of federally appointed judges as well as expenses related to their allowances, and annuities; $13.1 million for FJA personnel and operating costs; and $3.4 million for CJC personnel and operating costs. The 2024-25 amounts are $774 million, $12.8 million, and $3.3 million, respectively.

Total revenues include an amount of $20.5 million charged to FJA’s statutory vote for pension contributions by federally appointed judges.

Human resources

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

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

Core responsibility and internal services	2021–22 actual FTEs	2022–23 actual FTEs	2023–24 forecasted FTEs
Support to federally appointed judges	60.5	56.5	60.5
Subtotal	60.5	56.5	60.5
Internal services	5.5	5.5	5.5
Total	66	62	66

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

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

Core responsibility and internal services	2024–25 planned fulltime equivalents	2025–26 planned fulltime equivalents	2026–27 planned fulltime equivalents
Support to federally appointed judges	60.5	60.5	60.5
Subtotal	60.5	60.5	60.5
Internal services	5.5	5.5	5.5
Total	66	66	66

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister: The Honourable Arif Virani, P.C., K.C., M.P.

Institutional head: Marc A. Giroux, Commissioner

Ministerial portfolio: Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Enabling instrument: Judges Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. J-1)

Year of incorporation / commencement: 1978

Other: Information about the Canadian Judicial Council, its mandate and programs are found at the Council’s website: https://cjc-ccm.ca/en

Organizational contact information

Mailing address

Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada
99 Metcalfe Street, 8th floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1E3

Telephone: 613-995-5140 or 1-877-583-4266 (toll free)

Fax: 613-995-5615

Email: info@fja-cmf.gc.ca

Website(s): https://www.fja.gc.ca/, https://cjc-ccm.ca/en

Supplementary information table

The following supplementary information table is available on FJA’s website:

• Gender-based analysis plus

Information on FJA’s Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy can be found on FJA’s website.

Federal tax expenditures

FJA’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 three‑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.

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.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

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

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.