Section III: Analysis of Programs and Internal Services

Programs

Payments pursuant to the Judges Act

Description

Payments of salaries, allowances and annuities to federally appointed judges, and their survivors, in the superior courts and courts of appeal in Canada.

Program Performance Analysis and Lessons Learned

The scope of this program includes compensation and pension administration for approximately 1,125 judges and 968 pensioners and survivors.  The number of judicial appointments has steadily increased and the number of pensioners increased during 2015-16.

Steps continue to be taken to ensure greater consistency in the application of policies, rules, and entitlements, and thereby maintain public confidence in the judiciary.  Transactions are monitored using checklists. 100% verification is done of all expense claims to avoid errors and ensure a consistent interpretation of the Judges Act. Processes have been documented, and internal controls reviewed with external support.  A detailed process review was conducted of administrative services to the judiciary, and decision rules were documented for future reference.

Budgetary Financial Resources (dollars)

2015–16 Main Estimates	2015–16 Planned Spending	2015–16 Total Authorities Available for Use	2015–16 Actual Spending (authorities used)	2015–16 Difference (actual minus planned)
514,430,443	514,430,443	532,643,045	532,643,045	18,212,602

 

Human Resources (Full-Time Equivalents [FTEs])

2015–16 Planned	2015–16 Actual	2015–16 Difference (actual minus planned)
0	0	0

 

Performance Results

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Actual Results
Accurate payment of salaries, allowances and annuities as per the Judges Act.	% error rate in payments to judges	Less than 2%	All payments are verified to ensure compliance with the Judges Act.
Comprehensive, up-to-date and validated files are kept on all judges and their survivors.	% of files that are not up to date or are missing information	Less than 2%	All judges and their survivors have comprehensive, up-to-date and validated files.

 

Canadian Judicial Council

Description

Administrative support to the various committees established by the Council, which is made up of all of the Chief and Associate Chief Justices in Canada as well as senior judges from the superior courts in Nunavut, Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

Program Performance Analysis and Lessons Learned

The secretariat, comprised of 10 employees, provides support to the Canadian Judicial Council in keeping with its mandate to foster the better administration of justice in Canada by improving efficiency, uniformity, accountability and judicial conduct in courts across the country.   The Chairpersons of the various committees report sustained satisfaction with the level of support they receive.

During the course of the fiscal year, Council’s Committees, Sub-committees and Working Groups met on a regular basis to undertake their work in line with the Council’s mandate.  For example, the Council collaborated with the Department of Justice to initiate a review of the process for selecting and appointing judges to improve current practices and ensure public confidence in the administration of justice is rooted in the excellence and independence of the judiciary, while remaining timely, fair and open.  The work initiated in 2015-2016 will be pursued in 2016-2017. 

The Canadian Judicial Council also undertook a review of its financial management directives to ensure consistency with the Financial Administration Act and compliance with the Minister’s Delegation of Financial Signing Authorities, and further demonstrating accountability and transparency.

In an effort to educate various audiences (judges, lawyers, senior civil servants, journalists, general public and young people) on the principles underpinning judicial independence, the Council developed information kits that have been shared with Council members and that are also available on the CJC website.  These kits will also be posted on respective court websites and distributed to other key partners and stakeholders in the near future.   

The Canadian Judicial Council plays a pivotal role in ensuring that judges maintain the highest standards of conduct, which is essential to maintaining the rule of law and public confidence in the administration of justice. During 2015-16, the CJC received 651 pieces of correspondence which resulted in 281 opened files. Council closed 286 files in 2015-16.

Budgetary Financial Resources (dollars)

2015–16 Main Estimates	2015–16 Planned Spending	2015–16 Total Authorities Available for Use	2015–16 Actual Spending (authorities used)	2015–16 Difference (actual minus planned)
1,699,615	1,699,615	3,775,296	2,488,907	789,292

 

Human Resources (Full-Time Equivalents [FTEs])

2015–16 Planned	2015–16 Actual	2015–16 Difference (actual minus planned)
10	10	0

 

Performance Results

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Actual Results
Effective functioning of Canadian Judicial Council committees.	% of CJC Chairpersons satisfied with the administration and support of their committees.	80% of Committee Chairpersons satisfied with secretariat support	All Committee Chairpersons are satisfied with secretariat support.

 

Federal Judicial Affairs

Description

Provides services to federally appointed judges including compensation and pension services, financial services, information technology/information management, language training, editing of the Federal Courts Reports, services to the Minister of Justice through the Judicial Appointments Secretariat including the Supreme Court of Canada, and International Programs. 

Program Performance Analysis and Lessons Learned

FJA continued to provide a high level of service to clients in terms of core services such as payment of judges’ salaries, allowances and annuities.

In 2015-16, FJA completed Design Effectiveness Testing (DET) as well as Operating Effectiveness Testing (OET) of the following business processes:

·      Travel expense claim processing pursuant to the Judges’ Act

·      Pay administration

·     Contracting policy and procurement strategy

·      Planning and budgeting

·      Accountable advances

Implementation of corrective action to address findings in both DET and OET has begun and will continue into 2016-17.

FJA continues to implement follow-up actions related to:

·      Salary administration for payments pursuant to the Judges Act

·      Pension administration for payments pursuant to the Judges Act

With respect to international work performed by Canadian judges, FJA has continued to play an active role under several initiatives. It served as an important contributor to the implementation of the Judicial Education for Economic Growth Project in Ukraine, which is devoted to promoting an enabling environment for economic growth through increased capacity of the judiciary to respond to business-related matters.   The FJA components focused on developing judge-led pre-trial settlement procedures by building consensus on pre-trial for general jurisdiction and administrative courts. Under a project in Jamaica called the Justice Undertakings for Social Transformation (JUST) which was designed to address inefficiencies at all levels of the Jamaica justice system, FJA was subcontracted by the Department of Justice Canada to implement certain components on best practices in criminal case management and caseflow management to address case backlog and delays in judicial and administrative processes in Jamaican courts. Furthermore, FJA has signed an Administrative Arrangement with GAC on a new 5-year judicial reform project whose objective is to substantially contribute to the advancement of democracy and the rule of law in Ukraine through a targeted multi-year strategy of justice-sector reform support focused on the strengthening of the Ukrainian judiciary and judicial institutions and reinforcement of the courts as effective and credible mechanisms for achieving justice. 

In addition, under an MOU with the Ontario Superior Court and as a service to other courts, including the four federal courts in Ottawa, FJA vets incoming international delegations and institutions who request meetings and programs of visit with judges, courts, administrators and institutions in Canada.  Furthermore, as a result of this vetting, FJA has organized missions in Canada for incoming delegations from countries such as Mongolia, India, and China. Finally, FJA continues to coordinate the work of the Judicial Advisory Committee on International Engagement (JUDACIE), a committee of 10 judges from across Canada, established in 2013. The mandate of JUDACIE is to provide a direct voice through which the Canadian judiciary can influence Canadian government decisions pertinent to international development.  The role of JUDACIE is to advise the FJA Commissioner on the development and application of international policies and on any other aspects of FJA’s mandate related to international engagement of the Canadian judiciary. 

The judicial appointments process contributes to an independent judiciary by ensuring an effective and fair candidate assessment process. The Judicial Appointments Secretariat administers, on behalf of the Minister of Justice, 17 Advisory Committees across Canada, comprised of 133 members in total, who evaluated 341 candidate applications for federal judicial appointments in the year ending March 31, 2016.

The Federal Courts Reports were published in a timely and accurate fashion in both official languages. Its publication delays continued to improve. Compared to 2014-2015, the average time it took to publish the print version of the Reports went down by nearly 35%, and the time it took to post new decisions to the Web site went down by nearly 50%. The requisite number of Parts (12) were published and very few errata (3) had to be released.

Budgetary Financial Resources (dollars)

2015–16 Main Estimates	2015–16 Planned Spending	2015–16 Total Authorities Available for Use	2015–16 Actual Spending (authorities used)	2015–16 Difference (actual minus planned)
7,994,262	7,994,262	9,258,589	7,576,944	(417,318)

 

Human Resources (Full-Time Equivalents [FTEs])

2015–16 Planned	2015–16 Actual	2015–16 Difference (actual minus planned)
50.5	47.5	(3)

 

Performance Results

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Actual Results
Federally appointed judges have access to timely and high-quality services.	% of judges satisfied with services provided	90% of judges are satisfied with services provided	N/A

 

Internal Services

Description

Internal services are groups of related activities and resources that are administered to support the needs of programs and other corporate obligations of an organization. Internal services include only those activities and resources that apply across an organization, and not those provided to a specific program. The groups of activities are Management and Oversight Services; Communications Services; Legal Services; Human Resources Management Services; Financial Management Services; Information Management Services; Information Technology Services; Real Property Services; Materiel Services; and Acquisition Services.

Program Performance Analysis and Lessons Learned

FJA continued to meet the expectations of managers and employees with respect to human resources, financial management, procurement, information technology and other administrative services. The main improvement areas pursued during 2015-16 are noted below.

Information management: FJA has completed the implementation of the Management Action Plan on the Office of the Comptroller General Horizontal Audit on Electronic Record Keeping. FJA has updated the Information Architecture, revised the existing file structures, identified all Information Resources of Business Value, identified retention periods and security requirements, and undertaken a clean-up exercise of older legacy information in preparation for the eventual migration to GCDOCS.

Implementation of policy on internal controls: During 2015-16, the business processes related to Travel expense claim processing pursuant to the Judges Act, Pay Administration, Contracting Policy and Procurement Strategy, Planning and Budgeting and Accountable Advances were documented and tested. Information Technology General Controls were deferred to a later date.

Human resources planning: The principal human resources risk facing FJA is the loss of expertise and corporate memory from the retirement of long-serving experienced staff, and the lack of in-house expertise and back up in specialized areas. FJA continued to do succession and integrated HR planning to mitigate this risk.

Systems enhancements. FJA is part of the cluster of small departments and agencies that is making the transition from HRIS human resources information system to MYGCHR in September 2015.

 

Budgetary Financial Resources (dollars)

2015–16 Main Estimates	2015–16 Planned Spending	2015–16 Total Authorities Available for Use	2015–16 Actual Spending (authorities used)	2015–16 Difference (actual minus planned)
726,800	726,800	726,800	717,936	(8,864)

Human Resources (FTEs)

2015–16 Planned	2015–16 Actual	2015–16 Difference (actual minus planned)
5.5	5.5	0