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The Courts Administration Service is committed to realizing the following strategic outcome:
The public has effective, timely and fair access, in either official language, to the litigation processes of the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court, the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada and the Tax Court of Canada.
The Service's Program Activity Architecture consists of three program activities – Registry Services, Judicial Services and Corporate Services.
These services provide the Courts with litigation processes support. This includes processing documents filed by or issued to litigants, attending court sittings, recording proceedings, providing information to litigants, preserving the records and information base required by the Courts and issuing legal instruments to enforce the Courts' decisions.
Financial Resources:
Planned Spending |
Authorities |
Actual Spending |
$40.1M |
$43.2M |
$42.5M |
Human Resources:
Planned (FTE) |
Authorities |
Difference |
427 |
389 |
38 |
FTE – Full Time Equivalent
These services provide judicial support to the judges and prothonotaries, as well as to executive officers, judicial assistants, library employees, revisers/jurilinguists, law clerks and other staff who provide direct support to the judiciary in fulfilling its responsibilities.
Financial Resources:
Planned Spending |
Authorities |
Actual Spending |
$22.1M |
$23.8M |
$24.1M |
Human Resources:
Planned (FTE) |
Authorities |
Difference |
228 |
217 |
11 |
FTE – Full Time Equivalent
Please refer to text in Section IV – Other Items of Interest.
Priority 1 |
Program Activity: Registry Services
Key Initiative: Relocation of Staff from the Lorne Building
Expected Results |
Results Achieved |
Improved employee well-being. |
A proposal by PWGSC offering to move all the staff from the Lorne Building, 90 Elgin Street in Ottawa, to the Thomas D'Arcy McGee Building at 90 Sparks Street in Ottawa. |
PWGSC is proposing to move all the staff of the Service currently working at 90 Elgin Street in Ottawa to the premises at 90 Sparks Street in Ottawa, which will be fitted out for the registry of the Federal Court of Appeal and the Federal Court by summer 2008. |
Key Initiative: Harmonization of Registries
Expected Results |
Results Achieved |
Increased citizen-focused services. |
Completion of the co-location initiative in Toronto. |
Co-location of Regional Offices was completed with the move of the Ontario Regional Office in 2006. The Service has made great advances in providing staff with tools, training and exchange opportunities with a view to ensuring that all registry staff are familiar with the rules, practices and procedures of the four Courts they support. |
Key Initiative: Implementation of Outreach Activities
Expected Results |
Results Achieved |
Increased visibility, awareness and understanding of the services provided by the Courts Administration Service. |
Maintaining a positive and productive network with the judicial community and foreign delegations. |
The Service continued its discussions and networking by means of various interdepartmental meetings and continues to maintain a forum of exchange with various foreign delegations which allows the Service to be known as a model of excellence in the administration of justice. |
Program Activity: Judicial Services
Key Initiative: Review of Judicial Services
Expected Results |
Results Achieved |
Increased efficiencies throughout the Service and lower operational costs. |
Significant reduction in translation and posting of court decisions. Negotiation of revised agreement including performance indicators with the Translation Bureau. |
The Judicial Services Directorate undertook an in-depth analysis of its workflow in order to optimize the translation to posting process of court decisions. Aside from this internal review, the Service also negociated a new agreement with the Translation bureau that will ensure specific delivery deadlines for our translation requests. |
Priority 2 |
Program Activity: Registry Services
Key Initiative: Electronic Filing
Expected Results |
Results Achieved |
Modernization of operational activities to reflect best practices and improve procedures. |
350 e-filings received for intellectual property cases. Activities undertaken to expand the project scope in order to include other areas of the court's jurisdiction such as immigration and admiralty. |
The Canada Revenue Agency has proposed the expansion of the e-filing project to allow for electronic filing of income tax/GST certificates. Since early 2006, representatives from CRA have worked closely with the e-filing project team to explore the legal and technical issues related to this proposal. This expansion is a direct result of the small but measured success we have enjoyed with the intellectual property pilot project. It is also the result of a strong partnership with Lexis Nexis, a service provider which facilitates connection between users. |
Key Initiative: Digital Recording
Expected Results |
Results Achieved |
Modernization of operational activities to reflect best practices and improve procedures. |
Business plan for digital recording on track. |
Digital recording is a component of the Case Management System for which the Service is proposing to seek funding from the Treasury Board (TB). A detailed business case will be developed and reviewed to ensure funding requirements for digital recording form part of an overall IT integration strategy. |
Key Initiative: Electronic Courtrooms
Expected Results |
Results Achieved |
Modernization of operational activities to reflect best practices and improve procedures. |
A business plan combining various e-components in development. |
The electronic courtroom is the culmination of several initiatives such as wireless display of evidence, Internet access in the courtroom, document management software and digital recording. The latter is a component of the Case Management System. A detailed business case will be developed and reviewed to ensure funding requirements of digital recording form part of an overall IT integration strategy. |
Key Initiative: New Case Management System
Expected Results |
Results Achieved |
Greater efficiency throughout the Service and decrease in operational costs. |
Upgrade of several components to allow for the disposal of old technology supporting the existing system. |
The server platform is aging and unsupported, new functions cannot be added, problems and downtime are more frequent and unacceptable. The software has been upgraded to run from a web browser. In phase 1, the existing systems will maintain the functions currently provided to the four Courts on an upgraded technical platform to provide greater stability and a suitable environment for future development. The Case Management System is the heart of interdependent components such as e-filing, digital recording, e-faxing, and Judgment and Orders. This entire integrated solution is a major component of the modernization initiative. |
Key Initiative: Modernization of Practices and Procedures
Expected Results |
Results Achieved |
Modernization of operational activities to reflect best practices and improve procedures. |
Improvements made in the areas of scanning and electronic transmittal and receipt of documents, review of fees and fee structures, transmission of decisions to parties, and harmonization of practices across courts. |
Several immediate changes have been made to existing practices and procedures, and pilot projects, such as document scanning and filing date uniformity for e-filing and scanned documents, have been implemented in other areas further to the review of current workflows. |
Program Activity: Judicial Services
Key Initiative: Construction of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Judicial Building (PETJB)
Expected Results |
Results Achieved |
Increased efficiencies throughout the Service and lower operational costs. |
No longer identified as a key initiative. |
The Service has identified other means to maximize synergy and efficiencies without the construction of a new building. The Service has reached an agreement with PWGSC to secure additional space in the Thomas D'Arcy McGee Building to accommodate employees currently located in the Lorne Building. The last component will be to relocate judges and registry staff of the Tax Court of Canada and Corporate Services in the Thomas D'Arcy McGee building. This will complete our accommodation strategy for Ottawa. |
Key Initiative: Toronto Federal Judicial Centre Project (FJC)
Expected Results |
Results Achieved |
Increased efficiencies throughout the Service, including improved security of judges and staff and greater capacity to meet case management workload. |
All Toronto Local Office staff now located in one location to offer a single access and information point for the public. |
The planning and implementation of the move of the Toronto registries, which were located at 200 King Street West and 330 University Avenue, were completed successfully. The registries moved to the new premises at 180 Queen Street West in Toronto. A greater harmonization of registry services to the public has resulted in a more transparent and efficient delivery of services to the clients. |
Key Initiative: Vancouver Federal Judicial Centre Project (FJC)
Expected Results |
Results Achieved |
Space optimization of tenant requirements to maximize utilization. |
Space optimization study completed. |
As a result of the review of registry services to the public as well as to the four Courts, the Service has identified surplus space requirements to Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC). |