ARCHIVED - Supreme Court of Canada

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I: Departmental Overview

A. Message from the Registrar

As this Performance Report attests, the Office of the Registrar has met its goals and objectives or the period under review. Its stable mission from year to year allows it to remain focussed on the tasks at hand in order to provide Canadians with the quality of services expected from the highest court in the country. This requires the ongoing efforts and steadfastness of its dedicated staff.

Cases were managed efficiently, as the statistical information contained in this report underlines. This activity rests at the heart of the mandate of the Office of the Registrar and requires constant attention. It includes monitoring the effectiveness of, and compliance with, the Rules of the Supreme Court, assisting self-represented litigants with improved tools and guidelines, maintaining case records, managing motions and hearings, providing expert research services and legal analysis for the judges, supporting the preparation of bilingual reasons for judgments and publishing them on paper and on line. Given the important role of the Court, the Canadian public, the media, and the legal profession take a great interest in all the Court's activities. Feedback has been very positive. In particular, this year's survey of internal Library users confirms a high level of satisfaction with the services provided.

In the meantime, our modernisation program is bearing fruit. The Supreme Court of Canada can proudly showcase one of the most technologically-advanced and user-focussed courtrooms in the country, if not in the world. It allows for improved access to the Court by providing better sound, wireless connections and digital documents in the courtroom, as well as broadcast-quality digital recordings of the hearings. All this has been done with a view to serving the public, the litigants and the judges in a modern environment. These initiatives are part and parcel of the long term vision supported by the judges of the Supreme Court of Canada to bring the Court into the digital age. The success of the program is due to the hard work of all the staff of the Court and a great team effort, encompassing all the activities of the institution: from contracting to accommodation, from systems development to translation.

Planning, risk management and training are the necessary ingredients for the Office of the Registrar to succeed in its endeavours. Many efforts were expended by management and staff alike to improve integrated business planning, workforce training plans and business continuity planning during this period. These feed into the reporting activities of the Office of the Registrar, which received a positive preliminary rating within the Management Accountability Framework.

I have had the privilege of serving the Supreme Court of Canada and the Canadian population over the past 18 years as the Registrar of the Court and will be retiring shortly. I am most proud of the achievements of the Office of the Registrar and of the great team of people working at the Court, its foresight and motivation. I am confident that the Office of the Registrar is ready to rise to the challenges of the future.

B. Management Representation Statement

Management Representation Statement I submit for tabling in Parliament, the 2007-2008 Departmental Performance Report (DPR) for the Supreme Court of Canada. This document has been prepared based on the reporting principles contained in the Guide for the Preparation of Part III of the 2007-2008 Estimates: Reports on Plans and Priorities and Departmental Performance Reports: It adheres to the specific reporting requirements outlined in the Treasury Board Secretariat guidance; It is based on the Supreme Court of Canada’s Strategic Outcome and Program Activity Architecture that were approved by the Treasury Board; It presents consistent, comprehensive, balanced and reliable information; It provides a basis of accountability for the results achieved with the resources and authorities entrusted to it; and It reports finances based on approved numbers from the Estimates and the Public Accounts of Canada. Name : _____________________ Anne Roland Title : Registrar Date: _____________________

C. Summary Information

Program Activity Architecture

Strategic Outcome	To provide the best possible decision-making environment for the Supreme Court of Canada
Program Activity	Process hearing and decisions
Sub-Activities	Executive Services	Court Operations	Library and Information Services	Corporate Services

Reason for Existence

As the final court of appeal, the Supreme Court of Canada serves Canadians by leading the development of common and civil law through its decisions on questions of public importance. The mandate of the Supreme Court of Canada is to have and exercise an appellate, civil and criminal jurisdiction within and throughout Canada, which it meets by hearing and deciding cases of public importance. In accordance with the Supreme Court Act, the Supreme Court of Canada consists of the Chief Justice and the eight Puisne Judges. The Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada exists to provide the full gamut of services the Court needs in order to hear cases and render decisions, and serves as the interface between the litigants and the Court. The focus of this report is the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada. More detailed information on the Court’s responsibilities, the hearing process and judgments is available on the Internet (http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca).

Financial Resources ($ million)

2007-2008
Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending
31.8	33.1	30.7

Human Resources (Full Time Equivalents)

2007-2008
Planned	Actual	Difference
191	194	3

Departmental Priorities

2007-2008
Name	Type	Performance Status
1. Process cases without delay	Ongoing	Exceeded expectations
2. Court modernization	New (2007-08 to 2009-10)	Succesfully met
3. Manage risk	Previously committed to	Successfully met
4. Build capacity	Previously committed to	Successfully met

Program Activities by Strategic Outcome

Strategic Ouctome: To provide the best decision-making environment for the Supreme Court of Canada
Program Activity: Process hearings and decisions
	2007-2008	2007-2008
	Planned Spending ($ millions)	Actual Spending ($ millions)
	31.8	30.7
Expected Results	Performance Status	Contributes to the following priorities
Process hearing and decisions	Exceeded expectations	Process cases without delay Court modernization Manage Risk Build capacity
Ensure the independence of the Court	Successfully met
Improve access to the Court and its services	Not met
Provide the information base the the Court needs to fulfil its mandate	Not met
Reliable payment processes	Sucessfully met

D. Summary Departmental Performance

Operating Environment and Context

The context within which the Office of the Registrar must carry out its activities is continually evolving. The legal environment is becoming increasingly complicated and technological advancements place ongoing pressure on the Court to update its facilities and services.

Changes and trends in court administration include:

• Continued focus on electronic exchange of information. The general public has become more technically savvy, and more comfortable using electronic tools to carry out a wide variety of functions. Consistent with this broad trend, the public expects to be able to use electronic tools to interact with the Office of the Registrar's systems to obtain information and legal material. Judges and counsel are preparing their cases using electronic documents and require access to these documents electronically during hearings. As technological changes have brought computers into the Courtroom, the Office of the Registrar requires litigants to file the main documents in appeals in printed and electronic formats. While the Office of the Registrar is moving towards more electronic acceptance and processing of cases, the requirement for paper-based processes continues, and will continue for some time. As a result, parallel streams of case and information processing will be required.
• Changes regarding access to court records. A Model Policy for Access to Court Records in Canada was issued by the Canadian Judicial Council in August 2006. The Office of the Registrar undertook a project to develop a policy for access to Supreme Court of Canada records that would be suitable to the requirements of the Court and meet the privacy and access concerns of litigants, media and members of the public. A policy was drafted and consultations with stakeholders are underway. We expect the policy to be finalized in the Fall of 2008 to coincide with the introduction of electronic appeals.
• Complexity of the legal environment. Factors such as globalization and the growing influence of privacy, security, and human rights issues continue to increase the complexity of cases heard. More complicated motions are being filed, and the Court is frequently asked to deal with cases or issue rulings on an expedited basis. A growing number of applications for leave to appeal are being received from self-represented litigants, (25% in 2007). Addressing the needs of self-represented litigants stretches the resources of the Court.
• Recent fluctuations in the caseload of the Court. The workload of the Office of the Registrar in terms of caseload has been very stable over the last decade (an average of 83 appeals heard and 580 leave applications per year). However, in 2006, just over 500 leave applications were filed which lead to a reduction in the appeals heard in 2007 to 52. It would appear that this reduction was an anomaly as 602 leave applications were filed in 2007. We project that 582 leave applications will be filed and 85 appeals will be heard in 2008.

Overall Results of the Office of the Registrar

The Office of the Registrar was successful in meeting most expectations identified in its 2007-2008 Report on Plans and Priorities. Section II of this report provides more detailed information on results. The highlights are included here, as follows:

1. Process cases without delay. The Office of the Registrar maintains statistics (see http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/information/statistics/download/ecourt.pdf) on a monthly basis to determine average annual time lapses in three key areas:

1. Average time between filing of application for leave and decision on application for leave;
2. Average time between date leave granted (or date notice of appeal as of right filed) and hearing; and
3. Average time between hearing and judgment.

For 2007, the time lapse in each of the first two areas represented a decrease from the average of the preceding ten years: for the time between application for leave and decision, from 4.3 months to 3.5 months; and for time between date leave granted (or date notice of appeal as of right filed) and hearing, from 10.5 months to 9 months. However, the elapsed time between the hearing and judgment increased, from an average of 5 months to 6.6 months. The increase in the average time lapse between hearing and judgment can be attributed to different factors including the fact that very few judgments were delivered from the bench in 2007. The increase may also reflect the complexity of the cases heard by the Court. The Court works very hard to render judgments in a timely way, and it is expected that the average time lapse in 2008 will be below six months.

2. Court modernization. Court modernization is a multi-faceted program priority. At the highest level, the goal of the Court Modernization priority is to provide an optimum venue - the courtroom - for presenting and hearing cases, and to improve access to information before, during, and after hearings. This contributes to the Office of the Registrar's ability to provide the best decision-making environment for the Supreme Court. The first aspect of this priority is the modernization of the courtroom itself, in terms of audio-visual equipment, broadcast capability, information management and technology and the physical infrastructure. The bulk of this work was completed in 2007-08. Remaining phases of the project will include development of an electronic document and records management system (EDRMS) for both corporate use and case related information in the courtroom during hearings. The final aspect of the priority is the development of the capability to accept electronic case files via a web-portal, if possible. Work on the latter two phases will commence in 2008-09 and continue until 2009-10.

3. Manage risks. The Office of the Registrar has made progress towards this priority by implementing an integrated approach for identifying, assessing and managing all risks facing the Court and the Office of the Registrar. A risk identification process is conducted annually at the senior management retreat, and mitigation strategies are developed as required. The MAF assessment indicates additional effort is required, for example, to integrate risk information into business plans.

A significant risk over the past number of years has been the age and condition of audio visual equipment in the Courtroom, and the absence of modern information technology equipment. The audio visual equipment, while being regularly maintained, was old, and had service problems which have lead on occasion to some operational issues. The absence of information technology equipment has left the Court lagging behind lower courts, and has resulted in a continuous reliance on paper-based means of presenting cases. With the substantial completion of the first phase of the court modernization program, this risk has been significantly reduced.

Key activities undertaken during 2007-08 include:

• Establishment of a Project Management Office to mitigate risks inherent in the implementation of large scale complex projects, such as the modernization of the courtroom.
• The Business Continuity Plan was updated.
• Finalization of a security policy.
• A booklet describing emergency procedures was prepared and distributed to all staff and judges.
• Streamlining/updating agreement for policing services between RCMP and the Supreme Court.

4. Build capacity. This priority includes a number of elements, and progress was made in each of these as follows:

• Further development of an integrated business and human resource planning process: Human resource, asset and information technology considerations were formally included as part of the strategic and business planning processes in 2007-08, which resulted in integrated plans, at the strategic level for 2008-09 to 2010-11, and at the business level, for 2008-09.
• Internal communications: During 2006-07, the Office of the Registrar’s governance structure was changed, with the result that certain internal committees were eliminated. One such committee was the communications committee. The internal communications activity is now coordinated by the Executive Services Branch. The Manager, Protocol and Secretariat Services is responsible for the management of the function, including the management of the intranet website, “Ernest”, and ensuring information sent to staff is consistent and in conformity with the Internal Communication Policy. An Internal Communications Policy was drafted in 2007-08. The Official Languages Committee and Senior Management Committee reviewed the policy and changes were requested. The policy will be approved by Senior Management Committee in 2008-09.
• Accommodation strategy: All of the Office of the Registrar’s employees are housed in the Supreme Court building, which is at or near capacity. Given the heritage designation of the building, it is not easy to make changes. During 2007-08, the Office of the Registrar, working together with Public Works and Government Services Canada, commissioned a study to look at accommodation options. In July 2007, the resulting report was issued. Subsequent to this, the Office of the Registrar has undertaken the assessment of the various options presented and is currently elaborating a proposed accommodation strategy. In the fall, the renovations to the East Entrance of the Supreme Court building were completed, providing barrier free access, an improved security control system and a space reflecting the heritage values and status of the institution.

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