ARCHIVED - Supreme Court of Canada

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2008-09
Departmental Performance Report

Supreme Court of Canada

Supplementary Information (Tables)

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Table of Contents

• Sources of Respendable and Non-respendable Revenue
• User Fees/External Fees
• Details on Project Spending
• Internal Audits and Evaluations

Table 1: Sources of Non-Respendable Revenue

Non-Respendable Revenue
($ millions)

Program Activity	Actual 2006-07	Actual 2007-08	2008-09
			Main Estimates	Planned Revenue	Total Authorities	Actual
Process hearings and decisions
Non-Respendable Revenues
Judges' contributions towards annuities	0.1	0.1	-	0.1	-	0.1
Sales of Goods, Services and Information Products	0.1	0.1	-	0.1	-	0.1
Other	0.1	0.1	-	-	-	0.1
Total Non-respendable Revenue	0.3	0.3	-	0.2	-	0.3

The Supreme Court of Canada has no respendable revenue.

Table 2: User Fees

($ thousands)

User Fee	Fee Type	Fee-setting Authority	Date Last Modified	2008-09		Planning Years
				Forecast Revenue	Actual Revenue	Fiscal Year	Forecast Revenue
Sale of Bulletin of Proceedings	Other Products and Services	Supreme Court Act	May 27, 2009	3.0	3.6	2009-10	3.0
						2010-11	3.0
						2011-12	3.0
Sale of Judgments	Other Products and Services	Supreme Court Act	May 27, 2009	6.0	7.6	2009-10	7.0
						2010-11	7.0
						2011-12	7.0
Sale of Certificates	Other Products and Services	Supreme Court Act	May 27, 2009	2.0	1.4	2009-10	2.0
						2010-11	2.0
						2011-12	2.0
Photocopies	Other Products and Services	Supreme Court Act	May 27, 2009	40.0	37.3	2009-10	40.0
						2010-11	40.0
						2011-12	40.0
Other	Other Products and Services	Supreme Court Act	May 27, 2009	70.0	70.3	2009-10	70.0
						2010-11	70.0
						2011-12	70.0
Total				121.0	120.2	2009-10	122.0
						2010-11	122.0
						2011-12	122.0

Note: User fees are set by the Supreme Court Act, and reporting is not required under the User Fees Act. However, since details of user fees have been reported in the past, they are included here for comparative purposes.

Table 3: Details on Project Spending

($ thousands)

Project	Current Estimated Total Cost	Actual 2005-06	Actual 2006-07	Actual 2007-08	2008-09
					Main Estimates	Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual
Program Activity
Process hearings and decisions
Courtroom Audio-visual / Information Technology / Information Management	6.1	0.4	1.9	3.1	-	0.7	-	0.7

The Courtroom Audio-Visual/Information Technology/Information Management Project was completed in 2008-09. The funding allowed for the following significant achievements:

1. Introduction of a new digital audio-visual system: The Court upgraded its audio-visual technologies, replacing an older and inadequate system. The new system now meets cutting edge standards for optimal broadcasting and digital recording. Focus was put on the redundancy and sustainability of systems, ensuring a minimal risk of disrupting the hearing process. This upgrade enabled the introduction of Webcasting of SCC proceedings in February 2009, provided a better image quality, improved translation outputs, and allowed for the Courtroom environment to be ready for closed captioning. New digital audio-visual technologies also provide benefits at the corporate level in that videoconferencing technology can now be used in support of general SCC operations.

2. Introduction of IT systems: Information technology was also introduced in the SCC Courtroom to support the use of electronic documents in Court cases. This applies to Judges, Counsel, Law Clerks, Court clerks and the media, and includes:

• New laptops, embedded in the furniture where appropriate;
• The availability of wireless internet access via an access point controlled by the SCC (both in the Courtroom and in the Media Room);
• The implementation of a secure, dedicated network for the Courtroom;
• The deployment of an instant messaging function for Judges and the Court's staff;
• The development and implementation of a public document display software available in the Courtroom and the Media Room (referred to as the Courtroom Documents Display Tool (CDDT)); and
• The provision of a research capacity via a secure connection for Judges and Law Clerks.

Table 4: Internal Audits and Evaluations

Name of Internal Audit	Audit Type	Status	Completion Date	Electronic Link to Report
Horizontal Audit of Expenditure Controls in Small Departments and Agencies	High Risk Payments	In-progress	September 24, 2009	Available at the end of October 2009

In November 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada was selected as part of the Office of the Comptroller General’s horizontal internal audit of expenditure controls for small departments and agencies.

The objective of the audit was to provide the Comptroller General with an opinion on the adequacy of controls in place intended to flag higher risk transactions for focused attention, and verification of the design and functioning of these controls.

The audit provided answers to the five issues:

1. Processes were established for identifying high-risk payments;
2. The integration of these processes into the account verification processes and procedures;
3. Considerations given to the varying degrees of risk associated with each payment;
4. The monitoring and update of the process for identifying high-risk payments;
5. Assurance obtained on the appropriateness and the well functioning of the approaches to identifying and managing high risk payments.

The audit was conducted in February 2009 and sample transactions from fiscal year 2008-09 were extracted. The preliminary audit findings were very positive and found that the Supreme Court of Canada met all of the audit criteria.