ARCHIVED - Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada - Report

• Previous Page
• Table of Contents
• Next Page

This page has been archived.

Commissioner’s Message

As the Commissioner of Federal Judicial Affairs, I am pleased to present the Office’s Departmental Performance Report for 2010-2011. The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs was created in 1978 under the Judges Act to support and promote the independence of the judiciary. An independent and effective judiciary is fundamental to our system of justice and I am proud of the role our Office plays in supporting that goal.

During the past year our Office continued to provide high quality services to more than 1100 federally appointed judges, as well as to more than 800 pensioners. We provided support and administrative services to the Canadian Judicial Council and its committees. At the request of the Minister of Justice we provided support services to the judicial appointments process.

The following pages describe the activities undertaken in 2010-2011 in furtherance of our mandate and particular steps that we have taken to improve and enhance the services we provide. These include upgrades and improvements to our information technology and information management systems and enhanced business and human resource planning. We surveyed federally appointed judges and users of the Federal Courts Reports to measure how well our Office responded to their needs. Results showed a high level of user satisfaction.

I wish to thank all of our staff for their excellent work during the year. Our success depends upon their dedication and professionalism.

William A. Brooks
Commissioner

SECTION I – ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW

1.1 Raison d’être

FJA envisions itself as a unique service provider to the Canadian judiciary, renowned for efficiency, sound management and a good working environment.

1.2 Responsibilities

1.3 Strategic Outcome

FJA seeks to deliver high-quality services to the Canadian Judiciary in order to support and promote judicial independence. In this regard, FJA contributes to the following strategic outcome:

1.4 Program Activity Architecture

1.5 Organizational Priorities

1.6 Risk Analysis

FJA’s environment is complex due in part to the small size of its organization, the range of services it provides (compensation, benefits, language training, legal publishing, etc.) and the large number of clients served. FJA is also one of the only organizations in government with the delicate task of regularly interacting with three branches of government: legislative for changes to the Judges Act; judicial for a wide range of services; and the executive with respect to managerial and central agency requirements.

With only 73 employees, the Office serves more than 1 118 judges, 837 pensioners and survivors, 133 Advisory Committee members and between 450 and 550 applicants for judicial appointment, and Canadians in general (including members of the judiciary and of the legal profession) through the publication of the Federal Courts Reports. FJA administers a budget in excess of $450 million annually which pays for judges’ salaries, allowances and annuities, relocation and travel expenses as well as covering the costs of running the Office (informatics, training, finance, administration and other related expenses). It provides services to judges including language training. It informs the legal community as well as the general public through the publication of the official reports of the decisions of the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Courts Reports, thus promoting access to justice and ensuring a permanent record of these decisions. FJA also serves the requirements of the Minister of Justice through the operation of the Judicial Appointments Secretariat.

Recognizing this context, FJA has developed a risk profile and actively monitors through its management team external and internal risks. Outlined below are the risks FJA managed in the 2010-11 fiscal year.

External Risks – In general, workload demand for FJA services continues to increase in line with demographic changes in the client base, which brings additional operational demands. Compared to the previous fiscal year, in 2010-11 there was a 2.3% increase in the number of judges and a 1.1% increase in the number of pensioners in receipt of a pension pursuant to the Judges Act. Requirements also increased for administering the reimbursement of travel and other allowances to federally appointed judges, in the number of participants in the judges language training program, in the number of decisions considered by the Federal Courts Reports (up 6.8% from last year) and in the number of judges participating in International Cooperation activities. FJA actively monitored and managed risks related to managing additional workload to ensure judges received timely reimbursement of their salaries, allowances and annuities, in accordance with the Act.

Part of the role of FJA is to provide administrative services to the Canadian Judicial Council which has, as part of its mandate, the responsibility for receiving complaints against members of the judiciary. The complexity and volume of complaints have been steadily increasing and accordingly, the resources required for conducting the necessary analysis and review of these files has also been increasing. It is possible that some of these complaints could result in full inquiries which would require substantial resources to ensure that a fair and objective inquiry be undertaken.

FJA must comply with the same central agency expectations and requirements (comptrollership, management and accountability systems, etc.) as do larger departments that enjoy core, specialized resources in the fields of planning, communications, human and financial administration and evaluation. Policy requirements add to existing managerial demands and the extra requirements for internal procedure development and alignment of practices that may be more suitable for a larger department than a small agency. FJA has a small management team and more informal and hands-on day-to-day monitoring and management functions which provides the flexibility and responsiveness required to effectively manage risk in relation to standard processes supporting a client base of federally appointed judges.

FJA also faces challenges in bringing the Federal Courts Reports, which it publishes, up to speed with current practices in legal publishing. These practices have changed considerably over the past decade. Judgments are now born digital, yet the Federal Courts Reports Section continues to provide a print publication first and then manipulates that document to publish it on the Internet. This process needs to be modernized so as to enable FJA to keep up with the changing demands of the modern judicial community and the public in general, as well as with the high volume of decisions now being rendered by the Federal Courts.

Internal Risks – FJA recognizes that it operates within a technology-driven world economy and must meet evolving expectations, including those set by the federal government and the Management Accountability Framework (MAF). The MAF provides a very effective reality check on key areas of risk with respect to information management and technology which are important to the effective administration of service to judges.

From an information management perspective, FJA faces the risk of not being able to keep up with the technological advancements being made. Although we have successfully upgraded one of our core applications, substantial work and investment is still necessary in order to ensure that we can provide an efficient and productive service to our clients.

From a human resources perspective the principal risk FJA faces is the loss of expertise and corporate memory from the retirement of long-serving experienced staff. As with most government organizations, short and medium-term retirement of managers and staff members may exacerbate the Office’s vulnerability. Although efforts have been made to develop succession plans, the reality is that there is a shortage of skilled resources available in the staffing marketplace suitable for the activities of FJA. Therefore, the time involved in recruitment is usually longer than normal.

From a financial perspective, FJA maintains and updates a sophisticated work planning process which defines key initiatives and resource requirements. Financial forecasting and expenditure reporting is actively monitored. Judges are reimbursed their actual and reasonable expenses incurred under the authority of the Judges Act. The work schedules for judges are organized by their Chief Justices based on the caseload before the court and accordingly, the Office has no input or control on the scheduling process. Any forecast of expenses incurred by judges is based on historical trends which can result in fluctuations from the amount of actual expenses incurred.

From an operational perspective, FJA faces the challenge/risk of balancing resources for ongoing activities with the requirements of implementing international programming and hosting international delegations. In 1995, FJA initiated international judicial partnerships fully funded through the Canadian International Development Agency . Commencing with Ukraine, partnerships with Russia, Ethiopia, China and other countries quickly followed. The projects with Russia and the Ukraine are now completed. FJA remains involved in promoting and facilitating participation by members of the Canadian judiciary in a number of international co-operation projects. FJA regularly receives/hosts international delegations to share its core expertise, for example, FJA and the Department of Justice participated in a joint project with Mexico.

1.7 Summary of Performance

At the outset of the 2010-2011 fiscal year, FJA’s planned spending was $447.4 million. Through Main Estimates, Supplementary Estimates and other adjustments to the statutory expenditures, FJA was allocated $454.4 million and the actual spending was $453.6 million.

The decrease in the number of Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) is primarily due to the additional time required to staff skilled positions from the departures of employees. In the next fiscal year planned FTEs will come into balance with actual FTEs as succession plans are implemented.

Summary of Achievements Against Priorities

• Client Services: FJA continued to provide high levels of service to clients in terms of core services such as judges’ salaries, allowances and annuities. A Client Satisfaction Survey conducted in 2008 indicated a 93% satisfaction level with services provided by the organization. A further Client Satisfaction Survey conducted in 2011 reconfirmed a 91% satisfaction level. The Federal Courts Reports Client Satisfaction Survey, also conducted in 2011, revealed that its users are satisfied that their needs are being met.
  
• Corporate Planning: In the recent Management Accountability Framework (MAF) process, FJA received a rating of ’’strong’’ under the measure of Effectiveness of the Corporate Management Structure. This measure assessed both the Corporate Planning and Governance Structure of the organization
  
• Communications: The client survey reconfirmed a high satisfaction rating (83% satisfaction rating) with the quality of the communications from the department. FJA also embarked on an initiative to improve communications as a result of an internal survey conducted of staff. The Departmental internal communications network was enhanced by adding information and copies of all departmental business plans, strategic plans and other planning documents.
  
• Information Management and Systems: Information Technology was sustained at a high level of availability and quality of operation, and various upgrading initiatives were undertaken. Although work has progressed, the recent MAF assessment indicated that FJA needed further work in implementing an information management strategy. Consultants were engaged to assist in establishing a three year plan for the implementation of an Information Management solution. They also provided cost estimates and the department is currently at the stage of trying to determine a source of funds.
  
• Security: Work progressed to upgrade security through enhancements in software and the network intrusion system. Training and awareness was provided to departmental staff through activities conducted during the Security Awareness Week. Although FJA is compliant with the Government Security Policy and fully meets the Security policy, the MAF assessment indicated that additional work is required to meet the requirements of the MITS (Management of Information Technology Security) and, therefore, rated this area as ’’attention required’’.

Commencing in the 2009-10 Estimates cycle, the resources for the Internal Services Program activity are displayed separately from other program activities; they are no longer distributed among the remaining program activities, as was the case in previous Main Estimates. This has affected the comparability of spending and FTE information by program activity between fiscal years.

1.8 Expenditure Profile

[D]

The total spending for the department shows a continual increase over the planning period. This increase is as a result of a provision in the Judges Act which allows for an annual increase in salaries to judges based on the Industrial Aggregate

1.9 Estimates by Vote

For information on our organizational votes and/or statutory expenditures, please see the 2010-11 Public Accounts of Canada (Volume II) publication. An electronic version of the Public Accounts is available at www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/recgen/txt/72-eng.asp

• Previous Page
• Table of Contents
• Next Page