Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada - Report

Commissioner’s Message

As the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs, I am pleased to present the Office's Departmental Performance Report for 2013-2014. The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada was created in 1978 under the Judges Act to provide support and services to the federal judiciary 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 1,115 federally appointed judges, as well as close to 910 pensioners and survivors. We provided support and administrative services to the Canadian Judicial Council and its committees. At the request of the Minister of Justice we provided administrative support to the judicial appointments process and the Supreme Court of Canada appointments process.

The following pages describe the activities undertaken in 2013-2014 in furtherance of our mandate and particular steps that we have taken to improve and enhance the services we provide. These include a comprehensive review of all our services and business processes, an assessment of the controls in place, and ongoing improvements to our information management and supporting technology.

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

Organizational Profile

Minister: The Honourable Peter MacKay, P.C., M.P.

Deputy Head: William A. Brooks, Commissioner

Ministerial Portfolio: Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Main Legislative Authorities: Judges Act

The Minister has sole responsibility to Parliament for the following Act:

Judges Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. J-1), December 2012

Year established: 1978

Website: http://www.fja-cmf.gc.ca

Other:
Information about the Canadian Judicial Council, its mandate and programs are found at the Council's website: http://www.cjc-ccm.gc.ca

The Executive Summary of the 2011 Client Satisfaction Survey can be found at the FJA's website

Public Accounts of Canada 2014

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

Organizational Context

Raison d'être

The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs provides services to the Canadian judiciary and promotes judicial independence. The Minister of Justice is responsible for this organization.

Mission Statement

To provide excellent services and support to the federal judiciary in a manner that promotes the independence of the judiciary and the confidence of Canadians in our judicial system.

Responsibilities

Section 73 of the Judges Act establishes the office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada. Section 74 sets out the duties and functions of the Commissioner.

The Commissioner:

Administers Part I of the Judges Act , including the administration of salaries, allowances and annuities of judges of the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court, the Tax Court of Canada and federally appointed judges of provincial and territorial superior courts;
Prepares budgetary submissions and provides administrative support and services to the Canadian Judicial Council;
Performs such other duties as the Minister of Justice may require in connection with any matters falling, by law, within the Minister's responsibilities for the proper functioning of the judicial system in Canada. These include: the operation of the Judicial Appointments Secretariat; support to the Supreme Court of Canada appointments process; publication of the Federal Courts Reports; the provision of language training to judges; the coordination of judicial international cooperation activities; and support to the Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission.

Strategic Outcome and Program Alignment Architecture

Strategic Outcome:

1.1 Program:

Judges Act

1.2 Program:

1.3 Program:

1.3.1 Sub-Program:

1.3.2 Sub-Program:

1.3.3 Sub-Program:

1.3.4 Sub-Program:

1.3.5 Sub-Program:

Internal Services

FJA seeks to deliver high-quality services to the Canadian Judiciary in a manner which supports and promotes judicial independence. In this regard, FJA contributes to the following strategic outcome: An independent and efficient federal judiciary.

Organizational Priorities

Priority	Type	Strategic Outcome(s) [and/or] Program(s)
Client Services. FJA's primary duty and responsibility is to administer the Judges Act and to provide all federally appointed judges with the support services that they require to fully carry out their judicial mandate.	Ongoing	An independent and efficient federal judiciary.
Summary of Progress
FJA continued to provide high levels of service to clients in terms of core services such as payment of judges' salaries, allowances and annuities. A Client Satisfaction Survey conducted in 2011 showed a 91% satisfaction level. With the objective of improving services and identifying efficiencies, FJA conducted reviews of its key business processes, including administrative services to the judiciary, salary administration for payments to the judges, pension administration, judicial appointments, publication of the Federal Courts Reports, judges' language training, and expense claim processing. Follow up action was taken to implement identified service improvements.
Priority	Type	Strategic Outcome(s) [and/or] Program(s)
Corporate planning and reporting. Establish a formal system of corporate policy development, planning, performance measurement and program evaluation which integrates Human Resource Planning.	Ongoing	An independent and efficient federal judiciary.
Summary of Progress
In 2013-2014, consultants were engaged to update the three year integrated business plan. During the process divisional plans were developed, an annual planning process was established, a risk assessment of the organization was conducted, a performance management framework was established and strategic priorities and projects were agreed upon. The next step will be the development of service standards and more structured monitoring of performance against these standards.

Priority	Type	Strategic Outcome(s) [and/or] Program(s)
Information management/ systems. Improve and develop systems and improve the management of information, data and knowledge resource holdings.	Ongoing	An independent and efficient federal judiciary.
Summary of Progress
Information Technology maintained a high level of availability and quality of operation, and various upgrading initiatives were pursued to align FJA systems with government-wide ones and to improve efficiency (e.g., reduce double entry of data). FJA continued to implement the Management Action Plan of the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG) Horizontal Audit on electronic record keeping. Specific actions included the scanning of historical documents and updating the information architecture.

Priority	Type	Strategic Outcome(s) [and/or] Program(s)
Security. Maintain expertise for all aspects of security, including physical security of FJA clients, employees, visitors, facilities, data, information and systems and to ensure FJA is compliant with the Government Security Policy.	Ongoing	An independent and efficient federal judiciary.
Summary of Progress
To ensure compliance with the Government Security Policy additional work is being carried out to finalize the Departmental Security Plan and to meet government-wide requirements of the MITS (Management of Information Technology Security).

Risk Analysis

Key Risks

Risk	Risk Response Strategy	Link to Program Alignment Architecture
Maintaining a high level of support and services to judges in a manner that supports and promotes judicial independence in the context of government-wide centralization of common services and shared services.	The Judges Act establishes a regime of salaries, allowances and annuities unique to federally appointed judges and which is administered by the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs. The ongoing government wide initiative to centralise common services and shared services has resulted in consideration of a transfer from FJA to a common service agency some of the administration of these core services. Discussions are ongoing with central agencies to explain the mandate of FJA and how this initiative may impact judicial independence as well as service levels to judges.	An independent and efficient federal judiciary Payments pursuant to the Judges Act
Errors (e.g., payments, vacancies lists, procurement).	Challenges of administering the unique regime in the Judges Act include ensuring a correct interpretation of the Act and consistency and accuracy in a high volume of transactions environment. Current strategies to minimize risk are 100% verification of transactions, use of technology to assist in processing payments, staff training, and regular reviews of internal controls.	An independent and efficient federal judiciary Payments pursuant to the Judges Act Internal services
Renewal of legacy systems being phased out.	Once pay and pension modernization are completed government-wide, PWGSC will no longer be able to support the Judges Annuitant System. PWGSC earmarked funding for developmental costs towards a new system, and will continue to support FJA until a new solution is finalized.	An independent and efficient federal judiciary Payments pursuant to the Judges Act

The Government has initiatives in place for pay modernization, consolidation of pay services, and pension modernization. These initiatives include consideration of a proposal that FJA transfer pay and pension administration for judges to common service agencies. Consideration of such a proposal must take into account the primary mission of FJA to protect the independence of the federal judiciary in order to maintain the confidence of Canadians in our judicial system. FJA is therefore pursuing a range of initiatives to ensure the renewal of legacy systems and alignment with government-wide processes and systems, both in terms of services provided to judges as well as controls to ensure the proper application of policies and rules governing the payment of judges' salaries, allowances, benefits and annuities.

Actual Expenditures

**Budgetary Financial Resources (dollars)**
2013–14 Main Estimates	2013–14 Planned Spending	2013–14 Total Authorities Available for Use	2013–14 Actual Spending (authorities used)	Difference (actual minus planned)h
497,675,214	497,675,214	502,106,450	501,342,281	(3,667,067)

**Human Resources (Full-Time Equivalents [FTEs])**
2013–14 Planned	2013–14 Actual	2013–14 Difference (actual minus planned)
66	62	4

**Budgetary Performance Summary for Strategic Outcome and Programs (dollars)**
Strategic Outcome(s), Program(s) and Internal Services	2013–14 Main Estimates	2013–14 Planned Spending	2014–15 Planned Spending	2015–16 Planned Spending	2013–14 Total Authorities Available for Use	2013–14 Actual Spending (authorities used)	2012–13 Actual Spending (authorities used)	2011–12 Actual Spending (authorities used)
Strategic Outcome: An independent and efficient federal judiciary.
Payments Pursuant to the Judges Act	487,534,826	487,534,826	500,885,033	514,430,443	490,350,437	490,350,437	474,217,220	459,802,737
Canadian Judicial Council	1,672,727	1,672,727	1,642,565	1,668,410	1,770,016	1,681,809	1,657,597	1,920,926
Federal Judicial Affairs	7,613,383	7,613,383	8,454,448	7,762,398	9,131,719	8,455,757	8,352,983	8,584,690
Subtotal	496,820,936	496,820,936	510,982,046	523,861,251	501,252,172	500,488,003	484,227,800	470,308,353
Internal Services Subtotal	854,278	854,278	726,800	726,800	854,278	854,278	874,800	874,800
Total	497,675,214	497,675,214	511,708,846	524,588,051	502,106,450	501,342,281	485,102,600	471,183,153

The actual spending for the department shows a continual increase over the reporting periods resulting from the annual increase in judges' salaries based on the Industrial Aggregate as provided for in the Judges Act as well as an increase in the number of judges appointed to the bench and the number of pensioners receiving benefits under the Judges Act.

Alignment of Spending With the Whole-of-Government Framework

**Alignment of 2013-14 Actual Spending With the Whole-of-Government Framework (dollars)**
Strategic Outcome	Program	Spending Area	Government of Canada Outcome	2013-14 Actual Spending
An independent and efficient federal judiciary.	1.1 Payments pursuant to the Judges Act	Social affairs	A safe and secure Canada	490,350,437
	1.2 Canadian Judicial Council	Social affairs	A safe and secure Canada	1,681,809
	1.3 Federal Judicial Affairs	Social affairs	A safe and secure Canada	8,455,757

**Total Spending by Spending Area (dollars)**
Spending Area	Total Planned Spending	Total Actual Spending
Social Affairs	496,820,936	500,488,003

Departmental Spending Trend

Expenditure Profile

Total spending is closely aligned with the Main Estimates and planned spending for 2013-14. The $3.7 million variance between the total planned and actual spending is mainly attributed to an overall $2.8 million increase in statutory expenditures for judges' salaries, the increased number of judicial appointments and the increased number of pensioners. An additional $0.7 million represents an increase to FJA's operating expenses primarily due to legal obligations.

Estimates by Vote

For information on the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs' organizational Votes and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada 2014 on the Public Works and Government Services Canada website.