Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here to speak to division 11 of part 5, and there are three measures reflected in the amendments to the Judges Act that are included here.
The amendments would authorize the salary for a new associate chief justice position for the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta, change the designation of “senior judge” in the territorial superior trial courts to “chief justice”, and change the mechanism for payment of most annuities under the Judges Act. I'll briefly describe each of these proposed changes.
For the associate chief justice, funding for the salary for this position was included in budget 2017, and this new position is reflected in an amendment to paragraph 20(c) of the Judges Act.
With respect to the change in designation of senior judges, in the superior trial courts in the provinces, the head of the court is called the chief justice, but in the superior trial courts in the territories, the role is called a senior judge, which the Judges Act currently defines as the judge with the earliest date of appointment.
The proposed amendments would align the title in the superior courts in the territories with that used in the equivalent courts in the provinces, in the equivalent roles. The amendments would repeal the definition and remove all references to “senior judge” in the Judges Act. A transitional amendment would also ensure that any senior judges who served in that role before the amendments came into force would retain all of their entitlements, even if they didn't get the name change.
In terms of annuities, currently all annuities require an order in council be passed before they can be paid. However, the Governor in Council in fact has no discretion on whether to grant them. They must be paid. The proposed amendments would streamline the process for payment of all non-discretionary annuities to judges as well as survivors and children. In effect, once the statutory conditions are met, the payments can be made.
To implement the change, the proposed amendments would generally change the terminology, which currently uses the words “granting”, and in French, “accordées”, and it would be changed to say that they would “be paid”, or “versées” in French.
That's all I have prepared, but I'm happy to take any questions.