Human Resources Committee on Nov. 18th, 2014

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Am I correct in saying that previously the exchange of documents provided great frustration for the members of the SST because there would be certain timelines for documents to be sent between different parties? But now, I believe, the fact is that you can now transfer these documents in real time as soon as you get them and they can be transferred between the different parties. Is that relieving a lot of the frustration amongst your members?

[Murielle Brazeau]

It is. When the tribunal opened its doors, there was a 365-day period that was allocated to all parties to exchange documentation and to indicate their readiness to proceed. Only if both parties confirmed their readiness could we schedule the case, so for the first 365 days we were limited and waiting for parties to confirm their readiness. Now that we've implemented the new process, we are assigning the older cases first. For members, it is allowing them to process the cases much more rapidly.

[The Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Thank you, Madam Brazeau.

Mr. Cuzner, you have five minutes.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I thank all the witnesses for their testimony. There were some excellent points brought up.

Madam Brazeau, could you share with us what type of performance measures are in place for the SST?

[Murielle Brazeau]

Right now, we don't have specific performance measures. We are a new tribunal. We have new members. We have 73 full-time members right now, and some of them were named a little over a year ago, but some of them were named throughout the year. They are at different levels of understanding of their responsibilities. Some have more experience than others in dealing with caseloads, so it's a bit early—

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

The board of referees had performance standards, and the Pension Appeals Board had performance standards. Do you not think that, from the outset, there should have been some established standards put in place?

[Murielle Brazeau]

It would have been difficult to put standards in place from the outset, because we are dealing with a totally different legislative regulatory framework, and we are also working with different processes that follow those regulations.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Is it a conscious decision not to put in performance standards?

[Murielle Brazeau]

It's a conscious decision to announce that we will have performance standards. Our members are being consulted in the development of these performance standards because we want to have realistic performance measures and performance standards and we want them to be monitored.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Great, thanks very much.

Obviously you knew there was a problem a number of months into the process, when you saw the backlogs and what's been identified through past questions about the backlogs. I know that some of the cases that had been transferred over were almost two years into the process. When was it that you realized that we have to do something about this, that the backlogs are too great? When did you realize, and would you have gone directly to the minister or somebody in the minister's office with the problem?

[Murielle Brazeau]

We realized that there was a backlog on day one when we received the backlog. I was appointed about a week before the tribunal opened its doors, and on day one we received the backlog. We have had discussions with the minister throughout, probably as of last fall.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Did you say last fall?

[Murielle Brazeau]

It was probably last fall.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

What was the response then?

[Murielle Brazeau]

The response was very supportive. We now have almost all our full-time members and almost all our part-time members. I expect I'm going to see significant progress in dealing with the caseload now that I have 73 members plus 21 part-time members who are almost fully trained.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Eighteen months is a significant period of time. Have you gone through that performance appraisal already? Has your tribunal gone through an internal performance appraisal?

[Murielle Brazeau]

As I explained, in the first 365 days of the tribunal we were limited by the 365-day period in which parties were allowed to exchange documentation.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Eighteen months in now, is there any kind of performance appraisal?

[Murielle Brazeau]

We are looking very closely at all the aspects of our caseloads. So we're looking at when a document comes in, how long it should take through the regulations, how long it should—

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

So where does this go? Does that go to the minister?

[Murielle Brazeau]

It goes to me.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

It goes to you.

[Murielle Brazeau]

I'm looking at this so that I can make recommendations.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

You answer to whom?

[Murielle Brazeau]

I answer to the minister.