Bonjour.
We are here to discuss the Auditor General's report pertaining to the Canada pension plan disability program. The tribunal fully supports the Auditor General's recommendations.
I will provide you with some background about the tribunal, explain the measures taken to resolve our initial challenges and to address the Auditor General's recommendations, and outline the positive results to date.
The Social Security Tribunal is an independent administrative tribunal that makes quasi-judicial decisions pertaining to the Canada pension plan, the Old Age Security Act and the Employment Insurance Act. The tribunal is comprised of a general division and an appeal division, and all decisions are made by single members. The general division has an employment insurance section and an income security section. This new tribunal was designed to replace four separate tribunals, and its mandate is to offer fair, impartial and efficient appeal processes for Canadians.
The Auditor General's report examined the first two years of the tribunal's existence, from April 1, 2013, to May 2015.
The report concludes that the poor transition planning before the tribunal opened its doors led to the transfer of a large backlog of appeals that the tribunal was not ready to manage. The report also notes that this large backlog contributed to the tribunal's growing backlog and to the time it took to decide appeals.
The tribunal agrees with these findings and with the Auditor General's recommendation that we review our policies and practices to ensure expeditious appeal decisions, and we are continuing to make progress on this front.
The Auditor General's report already details the situation we faced when the tribunal opened its doors. Suffice it to say that we were understaffed and under-resourced. There were no infrastructure, systems, or operational processes to manage the income security caseload, and we were overwhelmed by a huge backlog of 9,000 appeals from the former tribunals. Close to 7,000 of these appeals were the Canada pension plan disability appeals. Basically we needed to put in place a solid foundation for the future while at the same time dealing with both the inherited backlogs and the new incoming cases.
The situation was very difficult for us in the tribunal, but it was totally unacceptable for appellants, their families, and Canadians generally. We prepared a comprehensive action plan to obtain all the necessary resources to implement a stable infrastructure for the tribunal. Since the inception of the tribunal, we have collaborated with the department and with the minister to secure additional full-time and part-time members to increase the total number of employees required to meet the tribunal's mandate.
At the beginning, the tribunal started with seven members assigned to the income security cases. More members were gradually appointed and trained so that by December 2014, 40 full-time members and 22 part-time members were ready to decide income security cases. More staff were gradually hired and trained, and we now have 150 employees supporting the tribunal, which is seven times more than the 21 employees we had when we started.
The case management system and operational processes required to manage, assign, hear, and decide income security appeals were developed and implemented, and we continue to review and improve them. The case management system is now sufficiently developed to provide accurate data that allow us to monitor and manage the caseloads and member performance. We continue to improve the quality of our decisions through legal support and an ongoing training program for our members.
Besides working closely with the department, we also focused on developing relations with our other stakeholders. As a result of our ongoing exchanges, we have made a number of improvements: for example all decisions of the appeal division are now being published, our website content has been improved, useful tools have been provided to parties, and we made positive changes to our toll-free line.
Implementing these measures required resources and staff, but most importantly, it required time. With all these initiatives, and with more settlements from the department, we are now showing positive results. Our backlog and total inventory has decreased significantly.
As of this Monday, April 18, we have received a total of 17,707 disability appeals. That's since opening our doors on April 1, 2013. Of those, 13,200 have now been completed. Our active inventory is now reduced to 4,507 disability appeals, which is 32% lower than the number of backlogged cases we inherited on day one.
The average age of our total Canada pension plan disability caseload is now at 317 days. We have implemented service standards, committing to decide 85% of new cases within five months of the appeal becoming ready to proceed. We will continue to reduce our inventory of cases, and we expect to be able to meet our new service standards with the current rate of incoming files, number of members, and available resources.
We have worked very hard over the past three years to get where we are today, and I am very proud of the considerable progress accomplished. Nothing is more rewarding to us than receiving positive feedback from our appellants and stakeholders who recognize the progress we have made and thank us for the work we have accomplished to date.
As the Auditor General documented, the tribunal faced significant challenges and pressures at its onset. We took control, developed a plan of action, secured the necessary resources, and established a solid foundation that allowed the tribunal to process appeals in a fair, impartial, and efficient manner.
As we continue to move toward a more stable environment and continue to increase our use of technology in this high-volume tribunal, I am confident that we will be recognized for our innovative and efficient approaches that improve access to justice for Canadians.
Thank you for your attention.
Mr. Chair, I'm happy to answer any questions.