Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
My thanks to the witnesses for their presentations.
As a lawyer and an officer of the court, it disturbs me to see the unacceptable delays in appointing judges to important tribunals.
Ms. Sherman, I noticed that your presentation deals with the new system for appointing judges, not the old one. However, the audit covered the period from March 2010 to November 2015. You talked to us a little more about what is happening with the new system since February 2016.
When I look at the tribunals experiencing a major shortage of judges and delays for the parties wanting to be heard, I see huge repercussions. I found one of those cases to be outrageous. I understand the system, but I just want to check a few things before I talk about that case in particular.
According to your explanation, recommendations for appointments come from the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, represented by the cabinet. Decisions on the appointments are therefore made by the Governor General on the advice of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, represented by the cabinet. Ministers actively manage all the Governor in Council appointments in their portfolios and the Privy Council Office provides operational support and non-partisan policy advice to the Prime Minister and the cabinet ministers. So you make the recommendations to the ministers and they decide. Is that indeed the case?
In the case of the Specific Claims Tribunal, it reads as follows:
At the Specific Claims Tribunal Canada, where members must be superior court judges, a 2014 analysis indicated that it required one additional full-time member and “a sufficient number of part-time members to bring the number up to four full-time equivalents.”
So there is a need. The quote continues:
Despite this need, which was confirmed by the Department of Justice Canada, no appointment was made to the Tribunal between 2012 and the end of our audit period.
So, three years. The quote continues:
After the audit period, Tribunal officials told us that this need had increased to six judicial members. A shortage of appointees at this Tribunal means further delays in addressing First Nations claims in a timely manner. Tribunal officials told us they had to inform interested parties that the Tribunal could not confirm hearing dates due to the lack of available judges.
Did you provide recommendations of judges to fill these positions? Were those recommendations made?