Justice committee  Compensation and benefits for a superior court judge are now in the range of $350,000 to $360,000, if you take the pension into consideration. Of course, those appointments are ongoing. Once judges are appointed, it's very difficult to reduce the complement of a court.

Justice committee  Monsieur Lemay, as you know, Bill C-30 contemplates that the tribunal will actually have a six-month period for it to be up and running once the bill receives royal assent. That period has been established exactly for the purposes about which you are concerned, for chief justices

Justice committee  Yes, other than the unified family court pool.

Justice committee  They've been appointed.

Justice committee  No, there are no judges left.

Justice committee  It's in the range of 1,100, including supernumeraries.

Justice committee  I'm not in a position to debate it here, Mr. Comartin. I know there are members of both the family and the criminal bar who have said it would be a good thing to have more. I also wonder, when the criminal bar is talking about an Askov situation, given that 98% of criminal matter

Justice committee  I can just say, Mr. Ménard, that the information we receive from the provinces is developed and submitted to us with the joint input of the chief justices and the officials and courts that would have the statistics you're referring to. While the information we used as a base for

Justice committee  I can't say what advice the minister may or may not have received about these changes. My section was not asked to provide advice.

Justice committee  Merci, monsieur le président. As the chair has indicated, I am the director and general counsel of the judicial affairs section of the Department of Justice. To give you a brief overview of the role of my office, the judicial affairs section provides expert legal and policy ad