Finance committee  Yes, there is currently. The addition is that instead of it being the judge the chief justice would designate, now the first option would go to the associate chief justice. Only if the associate chief justice is not available would it then go to the next one down the line.

Finance committee  When the drafting is done on the Judges Act, you would see in the French provisions, it's done slightly differently. When the drafters add a new position to the court, they would simply try to model what is done in other courts so there is internal consistency between the languag

Finance committee  Currently all the chief justices and associate chief justices across the superior courts, which include all the provincial superior courts, whether trial or appellate, as well as the federal courts—the Federal Court of Appeal, and the Tax Court of Canada—wherever there is a chief

Finance committee  Thank you. I'll speak briefly to the amendments that would authorize the salaries for a new associate chief justice for the Federal Court and for creating one new position for that court through the Federal Courts Act amendments. A new associate chief justice would share the ma

Finance committee  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 Ben

Finance committee  We are collaborating with our counterparts in the territories. These amendments would not actually be brought into force until all of the amendments in the territories would also be brought into force. Those amendments exist, but they have to be brought into force, so it would be

Finance committee  I believe it's eight. The administration of justice is divided between the provinces and the federal government, so Quebec has created those positions in their provincial legislation where they constitute their courts, but the salaries have to be authorized through the Judges A

Finance committee  The most recent indexation was on April 1, 2017, and that was 0.4%. The salaries would have increased by 0.4%. I do have the numbers for recent years. For example, in 2016 it was 1.8%. Going back, it was 2.6%, 1.8%, 2.5%, 2.5%, and 3.6%. It has ranged in the last several years,

Finance committee  The IAI, the industrial aggregate index, has been in place since 1981. The issue was that in order to ensure independence and financial security, there had to be some kind of way to guard against erosion of salaries on the basis of inflation. The IAI was chosen because at the tim

Finance committee  I can't speak to what was debated at the time, but they're protecting against erosion. That would have been one option, I'm sure. Maybe Adair has greater historical memory of this.

Finance committee  Thank you very much. I'm here today to talk about the proposed division 10 amendments. They touch on two aspects of the federal responsibility under section 100 of the Constitution Act, 1867, that Parliament must fix and provide the salaries and benefits of superior court judges