Public Accounts committee  As you know, I was not in charge of the planning, so I'm not sure how they came up with the 29. I do know that when we did our estimate and came up with 10 per month per member, we did this based on an objective study. In 2014 we conducted a baseline study that was looking at the

Public Accounts committee  When I started, I was informed. One week before, we knew there was a significant number of cases coming in. We weren't sure exactly what the number was, but we knew there was a backlog because the tribunal that had just closed its doors was not able to conclude all those cases, s

Public Accounts committee  As I mentioned earlier, when we opened our doors, we received 7,000 disability appeals, and we were not able to assign these appeals immediately because the parties had one year to confirm they were ready. The Auditor General concluded that this situation increased the backlog,

Public Accounts committee  It did not take a long time to realize. On day one, when we received these 9,000 cases from the four former tribunals, we realized that we had a lot of work on our plate. We only had 21 employees. The management team was working very hard to staff at the time. We were trying to d

Public Accounts committee  The legislation allowed for a certain number of members at the time, but more members were required, and they were hired gradually, until 2014, when we reached a maximum—

Public Accounts committee  The members were hired gradually. The members of the tribunal are appointed by the Governor in Council. As soon as I arrived, we took note of what was going on. We had contacts with the department—

Public Accounts committee  In order to have more members, I contacted the minister's office and I worked closely with the department to discuss the number of members we actually needed. There was an eligibility list established. The members were gradually appointed, they were trained, and they started hear

Public Accounts committee  There were 150 employees. They were ESDC employees before the ATSSC—

Public Accounts committee  —and 90 members.

Public Accounts committee  Right now it is sufficient. We have the right number of members in income security to meet the service standards we established last fall. Right now the backlog is resolved. We are completing cases in a timely manner.

Public Accounts committee  Parties are given one year to confirm that they are ready to proceed. The average age of our caseload at 317 days is actually very positive right now. The people who apply today have one year to complete their case. As my colleague was saying, the conditions for these individual

Public Accounts committee  We do. We have progressed significantly in three years. There are still improvements that.... We still have work to do, and we're still just three years old. We still have a lot of work to do, but we are in a very good place.

Public Accounts committee  We are working hard to meet our new standards.

Public Accounts committee  Let me help my colleague. I arrived one week before the tribunal was created, and there were 21 staff. A number of executives were hired, and they were hiring staff to sustain the organization. They were hiring out. They hired individuals from the four former tribunals, but the

Public Accounts committee  It's 4,507 appeals.