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SECTION II—ANALYSIS OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES BY STRATEGIC OUTCOME

Performance Status Legend

Exceeded: More than 100 percent of the expected level of performance (as evidenced by the indicator and target or planned activities and outputs) for the expected result identified in the corresponding RPP was achieved during the fiscal year.

Met All: 100 percent of the expected level of performance (as evidenced by the indicator and target or planned activities and expected outputs) for the expected result identified in the corresponding RPP was achieved during the fiscal year.

Mostly Met: 80 to 99 percent of the expected level of performance (as evidenced by the indicator and target or planned activities and expected outputs) for the expected result identified in the corresponding RPP was achieved during the fiscal year.

Somewhat Met: 60 to 79 percent of the expected level of performance (as evidenced by the indicator and target or planned activities and outputs) for the expected result identified in the corresponding RPP was achieved during the fiscal year.

Not Met: Less than 60 percent of the expected level of performance (as evidenced by the indicator and target or planned activities and outputs) for the expected result identified in the corresponding RPP was achieved during the fiscal year.

Strategic Outcome - Fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases, procurement cases and government-mandated inquiries within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.

Results under the Tribunal’s three distinct program activities are to support its strategic outcome, which, in turn, contributes to Canada’s competitiveness and to a fair and secure marketplace. The following section highlights the Tribunal’s ongoing work under each program activity and its performance in 2010-2011.

Program Activity 1: Adjudication of Trade Cases (quasi-judicial role)

The Tribunal’s adjudicative mandate is to provide a fair, timely and transparent trade remedy system to Canada’s business sector, thereby preserving confidence in the Canadian market, to the benefit of Canadian businesses and consumers. The Tribunal acts as an independent, quasi-judicial, decision-making body that derives its adjudication authority from the Canadian International Trade Tribunal Act, SIMA, the Customs Act and the Excise Tax Act. It operates within Canada’s trade remedy system to apply existing policies and laws on trade agreements that seek to address unfair competition in the domestic market or provide emergency protection against imported goods that are seen to cause injury to a domestic industry. The Tribunal also hears appeals from decisions of the Minister of National Revenue and CBSA. It has also been designated as the bid challenge authority under the AIT, NAFTA and the WTO AGP against the federal government procurement process.

In its quasi-judicial role, the Tribunal’s caseload is comprised of the following:

• Unfair trade cases—inquiries under SIMA into whether dumped and/or subsidized imports have caused or are threatening to cause injury to a Canadian industry.
• Bid challenges—inquiries into complaints by potential suppliers concerning federal government procurement under NAFTA, the AIT, the AGP, the CCFTA and the CPFTA.
• Appeals of decisions of the CBSA made under the Customs Act and SIMA, and decisions of the Minister of National Revenue under the Excise Tax Act.
• Safeguard cases—inquiries into whether the rapid build-up of imports from the People’s Republic of China, or from around the world, is causing injury to a Canadian industry.

2010-11 Financial Resources ($ thousands)

Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending
7,523	7,693	6,881

2010-2011 Human Resources (FTE)

Planned	Actual	Difference
60	52	8

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Performance Status
Fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases and government-requested inquiries into economic, trade and tariff matters within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.	Percentage of all decisions that are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal and/or international appeal bodies.	Not more than 2 percent of all decisions rendered over the most recent five-year period are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal and/or international appeal bodies.	Exceeded
Tribunal’s decisions are fair, impartial and based on quality information.	Percentage of decisions under judicial review dealing specifically with “due process” that are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal and/or international appeal bodies.	Less than 1 percent of all decisions rendered are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal and/or international appeal bodies on judicial review dealing specifically with “due process”.	Exceeded
Information available to the public	Percentage of notices, decisions, guidelines for all areas of the Tribunal’s mandate and practice notices that are accessible to the public through the Tribunal’s Web site, the Canada Gazette or MERX.	100 percent of notices, decisions, guidelines for all areas of the Tribunal’s mandate and practice notices are accessible to the public through the Tribunal’s Web site, the Canada Gazette or MERX.	Met all
Decisions rendered within statutory deadlines	Percentage of decisions published within statutory deadlines.	100 percent of statutory deadlines are met.	Mostly Met1
Decisions on appeals rendered within internal deadlines.	Percentage of decisions on appeals published within internal deadlines.	70 percent of internal deadlines are met.	Exceeded
1. The decisions rendered within statutory deadlines were met more than 99 percent of the time.

Performance Summary and Analysis of Program Activity

Trade Remedy Cases

The Tribunal issued decisions following two preliminary injury inquiries, two final injury inquiries, one remanded injury inquiry, one interim review, one expiry and two expiry reviews. Of those nine trade remedy cases, seven were subject to statutory deadlines, and the Tribunal fully met its performance targets for meeting statutory deadlines and for making information available to the public.

Procurement Cases

In 2010-2011, 209 decisions on procurement cases were issued and, with the exception of one remanded case, all were subject to statutory deadlines. In the third quarter of 2010-2011, the Tribunal missed its target with respect to one decision not to initiate an inquiry in File No. PR-2010-065. The case had initially been assigned to the Chairperson, but given his immediate appointment to the Federal Court, the case had to be reassigned to another member. In all, the Tribunal met its performance target for meeting statutory deadlines more than 99 percent of the time and fully met its performance target for making information available to the public.

Judicial Review

In rare cases, binational or international panels convened under international trade agreements are called upon to review Tribunal findings. Ordinarily, the Tribunal’s decisions are reviewed by the Federal Court of Appeal. In 2010-2011, the Tribunal maintained its strong record and met its performance indicator in terms of its decisions being upheld on judicial review.

Over a five-year period between 2006-2007 and 2010-2011 the ratio of overturned decisions to decisions subject to judicial review or appeal was 1.37 percent for the period ending March 31, 2011, thereby exceeding the Tribunal’s target of less than 2 percent. None of the cases that have been overturned in the last five years dealt specifically with “due process”, which exceeds the Tribunal’s target of less than 1 percent of decisions overturned for reasons of “due process”. There have been no new applications by parties for the review of Tribunal decisions before binational panels or WTO dispute settlement panel over the last fiscal year. The following table shows the applications and disposal of requests for judicial review or appeals for the five-year period. In summary, the Tribunal maintained its strong record in terms of its decisions being upheld on judicial review and appeal.

Treatment of Tribunal’s Decisions Before the Federal Court of Canada

	5-year Period
Decisions subject to judicial review or appeal1	875
Decisions for which applications for judicial review or appeal were filed	171
Decisions for which applications for judicial review or appeal were withdrawn or discontinued	55
Decisions for which the applications for judicial review were dismissed	35
Decisions overturned2	12
Decision overturned on due process	0
Percentage of all decisions rendered that were overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court or an international appeal body	1.37%
1. For the purpose of this table, cases are all decisions and reports issued, including decisions not to initiate procurement inquiries. The number of cases corresponds to that of the caseload table found in the Tribunal’s Annual Report and excludes withdrawals. 2. Overturned also includes decisions remanded to the Tribunal.

Appeal Cases Issued Within Internal Deadlines

There is no legislative deadline imposed for decisions on appeals of decisions of the CBSA or of the Minister of National Revenue. However, the Tribunal has adopted an informal, voluntary, internal standard of issuing such decisions within 120 days of the hearing of an appeal. Of the 31 appeal decisions issued in this fiscal year, 28 (90.3 percent) were issued within the self-imposed time frame, a significant improvement over the last fiscal year (82 percent). The Tribunal exceeded its target of 70 percent for appeal cases issued within internal deadlines.

Information Available to the Public

All notices, practice notices, decisions and guidelines for areas of the Tribunal’s mandate were distributed to interested parties in cases, published on the Tribunal’s Web site and, in the case of statutorily required notices, published in the Canada Gazette or on MERX.

Lesson Learned

Improved Tracking of Performance Indicators

In 2010-2011, the Tribunal introduced the practice of systematically compiling, monitoring and presenting its various performance indicators at the Executive Committee on a quarterly basis. In the past, this review was done on a less frequent basis. Senior management is now in a position to anticipate and take appropriate action when preliminary review shows that the Tribunal is lagging on some indicators, or where areas for improvement are identified. This rigorous monitoring has helped the Tribunal improve its performance against some of its performance indicators, notably on internal deadlines to issue appeal decisions.

Program Activity 2: General Economic Inquiries and References (advisory role)

In its advisory role, the Tribunal’s caseload is comprised of three types of cases. First, the Tribunal plays an advisory role when requested by Government to recommend measures to alleviate injury to domestic producers pursuant to a safeguard inquiry. Periodically, the Government may also direct the Tribunal to inquire into general economic, trade or tariff matters. In such inquiries, the Tribunal has the power to conduct research, receive submissions, hold hearings and report with recommendations, as required, to the Government or the Minister of Finance. When these requests arise, the Tribunal faces a strain on its resources and must meet very strict government-imposed deadlines. Finally, the Tribunal has received a standing reference from the Minister of Finance to investigate requests from domestic producers for tariff (import tax) relief on imported textile inputs for use in their manufacturing operations and make recommendations to the Minister of Finance that would maximize the net economic benefits to Canada.

In its advisory role, the Tribunal’s caseload is comprised of the following:

• Safeguard cases—where the Tribunal finds injury to a Canadian industry, the Governor in Council may request the Tribunal to recommend appropriate measures for dealing with the build-up of imports.
• General economic, trade and tariff inquiries referred by the Government—inquiries and advice on such economic, trade and tariff issues as are referred to the Tribunal by the Governor in Council or the Minister of Finance.
• Standing tariff reference referred by the Minister of Finance—investigations into requests from Canadian producers for tariff relief on imported textile inputs that they use in their production.

2010-2011 Financial Resources ($ thousands)

Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending
119	122	109

2010-2011 Human Resources (FTE)

Planned	Actual	Difference
1	1	0

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Performance Status
Tribunal’s recommendations on economic, trade, tariff matters and the standing textile reference are fair, impartial and based on quality information.	Percentage of recommendations and reports that meet the terms of reference and provide requested information.	100 percent of recommendations meet the terms of reference and provide requested information.	N/A
Reports and recommendations to Government or Minister of Finance published within statutory deadlines.	Percentage of reports and recommendations to Government or Minister of Finance that are published within statutory deadlines.	100 percent of reports and recommendations are published within statutory deadlines.	N/A

Performance Summary and Analysis of Program Activity

In the context of its standing textile reference, the Tribunal ordinarily issues its recommendations, with reasons, to the Minister of Finance within 100 days from the date of commencement of the inquiry. In exceptional cases, where the Tribunal determines that critical circumstances exist, it will issue its recommendations within an earlier specified time frame.

During the 2010-2011 fiscal year, the Tribunal did not receive any new requests for tariff relief on textile inputs. However, the Tribunal still allocated modest human and financial resources to this program activity to maintain a core level of knowledge and expertise in this highly specialized area should the need again arise. Further, the Tribunal is required to report on the standing textile reference in its annual report and devotes an entire chapter to this area of its mandate.

Lesson Learned

In light of the significant reduction and/or elimination of tariffs on textile inputs, activity under the standing textile reference has declined significantly over the last five years, and the Tribunal will consider reducing further the resources allocated to this activity.

Program Activity 3: Internal Services

The internal services program activity supports all strategic outcomes and is common across government. Internal Services are groups of related activities and resources that are administered to support the needs of programs and other corporate obligations of an organization. These groups are: management and oversight services; communications services; legal services; human resources management services; financial management services; IM services; IT services; real property services; materiel services; acquisition services; and travel and other administrative services. Internal Services include only those activities and resources that apply across an organization and not to those provided specifically to a program.

2010-2011 Financial Resources ($ thousands)

Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending
4,299	4,396	3,932

2010-2011 Human Resources (FTE)

Planned	Actual	Difference
35	29	6

Performance Summary and Analysis of Program Activity

In 2010-2011, the Tribunal’s supporting priorities remained: investment in its people, sound management practices and improved service delivery.

Under investment in its people, the Tribunal focused its activities in developing a leadership training curriculum, drafted procedures manuals to enable knowledge transfer and offered many training and development opportunities to all its current and new employees.

Sound management practices were further reinforced through the integration of the MAF into the Tribunal’s day-to-day management with the completion of the management action plan in response to the recommendations resulting from the 2008-2009 MAF final report. The Tribunal continued to improve the efficiency and reliability of its IT infrastructure in 2010-2011 by renewing the technology of its servers to increase performance, stability, maintenance and the business continuity plan readiness of its network. Also, the Tribunal finalized, in the first quarter of 2010-2011, the integration of its IM systems, including systems relating to case tracking, case reporting, planning and performance measurement.

Over the last fiscal year, the Tribunal upgraded its staffing policies by rewording the policies in order to make them accessible and understandable by all Tribunal staff and not just members of the human resources community.

In 2010-2011, the Tribunal redesigned the interface and renewed the content of its intranet Web site in order to make it more user-friendly and intuitive for its users. A dedicated position is now responsible for keeping the Web site up to date and to ensure that it meets the Tribunal’s and employees’ needs.

Lesson Learned

Integration of the Mailroom and the Registrar Units

Since its creation, the Tribunal had maintained a mailroom as a separate unit from its registrar unit. Staff in the mailroom was devoted to making copies of official documents, while staff in the registrar unit was responsible for the creation of the record and the handling of exhibits. In 2010-2011, the Tribunal integrated the two units and was able to eliminate one management position. In addition, employees in the two units have had the opportunity to complement their skill sets, and the former mailroom staff has now direct access to the registrar officers.

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