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II: Analysis of Program Activities by Strategic Outcome

A. Strategic Outcome

The Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada has a single strategic outcome:

To provide the best decision making environment for the Supreme Court.

The performance indicators for the strategic outcome relate mainly to the quality and timeliness of the service provided.

• Level of satisfaction among judges regarding quality of service. The judges are the primary clients of the Office of the Registrar, and thus it is critical to measure their satisfaction with performance. Satisfaction is monitored informally on an ongoing basis throughout the year by the Registrar's regular communication with the judges. However, satisfaction will be more formally monitored on an annual basis by conducting interviews with the judges. The interview will solicit among other things feedback on the timeliness of case processing and the quality of support provided.
• Level of satisfaction among lawyers regarding quality of service. Lawyers represent the Office of the Registrar's second major group of stakeholders. The Office of the Registrar will continue to receive ad hoc feedback from counsel who appear before the Court as well as more formalized feedback from bench and bar committees such as the Court Ottawa Agents Practice and Procedures Committee and the SCC/CBA Liaison Committee. Feedback from counsel and self-represented litigants will also be collected via a “comment card” at the Registry counter.

B. Program Activity

Program Activity: Process hearings and decisions

Human Resources (FTEs) and Planned Spending ($ millions)
2009-10		2010-11		2011-12
FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending
201	28.6	201	28.7	201	28.8

The sole Program Activity supporting the Strategic Outcome is: “Process hearings and decisions”. The Office of the Registrar exists to provide the services the Court must have to render its decisions as the court of last resort. The principal responsibilities of the Office of the Registrar are to provide a full range of administrative and support services to the Judges and to manage cases coming to the Court.

The following provides additional information on the expected result and performance indicators.

Expected Results	Performance Indicators
Cases processed without delay	Number of months between filing of application for leave and and decision on application for leave Number of months between hearing and judgment

• Number of months between filing of application for leave and decision on application for leave. The receipt of an application for leave is the beginning of the process for most appeals. Before hearing an appeal from the highest court in a province or the Federal Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court must give permission (or leave to appeal) to the appellant. The Office of the Registrar receives the application for leave, offers assistance to the parties, reviews the application, and provides legal and case management support to the panel of three judges of the Court who decide whether to grant or dismiss the application for leave. There is continuing pressure on the Office of the Registrar to minimize the processing time for applications for leave. The target for decision on an application for leave is 14 weeks, and statistics are maintained, allowing for regular monitoring.
• Number of months between hearing and judgment. Once leave to appeal is granted, a hearing date is set. Following the hearing of the appeal, the decision is rendered by the judges. Decisions can be delivered immediately, but most often there is a delay to allow the judges to issue reasons for the decision. Judges are supported in the decision writing process by their law clerks and staff of the Registry and the Law Branch. The bulk of the employee work is in translating, editing and summarizing the decisions of the Court and publishing decisions in the Supreme Court Reports, in accordance with the Supreme Court Act. The target for release of judgments is six months from the hearing date. Statistics are maintained, and elapsed time is monitored regularly.

Statistics can be found on the Supreme Court’s website: (http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/home-accueil/index-eng.asp).

C. Sub-activities

The Program Activity has three sub-activities which are key contributors to overall performance. They are:

1. Management of Court Cases. In order to render decisions, the Court requires the support of the Office of the Registrar in the management of cases from receipt of an application for leave to appeal to the release of the bilingual judgment on appeal and its publication. The expected results for this sub-activity are “access to Court services and information” and “courtroom systems reliability”. Both of these are key elements of the hearing process and must be in place if the Supreme Court is to render judgments.
2. Library Services. The Supreme Court Act requires the Registrar to, under the direction of the Chief Justice, manage and control the library of the Court. Accordingly the Office of the Registrar provides legal library services with an extensive civil law and common law collection suited to the broad jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Canada. The expected result for this sub-activity is “access to reference information”, which is a necessary part of the Supreme Court’s decision-making process.
3. Process Payments to the Supreme Court Judges Pursuant to the Judges Act. The Judges Act specifies the salaries of the Supreme Court judges, and prescribes other payments to be made to judges, namely allowances, removal, meeting, conference and seminars, and annuities, all of which are processed by the Office of the Registrar. The expected result for this sub-activity is “timely and accurate processing of payments”. This is necessary to meet its statutory obligations.

1) Management of Court Cases

Expected Results	Performance Indicators
Access to court services and information Courtroom systems reliability	% of lawyers and unrepresented litigants that were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with Registry services Number of hearing disruptions for technical reasons per year

• Percentage of lawyers and unrepresented litigants that were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with Registry services. The Registry branch is the interface between the Office of the Registrar and its “clients” or lawyers, self-represented litigants and the public. These groups contact the Registry for information regarding cases, the application for leave to appeal and appeal processes and the procedures for filing documents. In 2006-07, a comprehensive survey was undertaken to assess the satisfaction of lawyers and self-represented litigants with Registry services. Results were very positive. It is planned to conduct similar surveys every four years to regularly assess performance. The target is to have 95% of those surveyed respond that they are satisfied or very satisfied with service. The Registry is also monitoring client satisfaction by means of a “comment card” for any client attending at the Registry counter. The target for a "satisfied" or above rating will also be set at 95%.
• Number of hearing disruptions for technical reasons per year. The Office of the Registrar completed the upgrade of the Courtroom's Audio-Visual and Information Technology systems in 2008-09. The systems in place are now more robust and stable, and include redundancy that will ensure seamless and undisturbed proceedings in the case of a technical failure. Courtroom systems performance and availability rates are monitored on an ongoing basis. Measures are in place to minimize failures (such a testing, maintenance schedules, a robust replacement plan, etc.), and to ensure action is taken quickly in the event of systems failure. The target is to have no disruption to hearings due to systems failure.

2) Library Services

Expected Results	Performance Indicators
Access to reference information	% of factual/bibliographic requests for reference assistance responded to within service standard of 1 working day % of complex/substantive requests for reference assistance responded to by date required by client % of users that were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with library services % of citations in judgments that are in the collection

• Percentage of requests for reference assistance responded to within service standards or by date required by client. Requests for reference assistance may be factual or bibliographic, which can generally be responded to by reference to an authoritative source, or may be complex or substantive in nature, which means the request may require unique approaches, consultation with various sources, and ultimately the exercise of judgment. Therefore two separate indicators have been developed that focus on the timeliness in responding to reference queries, based on a standard of one working day for factual requests and on a fixed time established by the client for complex research requests. In both cases, the Library has established a target of 95%. Requests received in the months of November and March will be analysed and clients will be asked to validate whether turnaround times have met their expectations.
• Percentage of users that were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with library services. The Library provides legal information and research services, including the acquisition of a comprehensive legal collection in print and electronic formats, customized legal awareness tools and services such as an inter-library loan service, and access to electronic resources. In order to formally capture user satisfaction with the Library's services, collection and current awareness tools, a survey of all staff and judges is conducted approximately every four years. The next formal survey is planned for the Fall of 2010. In the coming year, the Library will focus on ensuring that two specific products, the New Book Titles and Law Journal Contents, meet the needs of its primary clients.
• Percentage of citations in judgments that are in the collection. A newly revised Collection Development Policy, approved in early 2009, will impact the proportion of print and electronic resources available in the Library. The Library monitors the percentage of citations to case law, legislation and secondary material referred to in the decisions of the Supreme Court, to ensure that the information needs of the Court continue to be met. A target of 85% of cited material is expected to be available in the Library's print collection.

3) Process payments to the Supreme Court Judges pursuant to the Judges Act

Expected Results	Performance Indicators
Timely and accurate processing of payments	% of payments processed within service standards % of errors on payments

• Percentage of payments processed within service standards. The Financial Management Branch commenced tracking processing times for payments to judges in 2008-09. The standard is to process a payment within five working days. The target is to have 95% of payments processed within the five day standard.
• Percentage of errors on payments. Financial Management staff may receive feedback from judges when errors have been made in payments, however, this is not a reliable method of assessing the accuracy of the payments. A file review will be conducted in 2009-10. The target is to have no more than a two percent error rate.

D. Benefits to Canadians

The Supreme Court of Canada is Canada’s highest court of law. It is the final general court of appeal, the last judicial resort for all litigants, whether individuals or governments. The Supreme Court of Canada stands at the apex of the Canadian judicial system, and as such is a fundamental element of the Canadian structure of government. Because of this position, the strategic outcome of the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada - “to provide the best decision-making environment for the Supreme Court” - contributes to the Government Affairs outcome area.

E. Internal Services

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. As advised by Treasury Board, internal services are aligned according to size. For small departments these groups are: Governance and Management Support, Resource Management Services, Asset Management Services.

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