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SECTION II—ANALYSIS OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES BY STRATEGIC OUTCOME

The Tribunal’s single strategic outcome is the fair, timely and effective disposition of international trade cases and government-mandated inquiries in various areas of the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.

The Tribunal has two program activities that contribute to this strategic outcome: the adjudication of trade cases (quasi-judicial role) and general economic inquiries and references (advisory role).

Adjudication of trade cases (quasi-judicial role) includes:

• Unfair trade cases—inquiries under SIMA into whether dumped² or subsidized³ 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 and the AGP

• Appeals of decisions of the CBSA under the Customs Act and SIMA or of the Minister of National Revenue under the Excise Tax Act

• Safeguard cases—inquiries into whether a rapid build-up of imports from around the world, or from China, is causing injury to a Canadian industry

General economic inquiries and references (advisory role) include:

• Tariff and general economic 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 textile reference from the Minister of Finance—investigations into requests from Canadian producers for tariff relief on imported textile inputs that they use in their production

• Safeguard cases—where the Tribunal finds serious injury to a Canadian industry, the Governor in Council may request it to recommend appropriate measures for dealing with increased imports

Described below is an analysis of each program activity’s associated resources in support of the strategic outcome and the performance result against related key performance indicators.

2.1 Program Activity No. 1—Adjudication of Trade Cases

Financial Resources ($ thousands)

Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending
10,058	10,376	9,764

Human Resources (FTE)

Planned	Actual	Difference
88	75	13

Expected Result for Program Activity No. 1: Tribunal decisions are fair, impartial and published in a timely manner.

Key performance indicators

• Tribunal decisions are upheld by national and international appeal bodies

Whether or not the Tribunal delivers on its legislated strategic outcome with the expected result is a question that, in the final analysis, is almost exclusively left to the courts to determine. In rare cases, binational or multilateral panels convened under international law decide the issue. In 2007-2008, the Tribunal maintained its strong record in terms of its decisions being upheld on judicial review and issued within legislated deadlines.

In 2007-2008, there were 126 cases that were subject to judicial review or appeal. A case could be subject to more than one judicial review or appeal. Of the 126 cases, 22 judicial reviews or appeals were requested, which related to 18 Tribunal cases, 5 of which were withdrawn or discontinued, 4 were dismissed and 1 was allowed. There were 12 applications for judicial review or appeals pending as of March 31, 2008, which related to 10 Tribunal cases. There have been no applications by parties for review of Tribunal decisions before binational panels or the WTO dispute settlement panel in the last three fiscal years. The following table shows the pattern of applications and disposal of requests for judicial review or appeals over the past three fiscal years. In summary, the Tribunal maintained its strong record in terms of its decisions being upheld by national and international appeal bodies.

Tribunal Cases Subject to Judicial Review or Appeal*
	2005-2006	2006-2007	2007-2008
Tribunal cases subject to judicial review or appeal	173	118	126
Action of Parties:
Applications for judicial review or appeals filed (no. of Tribunal cases to which the applications relate)	21(19)	21(19)	22(18)
Applications for judicial review or appeals withdrawn or discontinued (no. of Tribunal cases to which the applications relate)	11(7)	6(5)	5(4)
Court Action:
Applications for judicial review or appeals dismissed (no. of Tribunal cases to which the applications relate)	6(5)	10(13)	4(5)
Applications for judicial review or appeals allowed but not remanded (no. of Tribunal cases to which the applications relate)	1(2)	1(1)	1(1)
Applications for judicial review or appeals allowed and remanded (no. of Tribunal cases to which the applications relate)	2(2)	3(1)	—
Cases Pending:
Applications for judicial review or appeals pending (no. of Tribunal cases to which the applications relate)	1(4)	1(1)	12(10)
* For the purpose of this table, cases are all decisions and reports issued including decisions not to initiate. The number of cases corresponds to that of the caseload table found in the Tribunal’s Annual Report and excludes withdrawals.

• Decisions were issued within legislated deadlines

The Tribunal’s decisions regarding unfair trade cases (SIMA decisions) and federal government procurement complaints are subject to legislated deadlines. An indication that the Tribunal’s decisions are timely is the percentage of decisions issued within these deadlines. In 2007-2008, 35 decisions were issued covering these two areas of the Tribunal’s mandate, including 12 SIMA decisions and 23 procurement complaint decisions, which included a procurement compliant case that was remanded by the Federal Court of Appeal. The Tribunal met its target, and all decisions were issued within the legislated deadlines.

In 2007-2008, the Tribunal’s SIMA decisions with respect to dumping and subsidizing were all completed on time and within the legislated deadlines. Two preliminary determinations of injury were issued, two findings were issued, two interim review orders were issued, three decisions relating to expiries were issued, and three expiry review orders were issued.

Within the dumping and subsidizing mandate, the Tribunal issued 10 statements of reasons in 2007-2008. Six statements of reasons were issued in both official languages simultaneously.

Within the procurement mandate, 22 statements of reasons providing the Tribunal’s detailed judgments were issued, of which 11 were issued after the decisions. In all cases where only the decision was issued with reasons to follow, it was issued in both official languages simultaneously. The translated versions of the statements of reasons were issued within 30 days after the statements of reasons in the original language in all cases, except one.

For both SIMA and procurement cases in 2007-2008, the Tribunal’s on-time performance did not equal that of earlier years with regard to issuing statements of reasons for procurement cases and issuing translations. This variance is attributed to a change in the number and mix of cases, as well as to staffing challenges.

• Appeal cases issued within internal deadlines

There is no legislated 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 23 appeal decisions issued in 2007-2008, 7 were published within the voluntary time frame, signifying a variance from the previous fiscal year. Moreover, the average time between the hearing and the decision has increased, from 104.8 days in 2006-2007 to 151.7 days in 2007-2008. This variance is attributed to a change in the number and mix of cases, as well as to staffing challenges.

2.2 Program Activity No. 2—General Economic Inquiries and References

Financial Resources ($ thousands)

Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending
624	604	297

Human Resources (FTE)

Planned	Actual	Difference
6	3	3

Expected Result for Program Activity No. 2: Recommendations are fair, impartial and published in a timely manner.

Key performance indicators

• Reports, determinations and recommendations are issued within government-mandated deadlines

Tribunal recommendations regarding general economic, trade and tariff references are subject to government-mandated deadlines; however, the Tribunal received no such references during 2007-2008.

There is no statutory or government-mandated deadline imposed for tariff recommendations pursuant to cases filed under the standing textile reference from the Minister of Finance. However, the Tribunal has established a voluntary standard of 120 days from the commencement of its investigation for issuing its recommendation to the Minister of Finance. During 2007-2008, the Tribunal begun investigations with regard to 8 requests under the standing textile reference and issued 4 recommendations for tariff relief, including reasons, to the Minister of Finance, 2 of which were issued within the voluntary time frame established by the Tribunal. Due to staffing issues, the Tribunal was less successful than in previous years in its on-time performance for issuing its textile recommendations.

• Tribunal recommendations were accepted and implemented by the Government

An indication that the Tribunal’s recommendations meet the business requirements of the Government is the extent to which the Government implements the recommendations of the inquiries and references. Recommendations are typically implemented through changes to the Customs Tariff. During the fiscal year, the Tribunal made four recommendations, two of which were accepted by the Government and two of which were still under consideration at the end of the fiscal year.

More detailed information on the Tribunal’s caseload can be found in the Tribunal’s annual report, which is available at www.citt-tcce.gc.ca/publicat/index_e.asp.

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