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SECTION II—ANALYSIS OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES BY STRATEGIC OUTCOME

Strategic Outcome

Fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases and government-requested inquiries into economic, trade and tariff matters within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.

The Tribunal has two program activities pertaining to this strategic outcome:

For each of the two program activities, the tables below show the planned and actual financial and human resources committed, expected results, performance indicators, targets, performance status and performance summary.

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

2008-09 Financial Resources ($ millions)			2008-09 Human Resources (FTEs)
Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending	Planned	Actual	Difference
9,969	10,826	9,664	75	71	4

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Performance Status	Performance Summary
Decisions rendered within statutory deadlines	% of decisions published within statutory deadlines.	100% of statutory deadlines are met.	Met all	In 2008-2009, 44 decisions on trade remedies and procurement cases were issued. The Tribunal met its target and these decisions were all issued within the statutory deadlines.
Information available to the public	% of notices, decisions, guidelines for all mandates and practice notices are accessible to the public through the Tribunal Website, Canada Gazette or on MERX accordingly.	100% of notices, decisions, guidelines for all mandates and practice notices are accessible to the public through the Tribunal Website, Canada Gazette or on MERX.	Met all	All notices, practice notices, decisions and guidelines for all areas of the Tribunal mandate were distributed to interested parties in cases, published on the Web and, in the case of notices, published in the Canada Gazette or on MERX accordingly.
Tribunal’s decisions are fair, impartial and based on quality information.	% 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% 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	No decisions were overturned on this ground.
Fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases and government requested inquiries into economic, trade and tariff matters within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.	% of all decisions that are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal and/or international appeal bodies.	Less than 2% of all decisions rendered are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal and/or international appeal bodies.	Met all	The Tribunal’s performance in this regard has to be measured over a number of years to be meaningful. Between 2005-2006 and 2008-2009, 2% of Tribunal decisions were overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal. 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.
Decisions on appeals rendered within internal deadlines.	% of decisions on appeals published within internal deadlines.	70% of internal deadlines are met.	Not met	Of the 20 appeals decisions issued in this fiscal year, 9 (45%) were issued within the voluntary time frame, an improvement over the last fiscal year (30%).

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

2008-2009 Financial Resources ($ millions)			2008-2009 Human Resources (FTEs)
Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending	Planned	Actual	Difference
183	183	155	2	2	0

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Performance Status	Performance Summary
Tribunal’s recommendation on economic, trade, tariff matters and standing textile references are fair, impartial and based on quality information.	% of recommendations and reports that meet the Terms of Reference and provide requested information.	100% of recommendations meet the terms of reference and provide requested information.	Met all	No requests for additional information were received from the Minister of Finance. All 3 recommendations submitted to the Minister were accepted by the Government.
Reports and Recommendations to Government or Minister of Finance published within statutory deadlines.	% of reports and recommendations to Government or Minister. of Finance. that are published within statutory deadlines.	100% of reports and recommendations are published within statutory deadlines.	Met all	During the fiscal year, the Tribunal issued 3 recommendations and 2 of them were issued prior to the deadlines mandated by the Government in the Terms of Reference for the standing textile reference.

Performance Analysis

The year 2008-2009 was challenging for the Tribunal. In that year, it implemented a 7 percent reduction in its operating budget to more closely align its resources with the anticipated future caseload.

While the caseload unfolded much as expected, the Tribunal was required to manage several periods of peak activity caused by the bunching of cases and a particularly large and complex trade remedies case on aluminum extrusions. The periods of peak activity were managed by giving priority attention to cases subject to statutory deadlines, reassigning staff to the business lines under pressure, having staff work overtime and accessing a pool of retired staff.

Overall, the Tribunal was successful in meeting nearly all of its performance targets. With respect to the Tribunal’s quasi-judicial activities, the Tribunal met its performance targets for meeting statutory deadlines, making information available to the public and sound decision making. The Tribunal exceeded its performance target with regard to “due process”. Finally, it improved its performance in meeting internal deadlines for the issuance of appeals decisions, which are not subject to statutory deadlines. However, this performance continues to be below the Tribunal’s target and is a direct consequence of the Tribunal giving lower priority to appeal cases during periods of peak activity. With regard to its advisory activities, the Tribunal met its performance target in respect of content and its target in respect of deadlines.

Benefits to Canadians

The Tribunal continued to focus its attention on its four key corporate priorities which are to process cases within statutory deadlines and maintain quality standards, to improve service delivery, to invest in its people and to apply sound management practices. All these priorities supported its strategic outcome of a fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases and government-requested inquiries into economic, trade and tariff matters within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction. For Canadian manufacturers and producers, this represents access to fair and efficient processes for investigating complaints of injury caused by unfairly traded imports, for investigating complaints on designated federal government procurement processes and for hearing appeals on customs and excise matters. For the Government, the Tribunal provides reliable economic and trade analyses and advice which enable it to make sound and informed decisions about the Canadian economy. Through the above, the Tribunal contributes to a favourable environment for a fair and secure trading system for individual Canadians and the Canadian business sector.

Lessons Learned

The management of periods of peak activity is a recurring challenge for the Tribunal. In 2008-2009, the Tribunal took important steps to manage these periods more proactively so as to mitigate their impact on the organization. The executive team now scans the Tribunal’s environment and analyzes the expected workload to identify potential peaks and plan for their management. This initiative provided the Tribunal with an early signal that the global economic recession would likely result in a significant increase in the number of trade remedies and procurement cases for the next two to three years. As well, the Tribunal hired experts to prepare a report on risk management during peak periods. The report has helped the Tribunal to understand better the management challenge and the range of mitigation strategies relating to people, processes and technology.

The aluminum extrusions case was particularly important for the Canadian economy. It affected a one-billion-dollar market in Canada for aluminum extrusions. It was also a large and complex case for the Tribunal to manage. The number of case participants, the size of the official record and the range and complexity of the legal and economic issues severely taxed the capacity of the Tribunal to deliver its decision on time. At the conclusion of the case, members and staff met to assess the conduct of the case and to identify lessons for future cases. Lessons learned reinforced the importance of the early identification of case issues and a strategic approach to their management, the early and proactive collection of the evidence relating to case issues, and early decision making with regard to issues affecting the scope of the inquiry.

The Tribunal administers, jointly with the CBSA, the expiry review process in trade remedies cases. An expiry review examines the need to continue the imposition of anti-dumping and/or countervailing duties after they have been in place for five years. In 2008-2009, the Tribunal worked closely with the CBSA to coordinate better and improve the expiry review process. Improvements were implemented to make the process more efficient, including the distribution of the CBSA questionnaires on CD and the transfer of the CBSA’s record to the Tribunal electronically. These improvements have benefited participants as well as the CBSA and the Tribunal. Other improvement proposals have been made and are being considered.

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