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B.C. Home » Justice » Administrative Justice Office

Update on Reforms in Other Jurisdictions (as of June, 2008)

 

Some of the more significant administrative justice reforms initiated or undertaken in other jurisdictions between January and June 2008 are summarized below, including:

• the Ontario Regulatory Modernization Act came into force;
• the Northwest Territories Employment Standards Act came into force;
• the Australian Administrative Review Council (ARC) released Report No. 48, The Coercive Information-gathering Powers of Government Agencies’
• The government of Queensland state decided to establish a civil and administrative tribunal; and
• the new Consumer Credit Appeals Tribunal in the U.K. has started its work.

Earlier updates on reforms in other jurisdictions are available on the Publications and Research page. 

Within Canada

Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals (CCAT)

In June 2008, CCAT held an advanced workshop on the use of alternative dispute resolution techniques in a tribunal setting, as well as its 24th annual conference, in Gatineau, Quebec (National Capital Region). The theme of the conference was Diversity: Serving a Diverse Population; the programs for the pre-conference workshop and the conference are online.

Alberta

The Alberta Law Reform Institute’s review of the Alberta Rules of Court continues.  Comments on consultation memoranda addressing issues related to civil appeals and criminal jury trials were requested by June 30, 2007, and they anticipate publishing their final report by the end of August 2007.

Ontario

The Regulatory Modernization Act was brought into force in January 2008 to improve efficiency in the administration and enforcement of regulatory legislation by providing government ministries and their agencies with greater authority to collect, use and share information gathered from inspections and other compliance-related activities.

To explore the future of administrative justice, the University of Toronto faculty of law symposium The Future of Administrative Justice in January 2008 brought together academics, participants in the tribunal sector and government policy makers to dialogue about improvements to administrative tribunals in Ontario and other jurisdictions. A report on the symposium summarizes the presentations and the roundtable discussion. The keynote address was given by Lord Justice Robert Carnwath, senior president of tribunals for England and Wales. A video of the symposium can be downloaded from the event website, which also includes other useful papers and background material.

The Ontario government announced funding to build a faster, more effective human rights system that will consist of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and a new Human Rights Legal Support Centre. The new centre opened June 2008. Improvements to the human rights system include:

• special teams of human rights professionals to implement an easily navigable system and supports for those who need additional assistance;
• a new complaints case management system;
• new and upgraded accessible office space; and
• preparing for the new system by resolving current cases.

The Honourable Coulter Osborne is still working on his final report for Ontario’s Civil Justice Reform Project. Issues addressed in the summary of findings and recommendations include access to justice for both represented and unrepresented litigants and proportionality in terms of the time and expense of proceedings in relation to the amount at issue and the importance of the issues.  Recommendations include proposed changes to the rules of civil procedure, several statutory amendments, potential improved scheduling practices for the judiciary and best practices for the profession.

Manitoba

The Manitoba Ombudsman issued the Report on the Licensing and Enforcement Practices of Manitoba Water Stewardship in April 2008. The report details the administrative problems of the current system and provides recommendations; for example, a review of whether statutory authority should be provided to allow drainage officers to issue immediate stop work orders and orders requiring remedial action, and a review of the adequacy of enforcement measures available to staff to determine if further powers are needed to stop unlicensed drainage.

New Brunswick

The New Brunswick ombudsman issued a report on the Residential Property Assessment Appeal Process in New Brunswick: Levelling the Playing Field in February 2008. The report outlines the problems of the current system and provides recommendations for improvements.

Nova Scotia

Concerns about delays, costs and undue complexity of court proceedings prompted a comprehensive review and revision of civil procedures rules by the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. The judges of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia have tentatively approved the majority of the new civil procedure rules and the forms that go with them.

Northwest Territories

The Employment Standards Act came into force in April 2008, replacing three labour statutes with a single act and giving employment standards officers the primary responsibility to enforce employment standards, hear complaints and make orders. It also provides for the appointment of adjudicators to hear appeals from the decisions and orders of employment standards officers.

Outside Canada

Australia

The Parliamentary ombudsman offices implemented a new training project: Dealing with Unreasonable Complainant Conduct. The one-day workshop is designed to give front line staff, supervisors and managers the strategies, skills and resources to deal confidently with unreasonable conduct by complainants. Workshops were held in April, May and June and will continue to be held throughout the year. An interim practice manual has been created pending conclusion of the project in mid-2008, when the document will be revised to capture the knowledge and experience gained during the course of the project.

The Administrative Review Council released Report No. 48, The Coercive Information-gathering Powers of Government Agencies in June (the draft report is described in the  December 2006 reform update). This final report considers the use of these powers having regard to the legislation and practices of six agencies — the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Taxation Office, Centrelink and Medicare Australia — however, the report is directly relevant to all agencies in their use of coercive information-gathering powers.

Report No. 48 identifies 20 best practice principles covering a range of important practical issues including the appropriate trigger threshold for the use of coercive information-gathering powers, who should exercise the powers, the content of notices, the conduct of examinations and hearings and privilege and the exchange of information within and between agencies.

The Administrative Review Council is still in the process of its inquiry and report into the most effective and efficient administrative accountability mechanisms for decisions in areas of complex and specific business regulation.

The Australian Law Reform Commission released its final report on the rationale for and recommendations about client legal privilege in investigations by federal government agencies: Client Legal Privilege and Federal Investigatory Bodies.

The Australian Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) posted a new version of their Guide to the Social Security Jurisdiction in April 2008. This guide provides information about how the AAT will manage applications for review of decisions relating to family assistance and social security matters. It applies to all applications lodged throughout Australia.

The 11th Annual Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration Tribunals Conference, in association with the Council of Australasian Tribunals, was held in June 2008 in Queensland. The theme: Practical Assistance for Tribunal Members and Decision Makers.

Queensland, Australia

In response to a recent review that found the current system of civil and administrative justice in Queensland inefficient, fragmented and confusing to the community, the Queensland government decided to establish a civil and administrative tribunal. The new tribunal will provide a single recognizable gateway to increase the community’s access to justice and increase the efficiency and quality of decision-making through a larger administrative structure. The Queensland government will establish an independent expert panel to provide advice on how best to implement an amalgamated civil and administrative tribunal, including the precise scope of the jurisdiction of the new tribunal, membership and registry structure, and accommodation, information technology and other infrastructure needs.

The government intends to introduce any necessary legislation by March 2009. To achieve that timeframe, the expert panel will report to government in three stages:

1. The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal - Panel Scope, including the jurisdiction of the tribunals and courts to be considered for amalgamation, was completed in June 2008.
2. In October 2008, there will be a report on any necessary legislative amendments required to implement the amalgamated civil and administrative tribunal.
3. In March 2009, a final report will detail full operational implementation requirements.

New Zealand

The New Zealand Law Commission published an issues paper, Tribunals in New Zealand, which reviews New Zealand’s existing tribunal arrangements. The paper sets out the problems with current arrangements, summarizes the way in which some other countries have dealt with similar problems and sets out various options. The law commission is working jointly with the Ministry of Justice on this project and submissions on the paper were requested by February 2008. The law commission also published a document outlining the pertinent details about New Zealand’s tribunals.

The New Zealand Law Commission published a report: Public Registers: Review of the Law of Privacy, Stage 2. Identifying well over 100 public registers, the report discusses the variation in which open access to the registers is balanced with protection of personal information. The law commission recommends that a team review all public registers against a template set out in the report to ensure that the relevant considerations are specified in the legislation establishing each public register. Additional recommendations for legislative changes to be introduced by a single omnibus bill will not be considered by the government until the law commission’s reference on the Privacy Act 1993 is completed in early 2009.

United Kingdom

The Tribunals Service announced that the new Consumer Credit Appeals Tribunal has started its work, providing credit businesses with an independent appeal from decisions by the Office of Fair Trading.

The Tribunals Service published Transforming Tribunals, Implementing Part 1 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act in May 2008. This is the government’s response to their consultation paper CP 30/07 Transforming Tribunal’s Document - Implementing Part 1 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, issued November 2007. The act addressed the disorganization of tribunals by creating a cohesive statutory framework with a unified tribunal system. This response paper confirms that:

1. The First-tier Tribunal proposed chambers are social entitlement; general regulatory; health, education and social care; taxation; land, property and housing. The Upper Tribunal proposed chambers are administrative appeals; finance and tax; and lands.
2. The First-tier Tribunal will be the natural starting place for all jurisdictions, with onward appeal to the Upper Tribunal, which will also have the power to deal with judicial review work delegated from the High Court.
3. A tribunals procedure committee will be responsible for making Ttribunal procedure rules.
4. The government is committed to ongoing transformation of their tribunals.
5. The Tribunals Service is creating a network of multi-jurisdictional hearing centres, re-engineering administrative processes to improve case management and exploring alternatives to standard hearings such mediation, conciliation and support and advice services.

The United Kingdom Law Commission is continuing to look at the remedies available against public bodies. The project focus is primarily on monetary compensation, but will look at other remedies that relate to monetary compensation. The project is mainly concerned with remedies awarded by the courts and the relationship between the courts and the ombudsmen, but will also consider how these relate to remedies awarded by other non-court bodies and statutory schemes. The publication of a consultation paper, initially planned for 2007, has been postponed until after June 2008 at the request of the government contact group, so that it can provide further information. Progress can be followed here.

The United Kingdom Law Commission issued its report Housing: Proportionate Dispute Resolution in May 2008. Unlike most law commission reports, the terms of reference for this project specifically extended beyond legal questions and raised the broader issues of how housing problems arise, how they are related to other problems and how they might be dealt with better. The law commission recommends the new system should:

1. prevent many housing problems from arising in the first place because there will be better public awareness of rights and responsibilities in the housing context;
2. where housing problems are transformed into disputes, ensure that many more disputes should be resolved by non-formal means; and
3. where disputes must be adjudicated by a court or tribunal, use procedures that, as much as possible, embrace the values of accuracy, impartiality, independence, fairness, transparency, confidentiality, participation, effectiveness, promptness, cost efficiency and direct and indirect positive impact (such as, directly on the person with the problem and indirectly by preventing similar future problems).

European Union

The Association of the Councils of State and Supreme Administrative Jurisdictions of the European Union held the 21st colloquium in Warsaw in June 2008. The theme was: consequences of incompatibility with European court law for final administrative decisions and final judgments of administrative courts in the member states.