The Administrative Justice Office Update
AJO article, BC Council of Administrative Tribunals newsletter, Spring 2009
Recent Administrative Justice Office (AJO) activities have included a range of research, publications, presentations and educational initiatives, all directed to supporting access to earlier solutions and faster justice. See the following for some of those activities.
Statutory Decision Makers (SDMs) Project: T Three discussion papers have been posted to the website as part of the AJO’s review of in-government decision-makers’ powers, procedures and authorities: Duty to Give Reasons, Administrative Monetary Penalties, and Inspection Powers. Work is well underway on the next discussion papers — the use of dispute resolution techniques and processes in statutory decision-making and the use of policy and guidelines in making discretionary decisions. B.C. Council of Administrative Tribunals (BCCAT) members are encouraged to share their views on these topics, using any methods described in the papers.
Education and Training Initiatives: The AJO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Attorney General Legal Services Branch (LSB), continues to support delivery of quality government decision-making for government staff, based on the BCCAT administrative justice for decision-makers course. The February 2009 course was fully subscribed, and another offering is planned for June 2009. The AJO has also been working with various ministries and their LSB counsel, using the BCCAT materials, to develop specialized administrative justice training that focuses on specific program needs. Courses have been delivered to Ministry of Environment regional managers and to the Residential Tenancy Branch dispute resolution officers.
Dispute Resolution: The AJO and the Dispute Resolution Office (DRO) ) have posted our joint Guide to Implementing Dispute Resolution in Tribunal Processes. The Guideprovides information on how to implement or enhance existing dispute resolution programs within a tribunal’s unique organizational culture, people, technology and mission. And work is very close to completion on the generic evaluation tool kit, piloted with the Farm Industry Review Board and designed to help ensure that dispute resolution processes used achieve their intended objectives.
Senior Tribunal Staff Workshop: Held in November 2008, using video conferencing facilities in Victoria and Vancouver, the workshop gave participants a first-hand view of how these facilities operate and may be used to support their tribunal’s activities. The workshop also provided the opportunity to share information with representatives from the Nanaimo Justice Access Centre (a joint project of the Legal Services Society and the Ministry of Attorney General), which helps people solve family and civil legal problems by applying an integrated approach for early and affordable solutions. (See Justice Access Centre Website for more information.) In addition, the AJO and DRO presented information about their collaborative efforts, described above. Future workshops are in preliminary planning and ideas and suggestions from BCCAT members are welcome.
ATA Standard of Review: The AJO has been seeking input and tracking judicial developments in relation to Dunsmuir (2008 SCC 9) and the effect on the Administrative Tribunals Act (ATA) standards of judicial review. Following up on its 2008 discussion paper, the views of the administrative law bar were sought at the January CBA (B.C.) administrative law section meeting, with the AJO’s presentation tto CBA members posted on the website. With respect to the courts’ comments, BCCAT members may be interested to learn that the B.C. Court of Appeal, in Manz v. WCAT (February 2009), found the ATA legislated standard of patently unreasonableness is still applicable, post-Dunsmuir. The most recent (February 2009) SCC decision, Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) v. Khosaaddresses standards of review under the Federal Courts Act and also refers to the ATA, with some interesting commentary between the majority and the minority concurring reasons.
Presentations and Conferences: The AJO presented a paper (co-authored with Daniel R. Bennett, partner, Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP Vancouver) entitled Procedural Overview: What Does an Administrative Hearing Look Like?at the February Pacific Business & Law Institute conference, Administrative Law: Key Concepts and Thorny Issues. Both the paper and the presentationare available on this website. And the AJO’s presentation, The B.C. Tribunal Experience: What’s New?, made at the Continuing Legal Education Society’s conference called Aboriginal Administrative Law: The New Realities, will also be posted on the website soon.
Model Rules Project:In addition to providing funding, the AJO has been pleased to actively participate in BCCAT’s development of model rules of practice and procedure and looks forward to adding the model rules to the Tribunal Tool Kit. The model rules are intended to be easily adaptable by tribunals and other decision-makers to meet their own unique circumstances for fair, proportionate and accessible administrative justice processes, including case management and dispute resolution processes.
AdminLawBC Website: The AJO congratulates BCCAT and the Law Courts Education Society on the successful launch of their joint initiative, the AdminLawBC.ca website. Featuring videos explaining administrative law and links to local, provincial and federal tribunals, the website also provides a list of experts (many are BCCAT members) who are available to speak about different administrative law topics.
