Set judges salaries at $288K: report

OTTAWA – Canada’s judiciary may be losing faith in what’s supposed to be an apolitical process for setting judges salaries, according to a report that calls for baseline salaries to remain frozen at about $288,000, with small annual increases designed to keep up with the cost of living.

After its recommendations were twice rejected by the Conservatives, the latest Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission — an independent body that advises on salaries every four years — has put forward a set of recommendations more modest than in previous years. It is less than what judges were seeking, but slightly more than what the government seemed prepared to offer.

The Canadian Superior Court Judges Association, which represents the vast majority of federally appointed judges, had called on the commission to propose the same recommendations the government rejected back in 2009 due to a downturn in the economy that resulted in salary restraints for politicians and other public servants covered by the federal treasury.

The plan called for about 1,000 federal, tax and lower court judges to receive annual increases that would have seen their pay jump to about $303,000 by the end of the four-year period.

For its part, the government has called for judicial salaries to be frozen for the next four years, with cost of living increases limited to 1.5 per cent a year even though the current industrial aggregate index stands at 2.5 per cent.

While the commission “took note of the uncertain economic outlook and the government’s budgetary constraints,” it argued cost-of-living increases were a drop in the bucket compared to overall federal expenditures and that messing with them could create a rift between the executive and the judiciary.

“If the government were to take this step in the current circumstances, there is a real risk that it would be perceived as a negative statement by the government on the performance or value of the judiciary,” concluded the report tabled last month.

The so-called “quadrennial” commission was established in 1999 to make recommendations to Parliament on judicial compensation so as to ensure the independence of the judiciary by preventing judges from having to negotiate their pay with politicians.

The commission’s recommendations aren’t binding, but the government is required to respond within six months and must be prepared to support any decision to reject the recommendations in court.

The process replaced a previous triennial commission after the judiciary lost confidence when successive governments failed to act on the recommendations.

In its report tabled last month, the commission raised concerns that the judiciary was again losing faith in the process.

It urged the government to respond to the recommendations in “good faith,” in a timely fashion and to respect the apolitical nature of the process.

It also urged all parties to look at ways to make the process “less adversarial.”

The government has until Nov. 15 to respond to the report.