Backgrounder

Establishing a Compensation Commission for Prothonotaries

As part of a series of judicial and court-related legislative reforms, the Government of Canada has introduced legislation that would permit the establishment of a dedicated, independent commission to consider compensation and benefits issues for prothonotaries. Such a mechanism would be consistent with practices for comparable officials in other jurisdictions across Canada.

Prothonotaries, appointed under the Federal Courts Act, are judicial officers who assist with the workload of the Federal Court by performing various judicial functions, including case management, interim motions and final determinations of cases involving up to $50,000. They perform functions that would otherwise be carried out by a judge, and in doing so assist with the timely and effective management of the Court’s business.

Case law, in particular the PEI Judges Reference case, has determined that governments must have the benefit of the recommendations of an independent, effective and objective commission prior to making any changes to compensation of judges. In more recent case law it has been suggested that this principle can be extended to other judicial officers, such as Masters and Justices of the Peace.

The proposed amendments to the Federal Courts Act would permit that an independent body be established to make recommendations on prothonotary compensation and benefits. A similar commission was established to consider periodically the remuneration of military judges. The Military Judges Compensation Committee has conducted two inquiries (1999 and 2003), and the experience has been that it operates effectively and at reasonable cost.

The salaries of the prothonotaries are currently set at 69% of the salary established for a puisne superior court judge (a superior court judge lower in rank than a chief justice). No immediate changes to current compensation or benefits of prothonotaries would occur under the proposed reforms. The commission would first conduct an inquiry and issue a report containing its recommendations. The Government would then respond to the report in due course. This process is not expected to begin before 2006.

The proposed reforms also include minor changes to the Federal Courts Act and amendments to other pieces of federal legislation related to the operations of federal courts.

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