The Federal Court has nearly 31,000 proceedings commenced as of Sept. 30, while Chief Justice Paul Diner says it still lacks details on how $58 million in new funding will be distributed.
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Lawyers say it is still unclear whether new federal funding will meaningfully reduce the Federal Court’s rapidly growing caseload, after the court said it does not yet have additional details on how the money will be allocated.
Chief Justice Paul Diner said, in an emailed statement Thursday, that the Federal Court does not have additional details on how the funding confirmed in the recent federal budget will be distributed among the purposes stated.
The Federal Court hears immigration-related matters including visa applications, refugee claims, admissibility cases and removals. It also has responsibilities related to federal jurisdiction in areas such as intellectual property, national security and Indigenous rights.
The court cited the need for additional resources to manage a caseload that has ballooned since 2020 to nearly 31,000 proceedings commenced as of Sept. 30 this year, up from about 7,600 in all of 2020. Of the proceedings started this year, more than 27,000 are immigration cases.
The budget earmarked $58 million in additional funding for court administration, with the single mention of the money in documents published Nov. 5 describing intended goals including addressing the Federal Court caseload and helping the Courts Administration Service with Official Languages Act compliance, a translation backlog and the need to modernize court infrastructure.
The additional $58 million is set to begin in the 2027/28 fiscal year and continue for four years, averaging $14.5 million annually.
Joannie Fogue, spokesperson for Justice Minister Sean Fraser, said in a media statement that the funding is meant to “strengthen the national courts,” respond to resource challenges and build workload efficiencies, but she said the allocation details are not yet known.
Some immigration lawyers questioned whether the four-year funding commitment will be enough to improve the pace of cases. Jacqueline Bonisteel, an Ottawa-based immigration lawyer, said the increase is “modest” given the size of the caseload growth, describing it as “a 600 per cent increase in immigration caseload since 2020.” She said it can take “upwards of two years” for an immigration case to be processed through the court.
Bonisteel also pointed to what she described as systemic resource shortages affecting case processing, while Zeynab Moayyed, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer, said the court’s issues also include a shortage of registry staff. Moayyed said routine paperwork that previously took about a day to process, such as filing for a judicial review, now takes weeks.
Both lawyers said the growing number of filings has increased pressure on the court. Moayyed cited mandamus applications—applications meant to force a decision from the Immigration Department—while Bonisteel said the department’s approach to decisions has changed as part of technology efforts.
The Immigration Department has said it uses AI and advanced analytics tools under human oversight at all times and that the tools do not make decisions. Instead, the department says the tools assist with tasks such as triaging applications, identifying routine cases, generating case summaries and answering client questions through chatbots. The department’s first AI strategy, released earlier this year, says the goal is to reduce backlogs and wait times.
Moayyed said the delays are causing distress for people in the system, describing the role of lawyers as extending beyond legal work to helping clients cope with uncertainty until a decision is made.
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