Canadian Lawyer

BY PHILIP SLAYTON TOP COURT TALES Simply double judges' salaries If the government is going to ignore independent advice on judges' salaries anyway, let's just pay them what they're really worth. I don't the way we fix judges' salaries in this country. Every four years, the Judicial think Henry is very keen on Compensation and Benefits Commission, established in 1999 under the Judges Act, makes recommendations to the minister of Justice about the compensation and benefits of federally appointed judges. This process is supposed to reflect a constitutional requirement that, to pre- serve the independence of the judiciary, judges' compensation must be deter- mined independently of the executive and legislative branches. The current Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission reported on May 15 (48 pages plus appendices). How much should a Supreme Court of Canada justice be paid? The 2008 commission recommended that the chief justice's salary be immediately raised from $278,400 to $349,800, and that of the other Supreme Court judges from $257,800 to $323,800. The government rejected these recommendations out-of- hand. Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson said, 16 JULY 2012 www. CANADIAN Lawyermag.com M y friend Henry is a senior and distin- guished Saskatchewan lawyer. him for a long time. I've known Recently, Henry sent me the Government of Canada's Dec. 23, 2011 submission to the latest Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission, all 89 pages of it. There was a grumpy note attached. judges to be subject to similar restraint as that implemented for the federal public administration broadly. . . ." So much for judges' compensation being determined independently of the executive branch! Under the 2009 federal budget, annu- "the public reasonably expects al wage increases for the federal public administration were limited to 2.3 per cent in 2007-08 and 1.5 per cent for the following three years. Because of the cost JacqUi oakley

• Cover