Judicial compensation commissions

Overview

The Supreme Court of Canada has imposed a constitutional obligation on provincial governments to use an independent commission process to set the compensation for judicial officers, including Provincial Court judges and Court of Queen’s Bench masters in chambers.

Several pieces of provincial legislation are relevant to the judicial compensation commission process:

Judicature Act
- outlines the commissions’ functions
Provincial Court Judges and Masters in Chambers Compensation Regulation
- sets out judges’ salary and benefits
Provincial Judges and Masters in Chambers Registered and Unregistered Pension Plans
- sets out judges’ pension benefits
compensation commission regulation
- used to establish a specific commission
- for example, the Provincial Judges and Masters in Chambers 2013 Compensation Commission Regulation was used to create the 2013 commission

Scope of commissions

Every 4 years, the commission reviews and recommends changes in compensation for:

Provincial Court judges
Court of Queen’s Bench masters in chambers

For both groups, this includes the following for the next 4 years:

salary rates
design and level of pension benefits
types and kinds of benefits and allowances
any other issues relevant to financial security that the commission agreed to resolve

2017 commission

The 2017 Judicial Compensation Commission presented its report of recommendations to the Minister of Justice and Solicitor General on May 9, 2019 and an amended report was provided on May 23, 2019:

Report and Recommendations of the 2017 Alberta Judicial Compensation Commission

Cabinet responded to the Commission’s recommendations by Order in Council dated September 13, 2019:

Provincial Judges and Masters in Chambers 2017 Compensation Commission Regulation (web page) or PDF version (381 KB).

Judicial compensation review

In 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada determined that there is a constitutional obligation on governments to set compensation for judicial officers through an independent, objective and effective commission process.

An independent Judicial Compensation Commission was established under Alberta’s Judicature Act to review and recommend the appropriate level of compensation for the Provincial Court of Alberta judges and Court of Queen’s Bench masters in chambers, for the period April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2021.

The Commission held a public hearing in 2018.