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Canada’s Federal Court faces a deepening caseload crisis, and a $58 million federal funding commitment may not deliver the relief the court urgently needs. Chief Justice Paul Diner confirmed that the court still lacks key details on how the money will be distributed or used.
“At the moment, the Federal Court doesn’t have additional details on how the funding confirmed will be distributed among the stated purposes,” Diner told The Canadian Press in an emailed statement on Thursday.
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A Caseload That Has Exploded Since 2020
The Federal Court handles immigration matters including visa applications, refugee claims and removal proceedings. It also covers intellectual property, national security and Indigenous rights cases. As of September 30 this year, the court recorded nearly 31,000 proceedings — up sharply from roughly 7,600 in all of 2020. More than 27,000 of this year’s cases involve immigration.
In an August interview, Chief Justice Diner said judges and court staff have worked evenings, weekends and vacation days to manage the growing volume. The pressure shows no sign of easing.
The $58 million appears in budget documents published November 5. The funding targets the Courts Administration Service, which supports the Federal Court, the Federal Appeal Court, the Tax Court of Canada and the Court Martial Appeal Court. It covers the Federal Court caseload, Official Languages Act compliance, a translation backlog and court infrastructure modernization. The money begins in the 2027/28 fiscal year and runs for four years, averaging $14.5 million annually.
Joannie Fogue, spokesperson for Justice Minister Sean Fraser, said the funding aims to “strengthen the national courts” and build workload efficiencies. However, she added that allocation details remain unresolved.
Immigration Lawyers Question Whether Funding Goes Far Enough
Ottawa-based immigration lawyer Jacqueline Bonisteel welcomed the funding but called it modest relative to the scale of the problem.
“It’s not going to be enough to cope with the issues that the court’s seeing right now — a 600 per cent increase in immigration caseload since 2020,” she said. She added that immigration cases now take upwards of two years to move through the court.
Toronto-based immigration lawyer Zeynab Moayyed agreed the problems run deeper than additional funding can fix. She pointed to a shortage of registry staff, noting that routine filings for judicial review now take weeks instead of a single day.
AI Tools and Systemic Issues Driving Cases to Court
Both lawyers linked part of the caseload surge to the Immigration Department’s adoption of artificial intelligence tools. They argued that reduced human interaction at the department turns minor errors into formal disputes that end up before a judge.
“With the coming into effect of those tools, at the same time we had the shutting down of informal ways of addressing errors that happen in the system, and applicants started turning to Federal Court,” Moayyed said.
The Immigration Department maintains that AI tools operate under human oversight at all times and do not make decisions independently. The department says the technology assists with triaging applications, generating case summaries and answering client questions.
Bonisteel argued that streamlining reconsideration requests before they reach the court would help reduce pressure. “These are very multi-faceted problems and they need multi-faceted solutions,” she said. “It’s not just about court funding. It’s about addressing the systemic issues that are leading to the increase in the court’s caseload.”
Meanwhile, Moayyed described the human cost of prolonged delays. “Our job has become confidant and therapist for a client, listening to them talk about having their life on hold and in limbo until they get a decision,” she said.
