Backlogs, delays and the spectre of service cuts to immigration litigants have loomed over the Federal Court in recent years, as Ottawa’s funding has chronically failed to keep pace with the demands on, and needs of, the national trial court, with the surge in immigration cases expected to keep growing for the foreseeable future .
Notably, the lack of sufficient registry resources has resulted in slower processing of incoming cases with a consequent spillover delay in the adjudication of immigration cases by the court.
The court now appears to be in crisis mode, warning publicly last December that “due to an extraordinary increase in the number of documents filed with the Federal Court over the past few months, the processing time for documents is getting longer.” Noting that the registry “makes every effort to provide the fastest possible service,” the court said the registry processes, on average, 53 per cent of filed documents within 48 hours and the remaining documents generally within two weeks.
But delays appear to have worsened in the meantime, prompting Federal Court Chief Justice Paul Crampton to issue a Feb. 14, 2025 practice direction and notice to the profession titled, “Backlog in processing applications for leave and judicial review.”
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Federal Court Chief Justice Paul Crampton
The chief justice’s latest special order gives applicants even more time to perfect their applications for leave and judicial review — i.e. “within an additional 45 days after the deadlines prescribed under Rule 10(1) of the Federal Courts Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection Rules.”
Moreover, the extension of time no longer requires consent from the opposing party.
“This new timeline is to be applied to all outstanding applications for leave and judicial review not yet processed by the registry,” the chief justice stipulated.
His office told Law360 Canada the chief justice’s special order allows applicants more time to complete their application and helps them avoid the additional step of having to file for an extension of time.
“Applicants in immigration proceedings have 30 days to complete their application for leave and judicial review, from the day of initial filing,” the statement said. “Due to the unprecedented surge of immigration matters in Federal Court for the fourth consecutive year, and despite innovations implemented within the Registry, some applications are not processed within that 30-day period.”
(Rule 10(1) of the Federal Courts Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection Rules says that a leave application must be perfected either (a) within 30 days after the application was filed, in cases where the applicant has received the tribunal’s written reasons; or (b) where the application sets out that the applicant has not received the tribunal’s written reasons, within 30 days after receiving either the written reasons, or written notice from the tribunal that no reasons were given or reasons were given but not recorded.)
The office of the chief justice added “our workload continues to exceed our full capacity." As a result: “our backlogs are growing, especially in the registry”; the external and internal 48-hour service standards are suspended; but “urgent” documents will continue to be promptly processed.
The registry can only process 500 to 550 new immigration filings per week, but “we now receive on average 700 filings per week,” the court's statement said.
By way of explanation for the change, Chief Justice Crampton wrote in this week's practice direction “over the last few years, the Federal Court has experienced an unprecedented increase in filings of applications for leave and judicial review in immigration matters. In calendar 2024 alone, that increase represented a quadrupling of the average volume over the five years immediately preceding the COVID-19 pandemic. Filings year-to-date in 2025 have continued to substantially increase.”
“Due to budget reductions and insufficient resources, the registry of the court is unable to process these filings on a timely basis,” the chief justice said. “To address this important challenge while striving to maintain access to justice, the court is taking proactive measures to minimize the impact on litigants and support the registry.”
The chief justice has publicly warned for years of a brewing crisis, due to inadequate federal funding, in light of its escalating immigration caseload, crumbling IT systems and recently increased costly translation obligations.
Successive businesses cases by the court arguing for more dollars, that were put forward to the federal Treasury Board over the years by the Courts Administration Service (the registry for the Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeal, the Tax Court and the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada) have been only partially successful.
In response to Chief Justice Crampton’s warning of impending “drastic” service cuts to litigants, the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) called last February for urgent “off-cycle” federal funding (so far unheeded) to address the national trial court’s chronic multi-million-dollar budgetary shortfalls.
Canadian Bar Association president Lynne Vicars
Virani replied he was aware of the problem, and information that 24,780 new immigration proceedings were filed in the Federal Court in 2024 (about quadruple the annual average for the five years immediately preceding the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic). “I'm advocating for the needs of the court in terms of their resources, and will continue to do so,” he said. Five days later Virani announced he would not run in the April 28, 2025, federal election. His successor, Nova Scotia MP Sean Fraser, was sworn in as justice minister and attorney general this week.
In an exclusive interview last fall, Chief Justice Crampton told Law360 Canada, “given what has been announced south of the border in terms of plans to deport large numbers of people [from the U.S.), it is prudent to expect that this extraordinary surge of immigration proceedings will be significantly increased if the new [Trump] administration follows through on its announced intentions.”
He noted the Federal Court’s judicial complement has not kept up with the court’s growing workload.
“Despite the surge [of cases], the only new judicial appointments that we have received have been to fill the three positions that were created in Budget 2019 and the single position that was created in 2018,” the chief justice said. “Those positions were created in anticipation of increases in our workload that were contemplated prior to the [COVID19] pandemic. In other words, they have nothing to do with the recent extraordinary surge.”
As well, the Federal Court’s “ability to deal with the surging volume of applications for judicial review of immigration-related decisions is being severely constrained by the unprecedented budgetary pressures and constraints being experienced by the CAS,” Chief Justice Crampton said. “Unfortunately, the considerable efforts that have been made to demonstrate the need for additional funding have not been successful. Indeed, the court continues to await a response and remains hopeful that one will be provided in Budget 2025.”
That could be a vain hope. On May 14, 2025, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, who was sworn into the new Carney-led minority Liberal government the day before, told reporters that he is not planning a federal budget for this year. However, Champagne said he does intend to provide a fiscal update/economic statement sometime in the fall.
The Canadian Bar Association’s letter last December to Virani in support of the CAS’s off-cycle funding request, said “we understand that, without adequate funding, the courts will be forced to reduce services both in terms of number of hearings and support to litigants. They could see case reductions of 400 per year, with the backlog growing by 20 per cent to 30 per cent per year.”
If the necessary funding is not forthcoming, “access to justice is going to suffer,” Chief Justice Crampton told Law360 Canada in last fall’s interview. “CAS has already started cutting, . . .putting a staffing freeze on and cutting certain other things, because we don't have the money,” he explained.
“The public's going to see more delays at a minimum,” he stated. “We've got to really . . .start drastically cutting . . .training, staffing,” and providing “reduced levels of service for litigants,” he said. “These are. . . all things that are going to happen because you’ve got less staff at the registry counter, . . .there's going to be less service for Canadians.”
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