A five-member independent panel of legal and financial experts advises raising the remuneration of Court of Quebec judges from $310,000 in July 2022 to $358,400 by July 2026, which would make them the third-best-paid provincially appointed judges. The increases would bring Quebec provincial court judges to around 87 per cent of earnings by Superior Court Justices by July 2026, a figure the blue-ribbon group says is reasonable “given the similarities” between the jurisdictions of the Superior Court and the Court of Quebec.
Quebec has a long history of contesting recommendations issued by advisory groups. There have been eight judicial compensation committees since 1998, and the government has contested its recommendations in all but three. In almost every case, judges have launched legal proceedings to make the government adhere to recommendations made by the independent committee.
But that’s unlikely to happen this time given the political climate in the province, believes Martine Valois, a law professor at the Université de Montréal who wrote a book on judicial independence. Valois pointed out that Premier François Legault recently disdained the Quebec Appeal Court for being judges “named by the federal government” after the Quebec Court of Appeal granted asylum seekers access to subsidized daycare because its provincial policy was discriminatory. Those remarks prompted the Quebec bar to jump into the fray, countering that elected officials have a duty to help “protect our judicial and democratic institutions in order to preserve public confidence.
“It’s a very political and image-related issue,” said Valois. “Court of Quebec judges are in a favourable position. Quebec has publicly denigrated federally appointed judges as biased who render judgments unfavourable to Quebec’s power. They want to enhance the image of the Court of Quebec by saying we’re able to afford good judges who have a remuneration comparable to that of the Superior Courts.”
Established under the Quebec Courts of Justice Act (Act), the independent panel examines every four years issues such as remuneration, pension packages and benefits of provincially-appointed judges, including municipal court judges and presiding justices of the peace. Under article 246.42 of the Act, the independent committee must take into account 10 factors, ranging from the “particularities” of the judges’ functions to the “need” to offer judges “adequate” remuneration to the cost of living index and the economic situation prevailing in Quebec to the need to attract “outstanding” candidates. The committee is also expected to examine remuneration paid to other judges exercising a similar jurisdiction in Canada.
Quebec nevertheless proposed a “moderate” increase of three per cent for 2023-24, and 1.5 per cent for each of the years until 2027, arguing that the purchasing power of judges has recently seen marked growth, are among the highest-income households, and they “enjoy” complete financial security, guaranteed by the full indexation of their annuity at retirement. The provincial government also maintained that the Quebec economy “remains fragile and uncertain” and the 2023 economic slowdown is expected to continue into 2024. Thereafter, there will be a “marked moderation” in economic growth and government revenues because the current labour pool is “limited” due to the ageing of the population and high employment, according to the government. As a result, the government says it must be prudent and efficient in its use of public funds.
The provincial judiciary sought parity with the salary of federally appointed judges. It is concerned that the Court of Quebec shares the same recruitment pool as the Superior Court, and asserts that there has been an “exodus” of judges from the Court of Quebec to the Superior Court or Court of Appeal, with no fewer than 22 judges leaving to federally appointed courts. Moreover, due to inflationary pressures, their purchasing power has eroded. As a result, it called for a salary increase that reaches $383,700 for the 2023-24 fiscal year. For the subsequent years 2024 to 2027, it proposes to apply to this salary, on an annual basis, the rate of increase of the annuity index.
The Quebec bar called on the advisory group to set the salaries of provincially-appointed judges at a “level” that does not hinder the attraction of high-calibre candidates. “While remuneration is not the only factor that attracts high-quality lawyers to the bench, it must be recognized that it is a relevant consideration,” said the Barreau du Québec in a 12-page brief. “We must therefore take the necessary steps to attract the exceptional candidates practicing in all areas of the law, who are most likely to satisfy such a requirement.”
The Quebec division of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA-Quebec) maintains that the comparative scale that should be used to determine the remuneration of judges should be those of senior lawyers in the private and public sector as well as that paid to other judges exercising a comparable jurisdiction in Canada. “We believe that judges and their dependents should not suffer significant economic disadvantage as a result of their appointment,” said CBA-Quebec in a brief. “When we look at the recruitment pool for the judiciary, it’s clear that if we want to attract the best candidates, these candidates are often those who are doing well in private practice. And if they do, it’s because the market recognizes their competence and excellence.”
The independent committee, headed by Luce Samoisette, professor and director of graduate study programs in taxation, School of Administration, Université de Sherbrooke, recommended nearly a 15 per cent increase over a five-year stretch from July 2022 to July 2026 for Court of Quebec judges. While Quebec does face a degree of uncertainty and is the second most indebted province as of March 2024, the committee asserted that it is “under control.”
The Samoisette Committee concluded that Quebec should be among the leading provinces in terms of salary, considering its relative financial capacity and given the unique nature of the Court of Quebec’s jurisdiction in Canada, which is greater than that of the other provincial courts, coming closer to the jurisdiction of the Superior Court. The Court of Quebec is by far the most active judicial tribunal in the province, pointed out the panel in its 95-page report. Of the 543,877 cases opened throughout Quebec, 493,494, or more than 90 per cent, were brought before the Court of Quebec, noted the report.
The Samoisette Committee, however, was not swayed that there was an exodus of Court of Quebec judges to the Superior Court or Court of Appeal, underlining that it represented only a turnover rate of 2.6 per cent per year. It “nevertheless recognizes the importance of avoiding creating an unjustified gap in treatment between Court of Quebec judges and Quebec Superior Court judges in order to maintain the Court of Quebec’s drawing power.”
The Samoisette Committee, like other judicial compensation panels, believes that the evolution of salaries for Court of Quebec judges should not necessarily be aligned with that of the salaries of other persons remunerated with public funds, “unless a very particular situation arises, as has happened in the past, in order to redress public spending.” But in the absence of such a situation, once the appropriate salary threshold has been identified, the Samoisette Committee said it need only examine whether there is “consistency in government decisions” to increase the salaries of all those paid from public funds. An independent committee that examined the salaries of Quebec Crown Prosecutors recently recommended a 17 per cent increase for the period of 2023–2027, which the government recently proposed to the National Assembly for approval, noted the Samoisette Committee.
Keeping pace with the salaries of Superior Court judges will certainly help the Court of Quebec to entice lawyers, said Valois. “While there is not an exodus that is taking place, there are judges who are leaving to go to Superior Court because the salary is higher,” and because it holds a “much greater power of attraction,” said Valois. “The Committee’s recommendation to increase the salaries of Court of Quebec judges so that they earn 87 per cent of what Superior Court judges make will be welcomed by them, despite everything.”