Federal budget fails to throw ‘drowning’ courts a life ring

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While the 2026 federal budget includes some modest re-investment in the federal Courts Administration Services (CAS) after funding cuts, along with new funding for the Black Justice Strategy, legal advocates say it’s far below what the system needs.

In its pre-budget submission to the House of Commons’ finance committee, the Canadian Bar Association had called for sustained, targeted funding to address the CAS’ three critical operational pressures—cybersecurity infrastructure, expired immigration caseload capacity, and translation services under the Official Languages Act.

To that end, the budget is promising $58 million to CAS over four years, intended to “support compliance with the Official Languages Act and reduce the existing translation backlog, help the Federal Court manage elevated caseloads, as well as complete work to modernize the infrastructure that supports Canada’s national courts.”

Nalini Reddy, counsel with Fridman & Co. Law Office in Winnipeg and a member of the CBA’s Federal Courts Bench and Bar Liaison committee, says this funding is clearly insufficient for the needs of the Federal Courts, especially after cuts that came in the previous budget.

“The 2025-26 budget was almost $19 million less than the previous year’s budget, so they’re making up for a shortfall,” she says, speaking on her own behalf.

“The court’s caseload has only increased over that period of time. So, if we subtract the $19 million that was lost, we’re looking at less than a $30 million increase over four years, which doesn’t account for the amount that was lost. It’s not putting the Court further ahead.”

The Federal Court’s caseload has grown over 300 per cent over the past several years, largely because of immigration cases as a result of changes in federal policy, and new software Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is using that has proven error-prone in decisions on claims, which Reddy calls “indefensible.” These all require court challenges, which take up more time and resources.

“The court is already drowning,” she says.

“There needs to be a massive increase to its funding for more judicial appointments.”

The CBA’s submission called on the government to work with it to conduct an independent review of how policies, particularly at IRCC, are creating unintended pressure on the courts. The association also called for an independent, evidence-based process to ensure the CAS has stable, multi-year funding that keeps pace with caseload growth and includes a court capacity assessment mechanism.

The government proposed legislative amendments to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Act to improve information sharing with newcomers and other government departments, making it easier for them to access government services. 

Reddy says an increased backlog in security screenings has led to a massive increase in mandamus applications, which, again, takes more court time and resources.

“Under-resourcing immigration is one of the biggest drivers of the increase at the Federal Court,” Reddy says.

“The government … could make different choices with respect to immigration that would lessen the load on the court.”

As for the allocated funds for translation services, she says that’s also unlikely to meet the needs related to the backlog. The same is true of the need to modernize IT infrastructure and courtrooms for the demands of electronic filing and document management.

The CBA also wanted to see sustained federal funding for new judicial appointments to expand Unified Family Courts, along with long-term base funding for Legal Aid across all provinces and territories. However, neither was included in the budget.

Peter Kingsley, K.C., executive director of Legal Aid Manitoba, and the chair of the CBA’s Access to Justice subcommittee, says he’s disappointed by this lack of commitment by the feds. On the upside, he sees real benefit in investing in Canada’s Black Justice Strategy.

The $136.3 million over four years includes $58.6 million for community-based diversion, rehabilitation, and reintegration initiatives for Black youth, victim services, and supports and access to justice services. Additionally, $41.1 million will be allocated for community reintegration services delivered by Black-led organizations, record suspension application services, recidivism research, and other targeted public safety initiatives. Just over $20 million will go towards supporting youth employment and skills development strategies targeted for Black youth to be delivered by Employment and Social Development Canada.

“These are positive system-wide fixes,” Kingsley says.

“I’m not seeing that in the rest of the budget. That is the only place where the words ‘access to justice’ are mentioned in the whole budget.”

He notes there’s a one-time $10 million fund for the Indigenous Justice Strategy, which is wholly insufficient for the needs.

“That’s not an ongoing response to either reconciliation or to what has been accepted widely as a colonial system that systemically creates harm to Indigenous communities.”

The budget allocated new funding to Justice Canada, including $6 million over three years for the Office of the Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime; $30.9 million over three years for Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision services; and $12 million over three years for Child Advocacy Centres.

While those are great responses, Kingsley says they’re aimed at the end of the line.

“They are not addressing the root causes of problems. They are not ultimately going to create a better environment where crime does not occur in the first place.”

He says there’s no systemic investment across the structure of the justice system. Even the funding to CAS misses the fact that the majority of work in the justice system is done in provincial and superior courts. However, the budget is a high-level document, and there may still be allocations within broader funding envelopes that are not broken down in it.

There’s also nothing new for access to justice.

“I’m not seeing any increased funding to the people who deliver legal services to the most vulnerable Canadians, which are legal aid programs across the country,” Kingsley says.

“There’s nothing in this budget for that.”