Public Interest and Innovation Committee (former Advocacy and Innovation)

The SOAR's Public Interest and Innovation Committee is pleased to present a self assessment tool that was designed to assist tribunals to evaluate the delivery of services to self represented parties with a view to showcasing these services to users.

The Access to Justice (A2J) Index for Tribunals in Ontario was developed by a subcommittee that reviewed a variety of resources.  They researched and solicited input from different tribunals within Ontario who shared varying approaches and experiences. A draft document was circulated to experts in the areas of self represented parties and tribunals

SOAR recently conducted preliminary research on current adjudicator performance evaluation practices, with a focus on Ontario tribunals. We hope this research will be a first step in a broader project of developing best practice guidelines for tribunals that wish to engage in such evaluation activities. The report includes recommendations for next steps.

This document sets out principles that apply to the reappointment of members to adjudicative administrative tribunals in Ontario and in particular to the 37 adjudicative bodies with statutory judicial powers governed by the Adjudicative Tribunals Accountability, Governance and Appointments Act, 2009 (ATAGAA).

Principles that should govern the initial appointment of members of adjudicative tribunals are set out in SOAR’s Statement of Principles for the Appointment of Adjudicative Tribunal Members.

This document sets out principles that apply to the appointment of members to adjudicative administrative tribunals in Ontario and in particular to the 37 adjudicative bodies with statutory judicial powers governed by the Adjudicative Tribunals Accountability, Governance and Appointments Act, 2009 (ATAGAA).

This paper was prepared for the Society of Ontario Adjudicators and Regulators (SOAR) as part of SOAR’s Advocacy and Innovation Committee's ongoing consideration of the issues of appointments and re-appointments of Order-in-Council appointments in Ontario. It supplements research done in 2014-15 by Aisha Amode, available on the SOAR website. The current paper was prepared by Zinejda Rita in April 2016. Ms. Rita is a law student at Osgoode Hall Law School.

This report, commissioned by SOAR, outlines key findings and themes following a study of other Canadian jurisdictions on reappointments and term limits. The report discusses the study’s findings but does not set out SOAR’s views on the best approaches that should be followed in Ontario.  

This report is a follow up to the study conducted by SOAR regarding the impact of the government directive on term limits, which requires that order-in-council (OIC) appointments not exceed a maximum of 10 years published in 2015

See The Society of Ontario Adjudicators and Regulators “Study on the Impact of the