Hon. Denise Batters: Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate.

Senator Harder, earlier this month, in response to a question on court delays, Prime Minister Trudeau said in the House of Commons that his government has made over 100 appointments. When I asked the Minister of Justice to clarify whether he meant 100 appointments government-wide, she said she didn't know what he was talking about and she would get back to our Legal Committee with an answer.

Here we are, three weeks later, and — surprise — still no answer, but now we see media reports confirming that the Trudeau government has, in fact, only made around 100 appointments government-wide in almost 18 months of governing. The number of vacant GIC appointments has ballooned to a shocking 572, meaning more than one out of every three appointments is currently vacant.

On this issue, as with many others, this Trudeau government is nearly paralyzed by inaction and delay.

Senator Harder, you were the head of the Trudeau government transition team, and a key part of your role was to assist the government on appointments and the appointment process. Your job now, of course, is to answer for the Trudeau government in this chamber, and that means you have to answer for this failure of an appointment system you helped create.

Why is this government having such trouble making key Governor-in-Council appointments? Is it because of poor planning or have they just exhausted the list of names from the Trudeau Foundation?

Hon. Peter Harder (Government Representative in the Senate): I would like to respond to the question by underlining the importance this government attaches to a transparent appointment process and to ensure that the appointment process itself yields the kind of diversity that the Government of Canada, in this year and this decade, should espouse in the appointments it makes.

It is absolutely true that it has taken some time to ensure the appropriate arm's-length advisory processes are in place, but it is also true that the appointments that have been made have been broadly representative of the diversity that Canada is at its best.

Senator Batters: Senator Harder, there is no excuse for the inaction and delay of this Trudeau government. Its failure to make appointments is having some grave consequences.

This government's failure to make judicial appointments is amplifying the crisis in court delays in this country. Because of extreme court delays, due in no small part to a lack of federally appointed judges, we are now seeing cases of first-degree murder and even horrific cases of sexual and physical assault of children being stayed by the courts.

There are currently 57 vacant judicial positions, and the government just announced the creation of a further 28 judicial positions in last week's budget. For this government, all that means is that we now have a whopping 85 vacancies.

In October, the Trudeau government dismantled all Judicial Advisory Committees, bringing the appointment process to a crawl. Almost six months later, 10 out of 17 of those JACs remain completely vacant.

Senator Harder, this is an emergency. We need less talk and more action. Why won't this government immediately move to appoint more judges — something only the federal government has the ability to do — to help fix this court delay crisis?

Senator Harder: Again, I thank the honourable senator for her question and will certainly pass on her concerns to the minister responsible.

I want to simply assure all senators and the senator asking the question that the Minister of Justice and the Government of Canada takes very seriously judicial appointments. It also takes seriously the need to revamp the GIC process so that it is more broadly represented and yields more broadly representative judicial appointments.