b'One of my priorities for the coming year will be to maintain and strengthen the Tribunals expertise within the context of the new legislative mandate.ledtoanincreaseinthenumberofwithdrawals.transformation is dependent on the ongoing commitment In my view, this is a prime example of how effective thisand continuous support of the Administrative Tribunals process is.Support Service of Canada, one of the Tribunals key As I anticipated in my first annual report, the requestspartners. To this end, the deployment of a new case for review before the Tribunal are more and more com- management system will be essential to support the plex. This complexity is confirmed, in the need forbusiness modelling completed by the Tribunal in 2018-the Tribunal to establish the essential elements of new2019. Finally, I will prepare a strategic plan to obtain violations, the evidence presented and the presence ofadditionalresourcestocontinueprovidingCanadians expert witnesses. As a result, in the past year, althoughwith an impartial, independent, fair and expeditious there were fewer hearings, they were longer given theirtreatment of their requests. I feel ready to take on this complexity. For example, the average length of a hear- huge challenge with my entire team.ing for a case involving the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is now four days. Inordertocontinueimprovingaccessibilitytothe Tribunal, we have launched a series of special pro- Luc Blangerjects. Among these projects, two are close to my heart: rewriting the Tribunals practice notes in plainChairpersonand simple language and the modernization of the guide for self-represented parties. Additionally, all Tribunaldecisionsandordersarenowpublished simultaneously in both official languages. In order to mitigate the impacts associated with the new legislative mandate, the Tribunal will launch the second phase of its transformation. However, the success of this ANNUAL REPORT 2018-2019 3'