What could have been — old visions and plans for Ottawa

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by phil235

It’s true that the Federal Court hears cases in various locations across the country, but I don’t think a US Circuit Court is a good comparison. Those are courts that hear a wide range of cases across a large district. In Canada, the Federal Court only hears cases in certain areas within the federal jurisdiction, a huge chunk of which is Ottawa-based. The Court itself is Ottawa based, as is the Federal Court of Appeal.

Court houses don’t just consist of court rooms. The bulk of the space is dedicated to court administration. You can put all of those activities in an office building, but I think it’s fair that most countries and jurisdictions see the value in investing in proper facilities for their courts. By failing to build a Federal courthouse, we are just being cheap, which is pretty much par for the course.

The federal court schedule is public. It is a lot of out of Ottawa and virtual hearings, certainly not enough to justify a large courthouse. It is mostly mundane appeals of administrative tribunals, and not like the American federal court or national courts in unitary states.

The current docket appears to only show one significant Ottawa case (at the Supreme Court building) with a few virtual Ottawa cases.

https://www.fct-cf.gc.ca/en/court-files-and-decisions/hearings-calendar

The court of appeal is based in the Supreme Court building, as far as I know this has always been the case.

I don’t think there is any particular international best practice of housing the administrative staff of courts in specially built buildings.

The fact that there isn’t a triad of buildings does not seem like justification to spend a lot of money on a building of questionable value, nor a justification to leave a site vacant forever.