HRTO

The tribunal cluster under which the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (“HRTO”) falls, is undergoing a change.

Effective January 1, 2019, the Ontario government has created a new cluster tribunal. Called Tribunals Ontario, with a newly appointed executive chair to oversee it, Tribunals Ontario will be responsible for the 19 tribunals that fell under the ministry’s previous three tribunal clusters: the Social Justice Tribunals Ontario (under which the HRTO fell), Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario and Safety, Licensing Appeals and Standards Tribunals Ontario.

The HRTO’s website states that it is experiencing a shortage of adjudicators and warns that scheduled mediations and hearings may need to be re-scheduled to a later date. Further, on October 3, 2018, the HRTO released a Practice Direction on New Case Processing System and Case Management Conference Calls, to address an unprecedented 25% increase in its caseload.

Given these, it would not be surprising to see further changes to the HRTO in the near future.

https://news.ontario.ca/mag/en/2018/12/executive-chair-appointed-to-lead-tribunals-ontario.html