Information sur les audiences

Hearing Procedures

Although hearings before the Tribunal are similar to court hearings, they are less formal.  Parties appearing before the Tribunal are not required to be represented by legal counsel but are free to have legal representation if they so wish.  Certain procedural rules apply to hearings before the Tribunal, and it is useful for parties intending to appear before the Tribunal to be familiar with these procedures.  The Tribunal’s procedural rules are authorized by the Statutory Powers Procedure Act, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Act and the Tribunal Adjudicative Records Act, 2019.

When a person files an appeal, application, or complaint with the Tribunal, the matter is assigned to a Tribunal Coordinator.  The Tribunal Coordinator responsible for the matter will send out an acknowledgement letter to the parties canvassing the parties’ availability for potential hearing dates.

Depending on the scope and complexity of the matter before the Tribunal, the next step may be a Pre-Hearing Conference and Settlement Conference (discussed below), a motion made by either party (discussed below), or the hearing itself.  The next appearance date will be set, as will dates for the exchange of materials, motions, etc.

The Tribunal hears a variety of matters under a wide range of statutes including appeals, applications, complaints and referrals. For ease of reading, these guidelines refer to these different types of matters collectively as “appeals” and to the party initiating the matter as the “appellant”, except where a specific type of matter is referred to.

Appeals are normally heard by a panel of three or more Tribunal members and presided over by the Tribunal Chair or a Vice-Chair assigned by the Tribunal Chair.  The panel hearing an appeal has members with background and expertise in the subject matter of the appeal.  The main parties to appeals are the person or group appealing, known as the appellant, and the person who made the decision that is under appeal (the municipality, program administrator, marketing board, the Farm Products Marketing Commission, or the Director), known as the respondent.

The order of presentation at most hearings is as follows:

• The panel Chair outlines the procedures to be followed for the hearing.
• In appeals under the Drainage Act, the engineer who prepared the report under appeal will be asked at the start of the hearing to provide an overview of the project.  This introduces the Tribunal to the project and the issues.  Questions of clarification are allowed when the engineer has finished this brief presentation.  The engineer will then be asked to provide the details of how the assessments and allowances were calculated.  Appellants then present their case.
• The appellant presents his or her case to the Tribunal panel first.  The appellant chooses the manner of presentation of his or her case.  This could involve reading a written presentation, presenting verbal evidence, calling witnesses, and/or presenting documents to the Tribunal.  The appellant may wish to outline briefly the matters to be considered by the Tribunal at the beginning of the presentation.  The appellant’s objective is to present to the Tribunal all facts that are relevant to his or her case and to persuade the Tribunal that the appellant’s request should be granted.
• The respondent has the opportunity to question any witnesses who testify on behalf of the appellant.  This includes the appellant where the appellant is also a witness. The Tribunal panel may question the appellant and the appellant’s witnesses.
• Following the completion of the appellant’s case, the respondent will present its evidence.  The appellant will then be given an opportunity to question the respondent’s witnesses.  The Tribunal panel may question the respondent.
• The appellant will have the opportunity to provide evidence in reply to any new matter that is raised during the respondent’s presentation of his or her case. 
• Following the presentation of evidence, the parties will be given an opportunity to make a closing statement, in which they summarize their case or present their argument before the conclusion of the hearing.
• When the hearing is complete, the parties leave and the Tribunal deliberates the evidence and makes its decision.  A written decision with reasons is sent to the parties once the Tribunal has made its decision.
• In applications under the Farm Registration and Farm Organizations Funding Act normally the applicant presents their case to the panel, the panel asks questions and compares the evidence provided to the criteria specified in the legislation and makes a decision.  A respondent is not normally present.
• If at any point in the hearing, a party is unsure of the procedure to be followed, he or she can ask the panel Chair for direction.