Statutory decision-makers and the obligation to give reasons for decisions

The principal advantages of giving written reasons for decisions are generally considered to be: • improving the quality of the decisions being made, • enhancing the fairness and transparency of the decision and the decision- making process, and • facilitating the exercise of any rights to have the decision reviewed.3 Improved Quality The actual process of setting out the reasons for a decision in [...] Also, the knowledge that the reasons will be scrutinized by the people directly affected by the decision (especially the “losing” party), and possibly others such as the public, the courts, professional colleagues or others in a particular 3 In the leading Canadian case on the obligation to give reasons, the Supreme Court of Canada gave a concise summary of how reasons can achieve all three of the [...] In Baker, the SCC set out the following five factors to be considered in determining the extent of the procedural fairness protections to which an individual is entitled: • the nature of the decision; • the nature of the specific legislative provision and of the statutory scheme as a whole under which the decision is made; • the importance of the decision to the individual affected; • the legitima [...] Further, the reasons given for the decision must be those of the decision-maker; if someone else makes the decision, or provides the reasons for it, the decision can be set aside by the court as giving rise to an apprehension of bias, or as offending the non-delegation rule.34 However, the courts have also recognized that while the SDM has the legal responsibility to make the ultimate decision, as [...] As the Ontario Court of Appeal stated, consultation with staff should be encouraged where it promotes the ultimate aim of the drafting process: to create a set of reasons that accurately and fully reflects the thought processes of the SDM.36 The test for whether such assistance is acceptable is whether it compromises either the fairness or the integrity of the decision-making process.37.