Competition Tribunal
Tribunal de la concurrence
Registry Doc. No.: 136
Date: Matter:
April 20, 2022 CT-2021-002 – Canada (Commissioner of Competition) v Secure Energy Services Inc.
Direction to Counsel (from Mr. Justice Gascon, Chairperson)
Re: Chess Clock and Sitting Times
As the parties are aware and as is the usual practice in proceedings before the Tribunal, the hearing scheduled to start on May 9, 2022 will proceed using the chess-clock method of managing the hearing time, detailed in the Tribunal’s Notice on “Chess Clock” Proceedings. Given the total time set aside for this hearing (i.e., 16 days for the evidentiary portion and 3 days for final oral argument), the Tribunal directs as follows:
1. As it does in all of its proceedings, the Tribunal assumes that the hearing time is divided equally between the parties. This means that each party has been allotted 8 days for the evidentiary portion of the hearing (including fact witnesses and expert witnesses), and 1.5 days for final oral argument.
2. In light of the Tribunal’s recent experience, the parties will typically have 4 to 4.25 hours per hearing day, with the rest of the hearing time being used for panel questions and procedural or housekeeping matters. The time for panel questions is typically higher during final oral argument.
3. The total time available to each party for the evidentiary portion of the hearing will therefore be 34 hours. This evidentiary portion includes time that a party may wish to spend on an opening statement. The total time available to each party for the final oral argument portion of the hearing will be 6 hours.
4. The hearing days will typically be as follows (all times are Ottawa EST time) : a. 9:30 am Hearing starts b. 11:00 am 20-minute health break c. 11:20 am Hearing resumes d. 12:50 pm 80-minute lunch break
e. 2:10 pm f. 3:25 pm g. 3:45 pm h. 4:45 pm
Hearing resumes 20-minute health break Hearing resumes Hearing ends.
5. The Tribunal may consider modifying the starting time of the hearing days, after consultation with the parties, where witnesses are testifying from a different time zone.
6. The total daily hearing time adds up to 5.25 hours, leaving approximately one hour daily for panel questions, procedural / housekeeping matters and technical issues that may arise in relation to the Zoom video conferencing platform.
7. The time for the health and lunch breaks are indicative only and it will be up to counsel who will be examining / cross-examining / arguing at that time to determine the appropriate moment at which to break around those indicative times.
8. The parties should note that, given the personal constraints of a Tribunal panel member on each of the following days, the hearing schedule will need to be adjusted as follows:
a. On Wednesday, May 18, the hearing will end at 2:30 pm; b. On Friday, June 17, the lunch break will start at 11:00 am and will last until 1:30 pm. c. The Tribunal will be amenable to make necessary adjustments to the schedule to ensure that the parties do not lose any of their allotted chess-clock time because of these shortened hearing days.
Annie Ruhlmann Acting Deputy Registrar Competition Tribunal