Mr. Dave Walsh:

It is the cost associated with preparing for and defending judicial reviews and the length of time these cases take. The longer a case requires to be defended and continues through the courts, the greater the cost. We deal with very expensive litigation in the higher courts. That adds to the overall cost of the board. As the Comptroller and Auditor General has outlined, roughly half of the costs we incurred were our costs and half were incurred by third parties where we lost. We do not defend cases where we feel there are significant weaknesses or flaws. In cases where our legal advice is that this is a difficult one, rather than delay, incur further costs and tie up the courts, we would take concessions so the case can be remitted. Cases that were lodged in 2018 were only coming to court in 2020 and 2021. Some of those new JRs are being deferred into the court system at that point.