The provincial average to complete a criminal charge in the Ontario Court of Justice steadily increased between 1998 and 2007, reaching 9.2 court appearances and 205 days.

June 2008 - Attorney General Chris Bentley announces the Justice on Target strategy, setting a four-year target to reduce by 30 per cent the provincial average number of days and appearances required to complete a criminal case.

October 2008 to October 2010 – Every court in the Ontario Court of Justice is engaged in the strategy.

November 2010 - Justice on Target is recognized with the top 2010 IPAC/Deloitte Public Sector Leadership Award. This award acknowledges and lauds the exciting and innovative work underway by justice participants across Ontario to address criminal court delay.

June 2012 – Criminal court statistics from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012 show that the average number of appearances needed to complete a criminal charge province-wide has been reduced from 9.2 in 2007 to 8.5, a reduction of 8.1 per cent. The number of days needed to complete a criminal charge has been reduced from 205 in 2007 to 192, a 6.6 per cent reduction.

Attorney General John Gerretsen issues an open letter to all criminal justice participants announcing that the strategy will continue to build on these results.

September 2012 – After consulting with all justice participant groups, the strategy refines how progress is measured, moving from across-the-board, charge-based reduction targets, to benchmarks that take into account a case's complexity.

March 2013 – Information about the performance of Ontario's criminal courts measured against the benchmarks is made available to the public, along with performance goals for 2013.  Information about the performance and goals for each criminal court location is also available upon request.

Justice On Target

• Achievements
• JOT Initiatives
• Ideas at Work
• A Brief History of JOT
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Advising the Justice on Target strategy
• JOT Homepage