What is institutional delay in bringing an accused to trial?

Institutional delay is the period that begins to run when the parties are ready for trial but the system cannot accommodate them. As Sopinka J. said in Morin, “[i]n Utopia... resources would be unlimited and their application would be administratively perfect so that there would be no shortage of judges or courtrooms and essential court staff would always be available”. Unfortunately, we are not in Utopia. The rapidly growing demands on our criminal justice system result in limited resources. In Mills v. The Queen, 1986 CanLII 17 (SCC), [1986] 1 S.C.R. 863 Lamer J. stated at p. 935: In an ideal world there would be no delays in bringing an accused to trial and there would be no difficulties in securing fully adequate funding, personnel and facilities for the administration of criminal justice. As we do not live in such a world, some allowance must be made for limited institutional resources.