It is always interesting to see how Liberal spin doctors and trolls explain away the 19 months plus Liberal government's incompetence in this area and blame the previous government.

The major problem or bottleneck here was identified in the report:  "Despite a raft of new appointments, there are still 49 vacancies of federally appointed judges across the country, and more than a dozen vacancies of provincially appointed judges."

Simply put, this government is incompetent when it comes to filling vacancies.  Not just judicial vacancies which is the problem here but vacancies in general.  For example, there are 5 key officer of parliament positions (e.g. the ethics commissioner) unfilled with new commissioners.  

Why is this government so incompetent at filling important positions?  It's a combination of giving identity politics priority over actual experience and merit, having little to no experience in hiring senior people, and being green and incompetent starting at the very top.