Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall says a “severe lack of funding” for B.C.’s provincial courts is starving the justice system to death.
“We’re talking about a backlog in the system that is allowing people to walk free not because they were judged, but because they couldn’t even get before a judge,” she says.
She raised the issue in the Legislature this week and cited examples of charges being stayed against an RCMP officer accused of impaired driving, a pair of alleged cocaine traffickers in Cranbrook, and a man on Quadra Island charged with shooting and killing a puppy.
In each instance, the cases were thrown out because the judge said it took too long to bring them to trial.
Mungall blames it on both attrition among B.C.’s Crown prosecutors and $6 million in gradual budget reductions.
“Prosecutors are not being replaced, so the attorney general is looking for savings there, but it’s actually costing society more,” she says.
“Interestingly, it cost the B.C. government $6 million to pay off the legal fees of two Liberal insiders convicted of corruption. It’s like one in, one out.”
She adds that combined with a lack of funding for sheriffs, it “adds up to a court system that is broken.”
During question period last week, Mungall asked Finance Minister Colin Hansen and Solicitor General Rich Coleman whether they would commit to increased funding to clear up the backlog.
Coleman deferred to the absent attorney general, but Hansen replied: “The budget that we have set out for the Ministry of Attorney General for the three years of the fiscal plan starting April 1 is consistent with the same numbers that were tabled last year.”
Hansen added the ministry is involved with a review “to find out how the justice system can be improved to ensure that there is more timely access and to make sure that the appropriate efficiencies are found.”
Mungall wasn’t satisfied with the response.
“Criminal cases have been waiting more than two years to be heard because of case backlog and court delays,” she says.