A stressed legal system got some much-needed breathing room after the province announced funding boosts in its last budget, with $14.5 million for Crown prosecutor resources and $81 million for Legal Aid services.
Damian Rogers, treasurer for the Alberta Crown Attorney’s Association, was supposed to present to Town of St. Paul council on March 13, asking for a letter of support to request funds for an overstretched prosecution offices, which includes St. Paul.
“In the last five years, the St. Paul Crown Prosecutors’ Office has seen a 29% increase in the number of charges commenced,” stated a letter from ACAA, adding that last year, there was a 21 per cent increase in charges commenced. “This 21% increase meant that the average St. Paul prosecutor was responsible for prosecuting twice as many charges as the average prosecutor in Alberta.”
In 2015/16, the letter noted, the St. Paul prosecutors were not able to deal with 1,016 of the new charges that were laid and commenced in provincial court, adding a backlog on top of the charges that began in 2016/2017. On top of that, the office is operating with reduced staff, at five prosecutors, down from the full allotment of six, states the letter.
However, Rogers deferred his visit to St. Paul following a March 9 announcement from the NDP government that it will hire a total of 50 Crown prosecutors and 30 support staff to deal with a chronic backlog in the court system.
Rogers said his association was happy the government recognized there needs to be more hiring, “but we don’t that’s sufficient to meet the caseload that we have.” The recent announcement means Crown prosecutors will have the same capacity they did back in 2010, but the number of cases they handle have gone up by 10 per cent, while they have new obligations to fulfill as well.
For the St. Paul office, this is especially difficult, as he calls it the “most challenged for resources in the province” because of its volume of work.
“By some measures, St. Paul is one of the busiest offices in the province; it certainly is (the busiest) in terms of the number of cases per prosecutor.”
Last July, the Supreme Court of Canada made a landmark decision imposing limits on the amount of time an accused must wait before the start of his/her trial. Following the Jordan decision, Rogers cited a concern that under-resourced prosecution could see serious crimes, including murder cases, stayed. Last February, a senior prosecutor in Alberta stayed 15 criminal cases, which included serious charges of assault with a weapon, impaired driving, and assaulting a peace officer, citing a lack of resources to prosecute them.
Court resources also factor into the speed of cases, said Rogers, adding these are under-resourced as well.
Rogers said his association will be waiting to see how the budget announcements address Crown Prosecutors’ work and their ability to deal with the backlog of cases.
While Crown Prosecutors were glad to hear news of funding increases, Legal Aid funding was also welcoming news of a funding increase. Last year, Legal Aid received $68 million, which it went through before the year was out, while this year’s budget provides just over $81 million, an increase to deal with extra capacity issues. The decision was celebrated as ensuring an imbalance didn’t grow between prosecution and defense services.
“The justice system is broken, just like most other systems are right now,” said local Wildrose MLA David Hanson, adding he was encouraged to see some funding for an under-resourced system. Rural offices are particularly challenged, having four times the workload of prosecutors’ offices in Edmonton and Calgary, he said, adding that personally, he would like to see the courthouse in Smoky Lake opened to take some pressure off of St. Paul’s office.
“Rural areas, in general, I think, are overworked,” he said, adding the Wildrose would like to put together a rural crime task force to get some input from the public and community members on how to improve the justice system.
