Criminal justice system ranks seventh out of the provinces

Alberta has improved its grade in a comparison of the nation’s criminal justice systems.

Despite rising to a B from a C+ in the MacDonald-Laurier Institute’s second annual report, the province dropped from sixth to seventh in the overall rankings of provinces and territories.

That puts Alberta behind six other provinces when it comes to quality of judicial services it provides to its citizens, as calculated by the institute. The 13 provinces and territories were graded by the institute on five judicial criteria: public safety, support for victims, costs and resources, fairness and access to justice, and efficiency.

The institute’s report card, released Monday, followed a similar grading of systems across Canada done for 2016, addressing challenges within the judicial system.

The 2017 report found Alberta had improved, but not as well as other provinces.

“Alberta has one of the highest property crime rates among the provinces and this has increased significantly since 2012,” it said, citing one area for potential improvement. It added the province’s treatment of Indigenous people in its judicial system also has room for improvement.

“Disproportionately high levels of Indigenous incarceration relative to the population are a problem in every jurisdiction in Canada, but are particularly acute in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.”

The province with the top mark for the second year was Prince Edward Island, followed by New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Ontario, Nova Scotia and Quebec also preceded Alberta in the rankings, although the top seven provinces all garnered an overall B grade.

Nunavut, Saskatchewan and B.C. rounded out the top 10, all getting C+ grades, while Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon were given C ratings.

Alberta was given top marks for efficiency in spending.

“The province performed well in the cost of its criminal justice system with a lower-than-average cost of corrections per capita, the lowest average daily inmate cost in Canada, and relatively fewer police officers per capita than elsewhere in Canada,” the report said.