Shortage of sheriffs still plaguing courts

A shortage of sheriffs closed two Victoria courtrooms and delayed trials again this week.

On Monday, both scheduled trial courts were closed because of the lack of sheriffs. A smallclaims trial and a family trial, which were scheduled for a full day, were adjourned.

The small-claims matter could not proceed because one of the parties was in custody and there was no sheriff to lead the man from a cell in the Victoria courthouse to the courtroom.

“We have a chronic problem in this province and particularly on the Island with respect to sufficient sheriffs being available,” Victoria provincial court Judge Carmen Rogers said Monday as she adjourned the cases.

“We can’t run our courtrooms without the sheriffs. They are important to the security of the participants and the security of the courtroom, as well as the orderly conduct of proceedings. So unfortunately, we do not have sheriffs to deal with either of these matters. I apologize. I can’t do anything more than that.”

On Tuesday, two trial courts were delayed by two hours. On Wednesday, another provincial courtroom was closed all day.

Attorney General David Eby said the government has committed to take action to increase the number of court sheriffs and staff of the Court Services Branch to reduce delays and provide a system that is able to hear and resolve disputes in a timely matter.

“We recognize that Victoria is facing recruitment challenges and are always looking at how best to deploy staff through our ongoing recruitment campaign. This week, 30 new sheriff recruits graduated, bringing the complement to 490 throughout the province. At times, sheriffs can be deployed to serve at locations throughout B.C. when needed,” Eby said.

However, none of the 30 new recruits are being sent to the Victoria courthouse. The government said 24 will go to the Lower Mainland, two will go to Oliver, one each will be deployed to Kamloops, Nanaimo, Prince George and Dawson Creek. This week, at least one sheriff was flown in from Prince George to ease the shortage.

“It’s a scramble day in and day out,” said Dean Purdy, spokesman for the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union.

“They’re trying to plug holes in the courtroom with managers and supervisors.”

Still, Purdy said he’s happy about the new graduating class.

“But until they address the real crux of the problem, the wage issue, they can hire all the new recruit classes they want. The RCMP and municipal police forces are aggressively recruiting both sheriffs and correctional officers right out of the Justice Institute,” Purdy said.

“We know 46 sheriffs on the Lower Mainland alone have their feet in the door with the RCMP. In the last three to four weeks, we’ve lost 14 deputy sheriffs to the police.”

Among enforcement agencies in B.C., sheriffs are the lowest paid, Purdy said. Sheriffs are paid $58,000 a year. By comparison, the average salary of a municipal police officer is $93,000. “In the last 16 years, sheriffs and correctional officers have got smaller wage increases while the RCMP, municipal police and Transit Police continue to climb and get larger wage increases,” Purdy said.

In February, a B.C. Supreme Court judge freed an accused cocaine trafficker because there was no sheriff to lead the man from his cell at the Victoria courthouse to the courtroom. Within the week, another judge freed an alleged heroin trafficker because no sheriffs were available for his trial.

Former B.C. attorney general Suzanne Anton called the situation “a bit of an anomaly.” In the following days, Anton had meetings with her officials and increased her budget by $2.7 million to train more sheriffs.

The new government has inherited the problem, Purdy said. In mid-September, the union met with Eby and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth, and they will meet again within the month.

“We’re not saying sheriffs need to be paid as much as police, but we need to close that gap about half way and bring salaries closer to $71,000,” Purdy said. “Because sheriffs and corrections officers like their jobs. We firmly believe they will stay if they address the wage issue.”

Eby noted that benefits add 24 per cent to sheriff salaries. “Any discussion of sheriff salaries would take place in the appropriate collective bargaining process, so it would be inappropriate to comment on this at this time,” he said.