President of rural group hails hiring of extra court staff
The province has taken a good step to deal with increased rural crime by hiring more Crown prosecutors and judges, the head of the association for rural municipal leaders says.
“That has been a pent-up demand … and now they’re trying to adjust for that. I think that’s a great approach,” Al Kemmere, president of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, said Tuesday during the group’s annual convention in Edmonton.
“We have to try and deal with that because nobody wants charges waived because of timelines. I don’t think that serves anybody’s best interest, and at least the victims of crime now can have a chance to know the process is going to be used properly.”
Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley announced earlier this month she’s dealing with court backlogs by hiring 35 new Crown prosecutors and 30 support staff, in addition to 15 prosecutors already being recruited.
Part of the reason for the move was a Supreme Court of Canada ruling last summer that cases generally shouldn’t take longer than 18 months in provincial courts and 30 months in superior courts.
She has appointed 12 provincial court judges and created 10 federally appointed positions in Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench and Court of Appeal.
Kemmere said rural crime has been escalating over the past few years, possibly because of the economic downturn, and municipalities face challenges dealing with the issue. Criminals can sometimes hide from authorities on the many kilometres of littleused roads, so in many areas people have set up rural crime watches to protect themselves, he said.
“I trust our government is doing the best that they can to try and manage the crime.”
Ganley said after a speech to the convention her department is working on such changes as electronic disclosure of evidence to defence lawyers, which has cut the time required to four days from two weeks since it was started in Edmonton in 2015 and is now being expanded.
“Crime rates have been going down for over a decade, and then we have seen a little bit of an uptick recently, and I think that’s certainly a concern to us, and I think it’s a concern to municipal leaders as well, so we will focus on what we can do to improve the situation.”