Bill 204, The Justice Monitoring Act

May 9, 2011

Mr. Anderson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to rise and support Bill 204, the Justice System Monitoring Act, put forward by my esteemed caucus colleague the hon. Member for Calgary-Fish Creek. She deserves so many accolades for the work that she’s done with regard to the Solicitor General’s file both as Solicitor General and while in opposition and for not just the Solicitor General file but the Justice file, particularly as it relates to children, child protection, but also just on issues of criminal justice and transparency in the system and so forth. She’s been a wonderful advocate for that, and she’s probably done more in that regard for legislation than all the folks in here put together. So I’d like to thank her for bringing this forward.

I’d also like to say that, you know, there’s been a lot of talk in the previous speeches by members of the government. They’ve talked about, you know, that all this reporting is going to cause all kinds of costs and diversion of resources. You know what? Transparency is a great thing. Sunlight and transparency actually is a very small amount of money to put forward. It does cost money to be transparent, but transparency leads to efficiency. When things are being done and there’s not light been shone on it, that’s when waste and corruption and mismanagement, et cetera, occur.

We see it rampant with this government at this time. They don’t like transparency, whether it be in the health care system, whether it be in multiple different files, and because of that, there’s massive mismanagement of the system. So investing in transparency and accountability is always worth the money. If you didn’t go by that, then what the government might want to do is say: let’s just shut down the Auditor General. That costs money to run the Audi-tor General’s office. Well, no. We do that because it’s an investment in transparency and accountability that saves money down the road. So, too, with this bill.

The goal of this bill is simple. It’s to track the criminal justice process so that we can identify bottlenecks and delays in the justice system and thereby not only make sure that our justice system is strong and beyond any kind of disrepute but that also we do save money in wasted resources by that transparency.

My support for this bill is simple. The justice system must do better for the people of Alberta than it currently does. Justice is an issue close to my heart as I previously served as parliamentary assistant to the Solicitor General, and I know that the police officers and peace officers as well as the Alberta sheriffs do an amazing job serving and protecting the people of Alberta. Sadly, though, the follow-through is absolutely abysmal. It seems like the hard work of our officers goes to waste as justice is off in the distant horizon. Bill 204 will help us pinpoint exactly where this government and where the system is failing Albertans so that we can remedy it.

We do know this much is fact. Alberta has the second-longest court case line in the country at 270 days. Alberta is also first in defendants not showing up for their court date. A third fact is the most damning. Fifty-six per cent of people in custody have not been convicted of a crime. It is astounding that in this day and age most people in prison haven’t even faced a judge and jury yet. Obviously, some have to stay in the system while they await trial and so forth, but 56 per cent, over half? Very unreasonable, especially when compared to other jurisdictions. If they are innocent, they need to be released. If they’re guilty, get them tried, convicted, and going to prison. Any time in remand is a credit to convicted criminals. This cannot continue going forward.

A quicker justice system is a better justice system. It’s a more trustworthy justice system. The memories of all parties involved are still fresh. Evidence is at hand and ready for investigation. Whether you’re a victim or a witness, we are all better served by an efficient and time-efficient justice system.

There are many reasons why our system is clogged, but the number one reason is gross mismanagement by this government. Simply put, the government did not keep pace with the growth in this province. Our population and economy has been booming. A growing economy doesn’t just attract the best and brightest. It does do that, but it also attracts low-lifes that want to make a quick buck and prey on the weak.

A growing criminal population demands more courts, prisons, judges, and Crown prosecutors. The government has fallen be-hind. It’s been years since new judges and prosecutors, promised in the last election, have been hired. This is another reason we have a clogged justice system. Waiting has become the way of life in Alberta. Patients wait for the health care that they need, and victims of crime wait for their day in court. Delayed justice is justice denied. The average case, as I said, takes 270 days to complete, 270 days. If the defendant doesn’t show up or the case has an initial delay, the cases take 338 days, almost a year, to complete. This is simply unacceptable.

Alberta doesn’t control the Criminal Code. That’s created, of course, and passed in Ottawa. Administering justice is, however, the duty of the province. Edmonton is where the buck stops, this capitol building is where the buck stops on the justice file. Albertans are tired of excuses and finger pointing just like in health, just like in the energy sector, et cetera. They just want a competent government to administer a system that works.

Step 1 is more information. You cannot find the cure for some-thing if you don’t know what’s ailing the system specifically. Otherwise, you’re flying blind. Only by consistent measuring of the justice system will we know where we’ve come from and where we are going. Bill 204 mandates that the Ministry of Justice track and publish measures of efficiency for the people of Alberta. The first measures are a fantastic step to cover the major aspects of the justice system. They won’t be cherry-picked so that the bureaucrats can look like they’re doing a great job as we’ve seen over and over in our health care system.

The Justice System Monitoring Act will track the following deliverables: first, the length of time from laying a charge until a concluding verdict – obviously, we want that to be as small as possible – the total time of the court hearing in a case; the length of time between reporting an offence and the laying of a charge; the number of delays exceeding three months; the number of prosecutors involved in each file; the number of adjournments granted; the number of trials that begin on their designated day; and the approximation of costs of delays in terms of peace officers and prosecutors as well as witnesses, victims, and jurors.

The way this bill works is simple. Alberta Justice will have six months after the calendar year-end to present a report online providing the statistics outlined in this act. When the House is not sitting, the report must be tabled within 15 days of the next sitting. The tabled report will be referred to the relevant standing policy committee. Six months after the committee receives the data, they will report to the House. The minister will have three months after the committee’s report to respond. Imagine that: actually doing work in our standing policy committee.

4:40

Albertans anticipate the biannual reports from the Auditor General, and they will look eagerly to read the latest data on our justice system and discuss ways that we can build a stronger justice system for all Albertans. At last Albertans will have a way of gauging how well their courts are operating.

Tragically the importance of justice has been forgotten. Advocates for justice reform are too often smeared as vigilantes. Nothing could be further from the truth. Frustrated Albertans want their government to work for them. It’s perfectly natural to be upset when you took a day off work at your own expense and the hearing or trial was adjourned. Of course you’d be upset if that happened. It happens all the time in our system. A lawyer will ask for an adjournment or a delay of some sort, often on a small procedural ground, and it is granted. Well, now a well-intended citizen has been financially penalized for doing the right thing, ensuring that the justice system can do its job.

Not only is our justice system blocked; so is the victims of crime fund. Badly needed funds are set aside when victims are having trouble recovering physically and emotionally from a brut-al crime. Some victims end up permanently disabled. Recovery takes a financial toll. Victims wait 11 to 12 months for compensation. Victims of violent crime need the justice system, and it just doesn’t seem to be there.

I look forward to a further discussion on Bill 15, when it is brought forward again today, I assume, by the Solicitor General, to see if some very reasonable requests made by the NDP as well as the Wildrose and Liberals were in fact followed, that victims who were molested as children will not have the 10-year mandatory cut-off that is currently being proposed by the Solicitor General.

I hope this is just the start, Mr. Speaker.