Gov’t defends plans for justice reform
Posted October 23, 2012 2:29 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The province is defending its 10-point plan for reforming the justice system that was released yesterday. Critics have been wondering why there isn’t any new money to add more judges, but the Attorney General says fixing the system isn’t as simple as throwing more money at it.
Shirley Bond says BC already spends $1 billion annually on the justice system.
“I think British Columbians want to know that $1 billion investment is actually being used as effectively as it can be, before we start writing a cheque for millions more dollars,” she says.
“We have no way today of measuring the effectiveness of the use of those dollars,” Bond adds.
Part of the province’s reform plan includes developing a system for measuring spending in the system. It also calls for the use of more technology to make it run more efficiently and the creation of a better scheduling system for the courts.
The report says the justice system has a “culture of delay” which is contributing to the long backlog of cases.
It also found the government will create a Justice and Public Safety Council, which will oversee reforms, create a yearly plan and establish methods to actually measure performance.
