April 30, 2003
Municiple Bylaw Disputes in the Provincial Court Hearing Process
Question to Attorney General Geoff Plant During Budget Estimates
R. Lee: I would like to ask a few questions of the Attorney General. One question is about court services. We know that one of the strategies to better utilize the Provincial Court resources is to remove the municipal bylaw disputes from the Provincial Court hearing process. There are proposals to let the municipalities handle their own bylaw disputes. What is the status of this proposal?
Hon. G. Plant: We are making good progress. We may be in a position to introduce some legislation later this year that will create the legislative framework for this. We are looking at the possibility of some pilot projects in one or two locations over the next little while to see if we can establish a business case for this proposal that makes good sense for the citizens in a particular community, so we are making progress.
R. Lee: How many municipalities are planned to be in this pilot project? In the final stage, are all municipalities getting the authority to have their bylaws resolved in their local courts?
Hon. G. Plant: We have had discussions, I guess, with the three municipalities on the North Shore in Vancouver. That's West Vancouver, the city of North Vancouver and the district of North Vancouver. They have expressed interest in working together to create sort of a joint initiative, and that's an idea that we have been discussing with them.
I think in all likelihood this is an initiative that will be of more interest in larger urban centres than in smaller rural communities. I also think the legislative framework is likely to be a framework that, at least in theory, would be available everywhere.
R. Lee: Do you anticipate this pilot project will be happening this financial year?
Hon. G. Plant: Toward the latter part of the year, we hope.
R. Lee: Is there any impact to the budget?
Hon. G. Plant: We had planned and hope that if this initiative is rolled out completely, it may produce a savings of a million dollars a year to the Ministry of Attorney General budget. As I said earlier, we've pretty well spent all that money already.
It was in anticipation of that savings that we decided we could make the commitments with respect to circuit courts. That's already used up a portion of the anticipated saving. I would have to say at this point that we don't anticipate much additional saving that will make a huge difference in the bottom line for the ministry.
