Action taken on traffic-ticket backlog, minister says

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This article was published 20/05/2016 (3458 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JUSTICE Minister Heather Stefanson says she’s been assured by department officials they’ve taken action to reduce a court backlog that has seen Winnipeggers wait a year-and-a-half to challenge traffic tickets.

Stefanson said while she could not speak about an individual case, she is concerned about reports of lengthy court backlogs and said more needs to be done to rectify the situation.

“Our focus in the (election) campaign was toward increasing frontline services and protecting front-line services for Manitobans. And this is a front-line service in the justice area,” she said at the legislature.

On Wednesday, provincial court Judge Mary Kate Harvie ruled a trial set 18 months from the date of the issuance of a photo-radar speeding ticket was “unreasonable” and represented “a violation” of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“It seems reasonable to expect these types of summary proceedings to be completed within four to six months of a plea being entered,” Harvie said.

The ruling could render thousands of outstanding traffic tickets invalid. Traffic-ticket fighter Todd Dube of Wise Up Winnipeg said the judge’s ruling set “a huge precedent.”

Stefanson (Tuxedo), who was sworn in as justice minister May 3, would not say what would be a reasonable time frame for seeing a case brought to court. But she agreed it was unacceptable for someone getting a speeding ticket today to wait until 2018 for justice.

Stefanson said greater system efficiencies need to be created to reduce waits for court dates. She said she will sit down with officials to see what measures the department has taken to improve the situation so far, and she’s open to new ideas.

“If I can bring a common-sense approach to this in some way, that’s going to be my value-added to this,” the minister said.

Dube said Wednesday before photo radar was implemented in Winnipeg, it took about four to five months for a traffic case to get to court.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca