The BC Crown Counsel Association has made a formal grievance against its employer, the BC Prosecution Service, alleging chronic understaffing of prosecutors in the province’s justice system.
“Their morale isn’t great,” association president Adam Dalrymple said. “They’re feeling completely overwhelmed.”
While the grievance concerns Crown offices in Vernon, Kelowna, Penticton, Nelson and Cranbrook, Dalrymple told Lodestar Media the issue is a provincewide one. He said it’s an issue in places like Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver.
“It’s a significant problem in the north,” he said.
As the population grows, it drives crime rates, Dalrymple noted.
“We need to maintain prosecution strength,” he said.
The Ministry of Attorney General said the provincial government recognizes the critical role Crown counsel plays in delivering justice and keeping communities safe.
"We recognize that the BCPS is experiencing rising demands and we'll continue working to support their vital work and strengthen access to justice across the province," the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said that, while the BC Prosecution Service makes staffing decisions independently, the government is committed to delivering the resources the service needs to carry out its work and always values counsel’s feedback to make this happen.
"Since 2024, we’ve invested $40 million more in the BCPS to ensure they have the financial resources for more personnel, service delivery, and case management," the ministry said. "This reflects an overall budget increase the BCPS has seen year over year, with a 28% increase since 2022."
The grievance
The grievance alleges the service has continuously breached an article of the collective agreement “by failing to exercise its management rights in a reasonable manner with respect to staffing levels” in the Interior region.
The association said inadequate staffing and an increasing workload in growing communities is impacting prosecutors’ ability to prepare and bring cases to court in a timely manner.
Dalrymple said the region needs 20 more Crown lawyers to handle about a 25 per cent increase in case load.
“The employer’s failure to reasonably and appropriately staff Region 4 has caused additional stress and anxiety to Crown counsel who are concerned about their abilities to meet their professional obligations,” the grievance said.
The association said the issue is about retaining good prosecutors.
“Our job is to uphold the rule of law in B.C. and keep the public safe to the very best of our ability. However, the workload is excessive, and a shortage of Crown counsel threatens our ability to bring cases to court on time. It also means burnout among our members. These working conditions affect our ability to attract and retain more Crown counsel.”
The association further claims understaffing and leaving vacancies unfilled leaves “little ability to accommodate illnesses, vacation requests, and even maternity leaves where several months’ notice is given.”
What the association wants is an arbitrator’s declaration that the employer breached the collective agreement and must meet its contractual obligations concerning adequate Crown counsel staffing.
Evidence problems
Dalrymple said prosecutors are finding themselves dealing with greater evidence-handling issues as more evidence comes. He said police-worn body cameras will increase those work stresses.
He said prosecutors not only need to review such video, there are also problems with photo evidence where images from police can take time to load and to be viewed. In the past, he said, such evidence would arrive in books or on a disc.
“If you’re going to give us more evidence, give us more prosecutors,” he said.
It’s that initial viewing of evidence that can lead to the approval of charges.
Complicating all that is the fact that the digital system handling that evidence has gone awry several times recently. All that is added to a workload where prosecutors have to be in court, dealing with witnesses and handling disclosure to defence lawyers.
