Manitoba’s latest budget promises millions of dollars for ankle monitors, police officers and correctional services, but lawyers say more of that money is needed for the overworked people handling criminal cases as they move through the courts.

Ben Wickstrom said the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys is”disappointed” this year’s budget didn’t include money to hire more prosecutors.

“What we really feel is missing is sort of any investment in our place in the system, which is really in what is a critical middle part of the criminal justice system,” said Wickstrom, the association’s vice-president of prosecutions and a spokesperson for the organization.

He said prosecutors are under increased pressure, fuelled in part by more police body cameras creating additional evidence for them to go through, and the Supreme Court of Canada setting strict deadlines for trials, which can result in cases being thrown out if lawyers take too long to move them through the system.

Wickstrom said he’d like to see 50 new prosecutors phased in over time. The budget comes amid an ongoing grievance the prosecutors’ union has filed against the province, calling on it to address “dangerously heavy caseloads” by increasing pay and recruiting more prosecutors. 

“Really, what the status quo could lead to is the public being potentially at further risk in terms of a public safety issue,” Wickstrom said.

“If Crown attorneys aren’t able to put matters through court in the sort of most fulsome way possible, they’re more likely to have to resolve charges for lesser pleas and look at alternatives to dealing with files in those types of circumstances.”

Legal Aid Manitoba executive director Peter Kingsley said provincial funding hasn’t kept up with lawyers’ increased workloads there, either. While the latest budget’s $40-million increase to justice “sounds wonderful” on its face, that money needs to be spread across the system, he said.

“Increased policing means increased stress, means increased demands on Crown attorneys and increased demands on defence attorneys. And as we up that work, you have to fund every part of the system,” Kingsley said.

“That includes defence, that includes prosecutions, that includes judges and court staff — these are all part of the process, and just giving money to one side or another doesn’t help things.”

He said the money lawyers get paid through Legal Aid Manitoba is already “woefully below market rate and below what other provinces are paying their defence attorneys,” creating “greater and greater pressure on fewer and fewer people willing to do this kind of work.”

Kingsley said there are possible ramifications of a sustained increase in cases without a matching bump for lawyers and court staff.

He said they could include overworked lawyers making mistakes and clients sitting in jail on remand because no one’s had time to look over their case. They could also include people being wrongfully convicted because evidence is missed or not available, or because the person “simply loses faith and just says, ‘I don’t care what happens, just get me out,'” Kingsley said.

“These are all things that break down our system. It’s not justice for a victim when charges get stayed because nobody had time to look at the case for 20 months, or when people don’t get their opportunity to have their say in court. This is what our system is supposed to hold as important. It has to be respected.”

Chris Gamby, a spokesperson for the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba, said he’s seen shortages in almost every area of the court system, from clerks to sheriffs to judges — issues he agrees could contribute to critical delays in criminal cases.

“That’s an area of concern. We can’t allow that to wither and die on the vine. It’s something that has to be properly funded in order for justice to be done in our province,” Gamby said.

“The spectre of delay is ever present. We’re always concerned about that.”

In a statement, Manitoba Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said the province previously gave Crown attorneys a 14 per cent salary increase, “combined with an aggressive recruitment campaign to give them the resources they need. 

“Through these initiatives we’ve added 42 new Crowns, decreasing the vacancy rate for Crowns from almost 15% to 3.5%, and we’re looking forward to continue our work making sure that our justice system is appropriately staffed and resourced,” the statement said.

Wickstrom said that 2024 salary increase is “in line with what has been received by other public sector unions for the same time period.” He said while more Crown attorneys have been hired since the current government took office, the number of positions hasn’t increased.

“We frequently lose people to other prosecution services in other provinces and to the private sector in Manitoba. Although the vacancy rate has generally dropped, there are still chronic vacancy problems in many of our regional offices,” Wickstrom said in an email, adding the union doesn’t believe the current number of positions is sufficient, even if every vacancy was filled.

“The fact that the government hasn’t been able to consistently fill vacancies and has hired so many Crown attorneys over the relatively short time they’ve been in office belies a turnover problem that has been created by unsustainable working conditions they inherited from their predecessors.”