By Cecilia Nasmith

Streamlining is the only hope the Northumberland County Provincial Offences Court has of clearing up a backlog that has grown to hundreds of cases over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Court Services Manager Randy Horne provided details at the July meeting of county council's standing Finance and Audit Committee on requests being made by the 52-member Municipal Court Managers' Association to effect that streamlining

All of them have been challenged by the changes the pandemic forced – for example, to the health-and-safety environment of the courtroom. But they are most challenged by something that predated the pandemic – the lack of judicial resources.

What this means specifically is that there is a dearth of justices of the peace to preside over Provincial Offences Court sessions through retirements and other avenues of attrition. Those remaining are spread thinner than ever.

“We are trying to create an environment where additional judicial resources will be made available,” Horne said.

At present, when someone is charged with a provincial offence, there are three options.

That person may pay the fine, and the county has already instigated ways to make this easier through things like remote internet payments.

The person might make an appeal before a justice of the peace, an option that has not been available since the pandemic began.

Or the person might elect for a trial. In this case, he or she would meet with the prosecutor to work toward an alternative resolution. But even if this effort is successful, the alternative proposal must be brought before a justice of the peace before it can be finalized.

“We have one available one day a week in Northumberland County and to date, since February, all they have been dealing with are pleas arising out of resolution agreements,” Horne said.

“We would like to free up that time for trials to occur. We have a backlog of cases numbering in the hundreds. In North York, they're in the hundreds of thousands.”

Horne said the association is concerned by provincial legislation known as Bill 177 Stronger Fairer Ontario Act, touted as a means of modernizing and streamlining the Provincial Offences courts. In his report to the committee, Horne said this is not the case.

“Bill 177 changes to the formal Early Resolution section of the POA will increase processing steps from the existing 15 administrative processes to over 70 processes,” he wrote.

“This represents an increase in processes of over 400%.”

What he would hope for is that the bill instead make these resolution discussions between prosecutors and members of the public easier and more convenient.

“There should be a simpler way for prosecutors to come to an agreement with defendants and not require a justice of the peace,” Horne said.

To make that happen, he added, it might be simpler if judicial resources could be put to use elsewhere and the Clerk of the Court given the authority to register agreed-upon convictions that will put the matter to rest.

Another measure that would simplify things is the temporary suspension of demerit points being issued for those who pay tickets in cases where there are no previous relevant convictions.

“The main obstacle to a person paying a fine currently is demerit points,” Horne stated.

“The system is so backlogged – if we just could get it moving and just let people pay fines and not have demerit points for first-time offenders.”

The committee agreed with Horne's suggestions and passed a motion incorporating all his points – a pause on Bill 177, a streamlined resolution process, authority for Clerks of the Court to record the resolutions, and the temporary suspension of demerit points in the cases he described.

The motion also calls for county council to forward a copy to the Ministry of the Attorney General, Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini and all Ontario municipalities.