Premier honours three SG/Justice projects
The creation of a network of community-based justice committees, a project to publish the revised statutes of Alberta and a more streamlined traffic court all received awards from Premier Ralph Klein in June.
A gold award of excellence was presented to the Alberta Solicitor General’s youth justice committee program. The program has grown to over 100 committees throughout the province. The committees are increasingly used as an alternative to the formal court process and the possibility of time in custody for young offenders.
A silver award was presented to the joint Public Affairs Bureau/Alberta Justice Revised Statutes of Alberta project team. The Revised Statutes of Alberta (RSA) 2000 is the official consolidation of Alberta’s provincial statutes. The project began in 1998 to produce and publish a consolidation of the original eight bound volumes from the last consolidation in 1980, as well as 23 annual volumes containing all amendments and additions.
The third honour, a silver award, went to the Traffic Court First Appearance Centres project team. In 1997, Alberta Justice & Attorney General and Alberta’s police agencies began collaborating on the First Appearance Centres (FAC) project – an initiative allowing people charged with traffic offences to discuss their cases with a prosecutor before scheduling a trial. During the project, 79 per cent of clients who met with FAC prosecutors chose to plead guilty, saving the scheduling of more than 55,000 trials, and almost $1.9 million.
