Court Capacity Is the Public-Safety File Eby Can’t Fix With Slogans
Police can arrest and Crown can charge, but a justice system without enough court capacity turns public-safety promises into paper.
The public-safety debate in B.C. usually begins with the same campaign words: repeat offenders, bail reform, gangs, guns, stronger laws. The Canadian Bar Association, B.C. Branch has put a harder question on the table: what happens after the arrest, when the file hits a court system short on capacity, data and staff?
CBABC says it sent six justice-system questions to five major party leaders on October 1 and asked for responses by October 8. Two of those questions should be unavoidable in this campaign: court modernization and judicial capacity. The association’s questionnaire says the B.C. Supreme Court lacks funding for a comprehensive data-collection and disclosure system that can identify bottlenecks and measure reforms. It also says shortages in court services and sheriff staff contribute to delays.
The capacity math is brutal. CBABC says B.C.’s population has grown by more than 35% since 2005, while the B.C. Supreme Court judge complement has increased by only 10% and the Provincial Court complement has fallen by 4%. That is not a messaging problem. That is the machinery of justice falling behind the province it serves.
The BC NDP response points to virtual appearances, scheduling efficiencies, online dispute initiation, e-filing, connectivity upgrades, sheriff recruitment and training, and the 2024-2029 Digital Transformation Strategy. It also says the sheriff service is now fully staffed, with a 7% increase in fully trained sheriffs as of April 2026 compared with the same time in 2025. On judicial appointments, the NDP says it would keep advocating to Ottawa for timely federal appointments and cites 10 additional provincial appointments since the beginning of 2026.
Those are claims voters can weigh. But they are not the ledger voters need. Where is the current vacancy table? What is the average time to fill each vacancy? Which courthouses have the worst delay pressure? Which reforms actually reduced adjournments, and by how much? What judge-to-population or judge-to-caseload target is Eby asking Ottawa and Victoria to meet by 2030?
Public safety is not only patrol cars and press conferences. If police do their job, Crown proceeds, witnesses show up, victims wait, accused people wait, and the court calendar still jams, the system loses credibility from both ends. Victims see delay. Communities see churn. Accused people see uncertainty. Judges and staff carry the overload.
Eby cannot campaign as the manager of public safety while leaving the courthouse bottleneck in the fine print. Before October 24, he should give voters four plain numbers: vacancies, time-to-fill, delay metrics and the target judicial complement. He should also say which numbers will be updated monthly, not buried in annual reports after the pressure has passed. Without that, every tough-on-crime line is missing the courthouse receipt.