Prosecutors file grievance citing lack of support, incentives to practise in Manitoba

Manitoba Crown prosecutors say they are burning out amid a growing list of demands and a lack of financial incentives to attract attorneys to the province and keep them here.

That's according to the Manitoba Association of Crown Prosecutors, which announced Wednesday it is going to arbitration over a new collective agreement, after voting overwhelmingly against the province's final offer earlier this month.

"They are overworked, the morale is the worst that it's ever been, burnout is high and we have Crowns leaving to go to other provinces," said association president Erika Dolcetti, who on Wednesday also announced the union has filed a grievance against the province.

The news comes less than a week after Canadian premiers and chiefs of police called on the federal government for more resources.

Dolcetti, who has worked as a prosecutor in Manitoba since the mid-2000s, including a decade with the gang unit, said her peers are "dying" under the weight of increased demands linked to a rise in violent crime cases and unfilled staffing vacancies from experienced prosecutors retiring or taking positions outside of Manitoba for better pay.

She said some attorneys have moved to B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia due to financial incentives. B.C. just went on a prosecutor hiring drive earlier this year.

Manitoba has typically kept pace with what's on offer in Saskatchewan.

"Now, they are so far and above what we make," said Dolcetti. "We have Crowns just going and hopping across the border and getting an extra $80,000.

"If we're lucky we can replace them with a junior Crown right out of law school … but they need to be trained in order to be put in homicides and complex files and we don't have near enough of those [senior] Crowns right now."

The Manitoba Association of Crown Prosecutors represents about 161 Crowns, with more on leave. Forty-five have retired or resigned since 2020 and have been replaced by mostly junior prosecutors, Dolcetti said.

In 2021, an arbitrator awarded the association a three-year contract that translated to pay raises of 1.4 per cent, 0.5 per cent and 1.2 per cent for 2019 to 2021. 

Junior Crowns received two per cent — what MACA was seeking for all prosecutors.

In the current round of collective bargaining, the union says 88 per cent of its members voted Tuesday on the province's final contract offer, with 94 per cent voting not to accept it. No details on the terms of the offer were revealed.

MACA says it will now take the matter to arbitration, which can take several months to start. 

Similar grievance was filed in 2009

In 2009, the association filed a grievance against the province over similar staffing and workload issues. The then-NDP government agreed to add 53 prosecutors and 29 paralegal and clerical staff.

Part of that agreement came with tighter timelines for elements of homicide cases, said Dolcetti.

For homicides since 2009, Crown attorneys have had to put together a prosecution plan within three months of receiving case files, including speaking with family of victims, police and other duties that go into preparing for court proceedings, said Dolcetti.

What both sides didn't foresee when hammering out that deal, said Dolcetti, is how the tools of criminal investigations would evolve and add strain to prosecutor workload.

Homicide investigations these days are often more complex. There's more information and evidence, and it frequently comes in the form of a hard drive. Some contain hours of footage, while others have thousands of pages of phone call history evidence, she said.

Several categories of crime have been on the decline, though some forms of violent crimes have risen — Winnipeg broke its homicide record last year and had the second-highest homicide rate in Canada. 

"We don't have the time and resources to properly prepare all of our files, and we are getting to a critical place where I'm concerned about public safety," Dolcetti said. "The government just doesn't seem to care."

Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen acknowledged the glut of information and evidence can make for more work. He said Manitoba is addressing staffing vacancies.

He said 14 new prosecutors were hired last year after seven or eight left. He pointed to a commitment to add "10 new staff" in February as part of a clampdown on violent crime and gun trafficking. 

Details are being finalized on more hires, he said.  After that vacancy rates should be at about six per cent, which "is historically where it has been," Goertzen said.

"But I am not suggesting that there aren't challenges when it comes to workload," he said. 

"Vacancy rate isn't out of line from where it's been in the past but that doesn't mean that it's acceptable. We would like to have a vacancy rate of zero.... There's maybe more that we can do and I am not closed-minded to that."

Dolcetti said Goertzen has refused to meet with MACA.

She said some of the new hires he referenced aren't necessarily "new" and those jobs have gone to existing Manitoba prosecutors who took on new roles.

Dolcetti suggested one recent offer to an out-of-province Crown was rejected because of wages.

She said the provincial vacancy rate figure also doesn't reflect those on sick or parental leave.

"There's a little bit of ... smoke and mirrors going on right now," she said.  "They do want to be tough on crime, but they don't want to put any money or resources into it on our side."