View From the Legislature

Anyone who follows government knows that things often happen at a very slow pace.

For example, when a law is passed it can often take several months for it to actually be put into force. Often there are good reasons for the delay. Perhaps there needs to be training put into place before a law can be implemented fully or perhaps there needs to be public awareness that a new law is coming.

But often the reason that there is a long delay in putting a law in place is because the government simply isn’t that interested in moving it along quickly. This seems to be the reason that a law to crack down on individuals with outstanding court warrants has not really been put into force by the NDP government.

Currently in Manitoba there are more than 20,000 outstanding arrest warrants that have been issued by the court. Some of these can be related to very serious crimes. About five years ago, Manitoba Progressive Conservatives raised with the government the fact that many of those who have outstanding warrants, and who are essentially evading the law, are collecting taxpayer funded benefits like welfare. We asked that these taxpayer funded payments be stopped until individuals dealt with their outstanding warrants. After all, why should taxpayers give money to help people avoid the law?

After about a year, and significant public pressure, the NDP government agreed to pass legislation to both remove welfare payments and not renew driver’s licenses for those with outstanding warrants. It has now been three years since the legislation was passed and it turns out it has hardly been used. The NDP have not even enacted much of the legislation after three years which means that there have been no driver’s licenses withheld and there have only been 2 welfare payment denials because an individual had an outstanding warrant.

The NDP government’s response to this is that they are working on it. Three years after the legislation has been passed and with 20,000 outstanding warrants in the system and the legislation has sat on the NDP Minister of Justice’s desk gathering dust. This is not a difficult law to put into place.

The reason that it has been delayed is because it is not something the NDP government was ever been committed to in the first place. They were reluctant to accept the legislation and they have dragged their feet in implementing it. And it’s unfortunate because those 20,000 outstanding warrants represent a public safety risk to Manitobans and they are a burden on the justice system. It’s a problem that deserves better than delays and excuses.