The courts' backlog of cases will only continue to rise if the provincial government remains on its current path, NDP justice critic Leonard Krog warned while spending Thursday in Prince George.
Although more judges and support staff have been taken on, Krog said there is still a shortage of 13 judges.
"We are the only province in Canada that has fewer provincial court judges today than we did in 2005," Krog said.
While the crime rate is down, the complexity of cases is growing and the workload will grow now that the federal Conservatives have passed legislation that increases sentences for drug and sex offences and reduces the use of conditional sentences such as house arrest, Krog said.
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