The provincial government introduced legislation Thursday aimed at easing police efforts to find missing people in answer to a recommendation from the Murdered and Missing Women Inquiry.
If the Missing Persons Act is passed, police will no longer need reasonable grounds to believe a crime, such as a kidnapping or assault, has been committed before they can seek a court order to obtain a missing person's records, the Justice Ministry said in a press release.
Those records could include telephone calls, text messages, video footage, and employment and financial data.
The Act would also cover entry into a home where police believe a missing person may be and also allow them to obtain the records of a person last seen with a missing person.
The Murdered and Missing Women Inquiry, headed by former B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal, recommended legislation to grant police "speedy access to personal information of missing persons without unduly infringing on privacy rights."
Specifically, Oppal recommended adoption of "single purpose legislation" similar to what's in place in Alberta and Manitoba. Similar legislation was also recently passed in Nova Scotia.
The B.C. version includes a definition of "person at risk" which, when regulations are developed, may help to better protect marginalized women, and will make it an offence to fail to comply with orders and demands for information made under the Act.
In emergency situations, when there is risk of serious harm to a missing person or a concern that records could be destroyed, the Act will authorize police to directly demand access to records.
"This legislation acknowledges that access to relevant records can sometimes mean the difference between life and death," Justice Minister Suzanne Anton said in the press release.
"Our proposed legislation not only meets the intent of Commissioner Oppal's recommendations, but it also strikes a critical balance between disclosing and protecting information, with the safety and welfare of vulnerable people as its paramount goal."
NDP Opposition Public Safety and Attorney General Critic Kathy Corrigan called the Act positive at first glance but also noted the inquiry made 63 recommendations in total and most of the important ones have not been implemented.
Among them is one to establish a shuttle service along Highway 16 West, Corrigan noted.
"We have repeatedly asked about that and repeatedly pressed government and there has been no response whatsoever," Corrigan said. "There's been delay, there's been evasion, that has been no positive response and I think that's a very particular, concrete action that was recommended and could be implemented."
In an update issued in November on steps the government has taken in response to the inquiry, it said the B.C. Transportation Ministry is "planning targeted consultations to identify and promote safe transportation options" along Highway 16.
Details on how those consultations will be carried out and who will be consulted were not included in the 13-page update.
Although the inquiry was primarily about how police handled the Robert Pickton murders, Oppal did hold hearings in communities along Highway 16 West, also known as the Highway of Tears.
The RCMP's Project E-Pana, is investigating 18 cases of women determined to have gone missing or been murdered within a mile of Highways 16, 97 and 5, between Valemount and Merritt since 1969. In 2009, The Vancouver Sun expanded the criteria beyond the one-mile limit to come up with 31 cases.
In Tuesday's federal budget, $8.1 million was committed to creating an index that will try to match the DNA from missing people to samples in the national DNA databank. That the provincial government take steps to support development of such an index was also a recommendation made by Oppal.
