The Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys(MACA) has filed a grievance with the province after rejecting the final contract offer last week.
MACA members voted down the province's final contract offer, with 88% of members voting, and an overwhelming 94% of those that voted to reject the offer. The situation will not move to arbitration, which MACA says can take several months to start.
MACA President Erika Dolcetti says the province is falling behind when it comes to wages for crown attorneys, and because of it, many are leaving for other provinces.
"We are losing senior crowns at an exponential rate, we are unable to recruit, we have failed after failed competition, we have a number of vacancies, fairly fluid, but right now I think it's around 15 crown prosecutors that we are unable to fill, and we are just getting to a critical juncture."
Dolcetti continued, saying that it's feeding into a bigger issue.
"We are concerned that the public is going to be less safe with experienced prosecutors working out of the province right now."
Dolcetti says the province hasn't truly been fully staffed with crown prosecutors since there were 75 added by the province in 2009.
"A file today is very different than a file in 2009. A homicide in 2009 did not often involve hundreds of hours of video that we have to review, 20 thousand pages or more of phone dumps that a crown needs to review, and quite frankly they've just become more complicated."
With Manitoba setting a record number of homicides in 2022, with 93, and pay not reflecting the workload, Dolcetti says burnout is also becoming a major issue.
"We do not have enough crown prosecutors right now to do the amount of work that's coming through our doors, are crowns reviewing the 20 thousand pages of phone dumps, are crowns reviewing the hundred-plus hours of video? There's not enough time in the day to do that. What happening is files are going to be prosecuted as thoroughly as the public would want, and we don't want very serious criminals on the street."
Dolcetti says that MACA is looking for a fair contract, as the province is falling behind provinces like Saskatchewan, which used to be the most comparable province, while smaller provinces are starting to catch up to Manitoba.
"Nova Scotia, which we've always traditionally been ahead of, will be leapfrogging where we are. Nova Scotia in 2021, had 24 homicides in their entire province, I can tell you right now I'm carrying about 12 myself."
Dolcetti says crown attorneys do the job because they love it, but they don't have the resources to do it properly.
