The Telegram wonders why it is taking so long to install court security equipment at the province’s courthouses.
The signs have been up since early January.
“Public notice: Improved security to protect you. Your safety is our No. 1 concern.”
But more than a year after the provincial government announced plans to install a new security perimeter screening system at provincial court in St. John’s, it has yet to happen.
The story mentions the Court Security Act, 2010. That’s where they get the “more than a year bit.”
But the story of money spent and things not yet done actually dates from 2004.
The original Court Security Act slipped through the House of Assembly in early 2004 and then quietly vanished.
Never put in force.
No reason ever emerged why the justice department did nothing with it.
The 2010 version is just the 2004 bill word for word, plus a couple of minor changes that could have be done by amendment.
While the court security law never took effect that didn’t stop the gang in the courts from buying up the shiny new scanners a and wands.
If the Telegram looked for the purchase orders, they’d likely find the dates are from 2006 or so. The stuff has been sitting in storage – packing wrap and all – ever since then, or so word around the department goes.
Speaking of other things the Tories never got around to doing, check that 2004 link and you’ll find some other tidbits dating back to the last provincial election that they never got around to doing.
Like say the Sustainable Development Act, 2007.
And the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act, 2007.
And a natural gas royalty regime.
Or the oil one too, for that matter.
There’s no greater fraud and all that.
- srbp -