Nothing could be further from the truth, of course, as statistics on Provincial Courts show.
Some others would have you believe the courts cannot become any more efficient than they are.
Again. Truth. That claim. Not even close to the same thing.
So what is the sitch in the courts?
SRBP took a look at the number of hours Provincial Courts sat in each location. Drop out St. John's since it has multiple court rooms and is very busy. It is also in rented space, which means it is really costly these days.
Let's just look at the courts outside St. John's, which were, after all, the source of all the controversy coming out of the budget.
Add up the total number of hours the court sat in each court room. We will total up the couple of places where there are more than one judge. We will average the number of hours and then convert that to full-day equivalents on the basis of an assumed seven-hour day.
Location
|
Average sitting hours
|
Full-day equivalent
|
Wabush
|
22
|
3
|
HVGB
|
109
|
15
|
S’ville
|
48
|
7
|
Corner Brook
|
62
|
9
|
GFW
|
54
|
8
|
Gander
|
53
|
7.5
|
Clarenville
|
27
|
4
|
Grand Bank
|
27
|
4
|
Harbour Grace
|
43
|
6
|
Goose Bay is the busiest court, sitting an average 15 days each month. That's a lot considering there are 22 working days in any given month.
Corner Brook, Grand Falls, and Gander are the next three in order, with nine, eight, and seven and a half days respectively.
Harbour Grace sat the equivalent of six full days each month, on average, between November 2015 and May 2016.
Grand Bank and Clarenville sat the equivalent of four days each and Wabush sat the equivalent of three days a month over the seven months covered by this data.
-srbp-