'We heard from Albertans': UCP swerves away from changes to Alberta's traffic court
CTV
Alberta should not move millions of traffic tickets online and away from court while charging people to fight them, the province's transportation minister argued Tuesday.
Alberta should not move millions of traffic tickets online and away from court while charging people to fight them, the province's transportation minister argued Tuesday.
The policy flip comes after the government received widespread criticism over changes to the Provincial Administrative Penalties Act driven by the Justice Transformation Initiative.
The changes were leaked to journalists in January. At the time, officials argued they were trying to streamline the process to free up more court and policing resources.
Minister Rajan Sawhney is now recommending the plan be scrapped, because it's not as effective or popular as the government hoped.
"We heard from Albertans, we heard from our stakeholders, we heard from MLAs, so all of that feedback combined resulted in that recommendation," she said in the legislature.
The new direction still needed to be approved by cabinet, Sawhney said, and she declined to outline for reporters why her government thought the changes were a good idea in the first place.
"I don't even think it's worthwhile getting into that, because right now the intention is not to implement this administrative model," she said, adding that what was leaked to journalists was something that the UCP never gave final approval to.
