B.C. taxpayers have spent nearly $300,000 in the last five months to fly inmates to and from court in rural and remote parts of the province.
Since December 2025, the B.C. Sheriff Service has chartered 31 flights to transport people accused of crimes back and forth from the detention centre where they’re being held and the courthouse where they’re being tried, according to figures provided to CBC News by the Ministry of Attorney General.
That figure is drawing criticism from some Crown prosecutors and defence lawyers, and the Official Opposition.
Vancouver-based criminal defence lawyer Kyla Lee said the public should be concerned about the prospect of charges being stayed or accused being released after they were denied bail.
“The cases that are affected by this are not minor charges,” she said. “These are serious Supreme Court trials with typically, you know, murder, sexual assault, those types of offences, the ones the public has the greatest interest in seeing prosecuted.”
Duncan, the Crown prosecutor, shared those worries.
“This is about safety for the communities that these courthouses serve. I’m concerned that the next step will be people being released from custody.”
Krieger insisted that won’t happen.
“The measures that we’re taking using a number of innovative and collaborative solutions are in place to make sure that inmates are not released and that there are no delays to trials,” she said.
