Photo by Curtis Galbraith.

By Curtis Galbraith

City Hall

Grande Prairie’s mayor still hoping for third King’s Bench judge in the Swan City

Feb 20, 2025 | 6:00 AM

Grande Prairie’s mayor is still hoping this city will soon have a third Court of King’s Bench judge.

The city made having three judges based here one of its advocacy priorities in 2021. The County of Grande Prairie also joined the effort. Two have been named since then.

Jackie Clayton says it’s great to see Grande Prairie get its second King’s Bench judge.

“We will continue to work with the (justice) ministry and solicitor general in regard to getting that third one, but, we’re very pleased to see the announcement of a second judge.”

Former defence counsel Chris Millsap was named a Court of King’s Bench justice in 2023. Former Crown prosecutor Shannon Davis was named to the bench earlier this year.

Clayton says regular communication with the province has been taking place.

“Ultimately, the province supports our request for (having) the three judges, however, it’s a federal decision, so when we have those opportunities to have conversations with representatives from Ottawa, we indicate the need in regard to that Court of King’s Bench judge.”

Clayton says there are benefits to having local judges, rather than bringing them in from somewhere else.

“First and foremost, there is a savings in the sense that that judge lives in our community, they do their judicial work in our local courthouse as opposed to having a justice fly in and stay for multiple days.”

“It also provides continuity of service. Having judges that are from the region or (are) familiar with the region creates a more complete court system.”

Clayton says there is a big workload in the judicial system right now and it would be good for the community to remove what she calls “bottlenecking” from the court system.