The Provincial government is taking steps to free up police and court staff to deal with serious and violent offenders.

A new act being introduced eliminates the use of warrants to enforce tickets and overdue fines for minor, non-traffic-related infractions like failing to shovel a sidewalk or not paying a transit fare.

This means people with overdue fines for these types of minor offences will no longer risk jail time.

Instead, they will be held accountable through civil measures like restricting motor vehicle registration services.

“The benefit of these new measures is that police, court staff, judges and others in the justice system will no longer have to spend thousands of hours each year processing warrants issued for minor offences. We know their time is better spent focusing on more serious and violent matters.” says Kathleen Ganley, Minister of Justice and Solicitor General.

There are about 200,000 outstanding warrants in Alberta and about 45 per cent of outstanding warrants are for minor provincial and municipal bylaw infractions.