A little over three years from now, the facility will begin accepting forensic evidence that would otherwise have had to be sent east for testing.

On May 5, the Government of Alberta announced it would allocate $8.9 million to build Western Canada’s first provincial DNA laboratory, an effort aimed at shortening processing times and reducing costs.

The laboratory will be located just outside of Edmonton, within the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams facility in Sherwood Park. It is slated to be up and running for smaller cases, such as property crime evidence, by 2029, and will later expand to test more serious cases, like those collected from homicide and sexual assault crimes. 

According to a news release, Alberta submits more DNA evidence for testing than any other province, and often relies on these being processed through the federal system, which is done at a lab in Ottawa. 

Last year, each test was said to have been priced at just over $2,400 — a figure that is funded by city and taxpayer money. With the addition of a provincial facility, this is expected to reduce costs by 40 per cent. 

“Victims shouldn’t have to wait years for closure while evidence sits on a shelf in another province,” said the minister of public safety and emergency services, Mike Ellis.

“We are bringing DNA testing home to Alberta to speed up prosecutions, protect our communities and ensure that justice is served at the speed Albertans expect.”

In addition to the Ontario lab, an inspector with the Calgary Police Service’s investigative support section, Bruce Walker, said that forensic samples are sometimes sent to Quebec or private facilities in Edmonton and Winnipeg. 

Walker said that each sample is triaged based on the laboratory’s availability, but that a significant portion of them are sent to Ottawa. He said that having an Alberta facility would bring several benefits. 

“As an organization, we would support any action that would obviously decrease the cost,” said Walker. 

“But more importantly, that would reduce the wait times for victims of crime.”

Local lab would mean smooth sailing on either side of the courtroom: Lawyer

Edmonton-based president of the Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association and managing lawyer at King Defence, Shawn King, said that he primarily handles murder and sex assault cases, and that he deals with forensic evidence at least once a week.

He said that it usually takes approximately six months for DNA results to be returned from the various facilities to which they are sent, but that there are ways to quicken the process outside of the laboratories. 

“A lot of the time, we’ll end up setting a preliminary hearing demanding we have the forensics before the hearing takes place,” said King. 

“That sometimes speeds up the process.”

With the addition of a local, provincially-owned laboratory, he said, this will heighten the productivity of trials for both the defence and the prosecution. For the defence, King said that having expert witnesses present in person and not virtually from Ottawa would be preferable. 

“If they’re here, that’ll make things a lot easier, even if they’re just in Alberta,” he said. 

“That makes things a lot easier than having to deal with someone in a different province to come and give the testimony.”

For the Crown prosecutors, King said that obtaining DNA information more efficiently is crucial to their role, seeing that it puts names to the faces of the case, which ultimately offers a basis for cross-examination. 

No matter which side of the courtroom you look at the announcement from, he said that the new facility will have an immense impact on the productivity of Alberta and Western Canada’s justice system.

“At the end of the day, the trial will be smoother and faster,” said King. 

“It’s always good to have more resources.”