The provincial government still does not know the impact of the Harper government's crime legislation or the costs that will have to be picked up by B.C. taxpayers.

That's what the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union concludes from a letter Solicitor General Shirley Bond sent to union president Darryl Walker. Walker wrote Bond asking what studies or work the government had done to prepare for the federal legislation.

“We already have a criminal justice system facing significant backlogs and prisons that are dangerously overcrowded,” says Darryl Walker.  “The provincial government needs to accurately assess what it will cost our province and how our already overloaded justice system will cope with the changes. The government clearly has to do more work on this.”

"Even with the estimates the government is working on, the province will need another jail. That's on top of the already overcrowded facilities we have now," says Walker.

The provincial government announced on December 6, 2010 that they were consulting with communities in the Okanagan for a new provincial jail. Bond said in early November that she would be making an announcement on the new jail "soon."

Ontario and Quebec are already balking at the Harper government’s crime legislation and provinces are saying it will increase their inmate counts by as much as 15 percent, which will include significant costs to be paid by the provinces.

To see Shirley Bond’s letter click here.