On July 27, 2001 the British Columbia government established the Administrative Justice Project to conduct a comprehensive review of the province’s administrative justice agencies.

The Administrative Justice Project will:

Review the mandates of administrative justice agencies to ensure they are relevant to a modern and efficient economy.
Make recommendations to eliminate overlapping jurisdictions and multiple proceedings.
Make recommendations to streamline administrative procedures.
Make recommendations for government to support the work of administrative agencies in an appropriate and effective way.

Full terms of reference for the Administrative Justice Project is available on the Administrative Justice Office website. A synopsis of the Core Review process provided by Jim Sayre of the Community Legal Assistance Society explains the levels of scrutiny involved in the core review. Jim's review was written to explain the core review as it relates to WCB but provides a good overview of the process.

Included in the Administrative Justice Project is a review of the BC Benefits Tribunal.

PovNet has been given permission by the authors of two separate submissions to the Administrative Justice Project regarding the BC Benefits Tribunal process to post the submissions:

• One submission, Fair for All: A Principled Approach to Administrative Justice For Low Income People in British Columbia (in PDF) is the result of a collective effort made by seven advocates (lawyers and paralegals) representing six offices funded either directly or indirectly by the Legal Services Society.
• The second submission was written by FLAW - Front Line Advocacy Workers (in PDF.) FLAW is comprised of several community groups that work on behalf of people seeking to access all facets of BC Benefits. Its members include professionals, paraprofessionals, and lay advocates.