Police and prosecutors struggling to contain a growing gang problem across Canada's western provinces are being bogged down by outdated and inefficient regulations, justice and public safety officials said Saturday after a meeting in Calgary.

The ministers from British Columbia, Alberta Saskatchewan and Manitoba will be "urging the federal government on a fast-track basis to look at amendments to the Criminal Code," said Alberta Justice Minister Alison Redford.

They want reforms on how bail decisions are made, how much time criminals have to serve behind bars and when police are allowed to do wiretaps.

One major push will be to abolish the practice of giving criminals two-for-one credit for time served in a remand centre before trial.

The ministers argue that with such a program in place, people have a reason to drag their feet, delaying their trials and clogging the justice system. It also means that sometimes people have waited so long in remand that there's no time left to serve by the time they're actually convicted.

Getting permission to do a wiretap takes weeks

"It brings the system into disrepute," said B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal. "It's a relic from times past and that has to be changed."

Another "outdated" law that the ministers are targeting, is how police get permission to wiretap communications between suspected gang members.

The current wiretap legislation dates back to 1974, long before cell phones and other digital communication, said Saskatchewan Justice Minister Don Morgan.

As a result, it can takes weeks or months to get permission to do a wiretap when it should take hours, he said.

"By that time the trail is cold," added Oppal. "We want the police to have the right to wiretap people immediately and get authorization from judges immediately after the commission of the crime."

Ministers want changes to bail laws

Gang wars have recently been big news in British Columbia's Lower Mainland. There have been more than 30 shootings in the Vancouver-area that have left more than a dozen people dead since late January.

Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have also seen gang violence increase in the last few years.

The four western provinces had the highest per capita homicide rates in Canada in 2007, the most recent year for which Statistics Canada has collected data.

"We've seen a dramatic impact in the last few years. We've seen more violence than we used to see," said Manitoba Justice Minister Dave Chomiak.

The ministers also agreed to push for changes to bail laws to make it more difficult for someone who has breached a bail condition in the past to get their freedom again.

"Across all four provinces there have been a number of decisions that have been made over the past year which make people quite concerned about whether or not they can feel safe," said Redford.

Western ministers to meet four times a year

The ministers also want changes to how much information the Crown must provide to the defence during a trial. While relevant information is necessary for a fair trial, Crown lawyers now have to provide everything even tangentially related, which is creating a massive backload, they argue.

One idea floated before the meeting didn't make the cut.

The ministers decided against the idea of creating a so-called "super-jail" dedicated to housing gang members from different provinces who are awaiting trial.

Darryl Hickie, Saskatchewan's minister of corrections, public safety and policing, had raised the jail as a way to keep hardened gang members from recruiting other prisoners.

It's not necessary as many provinces are currently building remand centres with maximum security units to keep gang members segregated, he said.

The western ministers have agreed to meet at least four times a year, and hope to contact the federal government individually and as a group in the meantime.

They're sharing information about gang practices as well.

Manitoba's Chomiak noted his province will prepare for armoured vehicles, which are big in the gang world in B.C., to make their way east.

"Gangs are organized, we have to be better organized."

With a report by CTV British Columbia's St. John Alexander