Legal aid in B.C. received a $2.1-million boost on Friday, but it’s not nearly enough said the president of the Victoria Bar Association.
“It’s just a drop in the bucket compared to (previous) cuts and there’s much more funding needed before legal aid will be helpful for the people who need to rely on it, particularly in the family law area,” said bar association president Kay Melbye.
The additional funding from the Ministry of Attorney General brings annual legal aid funding in B.C. to $68.6 million. The new money goes to the Legal Services Society, B.C. administrators of legal services to low income individuals.
The announcement comes in the midst of a legal aid awareness campaign launched by the B.C. branch of the Canadian Bar Association.
“The reality is that the public needs to be engaged on the topic of legal aid and demand (access to legal aid) from the government so that they fund it properly,” said Sharon Matthews, president of the B.C. branch of the Canadian Bar Association, creators of WeNeedLegalAid.com.
Matthews has spent much of the last year travelling the province and meeting with community groups to garner support for the campaign. She says nine out of 10 British Columbians believe people who face a serious legal crisis should have a lawyer and that, if they can’t afford one, the government should pay for legal aid.
“People in British Columbia are particularly concerned that women and children are adversely affected by the lack of legal aid,” she said. “What our campaign is trying to do is give voice to that public opinion that exists.”
Veteran lawyer Leonard Doust incited Matthews’ recent work when he presented nine recommendations for how the system can be made more accessible.
His recommendations include re-establishing regional aid offices and making legal aid an essential service. All of the $47-million in suggested changes have been supported by the B.C. branch of the Canadian Bar Association.
Doust leads the Public Commission on Legal Aid, an independent group representing six legal bodies, including the Victoria Bar Association.
Jordan Bateman, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, questions the independence of Doust’s report. Bateman notes that the Public Commission on Legal Aid is funded by the B.C. branch of the Canadian Bar Association, the Law Society of B.C., Crown Counsel Association of B.C., the Law foundation of B.C. and the Vancouver and Victoria Bar Associations.
“These folks have a vested interest in seeing more money go into defence law,” Bateman said. “I don’t think law firms are hurting for cash. They seem to be doing a booming business in British Columbia.”
The taxpayers federation would prefer to see the shift come from lawyers, who Bateman said should bear the responsibility of more pro bono work to repair any cracks in the system.
“Let’s be realistic here. (Lawyers are) already receiving quite a bit of money. Perhaps if lawyers were better at being efficient with that money we’d be more interested in giving them more,” he said. “The government would have to be crazy to put funding into this right now. They have so many other priorities and a massive deficit. They have to focus on their core priorities first and more money for defence lawyers isn’t really a core priority.”
Yet the need for legal aid far outstrips the ability of lawyers volunteering their time, said Melbye, who suggests the HST charged on legal services be used to fund legal aid.
“All of the lawyers I know in the Victoria area donate significant amounts of their time in many, many different ways to help people who are not able to afford legal services,” she said.
nnorth@saanichnews.com