Alberta low-income earners at risk, defense lawyers vote over legal aid funding

Hundreds of criminal defence lawyers say they’re going to stop taking Legal Aid Alberta cases in retaliation against the United Conservative government over what they’re calling unsatisfactory legal aid funding.

A letter was sent demanding action from Justice Minister Tyler Shandro by three associations that represent Alberta’s criminal defence lawyers – the Criminal Defence Lawyer’s Association, the Southern Alberta Defence Lawyers’ Association, and the Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association.

However, they say that the letter asking the province to increase the legal aid budget to be more in line with other provinces went unanswered. So, the groups voted in favour of job action.

“It seems that we have to take this step, the government is forcing us into this drastic, drastic, action,” said Ian Savage, president of the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association.

“Because we take these issues seriously, we have very carefully tailored our actions to cause the least pain to the fewest people. That’s the best I can offer to you and I can assure you that in any strike that affects other vulnerable people, whether it’s a nurse or doctor threatening job action, no one wants vulnerable people affected, and neither do we.”

---

RELATED STORIES

• Alberta defence lawyers considering walking off job

• Income inequality in Canada up despite salary increases: StatCan

• Household income declines in Alberta, but still among highest in Canada

---

It’s unclear how many people voted in favour of job action; however, Savage says a significant majority of association members did.

This means between Aug. 9 to 18, association members won’t accept legal aid files which require them to provide courtroom duty counsel, complainant counsel or bail-related services.

Savage says if no extra funding is provided then job action will continue.

“This is just step one. This is ‘Hello government, yes we are united, and yes we are going to be taking action, and further and further action, and we’re going to increase the ante every time you ignore us,'” he added.

“Our position is, ‘Sorry minister, it’s not a question of if there’s going to be more funding, it’s not a question of when there’s going to be more funding.’ When is now, and the only question is how much? So, let’s skip the rest of the formalities and do the proper thing for vulnerable and disadvantaged Albertans.”

The groups have also threatened to withdraw all duty counsel services provided to the Justice of the Peace Bail Office in September.

The province has not increased legal aid funding since 2015.

“British Columbia and Ontario – we are drastically underpaid as opposed to our equal lawyers in those provinces,” said Danielle Boisvert, the president of the Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association in Edmonton.

“We still need to pay back our student loans, still need to pay our mortgages, all those adulting expenses.”

Shandro’s office says the province has reached out to all three organizations and the president and CEO of Legal Aid Alberta, and have scheduled a meeting.

“Publicly funded and affordable legal services are critical to ensuring that every Albertan has fair and equitable access to the legal system. We appreciate the work that all criminal lawyers undertake on the behalf of Albertans and their advocacy to increase funding for Alberta’s Legal Aid program,” his office said in a statement.

“Contrary to what has been suggested, Alberta is willing to consider increasing Legal Aid’s operating budget and the current Financial Eligibility Guidelines (FEGs) for Legal Aid applicants.”

However, Shandro’s office says that work must be done after the current review is complete and through the development of next year’s budget.

With files from Kelsey Patterson.