Alberta defence lawyers could escalate job action Monday amid wage dispute

Alberta’s criminal defence lawyers are preparing to further escalate job action amid a wage dispute with the province, saying they’ll stop taking new work from Legal Aid Alberta (LAA) on Sept. 26.

A statement from Alberta’s four criminal lawyer associations accuses Justice Minister Tyler Shandro of inaction, and claims he “chooses chaos for Alberta’s courts.”

The four organizations representing lawyers in Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, and southern Alberta began job action on Aug. 8, refusing to accept certain bail and duty counsel files from legal aid.

Lawyers continued job action on Sept. 2 by protesting outside of the courts in Calgary and Edmonton in a 90-minute demonstration.

Criminal defence lawyers say they will stop accepting all new work from Legal Aid Alberta (LAA) on Sept. 26.

“The criminal justice system cannot function and access to justice in Alberta cannot occur without our participation, as all stakeholders already recognize. Unfortunately, Justice Minister Tyler Shandro has decided to ignore the fact that Alberta’s courts cannot properly function when his government cuts off help for our most vulnerable citizens and refuses to offer fair compensation to skilled professionals for their services,” the statement reads.

WATCH: Alberta’s criminal defence lawyers protest outside courthouses in Calgary and Edmonton on Sept. 2

Lawyers add the situation they are in is the “predictable result of a shameful pattern of neglect by this government.”

They are calling on Shandro to make immediate changes to the way LAA is funded.

Shandro says those changes are coming next year.

“Increases to the legal aid tariff, which is the rate that criminal defence lawyers are paid for legal aid work, will be considered as part of the 2023 Budget,” Shandro told CityNews. “Legal Aid Alberta (LAA) and officials in Justice have begun this work, and if there is evidence to support increasing the rate paid to criminal defence lawyers, it will be included in the 2023 Budget submission.

“John Panusa, CEO of LAA has publicly stated that they have all required funding necessary to ensure uninterrupted access to justice.”

Kelsey Sitar, a practicing lawyer and a vice president of the Criminal Defence Lawyer’s Association in Calgary, told CityNews at a demonstration earlier this month that the government of Alberta has not properly funded the legal aid system for decades.

“That’s the system that helps low-income individuals who need assistance from a lawyer, whether that’s with a family matter, or a criminal matter — immigration,” Sitar explained. “In 2018, a new Governance Agreement was negotiated, and the government — which was the NDP at that time — recognized that there had been chronic underfunding and the system was in serious jeopardy.”

The province says it has met all the commitments of the Governance Agreement and adds LAA clients have not been affected by any fluctuations in funding under that agreement.

However, Alberta adjusted funding to LAA after it reported a large surplus of funds when several courts were shut down during the height of public health restrictions because of COVID-19.

READ MORE:

• Alberta defence lawyers protest outside Calgary, Edmonton courts

• ‘Enough is enough’: Alberta defence lawyers escalate job action in legal aid battle

• Alberta defence lawyers to strike amid wage dispute

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Lawyers say they are “being targeted” unnecessarily.

“Our members are small business owners who employ many Albertans and support a vital segment of our economy. We are trained to deliver a service that the Canadian Constitution requires government to fund. We have worked hard like other such Albertans to gain the experience necessary to provide superior services to our clients. As your representative, Minister Shandro could choose stability, sustainability, and a fair system. Instead, he chooses chaos. Sadly, it is a choice that will cost Albertans far more in the end,” the statement reads.

Alberta’s defence lawyers add they are willing to meet with the government to talk things out and end job action.

“When Minister Shandro is interested in speaking to us in good faith to allow the justice system to get back to serving taxpayers effectively and efficiently, we are available. Until then, Legal Aid Alberta has lost overnight a large, diverse and irreplaceable workforce. We will no longer silently support this government’s dysfunctional idea of justice.”

Shandro previously told The Canadian Press nothing is going to be done until a review of the LAA administrative system is complete.

“It’s going to be done in October, so it’s not like it’s going to be that far into the future,” Shandro said. “The advice that I’ve been given is that it would actually undermine that review if we were to quickly make a change to the tariff right now.”

Submissions for the 2023 budget usually begin in October and November, he said.

“We’re not saying no to reviewing the tariff — we can do that,” Shandro explained. “It just has to be done after the review that legal aid is doing right now.”

Shandro said the government is monitoring the effects of the job action.

“We’ve been watching to see if there are any effects and if there are any ways in which someone’s access to justice is being impeded,” he said.

“Legal Aid has the funding that they need to be able to make sure that people have the legal services that they require.”

–With files from The Canadian Press