Renewing Our Commitment to Legal Aid |
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Legal Aid in BC
Paper written by Eugene Kung, Barrister & Solicitor, Vancouver
In 2002, the Legal Services Society faced deep cuts
The 1979 Legal Services Society Act, R.S.B.C. 1979, c.227 provided legal services for low-income individuals. From the early 1990s, the Legal Services Society operated under that act within increasingly tight budgetary constraints. Much of this has been attributed to capped federal funding in 1990, followed by the switch from the Canada Assistance Plan, which funded Legal Aid independently, to the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) in 1996, which did not distinguish between legal aid and other social services such as education and health. This shift has made legal aid politically vulnerable.
The most dramatic change in BC occurred in 2002. In 2001, funding for legal aid services by the provincial government amounted to $88.3 million19. That year, the Legal Services Society (LSS), the core disburser of legal aid in the province, assisted approximately 158,000 British Columbians with referrals, summary advice and legal information in criminal, family, immigration, human rights and other civil law matters20.
Specifically, prior to 2002, a low income resident of British Columbia could get help with:
- housing issues such as evictions and foreclosures;
- workers compensation;
- employment insurance;
- family maintenance and custody matters;
- appealing the decisions of social service providers such as:
- Old Age Pension Plan;
- Canada Pension Plan;
- Income Assistance;
- Disability benefits; and
- consumer and debt issues.
In 2002, the B.C. government announced that funding for legal aid would be reduced by 38.8% over three years. In the course of eight years, overall core provincial government funding to the LSS was reduced from $88 million, in 2001, to $69 million in 2008/2009 (see Table 1).
Notes from this page:
19 Legal Services Society, Annual Report 2001-2002
20 Canadian Bar Association, British Columbia, Submission to the Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services in Advance of the 2005 Provincial Budget |
