BCGEU calls for government action to solve legal aid funding crisis

Thousands will be hurt by proposed service cuts 

The B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union is calling for action by the Campbell government to address deep cuts to legal aid services in B.C. that were announced by the agency that runs programs to ensure that low income people are served by the justice system. 

BCGEU president Darryl Walker says that the government’s Legal Services Society is planning on implementing $12.7 million in service and staff cuts for the 2009/10 budget. That represents about a 16 per cent overall budget cut on the society’s $78 million annual budget.  

“Thousands of British Columbians will be hurt by these cuts if Victoria doesn’t act to solve the funding crisis,” warns Walker.   

Some 38 jobs—20 affecting BCGEU positions—or about 16 per cent of overall staffing will be cut by April 30. In addition, legal aid services for less serious criminal charges will be eliminated, and payments to outside lawyers working legal aid will be cut. 

Walker says that LSS managers blame two factors for the cuts: a significant increase in demand for legal aid services and an expectation that no additional funding will be provided in February’s provincial budget. 

The BCGEU president says he is pressing the Campbell government to allocate resources needed to protect existing services and ensure that the public’s growing need for legal aid is met. 

And Walker predicts that as the economic downturn in the province grows, even more British Columbians will need to rely on legal aid services to help solve pressures created by unemployment, housing foreclosures and declining economic fortunes. 

“It’s extremely unusual for a government agency to announce deep service cuts for the next fiscal year before the government has actually brought in the budget,” Walker says.  “We’re worried that this could be a sign of things to come when the Liberals unveil their budget February 17.” 

Walker adds that the Campbell government cut legal aid services by 40 per cent in its first term and had only just begun to restore some of the funding cuts in the past few years