Members of the local Legal Aid business are worried that the province will be making significant cuts to their industry.
Local legal aid officials believe cuts could be as high as 30 per cent and could lead to a serious reduction in front-line services in the District of Nipissing.
The Nipissing Community Legal Clinic provides legal education and information within the community, as well as helping our most vulnerable residents keep food on their tables and a roof over their heads.
“We are calling on the Attorney General, Caroline Mulroney to make a commitment to access to justice, and to respect the commitment of her government to not decrease front line services, and to confirm that funding for community clinics will not be decreased,” said Lenny Abramowicz, the Executive Director of the Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario in a release.
“Community Legal Clinics provide essential support to the most vulnerable populations in communities,” said Chris Bowes, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Nipissing Community Legal Clinic.
“Locally, the Nipissing Community Legal Clinic plays an important role is supporting people on critical issues such as income and housing. Cuts to these services could not only result in a reduction of front-line services, but could potentially lead to increased costs elsewhere in the public system.”
However, Fedeli counters those claims.
“Legal Aid Ontario’s total funding for clinics for this fiscal year is the same as it was in 2017-2018,” said Fedeli in an email to BayToday.ca.
“LAO has not yet made any decisions regarding individual clinic budget allocations for 2019-20. It is anticipated this information will be communicated by Legal Aid to the clinics in coming weeks.”
Fedeli says any further questions on this issue should be directed to Legal Aid Ontario.
“The prior government spent more and more money on legal aid without achieving the results that legal aid’s clients or taxpayers should expect,” continued Fedeli.
“We will work with legal aid to make sure that money is spent in accordance with the Auditor General’s many recommendations so that money is helping legal aid clients who need it.”
