How do we do Access to Justice (or, First they came for Legal Aid...)

A disturbing headline crossed my screen a month ago: "Potential changes to Legal Aid Alberta funding..." And honestly, like many others in my profession, I almost scrolled right past it. After all, didn't they just do that dance last September with the new funding agreement?

Then I got an e-mail from Calgary Legal Guidance. It linked to DefendAccesstoJustice. It looks like we have a problem that's going to impact more than just Legal Aid.

Before I go on, I reviewed over 40 annual reports, news articles, and analyses of Legal Aid funding in Alberta. For my podcast-loving readers, I used Google's NotebookLM to generate an AI audio summary of this research. It's not perfect, but it's a fascinating example of new technology. Give it a listen!

What's going on?

Legal Aid provides subsidized legal representation to low-income Albertans (mostly in criminal and family law cases). It is funded by the government (75% of its operating revenue), the Alberta Law Foundation (under 20%), and client recoveries/donations (around 5%). 

The Alberta Law Foundation (ALF) receives most of its funding through Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts (IOLTA). Lawyers in Alberta mostly deposit client funds into pooled trust accounts. The interest earned on these accounts is required to go to the ALF, which funds various legal programs. ALF must put 25% of its IOLTA revenue to Legal Aid—$38 million in 2024.

The rest goes to a veritable laundry list of community programmes, from law libraries to public legal education to community legal assistance. Calgary Legal Guidance (with which I have a personal connection), for example, gets over 75% of its funding from the ALF. These funds help the people that Legal Aid doesn't represent by providing them with legal advice, information, and services that help them help themselves.

Well, that requirement may be changing. The Provincial Government is considering requiring ALF to send 50% of its IOLTA receipts to Legal Aid Alberta, meaning that, in 2024, $38 million less would be available for public legal assistance.

What's really going on?

The Alberta government wants to cut costs, but defunding Legal Aid is unpopular. Is their solution just to force the ALF, whose revenues and expenses are not shown in the Provincial Budget, to cover their cost cutting?

The honourable Ministers of His Majesty have not said. Believe me, I've asked. I was promised confirmation if this shift in funds wasn't going to happen.

I didn't receive that confirmation.

So it sure looks like a sleight of hand. The Ministry of Justice gets to claim a $38 million spending decrease in the upcoming "Recessionary Budget (thanks, Trump)^TM" AND Legal Aid gets its funding. Who says no?

What's wrong with this picture?

1. 25% of the ALF's IOLTA funds are already doing a lot of good elsewhere; and,
2. IOLTA is not a stabilizing force in community legal support.

Let's start with #2. The "I" in IOLTA is interest. This means that it fluctuates with interest rates (which might be decreasing soon). The ALF's IOLTA receipts ranged from $7 million to $156 million in the past six years. Community organizations that rely on the ALF are used to this volatility, but Legal Aid can't be.

Legal Aid is the first line of defense for Albertans facing legal trouble who can't afford lawyers. But it's already underfunded. A family of four earning over $50,000 a year likely won't qualify. A single person is ineligible around $30k. These are current numbers - they could go down or not respond to inflation if suddenly more of Legal Aid's funding is dependent on interest rates.

Just for reference, the Alberta Living Wage Network Calgarian living wage is estimated at $24.45/hour (about $42,000.00/year).

So, what happens when that family of four loses their $55,000/year income or Legal Aid suffers a massive decrease in its funding thanks to interest rates plummeting? That family has to turn to ALF-funded community legal services like Calgary Legal Guidance. 

Here's the #1: the changes proposed will decrease the pool of money for those community legal services by 33%. A 33% cut to over 75% of their budgets means far fewer people served - especially those who fall through Legal Aid's cracks. Community legal groups help vastly more people than Legal Aid with a significantly wider field of issues. If you paper over Legal Aid's gaps  using pieces of the community groups, the community groups could wind up catching less people.

If Legal Aid isn't being expanded to help more people, and the safety net below it is shrinking, more people will be left desperate. All, potentially, to make the government's budget look $38 million smaller.

If you've come this far...

Look, I'm one of the last people to advocate for more government spending. I'm still irate that we spent money lobbying Hollywood to make more oil-friendly movies. For the record, that "Centre" was a $30 million budget line.

However, community legal programs are essential. They're not just a safety net; they're a foundation, providing legal information, advice, and even some representation. They help students, Indigenous people, and many others. I've seen the amazing work of Calgary Legal Guidance firsthand, and it's just one of dozens of beneficiaries of the ALF. There's no backup plan below these services. Losing them means people will be forced to choose between legal help and basic necessities.

Visit DefendAccessToJustice.com to learn how you can help protect access to justice in Alberta. Don't let them get away with this shell game. We can cut budgets without locking the law further behind a paywall.

(edit 2025-02-11 - on feedback from Lisa Stebbins, Executive Director of Calgary Legal Guidance, I have noted that CLG receives 75% of its funding from the ALF)