On Friday, April 11, I called and emailed the Federal Department of Justice in Ottawa, to ask why the feds had cut its funding for Legal Aid Alberta - specifically, its funding for legal support for immigrants and refugees. TODAY, almost two weeks after my initial request, I received this statement from Peter MacKays office. I could hardly wait to share it with you: “Our Government is committed to working collaboratively with our provincial and territorial partners to ensure access to justice especially for economically disadvantaged persons. In 2007, our Government boosted legal aid by 36 percent . This was a significant increase which stabilized the program, and was more than the previous Liberal government did in 13 years in Government. Federal transfer payments to provinces are at record levels and will continue to grow. In 2014-2015 we have increased federal transfers to provinces by 56 percent, or over $23 billion total since we were first elected in 2006. Lastly, in order to increase efficiencies in Alberta’s court system, our Government has provided additional funding for two additional federally appointed lawyers in Alberta.” Uh huh. No acknowledgement that federal Legal Aid funding was cut last year. No discussion about adjusting payments to reflect Albertas huge population growth. And no explanation of why it took 13 days to send me a paragraph of boiler plate spin.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 20:10:23 +0000
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