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Legal Aid Alberta faces potential shutdown as province ends funding agreement
Low-income Albertans may soon have to represent themselves in court, as the provincial government chose not to renew the legal aid governance agreement. The denial “ensures complete breakdown of the province’s justice system,” according to some law organizations.
This stark warning was issued by the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Calgary, the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association in Edmonton, the Southern Alberta Defence Lawyers’ Association, and the Red Deer Criminal Lawyers Association.
The lawyer organizations said in a post shared on X that they were “shocked and appalled to receive news from Legal Aid Alberta today about the government’s failure to sign the new Legal Aid Governance Agreement.”
Some form of a governance agreement has been in place for over 50 years, allowing Legal Aid Alberta to provide legal services for low-income and vulnerable Albertans. The most recent version was signed in 2019 by Legal Aid Alberta, the Minister of Justice, and the Law Society of Alberta.
“The government’s unceremonious cancellation of the scheduled signing of that agreement was followed by silence before a last-minute ultimatum that would fundamentally change who controlled the delivery of legal aid services in Alberta,” wrote the four organizations.
