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By Canadian Press

Province to increase pay to legal aid lawyers

Dec 21, 2022 | 4:07 PM

CALGARY – The Alberta government is hiking the amount of money it will pay for lawyers providing legal aid.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2023, the rate will increase from $100 to $125 per hour.

Organizations representing lawyers in Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer and southern Alberta launched job action in August and have largely refused to accept new legal aid cases since late September.

The lawyers were demanding both an increase in rates paid on legal aid cases and for eligibility requirements to be changed so that more Albertans qualify for help.

Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro approved an increase of over eight per cent in October and says the new increase makes legal aid lawyers in the province the fourth highest paid in Canada.

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The defence lawyer organizations are to discuss the issue tonight.

But Kelsey Sitar, vice-president of the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association in Calgary, says they’ve been waiting since August for this sort of good faith increase.

Irfan Sabir, NDP Justice Critic, issued the following statement in response to the UCP increasing the legal aid tariff:

“While an increase to the legal aid tariff is a positive step, it never should have gotten to this point.

“The UCP refused to honour the 2018 agreement signed by our government. They claimed it wasn’t possible to increase the tariff, which led to delays and chaos in our justice system, and risked cases being thrown out.

“The tariff increase still fails to address the other issues facing legal aid, including paying arrears owed to legal aid under the 2018 agreement and revising eligibility guidelines to ensure better access to justice. I urge Minister Tyler Shandro to work with lawyers’ organizations to resolve these issues and end the chaos in our justice system.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 21, 2022.

The Canadian Press

-with files from rdnewsNOW