Helping hidden poor
Poverty keeps shifting, and those serving the poor need to scramble to keep up. That reality lies at the core of a decision to pump new money into community legal aid clinics serving Ontario’s lowincome people.
“We have this idea that poverty is in the inner city,” said Legal Aid Ontario spokesperson Genevieve Oger. “But in reality today, especially in the Greater Toronto Area, so much poverty is in the outer reaches.”
In response to this need, Legal Aid Ontario has “refined” a March announcement in which it promised to deliver $2.4 million to legal clinics struggling with limited resources and the challenge of serving a large low-income population. Another $1.5 million is being added to the pot — and it’s a welcome windfall.
Hard-pressed community-based legal clinics will be in a better position to hire additional staff, enlarge existing programs, and launch new services helping clients in need.
As reported by the Star’s Sara Mojtehedzadeh, this could make a big difference to a low-income worker battling an unfair boss; to people injured in the workplace and denied proper compensation; to impoverished newcomers needing help with immigration law; and to a host of other disadvantaged people hoping to find justice.
The province supports 76 community legal clinics, including 17 “specialty clinics” concentrating on a specific ethnic population or an area of expertise such as environmental law, issues affecting the elderly, or justice for children. All could use help. But it’s right that clinics serving large populations outside Toronto receive a substantial increase in provincial support being channelled through Legal Aid Ontario.
The Community Legal Clinic of York Region, for example, saw a 65-per-cent increase in funding, since it now serves almost 200,000 people deemed to be in difficult economic circumstances.
“Their low-income population has just exploded,” said Oger. “Sometimes we have this idea that living in the suburbs (is) where everybody has a white picket fence, and that’s not always the case.”
Other GTA centres receiving a significant influx of new cash include North Peel and Dufferin Community Legal Services, with a 57-per-cent jump in funding, and Mississauga Community Legal Services garnering a 51-per-cent boost.
Mississauga is especially in need of more immigration law services with so many newcomers drawn to the area, said Oger. “The population in Ontario is changing and we’re trying to keep up.”
Enhanced funding announced last week came after some clinics made a strong case for additional help and after Legal Aid Ontario officials considered fresh tax data on income status that wasn’t available in March. This “more complete analysis” resulted in extra money, Oger said.
Further steps need to be taken. Many legal clinics, such as York’s, are still underfunded compared to most other Ontario centres. But what has been announced is a good start. It will amount to significantly more service to people who need it most.