A Calgary man left with limited income due to an accident that left him in a wheelchair says he was turned down for help by Legal Aid.
Jim Haldane has been a paraplegic since 2013 and lives in an assisted living facility. He says he has personal and financial issues stemming from that accident, but can’t get help from Legal Aid, despite being on a tight budget.
“I don’t have enough money to live on and I can’t afford to pay for a lawyer and I can’t afford to pay for the money I owe to Legal Aid as it stands now because of the situation that I am living in,” he said. “The majority of the money I bring in as far as pensions are concerned goes to my housing and anything left over, I have to pay for my meds and any other medicines or supplies not covered by Alberta Health, so it leaves me less than $300 a month to live on.”
He says Legal Aid need to assess his situation on its unique merits.
“They have to understand the situation the individual is in, they have to understand why he or she pays the money they do and why they are looking for legal help,” he said. “Living on the street is probably the only way I could get Legal Aid, and living on the street is not a choice.”
The Notley government has raised the single income cut off for legal aid by three per cent to $19,653, meaning a full time minimum wage earner still overshoots the threshold by $6,000.
In 2015, the Province said it would review Legal Aid and promised a report in early 2016. Last December, the government informed the legal community that it would not bring Legal Aid under its umbrella.
CTV asked Minister Kathleen Ganley about what has been done so far for Legal Aid, and she responded that the organization’s executive has been trimmed, offices consolidated and salaries frozen and cut, but to make permanent change would require government leadership.
“We did hope it would be sooner and we still anticipate significant action on the sustainability issues, we can't just bump along year to year,” she said.
Meantime, the CEO of Alberta Legal Aid says the agency’s case load has increased by 58 per cent in the last two years, mainly due to the recession.
“Criminal activity has increased by 50 per cent, both adult and youth and family violence and cases of that sort have increased by 70 per cent,” said Maria David-Evans.
David-Evans said the Legal Aid office answers an average of 1,000 calls a day from people seeking help and oftentimes those callers on hold for three hours to speak to someone.
At the end of 2016, Legal Aid had about 45,000 cases in progress.
