Town council passed a resolution on Monday evening regarding the province’s cuts to legal aid which affect the Northwest Community Legal Clinic (NCLC).
The resolution calls on Premier Doug Ford and Attorney General Caroline Mulroney to respect the commitment of their government to not decrease front line services.
It also urges the province to restore funding to community legal clinics and ensure that all the residents of the Rainy River District have access to a fair and equitable justice system, regardless of their income.
NCLC executive director Trudy McCormick delivered a presentation prior to the passing of the resolution to educate council on the services they provide.
“We’re community legal workers and lawyers who work to keep a roof over the head and food on the table of the most vulnerable folks in our community through doing poverty law,” she remarked.
“We are a small, not-for-profit organization with a volunteer board of directors from the community who work in and for the community.
“I can’t tell you how many people have come through our doors saying that they didn’t have anywhere else to go for help,” she added.
Now due to the current $133 million cut to legal aid, and the additional $164 million that will be cut over two years, those who are struggling financially that come to the legal clinic could be turned away.
“That is the part that scares me the most because they don’t really have a next step other than being on the streets without any help,” McCormick said.
“I don’t know where people will go–that’s my biggest fear of all.
“The changes this government’s making will impact those folks the most and if the supports to help them navigate those changes are gone . . . I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she added.
The services the NCLC provides saves taxpayers money each year, McCormick noted.
A chronically homeless person costs tax payers an average of about $35,500 annually, so by keeping citizens from sliding into homelessness the legal clinic facilitates significant savings to the community.
In 2018, the 118 citizens who remained housed because of the legal clinic, resulted in an estimated savings of $4,198,204 within the legal clinic’s service catchment area.
Most of these costs would have been borne by local health and social services systems.
“I have to say that in our communities housing and homelessness is the biggest issue we deal with,” McCormick noted.
In Fort Frances, the NCLC works with the Canadian Mental Health Association, Diversity, Community Policing, the Situation Table, and many others.
The local office has five staff and is expecting a retroactive 16 percent cut.
“Our clinic amalgamated with the Kenora clinic in 2009 and we realized some small savings,” McCormicl said “Those went directly back into client service.
“There’s very little room in our budgets, we operate with capped budgets, and have always tried to squeeze a dime out of every nickel for our communities,” she added.
Services here have already been reduced due to a hiring freeze that was placed by Legal Aid Ontario resulting in two staff lawyer vacancies in Kenora which the legal clinic is not permitted to fill.
“This means we are turning clients away in all our offices and here in Fort Frances we’re already having to cover services for Kenora,” McCormick remarked.
Mayor June Caul thanked McCormick for her presentation and voiced her disdain for the province’s cuts.
“You are a very vital part of many people’s lives to try and keep them with a home, to make ends meet and I applaud you for your service to the community,” she lauded.