The Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) has released a statement raising the alarm bells over the 30% cut to Legal Aid Ontario in last week’s provincial budget, and in particular the serious threat it poses to community legal clinics .
Legal clinics not only provide legal services to ONIWG as an organization, they also provide representation to individual injured workers across the province in their appeals to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and its Tribunal. Increasingly, clinics also represent injured workers before the Social Benefits Tribunal, as many people are forced to apply for Ontario Works or Ontario Disability after their WSIB claim is denied or their benefits cut. …
ONIWG President Willy Noiles, former Chair of the Niagara North Community Legal Clinic in St. Catharines, notes that many legal clinics are already operating at bare bones to begin with, following previous cuts. For those citizens denied legal aid services, it costs the provincial government more in the end. “That’s why we’re hoping Attorney General Caroline Mulroney and Finance Minister Vic Fedeli will take a sober second look at this particular cut.” [read full statement]