In its latest budget, the United Conservative Party (UCP) government announced it would reduce Legal Aid Alberta’s 2025 funding to $88 million from $110 million while arguing “current service levels will be maintained as a result of increased contributions from the Alberta Law Foundation.”
This suggests a willing partnership that simply doesn’t exist. The foundation strongly opposes it. So, let’s be clear: This is an abdication of the government’s duty to provide critical justice services to Albertans, particularly the most vulnerable.
If the government truly wants to collaborate on access to justice, it should start by meeting its obligations rather than attempting to offload them onto others.
Unlike other provinces where law foundations fund both legal aid and community services, Alberta’s structure is different.
The foundation independently supports community programs while the government is the primary funder of Alberta Legal Aid. By raiding the foundation’s coffers for its own cynical budget purposes, the government of Premier Danielle Smith is effectively cutting dozens of crucial services with one stroke.
This raid has now been formalized through Bill 39, the Financial Statutes Amendment Act, recently introduced in the legislature. The bill doubles the share of interest earned on lawyers’ trust accounts that must be allocated to Legal Aid Alberta to 50 per cent from 25 per cent.
In addition, the bill stipulates that large foundation grants – any exceeding $250,000 – will now require approval from the provincial government. Any grant of more than $250,000 issued between first reading and royal assent without such approval will be retroactively voided.
The Alberta Law Foundation was created in 1973 with a clear mandate to manage interest earned on lawyers’ trust accounts and to direct those funds toward improving access to justice. This approach, based on fluctuating interest rates, is highly volatile.
The foundation has launched a public-awareness campaign (DefendAccessToJustice.com) to oppose the changes and to educate Albertans about the potential consequences.
“The government’s cuts to its funding of Legal Aid Alberta will ultimately come at the expense of the many non-profits the Foundation funds, and the vulnerable Albertans who rely on their programs and services,” the foundation says in its campaign.
What the government describes as collaboration is actually a cynical attempt to permanently shift core funding responsibilities from stable government revenue to the foundation’s unpredictable funding stream.
While a 1991 amendment to the Legal Profession Act required the foundation to contribute 25 per cent of its revenue to Legal Aid Alberta, this was intended as a contingency, not for daily operations. Bill 39’s doubling this to 50 per cent transforms that into a major obligation.
For 32 years (1991-2022), the foundation’s average annual contribution to Legal Aid Alberta was a modest $4.2 million. Only in 2023 and 2024 did this spike to $22.6 million and $39 million respectively. The foundation says these increases represent mainly temporary windfalls from record-high interest rates, but the government is now pretending this is a permanent revenue source.
Forcing the foundation to contribute more to Legal Aid Alberta means the foundation will have less money for the important projects it funds – the more than 65 community organizations that help Albertans navigate a complex legal system.
These organizations operate outside Legal Aid Alberta’s mandate, meeting needs the formal system often misses. The foundation had committed a record $45 million to them this fiscal year, with another $20-$25 million projected – more than triple last year’s grants.
Now the government is effectively telling the recipient organizations: Sorry, your funding is being redirected to cover our budget cuts. The foundation’s ability to fund transformative initiatives is being severely compromised. The retroactive-voiding provision creates additional uncertainty, potentially invalidating grants already promised to organizations that have made plans based on committed foundation funding.
The foundation funds major projects such as its recent $26.8-million gift to establish the Centre for Transformation at the University of Calgary, which aims to reform the family justice system, and its planned $100-million Indigenous Law Centre.
Under Bill 39, these types of large-scale, system-changing initiatives would require explicit government approval, effectively giving the minister veto power over the foundation’s most significant work.
This requirement puts vital community organizations at the mercy of political whims. Imagine crucial funding denied not because an organization fails to serve its community but because its mission doesn’t align with the minister’s ideology.
The stark reality now facing vulnerable Albertans is that their access to justice depends on whether the government values their particular struggle. The implications are serious.
For example, visit the Edmonton Community Legal Centre or Calgary Legal Guidance and see low-income clients getting desperately needed help with housing issues, employment problems and family conflicts. Talk to sexual-assault survivors at the Dragonfly Centre who found support there in dealing with an immensely complicated criminal-justice process.
The government’s cuts threaten ongoing funding for crucial research and law reform through the Alberta Law Reform Institute and public legal education through the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta. Also at risk are specialized programs such as those supporting temporary foreign workers through the Action Dignity Society and workplace-rights education through the Alberta Workers’ Health Centre.
This funding shift also threatens:
- Specialized legal services for domestic-violence survivors through organizations such as FearIsNotLove and the Rowan House Society.
- Legal assistance for marginalized groups through the Pride Centre of Edmonton and Islamic Family and Social Services Association.
- Youth justice initiatives such as those run by the Calgary Youth Justice Society.
- Vital restorative-justice programs such as those provided by Native Counselling Services urban Indigenous peacemaker program in Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge.
These organizations serve communities that are often invisible within mainstream justice systems. They provide culturally appropriate, trauma-informed support that the formal legal system cannot. They reach Albertans who would otherwise fall through the cracks. That’s not something that should be sacrificed for a single budget cycle.
For countless Albertans in crisis, these organizations represent their only path to justice and for many of these organizations the foundation is their only source of funding. These initiatives represent exactly the kind of systemic improvements the foundation was designed to support.
This is not the first time this UCP government has attempted to offload its responsibilities to others. From health care to education to social services, there’s a troubling pattern of this government redefining core public services as someone else’s problem.
But access to justice isn’t optional or discretionary. It’s a fundamental pillar of our democracy and legal system.
The approval mechanism for large grants in Bill 39 takes this pattern to a new level by inserting direct political control over supposedly independent funding decisions.
The government cannot simply declare that its responsibilities to ensure equal access to justice no longer exist. These are not voluntary commitments that can be abandoned when politically convenient. They are essential obligations of governance in a democratic society.
True collaboration would involve the government fulfilling its obligation to adequately fund Legal Aid Alberta while working with the foundation to strengthen broader access to the justice ecosystem. It would mean addressing the root causes that drive demand for legal aid, investing in preventative measures and ensuring sustainable funding across the sector.
Access to justice shouldn’t be a luxury. It’s a cornerstone of our democracy and legal system. For many Albertans, particularly those from vulnerable communities, access to legal support can mean the difference between stability and crisis, between protection and exposure, between justice and its absence.
What’s really at stake is not just services today, but the resilience and integrity of Alberta’s justice system for generations. The government cannot simply decide that its fundamental responsibilities to citizens are now optional or transferable.
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