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jobs to the private bar. At the same time, there is some work where the private bar is more expensive and less efficient, and then the staffers can deal with it." Adds Santos, "You go to the quickest possible destination by the quickest route." He says over the last 18 months, Legal Aid Manitoba conducted a busi- ness analysis of the costs for using staff lawyers versus the private bar and found: private bar lawyers can be more efficient in providing service for less complex criminal cases; and in more complex criminal cases, staff lawyers can deliver services more efficiently. For example, he says in 2004, five private bar lawyers were demanding approximately $4.5 million to represent alleged Hells Angels associates/members in a mega criminal case with the potential of approximately a full year of trial. Staff counsel could have provided legal representation for a year for less than $1 million with no issues of business interruption had the case folded, notes Santos. What the analysis also shows, accord- ing to Santos, is that maintaining a bal- ance of having the private bar and legal aid staff lawyers each providing about 50 per cent of legal aid cases is the most cost-efficient way to run the system. Anand says a staff model has some advantages. Perhaps most importantly, it allows senior lawyers to mentor new lawyers, who are largely left to hang their own shingle and navigate the sys- tem on their own in the judicare model. In a high-quality staff lawyer setting, senior lawyers teach juniors the ropes. However, notes Anand, that assumes the staff office is well run and managers have the resources to spend time with young hires. Unfortunately, the opposite is frequently the case, which can also lead to attrition, says Anand, further diminishing the level of service to cli- ents. "If they're not properly funded, people leave, people cut corners, people get burned out. Managers become more lax when it comes to supervision. So again, the issue isn't the model of legal aid provision, it's the amount of money that's being put towards it. Because whether you're dealing with the judicare or the staff model, you're going to have issues with it if it's not properly funded." Joe Comartin, justice critic for the federal NDP, says he has pressed Justice Minister Rob Nicholson on the fund- ing issue and senses the attorney gen- eral knows more cash is needed. But it seems Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty are unwilling to budge. Comartin says more stable funding from the feds is principal- ly important for the creation of a nation- al standard for legal aid. He considers Ontario's system the most extensive in terms of coverage, with the Atlantic provinces in the back of the pack. At the same time, he believes the Conservative government is obliged to increase legal aid funding due to its tough-on-crime agenda. The introduction of mandatory minimums — a tactic widely discredited in the United States due to the added strain it puts on the justice system — is expected to cause a decline in guilty pleas, for example. But it's not just the feds who need to do more, emphasizes Comartin. He calls recent cuts to legal aid in British Columbia, for example, "quite hor- rendous." According to one estimate, THERE'S BEEN MUCH SAID . . . There has been no shortage in recent years of doom and gloom surrounding legal aid programs in Canada. Here's a sampling of some of the bad news and details of efforts to solve the crisis: B.C. Public Commission on Legal Aid The commission, led by Leonard Doust of McCarthy Tétrault LLP, is seeking public input on where legal aid stands in B.C., and where it should go. The commission started hearings last month and plans to visit 11 communities over two months. The following dates and locations are scheduled for this month: Oct. 4 – Nanaimo; Oct. 5 – Victoria; Oct. 7 – Vancouver; Oct. 8 – Surrey; and Oct. 12 – Chilliwack. "Moving Forward on Legal Aid" by Melina Buckley for the Canadian Bar Association This June 2010 report offers a broad analysis of legal aid in Canada and looks at options for reform. The report concludes with a set of 10 recommendations for the CBA to help promote a renewal of the system. Legal Aid Alberta Review Legal Aid Alberta in April outlined service changes following an internal review. According to LAA chairman Colin Kloot, "Making cost-saving changes to the legal aid plan is necessary to ensure access to justice for Albertans in need well into the future." Legal aid in Canada: resource and caseload statistics, Statistics Canada Stats that tell the story of Canada's legal aid programs from the 1997-98 to 2008-09 fiscal years. CBA letter to federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty "We estimate that well over half of litigants in family courts and administrative tribunals are now trying to navigate the justice system with inadequate or no professional advice," wrote former CBA president Guy Joubert in April 2009. "Report of the Legal Aid Review 2008" by Prof. Michael Trebilcock for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General Trebilcock called for a "substantial infusion" of new money into Ontario's legal aid system. He said decades of underfunding compromise "our commitment to the ideals of access to justice and the rule of law, which as a civilized, compassionate and prosperous society should be one of our most important shared common values or assets." "If there were legal aid in New Brunswick . . ." by Jula Hughes and Ernest MacKinnon for the Province of New Brunswick This 2007 report came with 40 recommendations. "As a first priority, base funding must be increased to adequately fund the existing programs," noted the authors. CBA test case The CBA's bid to establish a constitutional right to civil legal aid got underway in 2005 but ultimately failed. www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com OC T OBER 2010 31 pub liccommission.org cba. org / CBA / Advocacy/ leg alAid / default .aspx www.legalaid. ab .ca/ media/ Pag es/ default .aspx d sp-psd .pwgsc.gc.ca/ cba. Collection-R / Statcan/ 85F0015XIE org / CBA / sub missions/ 2009 eng / 09 / 85F0015XIE. html _2 4 .aspx www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov .on.ca/ eng lish/ about/ pub s/ trebilcock g nb .ca/006 2/ pd f/507 1%20eng %20repor t . pd f cba. org / CBA / N ews/ 2005_Releases/ 2005-06 -20_legalaid. aspx