Maliiganik lawyers handled 1,600 cases last year

Maliiganik Tukisiiniakvik's case load has nearly doubled since 2003 and that has the board of Baffin's legal aid clinic calling for a big boost in funding from the Nunavut Legal Services Board.

Lawyers at the clinic handled more than 1,600 cases last year, up from around 900 in 2003, according to figures tabled at Maliiganik's annual general meeting in Iqaluit this past Monday.

The clinic's stable of lawyers has grown from three to seven, and support staff, which used to vary from between one and three workers now number three.

But funding from the territorial legal services board, which also oversees legal aid clinics in Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay hasn't kept pace with the demand for legal aid services in the region.

"We've found ourselves in the unenviable position of not being able to provide the type of working conditions we'd like to provide," said Christopher Debicki, Maliiganik's executive director.

That means the clinic cannot pay competitive wages to its lawyers, nor is it able to provide benefits that are standard for other public employees in Nunavut, such as housing assistance, pension contributions, parental leave and disability insurance.

The clinic's administrative staff, mostly Inuit women who are, with the exception of one lawyer, the only Inuktitut speakers on staff, are also underpaid, according to Maliiganik's budget submission to the legal services board.

"While this has always been regrettable, it is no longer acceptable," the submission states. To fix the shortfall, Maliiganik wants a 35 per cent increase in its budget, from $520,000 last year to just under $705,000 this year.

The other impact has been on clients. Debicki said Maliiganik lawyers have had to curtail cases involving charter challenges and access to housing and schooling.

Legal aid lawyers also no longer represent Nunavummiut at mental health review board hearings, which take place outside the regular court system. They've also been instructed not to provide legal assistance to people facing charges under the new Family Abuse Intervention Act, Debicki said.

Debicki said he knows the legal services board is also strapped for cash. The GN, he said, needs to "increase the size of the pie" and the board in turn needs to give a bigger share of that money to Maliiganik.

Colleen Harrington, executive director of the legal services board, was travelling this week and not available for comment.

It's up to the legal services board to dole out funding to regional legal aid clinics.

The Department of Justice funds the legal services board to the tune of nearly $5.2 million per year, said deputy justice minister Markus Webber, though more money for the board isn't out of the question.

"We are always studying what the service levels are," he said.