Introduction

Background

In Canada, responsibility for criminal justice is shared between the federal government for criminal law making and criminal procedure and provincial and territorial governments for the administration of the justice system, outside of criminal prosecutions in the territories which are a federal responsibility. Given these authorities under the Constitution, both levels of government have a mutual interest in working together to ensure a fair, relevant, and accessible system of justice.

Legal aid is one component of the legal system, and it is essential to fulfilling the government’s obligations under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms including the right to a fair trial (section 11(d)); to life, liberty and security (section 7) and to equal protection and equal benefit of the law (section 15). As former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Beverly McLachlin stressed in a 2019 article, legal aid contributes to the economic efficiency and effective functioning of our justice system. A robust and adequately funded legal aid system helps to ensure effective and fair representation in the criminal justice system, it is necessary to address the imbalance of power by ensuring that economically disadvantaged individuals have equal access to justice in our society.Footnote 1

Legal Aid Program

There are 13 recognized legal aid plans in Canada, the organizations responsible for providing legal aid services to those who cannot afford a lawyer. The federal government supports legal aid services in the provinces and territories through two sources. The Department of Justice Canada’s (Justice Canada) Legal Aid Program provides funding to all provinces for criminal legal aid through contribution agreements. There are also agreements to support immigration and refugee (I&R) legal aid in eight provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, I&R legal aid is provided by a legal service clinic, rather than the provincial legal aid plan. The federal government also supports criminal and civil legal aid in the territories through consolidated Access to Justice Services Agreements.Footnote 2 Federal support for civil legal aid in the provinces is covered under the Canada Social Transfer (CST), which is a block transfer payment provided to each province and territory for post-secondary education, social assistance and social services, and early childhood development and early learning and childcare. Civil legal aid is an eligible expenditure under the CST.Footnote 3

While policy development related to criminal legal aid is a shared federal/provincial/territorial responsibility, each province and territory is responsible for the delivery of legal aid services based on their own policies and procedures. This report provides national level statisticsFootnote 4 on revenues, expenditures, personnel, and caseloads from legal aid service providers across Canada. Justice Canada has produced the Legal Aid in Canada report since 2016-17, and this is the eighth annual edition. This year’s report includes data from the 2023-24 fiscal year, as well as trend data from the past five years.

Between 2021 and 2023, the Government of Canada provided additional funding resources for criminal and immigration and refugee legal aid services, as part of a broader effort to promote equity and fairness within the justice system, and to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples, Black and other racialized groups in the criminal justice system.Footnote 5 In addition, Justice Canada introduced a new initiative in 2021-22, Impact of Race and Culture Assessments (IRCAs).Footnote 6 IRCAs help sentencing judges understand how experiences such as poverty, marginalization, racism, and social exclusion of Black and racialized offenders impact an offenders’ interaction with the justice system. This year’s annual report includes data showing the use of IRCAs over the first three years of funding.

In 2023-24 the justice system continued to experience the pressures of sustained backlogs and longer case processing times in the courts, which were exacerbated by the COVID 19 pandemic.Footnote 7 In the legal aid context, data from 2023-24 show that the legal aid system has returned to or surpassed pre-pandemic revenues, expenditures, and case volumes.

In addition, there were significant increases in expenditures and case volumes in immigration and refugee legal aid services in 2023-24. Unprecedented numbers of asylum claimants, coupled with a large backlog of cases, created extensive pressures on legal aid service providers.Footnote 8  To ensure that services were not suspended in jurisdictions facing extraordinary pressures, additional funding was required so that services remained available throughout the fiscal year.

The data collection for Legal Aid in Canada is done at a national level; however, some legal aid plans may be unable to report all or some data elements in certain years. Due to these limitations, Canada-level totals may not include all provinces and territories; this is noted where applicable.