Antonella Artuso of the Toronto Sun reports:
A tough-talking attorney general says he’s prepared to take “whatever actions are required” as criminal defence lawyers consider expanding their boycott of legal aid.
Attorney General Chris Bentley would not rule in or out the possibility that the province could go to a public defender model where salaried government lawyers represent clients too poor to pay for a private sector attorney.
“We’ll take whatever steps are required,” Bentley said yesterday. “We’re in a position where we have no more money.”
There really isn’t any reason why the public defender model would reduce cost, but it would make it easier to get away with providing inadequate funding.
What’s also interesting is that they are not going after the federal government, which has introduced measures which will increase costs for the provinces (such as the leaning more towards the War on Drugs approach, and mandatory minimum sentences.)
If teacher’s weren’t given up to 200 cumulative sick days, TTC workers weren’t overgenerously paid for (not) watching people walk through turnstyles and other cushy government jobs, inlcuding those that require very little education, then maybe there would be funds left over for legal aid.
Comparisons are always drawn with the private sector, in particular, when speaking of the TCC; when obviously it is the TTC that is setting the standard in the first place; making it an erroneous marker for employee compensation. Nevertheless, for most all governemnt employment, when benefits are taken into consideration, they are near, if not above, their private employee counterparts. When it comes to legal aid and lawyers, however, not only do they loose the added benefit of strictly defined working hours with overtime for every minute over agreed upon hours, their salaries pale in comparison to their private sector counterparts.
Furthermore, lawyers typically have 2 or 3 university degrees, therefore, it would appear that government funding is not encouraging higher levels of education through adequate compensation.
This brief rant is not a total rejection of generous compensation for public sector workers, but when the belt needs to be tightened it should not begin with the most educated. Further, individuals with higher education are constantly staying in touch with continuing education courses and training while others are collecting raises at the expense of the public purse simply for lucking out in the hiring process.
Good points Mark