I don't work in Ontario, so I don't know the formula, but I do know that as a response to the Code and LeSage report, they did bring in higher rates for senior counsel. I believe it was $140 or $150 an hour, something like that. I can't say whether it's the gold standard. Unfortunately, I think many of the legal aid plans still remain sort of the rusty steel standard.
There are ways to go. What we have to do is encourage senior counsel to be able to take on the difficult cases, to mentor young counsel, and to look upon legal aid, from a criminal lawyer's point of view, as investing in the system in the same way as we invest in training police officers. It could be recognized that well-trained police officers investigate better and present better evidence in court. We invest in prosecutors. We invest in judges.
We have to look upon defence counsel and invest in them, and then the system will work better.