As I said in my testimony, sir, certainly here in B.C. we look wistfully at the situation in Ontario, but folks in Ontario have been before you and I completely support their submission that they have a great deal of difficulty as well. If I were to say where within Canada I hoped the other provinces would get closer to, it would be Ontario. The eligibility threshold is higher in Ontario. The tariff rates are higher in Ontario, which promotes more lawyers being able to do it. Lawyers often want to do the work but can't afford to. You get a 10-hour contract in B.C. and you're going to work 30 hours. So if you get paid $80 per hour, you're going to get $30. A lot of pro bono work is being put in. That happens in Ontario too, but certainly I'm hoping that our province will find its way forward to get closer to Ontario where there's a network of community legal clinics. Although LAO may be cutting them, there is a network there. So I think Ontario would be the high-water mark in the country.
On February 7th, 2017. See this statement in context.