I would like to see a return to the time—it was in the nineties, I believe, and I don't have the date—when the federal government gave funding to provincial legal aid plans through tied transfer payments, transfer payments with strings attached.
Basically that is a funding request. It would be great to see legal aid as a key piece of a national action plan on violence against women, to say that this is essential for ensuring that women can leave relationships safely and that women and children have their best interests met upon the breakdown of abusive relationships.
That's what I would like to see, and in particular in the areas of family law. It is an area that is often underserved, because it's not seen to have constitutional protections in the way that criminal law has. It needs specific consideration. It needs the federal government to say that family law is a priority.
Thank you.