Law Times

Page 4 SePtember 1, 2014 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com Report outlines details for clinic mergers New plan seeks larger organizations in poorest neighbourhoods By yamri Taddese Law Times er weeks of discus- sion, the group lead- ing the reorganization of the Greater Toronto Area's legal clinics has released its detailed plan for creating five organizations across the region. e report envisions reduc- ing 16 of the area's legal clinics to five or six organizations of 33 staff offering core services that are missing in some places to- day. Currently, clinics on average have a staff of eight. If the recom- mendations become reality, the Toronto catchment areas will be in the northwest, the Scar- borough and Don Mills areas, and the southern part of the city, according to the report released last week. e plan is to have three or four clinics in Toronto and a clinic in each of Peel and York regions. ere would also be smaller "access points" where clients could receive services in their neighbourhoods. While the proposal has met with some criticism, at least one clinic is wel- coming the new model. Dennis Bailey, executive director of the Community Legal Clinic of York Region, says the report acknowl- edges skyrocketing poverty levels in the suburban areas. For years, his clinic of 10 staff members has been short of the resources nec- essary to provide the services the community needs, he says. "From our perspective, this is exactly what needs to happen," he notes. e existing clinics are too small, have overwhelmed staff, offer services in too few areas of the law, and are unable to meet emerging needs, according to the report. "While clinics have provided effective legal services for de- cades, they find themselves fac- ing big challenges, which the structure of the current system cannot help them address," the report's executive summary says. "Demand for clinic service has been growing in volume and complexity for many years; clinic catchment areas and re- source allocations do not reflect the changed or changing needs of local communities, making it impossible for clinic staff to re- spond in adequate ways." e new model would have teams of caseworkers working in different areas of the law, in- cluding a team of five assigned to social assistance work; two to Ontario disability support pro- gram matters; four to housing; and one to immigration cases. e proposal also provides for a workers' rights caseworker and four advice caseworkers. A team leader who works under an executive director will oversee each group. e organi- zations can't implement the new service model under the current structure because clinics are "too small to realize most of the trans- formational objectives," accord- ing to the executive summary. "Simply making existing clin- ics bigger by adding new staff does not transform clinics and does not address many of the is- sues that were identified as prob- lematic in the system: We just have bigger clinics and catchment areas would still be anachronistic. Moreover, with bigger clinics, co- ordination amongst 16 clinics would become even more prob- lematic than it is presently." e new model would in- clude redrawing catchment ar- eas. Where possible, they won't straddle municipal boundaries and would be accessible through major transportation routes. No more than one clinic in Peel and York regions would be possible given the changes envisioned and the available funding, ac- cording to Jack De Klerk, one of the clinic lawyers leading the clinic transformation process. Some clinics, however, are unhappy with the proposal. Gary Newhouse, chairman of the board at Kensington-Bellwoods Community Legal Services, says the plan for larger clinics doesn't reflect a community-based ser- vice delivery model. "Nothing in this report chang- es the views taken by Kensing- ton-Bellwoods Community Le- gal Services that the mega-clinic model is seriously flawed and is not supported by the 30 princi- ples that the project still identifies as the underpinning for transfor- mation," he tells Law Times. e plan doesn't involve cuts to staff or legal aid funding, says De Klerk, who's also director of legal services at Neighbourhood Legal Services. "We expect there will in fact be more staff. So this is not a process of reducing staff. We expect actually that front- line staff will be increased by al- most 20 per cent." e reduction in the number of clinics will mean fewer execu- tive directors and office manag- ers. De Klerk says some of the existing leaders will likely retire upon the project's implementa- tion, which would allow the clin- ics to hire junior staff members who will work on the front lines. e project's steering com- mittee will be looking for thoughts on the recommenda- tions throughout the fall and hopes to come to a decision be- fore the end of the year. "Accep- tance of the vision report by the GTA clinics does not bind them to the changes recommended in the report — it is an acceptance of the vision that we wish to at- tain," the committee said in the executive summary. "Once there is agreement on the vision, a transition plan will be developed setting out what needs to be done to implement the vision." LT NEWS AUTHORITATIVE. INNOVATIVE. TRUSTED. Available risk-free for 30 days Order online: www.carswell.com Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 New Edition Alberta Rules of Court Annotated 2015 The Honourable Judge Allan A. 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