A legal bind

>> Neighbourhood legal service fights provincial power-grab

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

September 1 is do or die day--literally--for the Services juridiques communautaires de Pointe St-Charles et Petite Bourgogne (Community Legal Services of Pointe St-Charles and Little Burgundy). The provincial Legal Services Commission set that date as the deadline for the community group to sign an agreement that they say will both render them toothless and quash their autonomy. And if they don't sign it, their funding is history.

"If we accept the conditions the Commission wants to impose on us," says Micheline Cromp, president of the Pointe/Little Burgundy clinic administrative council, "we'll just actually become a management committee. Our budget will have to go through the Commissions and the provincial Treasury Council for approval." Which the clinic administration finds especially galling. Autonomy from the provincial government has been their modus operandi since law students founded the clinic in 1970, exercizing complete independence over its budget, salaries, employees and distribution of duties. Since its inception it has helped thousands of local residents, from welfare moms to the elderly, deal with the vagaries of the law.

Its most famous victory came in the early 1990s, when Hydro-Québec began pulling the plug on delinquent customers in winter. Negotiations between the government monopoly and the clinic resulted, which Cromp described as acrimonious, in a province-wide agreement on residents paying monthly instalments over the year, rather than whopping bills at inopportune times. This, says Cromp, was especially beneficial for residents on social assistance.

Currently, the clinic runs on an annual budget of about $500,000, mostly provided by the province, with which it pays all bills for its neighbourhood office and its staff of three lawyers and five support personnel. Its funding depends on its accreditation as a government-approved service. If it doesn't sign the agreement, it loses accreditation. Without accreditation, funding dries up.

Funding is the core issue. For over 30 years, the clinic received annual subsidies without once having been over-budget or had questions asked about misappropriation. The new rules would have their books scrutinized by provincial bureaucrats with specific spending allotments.

Another issue is the clinic's status. Hélène Leduc, vice-president of the Legal Services Commission, says that because the clinic receives public funding, it is considered a parapublic organization. It therefore falls under the domain of a new protocol encompassing all legal aid centres. The clinic claims they are a private, non-profit organization.

"What [Quebec Justice Minister] Paul Bégin is saying to us is, 'Just follow the rules. As long as you do what we tell you to do, you'll get your financing,'" Cromp says. "This is exactly what he is saying to all community groups."

Except that most community groups already play by the province's rules. The Pointe/Little Burgundy clinic stands alone as being almost wholly independent of provincial scrutiny. Cromp says most of the city's legal clinics have already been closed or amalgamated due to budget cuts.

Since June, when the clinic first heard of the ultimatum, its administration has been trying to grab the ears of Bégin and Legal Services Commission head Paul Boulanger. "We met with Boulanger for the first time on June 13 and the decision was already made," says clinic coordinator Lise Ferland. "We met and he listened. There was no exchange of ideas, no discussion. Then on June 22 we were told we would lose our accreditation if we didn't sign."