Since the repeal of the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP) in 1995, social assistance and civil legal aid have been in decline, with devastating effects for the poorest women. On its face, CAP was neither a gender-specific nor a human rights-promoting instrument. But, the spending designations and the standards set out in CAP were an important means of protecting the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living and of promoting women’s human rights. They helped to ensure that the poorest women had basic economic security and access to justice. In 1995, Canadian women were told that shifting to unconditional block funding would increase innovation by the provinces and foster improvements in basic social programs. But after 10 years, the evidence shows that this has not occurred. Instead, social assistance and civil legal aid for family law and poverty law — the areas of law in which women most often need legal assistance — have been devastated by cuts and the imposition of new rules that shrink access.

The premise of this paper is that a better understanding of the history of poverty law in Canada, as well as its roots in other jurisdictions, will inform discussions in the future. It is intended as a discussion paper for the development of a national network of poverty law advocates across the country, which will assist in defining the critical elements of community-based poverty law services. The paper starts with the history of poverty law services in Canada and goes on to talk about their decline, both in Canada and internationally. It then describes trends in poverty law services, and continues with a jurisdictional review of what is available across Canada.

In August, 2002 all BC Legal Services Society’s poverty law direct service delivery primarily funded by the provincial government, were eliminated because of government cutbacks. This research paper reports on the status of poverty law services in British Columbia and records the views of poverty law service providers. The paper researches other delivery models in Canada and in other countries. The report serves as a first step in determining the most pressing poverty law needs in B.C. since the cutbacks and possible options to address them.

This is a study of problems having legal aspects experienced by low and moderate income Canadians. The main objectives of the study are to determine the incidence of law-related problems among this segment of the population and the social and demographic groups that are most vulnerable to problems.

The study identified a number of marginalized groups who had legal problems, including a growing segment of the labour force in unstable forms of non-standard employment, such as part-time work and marginal self-employment. These workers have lower and frequently interrupted incomes, limited access to benefits such as medical care, dental care and no pension benefits other than the minimal public pension system.This long-term structural change in the economy may signal the need for increased legal assistance.