Funding
Funding for Legal Aid Ontario comes primarily from the province of Ontario and the Law Foundation of Ontario (LFO). The LFO administers the interest earned on lawyers' trust fund balances and Legal Aid Ontario receives 75 per cent of this income, resulting in revenue levels highly dependent on the Bank of Canada overnight rate and real estate activity levels.
The Federal government of Canada provides a portion of funding to contribute to criminal, immigration and refugee law and Youth Criminal Justice Act matters as well as other expenditures that fall under the Federal government's jurisdiction.
| Revenue ($ millions) | 2004 | % | 2005 | % | 2006 | % | 2007 | % | 2008 | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province of Ontario | $256.1 | 85.46 | $254.8 | 88.06 | $260.5 | 84.23 | $269.1 | 79.22 | $283.9 | 78.28 |
| Law Foundation of Ontario | $24.2 | 8.08 | $18.6 | 6.44 | $30.7 | 9.93 | $51.5 | 15.17 | $56.4 | 15.56 |
| Client Contributions | $13.1 | 4.37 | $15.2 | 3.94 | $15.7 | 5.07 | $17.3 | 3.43 | $18.9 | 5.23 |
| Judgements, Costs & Settlements | $1.7 | 0.57 | $1.5 | 0.52 | $0.28 | 0.09 | $0.41 | 0.12 | $0.28 | 0.08 |
| Investment & Other Income | $4.6 | 1.53 | $3 | 1.03 | $2.1 | 0.69 | $1.4 | 0.40 | $3.1 | 0.86 |
| Total | $299.6 | $289.3 | $293.1 | $339.7 | $362.6 |
Read more about this topic: Legal Aid Ontario