Immigration and refugee legal aid

Refugee claimants have the right, under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), to be represented at I&R proceedings. Through the Legal Aid Program, the federal government contributes annual funding to the seven provinces where I&R legal aid services are provided (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec). I&R matters are primarily proceedings of persons (individuals, or principal applicants and family) involved in the immigration and refugee determination system under the provisions of IRPA, but also include some other immigration proceedings under the IRPA, such as immigration detention hearings and removal order appeals. I&R legal aid covers the provision of legal advice, assistance and representation for immigration or refugee proceedings before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), the Federal Court, or Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada officials on post-determination actions.

There were over 46,000 I&R legal aid cases in 2022-23, a 82% increase from the previous year

Table 16 shows the volume of I&R legal aid cases as well as expenditures for I&R legal aid for 2022-23, including cases and expenditures carried over from previous fiscal years for matters that are ongoing. In 2022-23, there were 46,233 legal aid cases, with 4,307Footnote 17 carried over from previous fiscal years in the provinces that reported these data, for a total of 50,540 cases. A majority of (current and previous fiscal years) cases were handled by private bar lawyers (77%), while 19% were handled in specialized clinics, and 4% were handled by staff lawyers. Over two thirds of expenditures from the current (2022-23) and previous fiscal years related to I&R legal aid were associated with private bar certificates (68%).

Newfoundland and Labrador and Alberta had the highest proportion of staff lawyersworking on I&R matters (100% and 43%) in 2022-23, while in British Columbia, 100% of I&R legal aid cases were handled by private bar lawyers. Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec are the only jurisdictions with cases handled through specialized clinics, which account for 92% of previous and current fiscal caseloads in Nova Scotia, 24% in Ontario, and 11% in Quebec) (Table 16).

Figure 20 shows the trends in I&R legal aid caseload volumes and expenditures over the past five years. The number of previous and current fiscal year cases has continued to climb over the past two years from a low of 21,973 during the onset of the pandemic in 2020-21. In 2022-23 previous and current fiscal year cases have increased beyond pre-pandemic levelsFootnote 18, up 82% from last year, and up 9% compared to 2018-19 using a constant 2023 dollar comparison. Similarly, expenditures have gradually increased over the past two years from the low during the onset of the pandemic in 2020-21. In 2022-23, expenditures were up 28% from the previous year and 15% compared to 2028-19.

Figure 20. Immigration and refugee legal aid caseloads and expenditures surpassed pre-pandemic levels in 2022-23.

Figure 20. Immigration and refugee legal aid caseloads and expenditures surpassed pre-pandemic levels in 2022-23.
Figure 20. Immigration and refugee legal aid caseloads and expenditures surpassed pre-pandemic levels in 2022-23. – Text version

This is a bar graph showing five light purple vertical bars and one dark purple line superimposed over the bars. The legend says that the light purple bars indicate “cases – previous and current fiscal (#)” while the dark purple line indicates “expenditures – previous and current fiscal ($).”

The horizontal axis shows years:, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Reading the graph from left to right, it goes as follows:

For 2018-19, the tallest light purple bar shows 46,574 while the dark purple line is at $51 million.

For 2019-20, the light purple bar shows 44,116 while the dark purple line decreases slightly to $50 million.

For 2020-21, the light purple bar shows 21,973 while the dark purple line drops to $38 million.

For 2021-22, the light purple bar shows 27,791 while the dark purple line increases to $46 million.

For 2022-23, the light purple bar shows 50,540 while the dark purple line increases to $58 million.