The Criminal Lawyers Association will continue its boycott of Ontario's legal aid system, saying a new $150-million funding infusion isn't enough of a boost.

The funding will be allocated over a four-year period to Legal Aid Ontario under a plan announced Tuesday by Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley.

The legal aid boycott that began with defence lawyers in Toronto in June has spread to the Ontario cities of Kingston, Thunder Bay and London, with lawyers complaining they aren't getting enough funding to try large, complicated trials such as murder and guns-and-gangs cases. They have since refused to take on those complex cases.

Under Bentley's plan, the funding for Legal Aid Ontario will increase by:

  • $15 million this year.
  • $30 million next year.
  • $45 million in three years.
  • $60 million in the fourth year.

Legal Aid Ontario's annual budget stands at about $288 million, so the funding boost represents a 21 per cent increase, the largest in the system's history, said Bentley in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Inequities in Crown, defence pay alleged

But Frank Addario, the president of the Criminal Lawyers Association, said Bentley's funding plan is too broad and doesn't offer real wage increases.

"The government needs to sit down with us and discuss ways to fix the program so that young lawyers agree to take these cases, and more senior experienced lawyers who could otherwise command large fees will take them as a public service," Addario told CBC News on Tuesday.

"An injection of five per cent each year for four years will not do that."

Two decades of underfunding still haven't been addressed, Addario said.

The association raised the issue in a letter to the attorney general in April, following earlier discussions and studies, alleging defence lawyers have been given a pay increase of only 15 per cent since 1987 — a period during which they say the consumer price index increased 75 per cent.

Meanwhile, they said, Crown lawyers received a 57 per cent increase between 1997 and 2007.

About 700 lawyers across the province have joined the boycott.

With files from The Canadian Press