Message from the President and CEO

message from the president & ceo

The welcome announcement at the end of the 2006-2007 fiscal year that the provincial government will be providing an additional $51 million in funding to Legal Aid Ontario over the next three years is a significant demonstration by the people of Ontario that they care deeply about the legal aid needs of low-income people. Together with Legal Aid Ontario’s revenues from the Law Foundation, the additional investment in Legal Aid Ontario by the public demonstrates both the confidence and expectation of the people of Ontario that we will spend every dollar effectively and efficiently. Respecting this trust, we have established a goal for ourselves at Legal Aid Ontario to increase our overall productivity by 1% each year for the next five years—we call this our Value Agenda. We will consider everything that is reasonable to create this added value and we will measure our progress through rigorous management practices. It is an ambitious goal, but it is achievable. In so doing, we will ensure that the savings we generate are re-invested in two key areas: more service to clients and modernizing Legal Aid Ontario as a public institution. To achieve this increase in legal aid impact, we have devised a management strategy to govern the next five years of Legal Aid Ontario’s development. The strategy will be driven by the implementation of five key management principles at every level of our operation: Innovation: We will establish an even more vigorous corporate culture that allows ideas to come forward and embraces new approaches to solving problems. Measurement: We will create and implement modern tools to measure Legal Aid Ontario’s performance, identify our successes, and inform our decisions. Prioritization: We will establish inclusive and accountable processes and criteria for making clear and principled decisions on Legal Aid Ontario’s priorities and the allocation of resources. Accountability: We will ensure that clear, sound management and financial accountability systems are in place throughout Legal Aid Ontario so there is no doubt as to where the responsibility lies for taking action and making decisions at all levels; and we will ensure that the legislation governing Legal Aid Ontario and setting out its precise roles and functions will be scrupulously followed. Co-ordination: We will give full expression to our legislated mandate to maximize impact for clients by improving the coordination of legal aid services and ensuring that Legal Aid Ontario is managed to ensure synergy among all of its programming and administrative functions. There is no particular program or organizational end state to the application of these principles. There is, however, something much more: the development of a vibrant corporate culture that continually evolves to new heights of achievement of its mandate to serve the legal aid needs of low-income Ontarians.

Robert Ward President and CEO