Legal Aid Program Evaluation, Final Report
Appendix C: Method for Comparison of Financial Eligibility Guidelines with Economic Indicators
Method for Comparison of Financial Eligibility Guidelines (FEG) with Economic Indicators
The following method was used to calculate the legal aid financial eligibility guidelines percentage change between 2001 and 2010 for each available province:
- Eligibility guidelines for a family size of four were used.
- Calculated as: [(FEG2010 - FEG2001) / FEG2001] * 100, where FEG2001 = the respective province's financial eligibility guideline in 2001 for a family of four and FEG2010 = the respective province's financial eligibility guideline in 2010 for a family of four.
Although many provincial financial eligibility guidelines were provided as family sizes ranging from one to seven or more, some guidelines were provided differently. Below is a list of decisions for the guidelines that were presented differently:
- British Columbia 2001 - provided separate guidelines for criminal cases and all other cases. Guidelines for the criminal cases were used for the calculation.
- Saskatchewan 2001 - provided guidelines based on family with number of children where family could include a single- or two-parent family. Family with two children was used for the family size of four.
- Ontario 2001 - provided a family size range from one to four+. Four+ was used for the calculation.
- Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador - provided guidelines separated by number of adults and number of children. Therefore, two values would be provided for a family of four: one for a single parent with three children and one for a two-parent family with two children. In each case, the higher of the two guidelines was selected, which in all cases ended up being the two parent with two children values.
The inflation rate for each province was calculated as follows:
Inflation rate = [(CICP2010 - CICP2001) / CICP2001] * 100
Where CICP2001 = the average 2001 CICP for the respective province and CICP2010 = the average 2010 CICP for the respective province.
The percentage change in the real wage for each province was calculated as follows:
ΔRWAGE = [(RWAGE2010 - RWAGE2001) / RWAGE2001] * 100
Where ΔRWAGE = the percentage change in the real wage for the respective province, RWAGE2001 = the average 2001 real wage for the respective province, and RWAGE2010 = the average 2010 real wage for the respective province.
The percentage change in the minimum wage for each province was calculated as follows:
ΔMWAGE = [(MWAGE2010 - MWAGE2001) / MWAGE2001] * 100
Where ΔMWAGE = the percentage change in the minimum wage for the respective province, MWAGE2001 = the minimum wage for the respective province as of January 1, 2001, and MWAGE2010 = the minimum wage for the respective province as of December 31, 2010.
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