I was mandated to train and work with Inuit paralegals and support staff, to help people in conflict with the law in criminal or family areas, to provide legal education and to recommend law reform.

24. Furthermore, stresses the importance of labour law, especially in view of how its application to SMEs can be optimised, for example through better advice or the simplification of administrative procedures, and calls on the Member States to devote special attention to SMEs in connection with the specific approaches they adopt to flexicurity, including through active labour market policies, since SMEs have scope for greater internal and external flexibility owing to their low staffing levels but also need greater security for themselves and their workers; considers it essential that labour law, as one of the main pillars of flexicurity, provides a reliable legal basis for SMEs giv ...[+++]en the fact that these businesses often cannot afford a legal department or a human resources management department; points out that, according to Eurostat, 91.5% of European companies employed fewer than 10 people in 2003;

5. Furthermore, stresses the importance of labour law, especially in view of how its application to SMEs can be optimised, for example through better advice or the simplification of administrative procedures, and calls on the Member States to devote special attention to SMEs in connection with the specific approaches they adopt to flexicurity, including through active labour market policies, since SMEs enjoy leeway for greater internal and external flexibility owing to their low staffing levels but also need greater security for themselves and their workers; considers it essential that labour law, as one of the main pillars of flexicurity, provides a reliable legal basis f ...[+++]or SMEs given the fact that these businesses often cannot afford a legal department or a human resources management department; points out that 91.5% of European companies employ fewer than 10 people (source: Eurostat, 2003);

A. whereas the EU is is not only an economic union but also a community of shared values as a consequence of which any reform of labour law and the labour market should reflect those values, and whereas the basic principles of labour law which have developed within Europe remain valid; whereas labour law should reflect the dialogue among all social partners and reflect a good balance between the interests of both employers and workers on the one hand and between flexibility and security on the other; whereas labour law provides legal certainty and protection for workers and employers by way of either legislation or collective agreement, or a combination of the two and whereas the success of any changes in labour law will be greater if wor ...[+++]kers feel more secure; whereas it is necessary to increase the level of security of both workers and enterprises, especially in the case of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); whereas such security also depends on how easy it is to find a new job, whereas global competition and rapidly developing technology mean that enterprises have to adapt ever more quickly,

In B.C. in 1991 our program expanded, and today there are two lawyers who appear at the mental health law program, as well as six paralegals and four secretaries doing work under the Criminal Code mental disorder provisions as well as representing patients who are detained involuntarily under the Mental Health Act.

Ms Susan J. Serena, Assistant General Counsel, Employment Law, Law Division, Ontario Hydro: I will not read my submission.