 The Commission went on to recommend, among other things, an increase in long-term, stable funding to the LSS, as well as an official recognition of legal aid as an essential public service.In November 2011, Robert J. Bauman, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, stated that the province's judicial system "is threatened, if not in peril...Inadequate funding of courts [including legal aid] in British Columbia has been the reality for the last number of years.