Cuts ‘too big, too fast, too soon’
PDD service changes will go ahead: province
The Redford government will continue with plans to overhaul services for Albertans with developmental disabilities, despite protests across the province Friday.
More than 1,000 disabled people and their supporters turned out for a loud, emotional protest on the legislature’s steps at noon, while 300 protested at Premier Alison Redford’s constituency office in Calgary. Grande Prairie and Lethbridge each saw a turnout of about 100 people.
Many in the capital city crowd wore T-shirts that criticized service cuts for being “too big, too fast, too soon,” while others carried placards with photos of themselves or disabled loved ones.
Premier Alison Redford spoke for the first time on the issue Friday and said the provincial plan will mean more effective community support for those with disabilities.
“Our commitment is to ensure that everyone who needs services gets services,” she said Friday, explaining that the province wants more money to go directly to clients. “It is not our commitment to ensure that we keep funding service providers.”
Human Services Minister Dave Hancock said the government will press on with the changes to services for Persons with Developmental Disabilities, known as PDD.
“I will be more than happy to be politically responsible for the decisions I make in due course,” Hancock said. “What we’re trying to do is the right thing for the right reasons.”
He said front-line service providers who have been told by local boards to make budget cuts of up to 15 per cent have misunderstood the process.
“I think in some cases, people are getting these numbers and assuming that their job is to meet the number, and we’re saying your job is to meet the criteria of the client, and let’s have a discussion and agree on what that is,” Hancock said.
“The number we want to have is the right number.”
Hancock said the July 1 implementation date is not carved in stone.
Marie Renaud is the executive director of Lo-Se-Ca Foundation, which provides services for 80 disabled people and employs more than 180 staff. She organized the protest because government was telling her there won’t be cuts while PDD was telling her the first step of the transformation is to cut 12 per cent of her budget by July 1.
“It’s funny that the government and PDD are accusing us of trying to protect our jobs,” Renaud said. “These are very real risks for people with disabilities, for the people who are trained and educated to work with them, and to surrounding communities. It’s going to be a huge burden on other systems, like health care, extended health care, police, ambulance.”
NDP MLA Rachel Notley said the government has fundamentally betrayed the trust of disabled people.
“They keep saying they’re not cutting, but then person after person after person gets up and says, ‘I was told this is the service I’m losing.’ Are they intentionally lying? Or are these people lying?”
The Conservatives “move forward at their peril; I think they will suffer a political blow from which they can’t recover,” Notley said. “If Alison Redford had come out really honestly and said: ‘I want to be Ralph Klein phase two,’ then maybe people would expect this. But she told them she was going to take care of these Albertans, and that’s what Albertans voted for.”
Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said from a political perspective, she can’t fathom how the government can move forward with the changes at this point.
“This has been so poorly communicated right from the beginning,” Smith said. “It’s offensive that Minister Hancock would somehow try to argue that the service providers are to blame for not giving proper information out.”
The Conservatives, Smith said, “haven’t been giving proper information since we and the Liberals and the NDP started asking about this weeks and weeks ago. We told them this was coming. ... We still don’t have a plan.”
Liberal Leader Raj Sherman said people are fearful and they feel betrayed by the Redford Conservatives.
“This is the most inhumane of the broken promises that Alison Redford has — to make cuts on the backs of Alberta’s most vulnerable.”
Alana Gersky, 24, carried a sign that accused the government of “disabling the ability.” It showed her gardening, playing basketball and visiting local attractions – activities she fears she won’t be able to take part in after the changes take effect.
She learned of the cuts through a service agency.
“At first, I was in a state of shock. Then I got mad,” Gersky said. “The disability that I have is Down syndrome, it’s genetic, and it’s basically a mental impairment. … I can’t make fast decisions; one of my challenges is that I can’t drive a car.”
Gersky said she graduated from high school four years ago and has been unable to find a job; she hopes to work with children or in music. The organization she is working with sent her a letter saying cuts are coming.
“I’m capable of doing anything I set my mind to,” Gersky said. “My parents taught me that all my life, and they still stand by it.”