Michener Centre backers to rally as Tories meet

A rally on the very doorstep of the Progressive Conservative convention in Red Deer will call for the government to reverse its decision to close the nearby Michener Centre next year.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees says concerned residents, families, staff and community members will gather outside the convention Friday at 4 p.m.

The move comes eight months after the provincial government announced it was closing the 90-year-old Michener Centre, removing 125 Albertans with severe developmental disabilities from their homes.

“This decision was done without consulting residents, families or staff,” AUPE president Guy Smith said Wednesday in a news release. “It has distressed a vulnerable population and has activated an entire community.

“The government made a promise it would not force anyone out of Michener in 2008 after 90 per cent of residents and families chose to stay. That promise has been broken and the Redford government has taken that choice away. It’s not right.”

Frank Oberle, associate minister for persons with disabilities, says the government plans to continue with the closing but that no residents will move before a consultative process that ensures their new home is suitable.

There has been a recent shift in policy across North America concerning where persons with disabilities reside, he added.

“There’s a body of best practices that says we can do better, we can get better outcomes in the community, in supported community living. The UN charter on the rights of persons with disabilities says exactly that. ... So that’s what behind it.”

In September, the Society of Parents and Friends of Michener Centre filed a request for a judicial review into the closing of the live-in centre.