Close to 40 people gathered in front of Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Maureen Kubinec’s office last Tuesday to protest the pending cuts to Persons with Developmental Disabilities — the group held signs and chanted, “Stop the cuts!”
Yet for the vast majority of the population, these cuts are just another headline about arbitrary decisions that the government makes to save money.
But for people like Robert Shank, featured in the May 21 edition of the Westlock News, the cuts are life changing.
After 25 years of living in a group home with 24-7 care, Shank lost more than half of his funding after being evaluated through the PDD Northeast service providers Supports Intensity Scale (SIS).
The 50-year-old man suffers from Down syndrome and his recent SIS scores means Shank will go from 168 hours of care in a group home every week, just like he’s had for the last 25 years, to only 40. And Shank is just one of hundreds of people suffering from a developmental disability that expects to lose funding.
Shank is currently a client at the Westlock Independence Network, a service provider that cares for hundreds of disabled Albertans. WIN is expecting to face a cut in the range of $408,000.
So with a mother over the age of 90, it begs the question: What will happen to Robert Shank?
For a Westlock mother, Judy Humphries whose daughter is in care in the city, it means a $20,000 cut in funding by July 1.
The total northeastern regional target reduction is almost $9 million with service providers reporting cuts as high as 50 per cent. The provincial government is making cuts to people who need funding more than anybody else.
We’re talking about handicapped people, many of whom cannot even work.
Asking for a moratorium on the decision or even a recall is pie in the sky, but asking the provincial government to look at the bigger picture is not.
Where did these numbers come from and who could have possibly thought that making cuts to the people who need funding the most would be beneficial? Is this the kind of Alberta we want to call home?
