The Westlock Independence Network has signed a contract to extend funding contracts for people with developmental disabilities until Sept. 30, according to executive director Greg Morris.
A mere three weeks before funding contracts between PDD and a variety of service providers expired, Alberta Human Services Minister Dave Hancock indicated service providers could choose to extend their contracts — just like Morris did for families at WIN.
Instead of trying to sign a new contract and rush into a series of drastic changes, Morris opted to accept the province-wide offer and treat it as an opportunity to be “proactive.”
“What we are doing is extending current funding (until) Sept. 30, while we investigate various alternatives with families,” he said “There may be some reasonable reductions we are able to realize by that date.”
More than one month ago, PDD northeast service providers announced a targeted reduction of $9 million as part of a $23 million budget cut with some service providers reporting cuts as high as 50 per cent. The WIN could lose as much as $408,332.
Morris said new contracts were supposed to be issued to service providers by the end of May and then by June 5, but still has not seen the numbers or received anything indicating the changes in writing by June 28.
And that’s why he attended an informal discussion about funding changes that was held by the Associate Minister of Services for PDD Frank Oberle in Barrhead on June 18. Later, Morris attended a telephone conference with Oberle and Hancock on June 26.
He noted the “reasonable changes” to extend contracts without targeted reductions appear to be province-wide until the fall.
“It’s tough to be accurate the first time around,” said Morris.
WIN is going to continue working with the same numbers it had offered families before the funding cuts were announced. Morris is devising a proposal to incorporate some of the changes and assumes his unconventional approach will be unique to PDD reps.
“The consistent message we are getting is that this is more about offering the correct level of services instead of about reducing funding,” he said. “This seems like a better approach than delivering target reductions, and we’ve been given some time to make these adjustments. I call it being proactive.”
