Grande Prairie disability advocates frustrated with province

Hamilton Spectator

6 days ago

Inclusion Grande Prairie held a town hall on Saturday to hear concerns regarding changes to the province's funding for people with disabilities.
The two chairs reserved for local MLAs remained empty.
'It's so important to have a loud voice when speaking with this government because they have a tendency to ignore most of us,' said Keith Moore, Inclusion Grande Prairie president.
Underfunding for disability programs, access to funds, upcoming AISH changes with the new Alberta Disability Assistance Program, and the province 'clawing back' the federal Canada Disability Benefit from individuals were among issues raised at the public event.
The province is introducing the Alberta Disability Assistance Program (ADAP) expected to begin in July next year, but locals say there is not enough information for those who will be able to use it.
'We don't know what that new support level would be because there's just no information, and we have asked repeatedly,' said Moore.
'The trends with this government seem to be, let's just cut and cut and cut, people who are more vulnerable in our society are the ones that are targeted.'
The province says ADAP will allow people with disabilities to pursue jobs while receiving the financial, medical, and personal support they need.
It says ADAP will work alongside the current Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) program.
'ADAP is going to be a lower monthly support but allow people to earn more income without it being deducted off their support,' said Moore.
Currently, those on AISH have deductions from their monthly living allowance if they have income.
Moore said currently AISH clients receive about $1,900 per month for food, rent and utilities. He noted the poverty line is about $2,400 a month in Edmonton.
The Canada Disability Benefit (CBD) which could provide up to $200 a month was expected to help those with disabilities have more access to funds, but in Alberta CBD may add more barriers.
Inclusion Alberta said in a media release that the province is requiring people on AISH to apply for the CBD but will then reduce their AISH payment by the received CBD amount. It says no other province is doing this.
'The CDB is meant to be a top-up, not a replacement for provincial disability income support,' said Trish Bowman, Inclusion Alberta CEO.
'Taking away a benefit that was intended to help reduce poverty for adults with disabilities is beyond comprehension.'
About 77,000 Albertans are accessing AISH.
The CBD has a $250 application fee, and approved clients need to qualify for the Disability Tax Credit that requires a medical assessment that may also come with a cost.
'It doesn't make sense,' shouted a person from the crowd at the town hall.
Family Support for Children with Disabilities (FSCD) and Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) funding is also underfunded, says Moore. He cited the latest publicly available annual report from the Advocate for Persons with Disabilities (2022-23).
'The budget for 2025 did add some money in, but it didn't even keep up with inflation or the population growth,' he said.
'Every year, we're falling further and further behind, and that is basically what the advocates report for 2022 says — insufficient funds.'
People at the town hall voiced their frustrations with a system some called 'dehumanizing.'
Moore says he sent invites to Grande Prairie MLA Nolan Dyck and Grande Prairie-Wapiti MLA Ron Wiebe.
'We're going to present everything that was brought forward by families,' said Moore, 'we're going to get folks to write out their stories and everything and will go to the MLAs and again, requesting them specifically to respond to us.'
'We expect them to do their job as allies represent us; they were not elected to represent Premier Smith or the caucus,' said Moore.
Moore says contact with the local MLAs has been difficult.
'They're not very accommodating for people who want to meet with them,' he said, noting the MLA offices indicated that they limit meetings to a maximum of 30 minutes, won't meet after 7 p.m. and won't meet with more than six people at a time.
Giving each person five minutes isn't long enough to illustrate how funding is affecting a person, he said.
Moore, who served on the board of the Inclusion Alberta until last month, said there was no consultation done regarding AISH or the upcoming changes with ADAP.
He said he wanted to see Inclusion Alberta included in the changes to legislation, noting the organization represents families across Alberta and that Inclusion Grande Prairie represents many people in northwestern Alberta from Edson to LaCrete.
He said it's not uncommon for the province to include stakeholders before making changes to legislation noting oil and gas companies were included in legislative changes to abandoned wellsites.
In March, the Family Resource Centre in Grande Prairie was closed after provincial funding cuts.
'When we lost the Family Resource Centre, one of the responses from the province was, we do not fund advocacy we fund supports,' said Moore.
'We helped over 200 families, during the time it was operational, find a way around the community, connect them with supporting organizations within the community, help guide them through inclusive education.'
He said that parents don't know how to navigate the system. The centre helped them navigate funding, ensuring their children received proper education and aid and parents got the education they needed.
'The interesting thing is that the (Persons with Developmental Disabilities) PDD office in Grande Prairie often referred people to us,' he said, 'that's basically because the PDD office is understaffed; they're maybe 50 per cent of what they were five years ago, in numbers.'
Funding to the Family Resource Centre was cut from about $120,000 a year to $64,000, said Moore. He said the province has also stipulated the centre would need to provide courses that follow 'provincial scripts' every month, that would include provincial audits for compliance.
Moore said after some conversations, the province indicated it is still funding the Office of the Advocate for Persons with Disabilities. The website stated that the office would visit communities and talk to organizations.
'I invited them to come out to Grande Prairie to talk with (Inclusion Grande Prairie), also the Autism Society - because they're in the same boat we are - and two weeks later, I got a phone call and the lady said they were unable to come out because they didn't know what their budget was and couldn't travel.'
Moore then asked if they could accommodate a Zoom meeting and was told it would need to be before 7 p.m.
Town & Country News reached out to the Ministry of Assisted Living and Social Services but did not receive a response before press time.