People with developmental disabilities shouldn’t have to wait for the services they need – fund community living now!

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Community living services in Guelph and Wellington and Dufferin counties are in desperate need of funding.

The provincial government put an extra $810 million into developmental services three years ago, but not a penny went into the base budgets of agencies like Community Living Guelph Wellington and Community Living Dufferin.

In fact, their base funding has been frozen for the past seven years.

In the City of Guelph and the counties of Wellington and Dufferin, community living services are hurting.

  • There aren’t enough residential spots for people who need support to live independently.
  • Programs, services, staffing and support hours have all been cut.
  • Agencies don’t have enough funding to meet their pay equity obligations – even though most community living employees are women.
  • Sheltered workshops are closing because of recent legislation, with nothing to replace them.

Meanwhile, the needs of many people with developmental disabilities are increasing. They have mental and physical health conditions that are increasingly complex. They are ageing and so are the family members who support them.

People with developmental disabilities shouldn’t be disadvantaged because of a lack of funding or legislative requirements.

Community Living in Crisis

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Lack of funding for community livings have affected services as follows:

  • CLD unionized members have had 30 minutes per day cut from their hours which has caused reduction in services provided to clients
  • CLD is not filling a part-time Options position
  • CLD cut 1 day per month from day program staff who take the day off without pay
  • CLD is now fundraising in order to enable the agency to purchase a new vehicle to transport clients
  • CLD has an unfunded pay equity debt for the Support Worker 4 position which will be ongoing
  • CLD had to re-mortgage their administrative offices to cover their past pay equity obligation
  • CLD management is taking 1 day per month without pay
  • CLGW has an unfunded pay equity obligation that they cannot meet and the next payment is due April 1st
  • CLGW will have to lay off 4 employees every year for 8 years to meet their pay equity obligation
  • CLGW has been renting out their administrative offices to raise operating funds and have been fundraising for many years to cover normal expenses
  • CLGW has cut hours of work and left positions unfilled almost annually for the last 7 years
  • CLGW sold a group home in order to meet a portion of their pay equity obligation

 

OTHER CONCERNS

  • The Ombudsman Report outlined just how far in crisis the Developmental Services Sector is but the Government has not responded in addressing any of the critical issues outlined in the report
  • Closure of sheltered workshops and expectation for clients
  • Inclusionary programming is a major shift in how services will be provided
  • Concerns around inclusionary programming includes clients having to pay to access day programs of which their comfort allowance does not provide enough funds for joining any type of programmes
  • The Government has not provided any feedback or plan for rural areas that are unable to provide inclusionary opportunities for clients
  • Out of the $820 million to the DS sector, $120 million went to front line staff province-wide
  • The Government has not accounted for the balance of these funds
  • We are aware that the majority is for passport funds to families on waiting lists for residential services
  • Residential services are being reduced or will provide only for clients who are unable to participate outside of a residence
  • Passport funding is to be used for families to hire outside support to assist in clients finding either paid work or for volunteerism
  • Passport funding is to be used as well for clients to join and pay for programmes
  • The inclusionary transition will require clients to join adult programmes in the community and all individual developmental services programmes are to cease
  • We are concerned about what will happen when parents age and what supports will be offered to their children
  • The Government has not been able to provide any clear direction or plans in regards to what supports will be available to specialized care and needs for clients
  • No direction has been given to families in regards to hiring of support workers in their homes specifically how they can apply and use passport funding and especially ensuring accountability
  • We are recommending that parents use agencies to vet and hire support workers with passport funding as concerns may expand to what happens if the work relationship breaks down

 

NEGOTIATIONS

  • CLD and CLGW are coordinating negotiations of a new collective agreement
  • If necessary, strike action will be taken and will most likely happen sometime around mid-March
  • CLD and CLGW are in conciliation and negotiating with the assistance of the Ministry of Labour
  • CL Kincardine is also an agency in crisis and are in conciliation and will be coordinating a strike deadline in line with CLD and CLGW

 

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

 

Bargaining update

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Dear Members :

Please be advised  that no settlement was reached in talks with the Ministry of Labour today.  However, we can confirm that our campaign has already attracted attention with the government which is a positive outcome about funding needs for development services.  In discussion today with Union Committee is coordinating strike activity that would take effect around March 27th.

The Union Strike Committee is meeting February 17th and further updates will be posted after the committee has met.

The Local Executive-Strike Committee will be providing regular updates via Facebook, this website, and our email address. Please provide Krista with your email address if you are not getting emails.  cupelocal3083@gmail.com

 

General Membership meetings 2017

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GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING DATES FOR 2017

January 14th
February 8
March 8
April 12th
May 10th

June 14th
July     NO MEETING THIS MONTH
August NO MEETING THIS MONTH
September 13th
October 11th
November 8th
December 13th

  • Meeting take place 4:30pm-6pm and are held in the Community Room at the CLD office.  We must have 7 members and 3 executive to run a meeting.  If we do not meet quorum no meeting will happen.