Agencies fear cuts after meeting with minister

Agencies that assist disabled adults in the Edmonton area are still feeling anxious over program cuts despite meeting witha cabinet minister Monday.

"I'm very fearful because there was no commitment about anything," said Wendy MacDonald from the Alberta Association for Community Living said after meeting with Mary Anne Jablonski, Alberta's minister of seniors and community supports.

"She said that she heard us. She certainly doesn't want anything bad to happen to individuals and made that very clear and I believe that to be true. But what we don't get from her any commitment that further cuts will not happen."

Late last year, the government announced it wouldcut two per cent from the People with Developmental Disabilities program about $12 million. The program helps developmentally disabled adultslive as independently as possible.

The agencies were told to slash their budgets by $3 million back in December, but they refused.They said there was nothing more could be cut. Later the government said the cuts were voluntary, but Jablonski said Monday she is still trying to cut two per cent from her budget.

Agencies, government, need to work together, minister says

Jablonski called Monday's meetinga "very good discussion."

"The most important thing ... is that we keep working together. Working together as a team to find the answers that we need. To make sure that the dollars that we have are used as efficiently and as effectively as possible for the people that we serve," she said.

But Jablonski's response worried the parents of disabled adults.

Terry Harris's 22-year-old son, Kevin, is autistic. A government program allows his son to attend heating-and-ventilation programs at NAIT in a regular classroom, which would eventually allow him to live independently.

Harris said making cuts to the PDD fund doesn't make sense.

"These individuals are trying to develop a greater level of independence which hopefully means that there's less dependence on social support systems in the future," he said.

Service providers and families said they are waiting anxiously for the 2010-2011provincial budget, to beon Feb. 9.