JOINT PRESS RELEASE

Edmonton, January 19th

Today, the Alberta Liberal and Wildrose Alliance Parties stand in solidarity with the Alberta Association for Community Living (AACL) and the front-line agencies supporting persons with developmental disabilities. Both parties support the front-line agencies in their ongoing fight against unreasonable cuts by the Ministry of Seniors and Community Supports.

The government's attempted cuts are, in this case, irresponsible.  The heart of the matter is that, instead of cutting administrative "fat," PDD has chosen to force agencies to cut actual hours of service to vulnerable persons.  While the Alberta Liberal Party and WIldrose Alliance Parties are worlds apart in ideology and solutions, they are united in seeing PDD's action as reprehensible

Kent Hehr-Alberta Liberal MLA from Calgary Buffalo decried the cuts as small minded and petty, “I said at the time that Ed Stelmach should be embarrassed to come out of his house, I stand by that, but I think now he should just plain be embarrassed that they choose keeping MLA pay raises over people with disabilities.”

Paul Hinman Wild Rose Alliance MLA for Calgary Glenmore was equally critical.   “These cuts are another case of the incompetence of this top down government that has little understanding of the work being done by our front line workers and the needs of those receiving these critical services.”

While Minister Jablonski has claimed that these cuts only affect administrative expenses, we have evidence that this is simply not true.  Correspondence in our possession indicates that the PDD Calgary Board specifically directed front-line agencies to cut services.  Front-line agencies provided copies of this correspondence to the Minister, in person, on December 21st.  In addition, we have evidence that those agencies which have acquiesced in the cuts have, in fact, passed the cuts directly to the people they are supposed to support.  Minister Jablonski's public defense of the cuts, therefore, contradicts the reality of PDD's actions in Calgary.

In unison with AACL, the Alberta Liberal and Wildrose Alliance Parties call for the Premier to instruct PDD to abandon these particular cuts.  Instead, he should point the Minister at the approximately 20% of the PDD budget which is composed of administrative costs unrelated to front-line service.

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For more information media are invited to contact:

Shawn Howard
Director of Communications, Office of the Leader
Wildrose Alliance Party
Phone:   403-850-0885 (media only)

Email:    This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it