To Premier McGuinty:

This communication is to request an urgent meeting with the Family Alliance Ontario to address the following critical issues facing families  throughout Ontario.  The Minister of Community and Social Services met with Family Alliance Ontario representatives prior to the budget but her staff have not returned calls or emails for another meeting since budget announcements.

In May 2007, the Minister of Community and Social Services announced a $200M budget for Developmental Services.  $9M went to people with developmental disabilities and their families to hire support workers to enable participation in community life.  The remainder has gone to the "revitalization of traditional agency infrastructure and wages." The Minister has promised a transformation "of developmental services to enable people with developmental disabilities to live lives of independence with full citizenship.”  Pouring millions of dollars into the old system will not accomplish this.

The Passport Program, which provides direct funding to persons with developmental disabilities and their families to hire support workers, has been devastatingly underfunded. Out of the $200M only $6M was dedicated to this program.  What does that mean?

Throughout the province, youth who have finished high school applied for Passport only to be overwhelmingly rejected.

In Hamilton, 174 people applied for Passport.       4 are funded.

In Niagara,                                                       1 person funded.

Eastern Region, Ottawa area                              24 funded.

In Peterborough, 102 people applied.                  7 are funded.

In Toronto, over 400 applied.                             33 are funded.

In London area 262 applied.                               11 are funded.

Durham Region (Pickering to Port Hope) 35         8 funded.

Windsor-Essex 120 applied                                 6 funded.

*numbers approximate

Throughout the province, the story is the same.  Many 100's of young adults with developmental disabilities are left with no support and will languish at home.  How are families, the largest care-giver group in Ontario, supposed to survive with no meaningful support to help them do their job?  Are parents expected to quit their jobs to remain at home with their young adult who cannot participate without support?

We also wish to draw your attention to another issue.  We are at a loss to understand why workers employed by families through direct funding have been left out of the "wage gap funding."  Over the next

four years the Ministry of Community and Social Services has committed to allocate $200M to agencies including this wage gap funding to address the need for increasing the salaries of support workers.  Why

is the ministry denying wage gap funding to support workers who are hired directly by families?    The Family Alliance Ontario has communicated with the Policy Branch of MCSS and they have confirmed

that the wage gap funds are strictly reserved for agency staff.  This feels discriminatory against families who are wishing to have control over the people who work so intimately with their sons and daughters.

It is well known that workers who are hired directly by disabled individuals and their families typically have lower salaries and fewer benefits than workers hired by agencies.  Yet the ministry has deliberately excluded them, thereby threatening the sustainability of supports administered by families.

Over the past four years, the present government has consistently excluded families from periodic distributions of funds for salary increases.  Families have patiently endured this as they participated

in discussions of "transformation" with MCSS at the Partnership Table.

The issue of uppermost importance to us is the treatment of people with disabilities as full citizens with the right to choose the life they want to live, and the right to self-direct their supports.  We expect the government to honour families and to invest in families.

The promised "transformation" is unacceptably slow. Families are waiting impatiently for the day whey anyone who is eligible for disability supports can choose the options of self-directed supports through individualized funding; a custom long established in other provinces.

We request a meeting with you in the next few weeks, prior to the provincial election to discuss these critical issues.

Sincerely,

Family Alliance Ontario