Front-line workers call for action

By Adam Brazeau 
CORNWALL, Ontario – Ontario’s developmental services are in a state of crisis, according to a handful of unionized workers picketing at Open Hands in Cornwall on Friday afternoon.

Kier Verner-Prokop, Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) region 4 mobilizer, led several developmental services workers with placards in hand at the corner of Pitt Street and South Branch Road to raise awareness on the issue.

“Prior to the election, the Liberals promised $810 million to improve developmental services, but that money is still at the table – and $200 million was promised for front-line workers,” said Verner-Prokop.

The Ministry of Community and Social Services is currently facilitating talks between employer groups and OPSEU and CUPE to discuss creating a framework for sustainable conditions for workers across the province.

But the $200 million will only be doled out over the next three years.

“The money needs to come now. The whole field is underfunded,” said Verner-Prokop. “Through these actions we want people to know what’s really happening.”

Over two-thirds of developmental services workers are reportedly part-time, temporary, or on contract, and earn less than $14 an hour.

Kathy Leger, a developmental services counsellor at Open Hands (a division of the Ottawa-Carleton Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities) for 12 years, echoed his sentiments.

“We really need the money from the government now to support our individuals,” said Leger. “And we need a raise because are field is definitely underpaid.”

She believes the cash injection will greatly improve services for everyone who lives with intellectual disabilities, their families, and people who provide services.

Verner-Prokop said that Ontario Ombudsman André Marin’s office received 800 complaints regarding access to developmental services in 2013-14, and waiting lists have skyrocketed to 21,000 people. He also pointed out that the All-Party Select Committee on Developmental Services openly acknowledged the extent of this sector’s crisis in their March 2014 interim report.

Meanwhile, Ontario’s Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk’s 600-page annual report, which was released Tuesday, cautioned that the number of people waiting for services in Ontario as of March 31, 2014 was 14,300 adults, almost as many as the 17,400 adults who had received services in the previous 12 months.

Lysyk also said that from 2009-10 to 2013-14, the number of people waiting for adult residential services increased 50 per cent while the number served increased only 1 per cent. The Auditor General calculated that it would take 22 years to place everyone who is currently waiting for residential services.

Verner-Prokop claims that the biggest problem is the extremely high turnover with workers, which results in a lack of continuity in care.

“A big portion of this effort is getting individuals off waitlists to get into homes and get care – and the $810 million isn’t enough to get it cleared. It was said that it would take over $1 billion to get it done,” he said.

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