Province boosts funding for disability services, raises wage for support workers

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This article was published 20/03/2023 (394 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobans with intellectual disabilities, their families and advocates joined the Progressive Conservative government Tuesday at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights to celebrate record funding that supports their right to live in the community.

The province announced $104 million in additional funding for the sector, including $82 million already outlined in the 2023 budget to raise the baseline hourly wage for direct service workers to $19 April 1 to help with retention and recruitment, and $21.4 million to expand the capacity of Community Living disABILITY Services.

It’s the largest wage increase in the history of the sector, said Premier Heather Stefanson, a former families minister who said it’s an issue “near and dear to my heart.”

At the height of the pandemic, the sector faced major challenges with support-worker retention and recruitment, said Margo Powell, executive director of Abilities Manitoba. She estimated the turnover rate was 450 per cent, which was troubling for clients and families who rely on support staff they know and trust.

“When we have someone constant, it gives us a sense of stability and it doesn’t make our home feel like a revolving door,” said Jessica Croy, who has lived experience and serves as a special adviser on disability issues to Families Minister Rochelle Squires.

On average, more than 770 support workers will come and go from the life of a person receiving support, said Powell.

Squires said Croy lobbied her whenever they met to do something to retain support workers and reduce the number of people coming and going from their lives.

“Jessica has pulled no punches,” said Squires, recalling her adviser’s repeated request: “Minister, my workers need more money.”

Croy said people want to build meaningful relationships with staff they know and trust having in their homes, and paying them better will allow that to happen.

“For staff, it means they can stay in a job they love and care about,” she said.

For families who rely on direct support staff, that trust is vital, said Scott Smith of the Family Advocacy Network of Manitoba and father of 13-year-old Ryder.

“Families worry about their loved ones and the harm that may come to them,” said Smith.

He and his wife Rachel will one day no longer be able to provide the supports Ryder needs, he said at the museum.

“My hope is that one day these strangers entering his life will be trained, educated, experienced professionals able to provide competent supports,” he said. “Today brings me hope. We’re a major step closer in reducing those fears.”

Manitobans with intellectual disabilities 50 years ago faced life in an institution or relied on aging parents to look after them, said Dale Kendel, who served as executive director of Community Living Manitoba from 1976 to 2009.

Today, that institution — the Manitoba Developmental Centre — is being shuttered and the provincial government is budgeting record amounts to enable people to have choice and dignity about where and how they live in the community, said Kendel, who emceed Tuesday’s event.

The province now supports 480 homes in the community, a range of services and 10,000 workers, with an annual total budget of $640 million, he said.

“Those are massive social-change items,” he said, crediting both Stefanson and Squires for championing the issues.

Stefanson said stabilizing supports for Manitobans with intellectual disabilities and their families has been a highlight of her seven years in government.

“When you see the people with lived experience here — and what this means to them to have someone there on a more permanent basis — this is what it’s all about,” she said after the news conference. “I’m very emotional about it.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca