Skip to content

Funding

$70 M needed immediately to stem community living crisis

BC-CLAG partners urge Premier to address growing risks, restore confidence

For immediate release: August 31, 2011: The BC Community Living Action Group (BC‐CLAG) strongly urges Premier Christy Clark to act immediately to approve $70 million in new provincial funding to stem the province’s growing community living crisis.

One-time $6 million in new funding inadequate to stem BC’s community living crisis

For immediate release:  September 14, 2011: The one-time, $6 million in new funding announced today for Community Living BC (CLBC) is inadequate to stem the crisis in support and funding faced by the families of adults with developmental disabilities, says the BC Community Living Action Group (BC-CLAG).

The six million dollars will provide support for a total 123 adults with developmental disabilities for one year, based on CLBC’s average costs of $48,800 for providing supports and services per adult per year.

Setting the Record Straight: Deciphering government messaging around CLBC service cuts (October 2010)
Additional background: BC-CLAG FOI requests re: funding cuts/service redesign and projected cost savings
File#292-30/CLB-2011-00018: Records re: recent and forecasted cost savings associated with service redesign and criteria to measure service quality outcomes relative to service redesign (July 14/11)

  • Response re: service quality outcomes and cost savings (Aug 25/11): extension required
  • Email communication advised that response was in “sign-off” stage. (Oct 12/11)
  • Follow-up email re: ongoing delays (Dec 20/11); response promised in 24 hours; reply stating that no information received and that BC-CLAG would be submitting complaint to Privacy Commissioner (Dec 23/11)
  • CLBC letter outlining information supplied and withheld. Also, CLBC response containing Phase 1 data requested (rec’d Dec 23). Finally, a CLBC letter withholding Phase 2 data “in their entirety pursuant to section 12 (Cabinet and local public body confidences) of FOIPPA.” (Jan 31/12)
  • NOTE: In over 400 pages of data, information released through the FOI request only itemizes cost savings from 2006-2010. No information about measuring service quality outcomes in relation to service redesign is provided; no budget plans or projected cost savings is provided for fiscal years 2011/12; 2012/13; 2013/14; 2014/15; 2015/16; and no information on the re-allocations of costs savings is provided.

The funding gap underlying BC’s community living crisis

An analysis of community living budgets and demographics, developed by BC CLAG partners based on official government data, explains the widening funding gap that underlies BC’s community living crisis.

A growing population and inflation have added 34% to the cost of maintaining adult community living services since 2002. However, the BC government has only increased community living budgets by 15% over that period.

The result is that funding per adult has fallen from an average of $65,368 in 2001-02, to an avrage of $37,642 in 2011-12, in inflation-adjusted dollars. The reduced funding per adult in real terms has made it impossible to maintain critical services and supports. The consequences: growing waitlists, reduced services, increased risks and reduced quality of life.

The current crisis is only expected to deepen, as CLBC’s own projections show a steady rise in the number of adults requiring community living supports in future years:

Alanna Hendren, Executive Director of one of BC’s largest and most successful non-profit agencies serving people with developmental disabilities and their families, has been involved in BC’s community living movement for more than two decades. She provides a context, an explanation, and an analysis of the crisis in the following report:

%d bloggers like this: