Budget woes disable service organization

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People with disabilities know how few programs and services are available to help them.

When even one of these supports is axed or threatened because of budget cuts, it draws strong reaction from the service providers. Sometimes a few thousand dollars is the difference between providing service or not.

That is the way the Canadian Paraplegic Association (CPA) sees it. The organization's Alberta CEO, Neil Pierce, accuses Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) of turning a blind eye to disabled Aboriginal people when it reduced CPA's 2000-2001 budget to $15,000 from the previous $60,000 and notified CPA it would receive no more financial support after June.

The $60,000 CPA got from INAC for five years was 25 per cent of CPA's annual Aboriginal disability budget.

Pierce asked why funding for disability issues isn't a priority for the department when the rate of disabilities in the Aboriginal population is three times that for non-Aboriginal people.

The department is providing $125,000 to a provincial non-profit organization that supports disabled people, the Aboriginal Disabilities Society of Alberta (ADSA) and both organizations have offices in Edmonton.

In a May 1 letter to Pierce, INAC's regional director general, Barrie Robb, said the funding INAC had provided for "peer support, adjustment counseling, advocacy, vocational counseling and case management for on-reserve First Nations' persons with spinal cord injuries" was contingent on two things. One, there had to be money in INAC's regional budget. Two, CPA was required to demonstrate to INAC it had support from the Alberta chiefs and councils.

The letter states INAC received "some" support letters from Aboriginal organizations, but it did not have the money to continue helping CPA. INAC suggests CPA negotiate fee for service contracts with Alberta First Nations.

An earlier letter to CPA from INAC's director of strategic planning, policy and intergovernmental relations followed a meeting between INAC, Health Canada and CPA on March 23. Jim Sisson wrote that "the combination of ongoing growth to core regional funding programs and relatively smaller adjustments to the Alberta region's core budget have greatly reduced the region's flexibility to support non-core activities." The $15,000 they were providing was meant to be bridge funding to give CPA time to make other arrangements.

Health Canada informed CPA at the meeting it would top up CPA's budget by $20,000, according to Ken Jobin, CPA's Aboriginal services co-ordinator in Edmonton.

Jobin said CPA serves on- and off-reserve people. But INAC's mandate is limited to treaty people.

Jobin himself looks after Treaty 8. Elmer Cardinal, the CPA contact for Treaty 6 could not be reached for comment. Winston Thompson said he has worked for six months for CPA in Treaty 7 and has 21 regular clients from the Blood and Peigan reserves and in Calgary whom he tries to see once a month.

"We were stretched out so far we were not covering all the clients," said Jobin. "We could just not physically meet with all the clients." Before INAC's axe fell, he said, they had just hired a fourth person, but now that job could be jeopardized.

Indian Affairs' communication director Glenn Luff explained the annual $125,000 ADSA gets from INAC comes from INAC's Ottawa headquarters, not out of the regional budget. On the other hand, CPA was getting "discretionary funding from the region." He said CPA was "always told it was discretionary." He pointed out that ADSA also has "received the support of the chiefs in the Alberta region."

Debbie Graham, manager of social development for INAC Alberta explained why INAC gives ADSA funding. She said, "The intent of the initiative when it came underway was to basically remove barriers, increase awareness, improve co-ordination, accessibility of services, and the activities that were looked at under the national initiatives were creating databases, brokerage referral services and advocacy ad workshops.

"ADSA has done those kinds of functions. They run an information centre. They have done a number of workshops across the region in First Nations communities, as well as within larger groupings, treaty-based areas. They also have been part of provincial forums discussing Aboriginal persons' issues related to disabilities. They do newsletters. They do advocacy and support and community-based planning."

Graham added, "we normally do not fund direct services for First Nations. That becomes their choice. They're budgeted and they can pick their own service providers."

She also denied Jobin's assertion that CPA had the support of the chiefs of two treaty areas with one forthcoming, through the tribal councils.

"They have not been able to demonstrate that by any kind of chiefs' summit resolution. We had had a few trickle-in letters of support, but ADSA has had, as of last July, a broad-based chiefs' summit resolution support."

Graham conceded she was aware of the "somewhat support, such as there being resources available" from Treaty 8, but she said, "I am not aware of any other clear indication of support from any of the other treaty areas." She said the letters of support for CPA that INAC had received were from "off-reserve groups," whereas "we fund on-reserve services."

Graham concluded by saying that she had met with CPA last October and "indicated to them that this was quite possibly the last year" INAC would fund them.

Luff denied an allegation by a CPA staff member that the reason INAC is funding ADSA but not CPA any longer is because ADSA is an Aboriginal organization whereas CPA is not.

A nine-member board from the three treaty regions, and volunteers, run ADSA, which has only one paid staff member, Cardinal said. Their mandate is to raise awareness of disability issues among First Nations people and direct people to the agencies or services that can help them. They do not go into the communities to provide direct services the way CPA does, ut he says they help treaty people both on- and off-reserve.