The Alberta government 2008-09 Budget funding announcement for the developmental disabilities sector is very disappointing. It is way too little and time is running out to fix the human resource problems in the disability services sector. Qualified staff shortages, unfilled vacancies and high turnover rates are largely due to the unconscionably low uncompetitive wage rates that the service agencies have been authorized/allowed to pay.
The natural consequences if such under funding are that vulnerable Albertans with developmental disabilities suffer. There is a high and unacceptable potential for mistakes due to negligence caused by insufficient staff levels and burn out plus more untrained and unqualified staff now are being recruited by necessity.
I have been working with these agencies professionally for about a year months on the funding issues and now on contracting issues. During the election Premier committed to “close the wage gap” between community based not-for-profit agencies and government employees who also provide services to Alberta citizens with developmental disabilities. This recent budget does nothing to close that gap. In fact it makes the gap with government workers even wider.
Here are some facts:
According to a recent independent consultant report the community based agencies pay about 2/3 of the wage levels of equivalent work in the government – and they receive much lower benefits.
To close the gap at the 50 percentile level of government workers would take about $182m – excluding benefits and only for current agency employees, ignoring the need to fill staff vacancies, meet population growth needs and to provide for any benefits costs at all.
Stop gap wage funding (sic) measures have been taken by the GOA in the recent past, a onetime grant of $11m in the Spring of 2007 from Seniors and Community Supports departmental year-end surplus funds – mad available because there were no staff to provide certain programs funds.
There was a one-time $15m grant last November that has apparently now been made part of the new funding base, a good thing.
Of the $30m additional money announced in the April 22 Budget, it is payable to the Persons with Developmental Disability Boards, the appointed government agencies who contract with the community groups to provide services. Only $24m of this total is going to the agencies to provide for front line worker compensation.
The $24m to community based agencies is about 5% but when inflation in Alberta in 2007 was 8.1% according to the Minister of Finance in a fund raising speech I heard her deliver on April 23 and minimum wage is going up at the same time, this funding level is not getting ahead of the human resource recruiting staff retention problem in the disability sector.
The PDD boards are retaining $6m of the additional budget funds, 20% of the total new funding, to cover inflation and their AUPE based staff wage and benefits increases… the same wages and benefits where the Premier has promised to close the gap for the community based agencies.
The September 2007 AUPE /GOA wage settlement was 14.66% over three years (4.9, 4.8 and 4.3%) with a $1500 signing bonus paid to each full time employee and pro-rated with part-time and seasonal employees. There were changes for many job classifications ranging from 7 percent to about 15% in the first year of the agreement.
There was an additional $6,000 - $6,300 northern living and a $12,480 annual living allowance for living in Fort McMurray. There was also an “improved core benefits package effective July 1, 2008 and an “enhanced benefits packages at the employees cost.”
The government “commitment” of additional agency staff compensation funds for next year was also announced at another 5% or $20m more dollars.
The gap is getting wider not smaller notwithstanding the Budget Speech saying “We will also increase funding to agencies contracted by our government to provide care for Albertans, to help
those agencies recruit and retain staff.” It will not happen at these funding levels.
Most of the community based service provider agencies have signed 6 months contracts that end October 1, 2008. They cannot continue to provide adequate service levels if they cannot attract and retain qualified staff. If serious levels of new funding are not forthcoming it leaves few options and it will all come to a head when these current contracts expire.
At the end of the day it is the GOA who is responsible to meet the needs of citizens with developmental disabilities. I hope they have a Plan B ready to meet the needs developmentally disabled Albertans if no additional funding for the sector is their Plan A.
Good post, Ken. This problem extends well beyond staff that assist people with disabilities, though, it affects the entire human services sector (at-risk youth, women's shelters, foster care, etc.)
ReplyDeleteThe government's failure to address the situation is only going to contribute to the development of huge social and economic consequences in the future. This is a prime example of near-sightedness and an appalling lack of compassion towards both workers in the sector and the population they serve.
Hopefully a good chunk of the inevitable windfall budget surplus ($78 a barrel, c'mon!), will go towards rectifying this situation.
Government is dealing with the physical infrastructure deficit quite well and starting on the natural capital deficit BUT the social capital infrastructure deficit is still not sufficiently on the policital radar screen to get the attention it needs.
ReplyDeleteWe Albertans need a triple bottom line integrated approach from our government to take hold and to be realized if we are going to survive and thrive going forward.
Ken, the government has increased spending by 12%!!!! This is the biggest spending budget in Canada!You cannot spend on every single good cause for heaven's sake.
ReplyDeleteRemember this is not a Liberal budget where you blindly spend in every single area.
Anon - but if the world were as simple a place that total increased pubic spending was the measure of good/bad government.
ReplyDeleteWhat you spent is a very important concern. How you spend it is just as important.
The policy issue is about setting priorities and deciding what kind of a society we are and want to become.
We ask our elected representatives to decide on what and where we choose to focus our collective attention and resources. We expect them to also explain to us why they make the choices they do.
The most vulnerable citizens in Alberta today, children and the disabled, are not being cared for adequately. We know it. What are we doing about it?
We have a societal duty to do something about it. That duty touches us individually, as a community and collectively through our governments.
The concern in the developmental disability sector is urgent and the risks are not about issues management, or even risk management. If we do not have enough trained staff to meet this duty, the situation will quickly become a concern about our negligence.
Neglecting to do our societal duty in ways that causes harm to people who cannot help themselves is not an option. It is something we can fix. We know what needs to be done. Why are we not doing it?
The questions are do we care enough, are we resourcing the sector sufficiently to meet our responsibilities to these vulnerable citizens? Are we adapting and learning new ways to improve how we do things in the secotr to get better outcomes and value for taxpayer dollars?
Or are we just going through the motions - doing the least we can and hoping for the best?
Do we have to wait for another death to get us to respond like we did in dealing with long term care issues? Have we not learned our lessons?