Disabed Albertans deserve better

By Lethbridge Herald on February 26, 2025.

HART CHAPELLE – 

Is this really the kind of government we want in Alberta; a government that callously silences the voices of intellectually disabled self-advocates, weaponizes information to avoid being accountable for government performance and creates an atmosphere where already deeply marginalized Albertans with disabilities and their allies fear reprisals if they speak out about important issues? 

In early January 2025, the Alberta government served notice to three regional self-advocacy organizations representing adults with intellectual disabilities that their contracts would be terminated in 90 days. This callous move essentially silences the voices of some of the most marginalized citizens of Alberta. Over the last 20 years, more enlightened Conservative administrations provided this funding to encourage Albertans with intellectual disabilities to find their voices and help government understand how to best meet the support and service needs of its intellectually disabled citizens. 

Historically, other administrations reduced funding to disabled Albertans but reversed these decisions when rank-and-file Albertans began to see their political leaders bullying some of Alberta’s least powerful citizens. I believe most Albertans would like to see the government reverse these unwise, unfair and cruel decision. Because of a lack of government data, advocacy organization Inclusion Alberta recently conducted surveys related to two disability programs – the Family Support for Children with Disabilities Program (FSCD) and the Persons with Developmental Disabilities Program (PDD). 

From the survey results, Inclusion Alberta “estimates families are waiting three years after applying before receiving a full range of service.” Three-year wait times for service in the lives of disabled children and their families is an eternity, resulting in many devastating consequences including lost developmental opportunities for children, stress related mental health challenges for parents, economic hardship, lost employment opportunities for parents, and family breakdown. 

Survey results related to the PDD program were also disturbing. Inclusion Alberta concluded that PDD systemic failures, including years long wait lists are undermining the well-being and financial security of adults with developmental disabilities and their families. Survey respondents describe “adults being isolated at home, their skills unused, potential untapped and their health declining.” Make no mistake, shameful neglect of both disability programs are conscious UCP policy choices and business decisions similar to those resulting in nearly 600,000 Albertans without family doctors, frequent temporary closure of hospital emergency services in numerous rural locations, degraded ambulance services, burned out physicians, nurses, and other medical staff, overcrowded schools, burned out teachers and teacher assistants, chronic underfunding, life-threatening service deterioration in continuing care facilities across the province and allegations of political interference and corruption in Alberta Health Services. 

The UCP won a majority mandate in 2019 and were re-elected in 2023. While there were definite weaknesses in human service provision during the NDP reign, human services in Alberta have been on a steep decline since 2019. In my opinion, the UCP government knows it is failing badly in the provision of a broad range of human services. So much so that it hides and obscures performance data from Albertans. For example, the UCP government last updated its PDD waiting list information three years ago. Clearly, this is not the kind of Government that serves its citizens. It is a government that serves itself. 

Albertans deserve much better. 

Hart Chapelle is a career human service professional who worked in senior and executive level positions in both the non-profit and public sectors. Hart’s last assignment with the government of Alberta was CEO of the Edmonton Region Community Board for Persons with Developmental Disabilities. He also held several policy analysis and planning position with the GOA in addition to the position of Deputy Public Guardian for the Province of Alberta.