Despite being Canada's richest province, with massive amounts of resources extracted from beneath its surface every day, the Government of Alberta managed to incur a deficit in 2013 and then determined the best course of action to stop the shortfall is to simply cut public funding and slash social services.
Certainly, a simplified equation where funds are removed from one department and used to pay the bills in another would reduce expenses and essentially shrink the deficit. However, that form of economics fails to take into account the real impact those financial cuts could have on humans, rather focusing solely on the benefits they could have on a budget.
When cuts to funding and services for people with developmental disabilities (PDD) come into effect next month, there is surely to be people negatively affected by them, which even the government acknowledges.
According to Associate Minister of Services for Persons with Developmental Disabilities Frank Oberle, “When we (the government) implement the changes to community access supports, there will indeed be impacts.”
Looking outside of Canada, we're seeing the results of austerity measures carried out around the world and the challenges they are bringing, as they reduce the quality of life for so many. Yet the governments imposing the measures assume those same people, who were negatively affected, will elevate their level of public contribution in order to re-establish economic growth.
Does the provincial government believe people with developmental disabilities and their families, already facing challenges, will be able to simply overcome the new challenges that come with reduced funding and services, while continuing to contribute to society at the same level?
The government claims the cuts are part of a “planned” re-adjustment to the department in order to better and more appropriately fund and serve people with developmental disabilities.
“It's not about saving money, it's about improving service,” said Oberle.
However, immediately following the announcement the government would be running a deficit, rhetoric regarding austerity and cutbacks began rolling out.
“We are having a tough time here. We could have cut another billion dollars out. That would have been great for numbers,” said finance minister Doug Horner, back in March.
So, what is it? Is the government cutting back to fix the deficit or exercising planned changes to apparently improve services?
Perhaps the government ought to take the long view on this one and not make people with developmental disabilities some of the first to feel the effects of the economic axe.
As many have said before, a society is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable members.
How are we treating ours?
