Dozens of disabled workers losing jobs after Ottawa ends program

SLM

The Velvet Hammer
Mar 5, 2011
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London, Ontario
Dozens of disabled workers losing jobs after Ottawa ends program

CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Thursday, March 19, 2015 12:28PM EDT
Last Updated Thursday, March 19, 2015 11:54PM EDT
For 35 years, Gladys Whincup worked 9-to-5, five days a week, sorting and shredding paper for the federal government.
For the past couple of months, she’s spent her days watching movies and colouring.
“I’m okay,” she says through tears. “I’m just a little shocked.”





Whincup is one of 50 workers with developmental disabilities who are losing their jobs as Library and Archives Canada (LAC) shuts down the wastepaper disposal plant that employed them at a total cost of about $125,000 per year.
Workers receive $1.15-per-hour honorariums -- just low enough that they can continue receiving their disability income



The program was put on notice two years ago as the government made plans to decentralize its shredding, according to Dave Ferguson, executive director of the Ottawa-Carleton Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities, which oversees the workers.
Ferguson says he asked Pierre Poilievre, Canada’s Minister of Employment and Social Development, and former Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird before that, to find a solution for the workers.
Poilievre said Thursday that the contract will be extended for another month and that he will find a long-term solution after that.
“These inspiring people show that everyone can contribute to hard work,” he added.
Ferguson fears many of the workers will lose their community and the sense of accomplishment they’ve established during their time at the facility.
Mike Sullivan, the NDP’s disability issues critic, says the government should have acted sooner.
“If they really cared about persons living with disabilities, and this particular work shop, they would have done something two years ago,” he says. “They would have started the planning.”
Meanwhile, sources say developmentally-delayed adults who water plants for the federal government could also lose their jobs.


Dozens of disabled workers losing jobs after Ottawa ends program | CTV News


This one is rather curious. Often the term "decentralized" is code for outsource, not always but often. I wonder if it's really possible to save money, usually the best reason for outsource particularly for government programs, in this particular situation. And given the program and it's scope, I'd say it's equal part social benefit program as it is basic operations needs.



I'm just wondering, given the suggestion that other similar programs could be on the way out as well, if there wasn't a better way to handle it? Perhaps hand over the reigns, so to speak, to a not for profit which would allow the work program for developmentally delayed adults to continue? I mean, one can nit pick the $1.15 per hour rate if they want to but I don't have a problem with it as long as it isn't abused. And providing purpose to those who may otherwise have some difficulty finding it in the private sector is a worthwhile endeavor.