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PDD changes leave mother in limbo

An open letter to the Associate Minister for Persons with Developmental Disabilities Frank Oberle:

An open letter to the Associate Minister for Persons with Developmental Disabilities Frank Oberle:

I attended your information session/goodwill tour on May 22 at the Sheraton Hotel in Red Deer. I left the session thoroughly frustrated and angry.

You gave no information other than your vision. A member of the audience who spoke had it right when he said all he heard were sentences starting with “We think, or we hope, or we feel. ...”

There were no concrete answers other than you are slashing the Community Options Program in half. This is the same program both my sons utilize. Because my sons are unemployable, are they now only to be warehoused in their home in this community because they don’t fit into your vision?

We had a long-term plan in place for the continued well-being of my sons. Now it’s all up in the air because the new minister has a new vision. Because your department’s vision changed, I am being interrogated (as their private guardian) by PDD like a common criminal. This harassment borders on emotional abuse. Every aspect of my sons’ funding is being scrutinized to see what can be slashed.

Then I looked around at the session and wondered: “What part of the overall PDD budget paid for all this? Who’s community bridging dollars paid for the meeting room, the refreshments, the cookie trays? Whose staffing dollars paid for your drinks, meals and rooms while you are on this speaking tour of the Central Region?”

How dare you stand there like an all-knowing Father Wisdom, patronizing us with your platitudes of — we’re all friends here and it’s safe to speak?

Here’s a news flash — we are not friends and it was not safe for me to speak. My sons Annual Service Plans and contract signings weren’t due until June 3. I could not take the chance of saying something that might instigate recriminations by your department.

Lily Breland

Red Deer