Front-line workers and families require adequate compensation for service provision Eroded funding for existing services and the failure to fund new operational costs have left providers and families much worse off than 10 years ago. Associations for Community Living have responded to increased demand for their existing services, and they have done so within existing or reduced levels of funding. They are at a critical point now, faced with staff shortages, operating deficits and the need to reduce or cut services. Anticipated additional operational costs will put their financial viability at immediate risk. We know that the quality of life is better in the community than in it is in institutions for all people.
People can live safely and productively in the community.
The process has gone very well. 1,149 people still reside in the three remaining institutions. Using the consistent average of 321 people per year, a focused plan would return everyone to their community by February, 2004. It is incorrect to say that institutions remain open because they now serve those with the greatest needs and for whom community alternatives could not be found. The Ministry of Community and Social Services confirms that people who were thought to have the most needs were moved to community first, so that they were not left behind at the end of the closure process.