Re cutbacks to the Vision Loss Rehabilitation Program - I have learned some more... or have I?
This is a follow-up to the last post on my blog.
This past week at the meeting of our local support group for people with vision loss, we had a discussion about the cuts to the VLR program. We had been led to believe that the cuts were due to the refusal of the Alberta government to provide funding. The government, we were told, had denied an application for funding. We decided to contact our MLA. In a written response from the MLA's office, this is what we learned.
The provincial government had not denied a request for funding to the CNIB. The contracted grant to CNIB for the term April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2020 ($3.370,923.34) has not changed from the agreement with the previous government. Instead, the present government denied a CNIB July, 2019 application for ADDITIONAL funding for $2,132,000 to continue providing service for the remainder of the contract term. The government of Alberta does not fund VLR directly but funds CNIB, who determines the funding for programs they deliver, including VLR
I now have more questions than answers. If provincial funding is in place until March 31, 2020, why did CNIB choose to make cuts to the VLR program in September, 2019? Will these cuts balance the budget for the next financial year? How will these cuts affect the over 6000 CNIB clients, many of whom, if not the majority, are over the age of 65? Was there an official press release to the media, and if so, how was this worded?
As the tangled web unravels, I do know this. Satellite CNIB offices in Grand Prairie, Red Deer, Lethbridge, and Medicine Hat have been closed. The CNIB sales rooms in Edmonton and Calgary have been closed. CNIB staff, some of whom were long standing employees, have been laid off.
Many CNIB clients are disappointed and frustrated over these outcomes.
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