(Photo from lgbarnes.org)

By Sheldon Spackman

staff, long-term funding cut

Camp for developmentally disabled loses government funding

Oct 29, 2020 | 2:23 PM

Lee Kvern says provincial government cuts to a lakeshore camp for people with developmental disabilities are cruel.

Situated on the southwest shore of Gull Lake, Camp L.G. Barnes is a year-round facility providing adults with developmental disabilities, as well as other community members, a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities to enhance their quality of life.

Kvern says her 62-year-old sister Jody, a resident of Red Deer’s Michener Centre for the past 48 years, is a long-time visitor to the camp and will now be without that wide array of services it provides.

“It seems like it’s targeted for people that can’t advocate for themselves, that’s what it feels like,” says Kvern. “They’re also taking away our nursing at Michener, they’re closing down our physio clinic, they closed our dental clinic in June of this year during COVID. I got a letter on Tuesday from Michener saying that they were closing down Camp L.G. Barnes.”

The Oct. 27 letter sent to families and guardians of Michener Centre residents notes that as residents have aged and their health needs have changed, the number of camp visits have decreased.

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“Over time, the camp has served more individuals from the community and surrounding area than from Michener Centre. With fewer Michener residents attending Camp L.G. Barnes, it no longer makes sense to provide staffing and funding for Camp operations,” the letter reads.

Kvern says the cuts are still devastating.

“Yes, maybe only 30 per cent of Michener people were still using the camp, but it still services the wider, disabled community and it’s a one-of-a-kind camp,” she explained. “It’s wonderful, they have horseback riding and petting zoos and they have buses that can accommodate wheelchairs, boat rides that accommodate wheelchairs. It’s lovely, all the food is cooked on site and it’s hand delivered to your cabin, and they accommodate so many different complexities for the disabled community.”

In a statement to rdnewsNOW, government spokesperson Jerry Bellikka points out that Camp L.G. Barnes is not a government facility, but owned and operated by the Society of Parents and Friends of Michener Centre since 1955.

“Community and Social Services provides four staff and operating funds to the facility in partnership with the Society,” explained Bellikka. “Because the usage by non-Michener residents has increased over time, it makes sense to transition it to the community. We are working with the local society to discuss next steps to transition the camp’s operations over to them.”

Bellikka says it remains to be seen how the society will choose to proceed.

“The existing staff can better serve Michener residents in other roles and we will make every effort to re-deploy these employees to equivalent front-line positions and follow the terms of the collective agreement.”

In the meantime, Kvern feels choices for her sister Jody to go out into the community and enjoy herself, are now very limited.

“To have the UCP take away these few precious choices that our people have, I’m really disappointed. They’re not going to close Michener, they’re going to keep Jim Prentice’s word. But they can cut all the services so that everything that makes Michener good is no longer there.”

Kvern says any places set up to accommodate the severely disabled are not just “numbers on a page.”

“They affect people, they affect people’s quality of life and I feel like my sister doesn’t have a lot of choices, so every little service or support that’s pulled away from her affects her quality of life.”

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