ALIGN E.D. Government Relations Update February 2023 (GR Excerpt from E.D. News February 2023)
Government Relations
In the last 6 months, our priority has been and continues to be financial advocacy. We are trying to get government commitment to increasing wages and supporting costs of inflation pressures. ALIGN has worked to develop resources and materials to empower agencies, their Boards and staff, providing information and data to navigate the everchanging political landscape in Alberta.
Our counterparts Alberta Council of Disability Services (ACDS) and some of the disability workers groups have been successful in influencing the Ministry of Senior and Community Support Services and Minister Nixon. He recently wrote a letter with his commitment to that sector https://alignab.ca/align-shares-update-on-social-service-sector-worker-wage-increase-from-jeremy-nixon-minister-of-css-feb-2-2023/.
In November 2022, ALIGN wrote a briefing to Minister Amery https://alignab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Government-Briefing-Nov-2022.pdf. We outlined the issues and the significant challenges right now:
- Chronically underpaid workforce (no increases in group care since 2014)
- Severe fatigue by pandemic demands
- This leads to a staffing crisis at the frontline. Managers and executives are burnt out adapting, adjusting, and leading through a pandemic crisis. Staff report significant mental health challenges, and turnover rates are significant. Foster and kinship families absorbed the costs throughout the pandemic in areas of food, child care, and time off due to the needs of isolation.
- Shortfalls in funding
- The expiration of federal subsidies, decrease in provincial support, drops in donor support, decreased ability to fundraise. Some agencies have foundations that cover shortfalls but those are eroding.
- 30-year peak in inflation
- escalating cost of living, administration, indirect service costs like insurance, utilities, workers compensation. These are hard costs that service providers are unable to absorb given the cost cannot be passed on to those we serve.
This is an unsustainable state for service providers, and an unmaintainable situation for vulnerable Albertans who rely on these services. Maintaining quality supports with funding shortfalls and workforce struggles is impossible. Children and staff are at risk. Agencies are at tipping points with many moving into deficit positions due to the increased costs over the last 10 + years.
The full briefing to the Minister, data on the wage differences and the costs of operating expenses that were provided to the Minister is on our website https://alignab.ca/category/alberta-budget-political-engagement/align-political-engagement/ We also have an updated toolkit provided by Alberta Council available there.
The ASK that our President and Vice President made of the Minister on Dec 22, 2022 was:
- an immediate 10% increase for wages to CS contracts;
- 25% increase to administrative portion of CS contracts;
- Immediate investment to foster/kinship parents of $200.00 per child in their home before the end of the year to offset the costs of utilities, food and the pandemic; and
- A commitment to equitable wages and cost of living increase in 2023 budget.
What you can do?
Now we need you to develop your engagement approach. This needs to be a pre-election meeting with your local MLA’s. Agencies should reach out to their local MLA’s and ask for meetings, if possible have them visit your space. Provide these key messages and ASKs during the meeting. Tell them your story and how you fit within the messages. You can also share any of the documents on our website that have been created by ALIGN. (wage comparator, costs of living, fact sheet etc.). Make your own ask, even if it is to have your local MLA support the requests going forward – financially support the sector.
The budget will likely be presented on February 29, when the legislature resumes sitting. The next Provincial General Election is scheduled to be held on May 29, 2023 unless the election is called earlier. The Election Act fixes the election to a three- month period between March 1 and May 31. This is the critical time to get the attention of your local politicians.
Your agencies can develop your own social media campaigns with these messages and your stories. If you aren’t social media savvy then just follow and share ALIGNs messages (starting March, 2023)
You can also follow candidates on social media, attend local candidate debates, and support and attend forums in your area. ALIGN will be hosting some events in your areas, and you will get more details on those as we confirm the times and places.
During the election campaign you can also ask your employees to reach out to candidates or follow them on social media where they can ask questions and give the same key messages. ALIGN will be hosting 2 advocacy 101 online workshops for staff March 8 – 9 – 1030AM, and March 9- 3 – 430PM. Our goal here is to prepare staff to approach and influence politicians.
ALIGN will also be reaching out to the UCP and NDP parties to request their positions on supporting the sector.
We are hopeful that budget 2023 has some support for the sector, but that needs to be sustainable and flexible moving forward. Let’s create a movement and see if we can get some action!
I would like to thank all the agencies that recently made a voluntary donation to our Government Relations activities. If you would like to donate please feel free. You can send your cheques to our office or contact CarmenM@alignab.ca to discuss other ways of providing support.
Also, to note is next month you will receive your membership renewal. We have a few new categories of membership so please have a look and see where you fit. We have a lower category for agencies that have less overall budgets, a new individual membership for retirees and students, and a higher category for agencies that are vey large. Stay tuned for that in March and we thank you for your continued support of ALIGN. We are truly better together!
If you have any other suggestions, or any questions at all please do not hesitate to reach out to me, RhondaB@alignab.ca
VIEW FULL E.D. NEWS FEB 2023 FOR ADDITIONAL E.D. UPDATES
Also See
ALIGN Budget & Government Engagement
Alberta Budget & Sector Engagement