Minutes Feb 15, 2002

Minutes

1. Introductions were made around the room - 65 people in attendance - 50 people identified themselves as families and self-advocates first.

2. Report on Meeting with Minister - Feb 8, 2002: The Coalition's Draft Transition Team Proposal was presented to the Minister of Children and Family Development. He was concerned about the public perception issues of whether the CL Coalition represents a broad cross-section of stakeholders in community living.

The Minister discussed his vision for a transition team and asked for cooperation and assistance in coming to a final Transition Team proposal. Laney and Doug provided some feedback to Ministry staff on the MCFD Transition Plan for governance. Doug Walls presented the basic elements in this strategy paper for discussion (paper not distributed). The paper provides background on the Ministry's Core Review and consultation process, the responses from the community, the development of the CL Coalition, and it outlines the strategy for implementing the governance plan. A transition team structure is outlined and is similar to the Coalition's proposal to the Minister, with some modification to address the Minister's concerns about broader representation.

The recommended deadline for a decision around services for children with special needs was March 1, 2002. A group of people who represent various perspectives on this issue will be selected by the Deputy Minister to review the issue, and outline the pros and cons of both positions. BCACL provided names of people that could represent the issues.

Bottom Lines: All agreed that our two fundamental bottom lines are no cuts to direct services and "children and adults' services together". There will have to discussion about other issues that come up as new issues are raised by government announcements.

Proposed Transition Plan was approved by those present to be taken forward with the Ministry and negotiate next steps.

3. Militant Moms on the Move: Dawn Steele brought a formal message to the Coalition including the following points:

	CLC cannot claim to represent Militant Moms or a lot of other families
	There are major gaps in the Coalition's representation of families
	There are conflict of interest concerns - too many service providers present
	The argument that the coalition is open to any participation is not valid because the rules, the vision are pre-determined. People must subscribe to Coalition values.
	Minister Hogg is dismantling Community Living services. He is absolving himself of any further responsibility for community living services.
	The crisis, the pace, the restructuring, are all artificial but the Coalition is legitimizing the process by working with him.
	We would appreciate an open forum with MCFD and all stakeholders review re-structuring plans - both the government's service plan and the Coalition's proposal.
	We would request that the Coalition join with us to request a Freeze in the Ministry's restructuring process to get open feedback from the community on restructuring proposals.

Members of the coalition responded with clarification of the principles that the Coalition has at its core:

That individuals and families have control of the Governance of Community Living in our proposal.
That IF be an option for families and individuals.

Many offers were expressed to come and speak to the Militant Moms on the Move about the history of the IF Family Coalition and the Community Living Coalition and listen to their concerns and answer their questions.

A suggestion was made that there be a committee struck to address the issue of bringing information, resolving issues and building the coalition. This seems a natural fit for the communications committee.

4. BCACL is bringing speakers from Alberta to talk about their community governance experience. The meeting will be on March 5th at 9:30 am. Location to be announced. (See flyer attached)

5. BCACL asked families to speak up to the Minister of Education about the removal of targetted funding for Special Education funding. School Boards do not have other accountability mechanisms in place and until there are other mechanisms to protect Special Education, the Minister must maintain funding targets for Special Education.

6. Next Meeting: February 21st, 2002 at 4pm at BAMH ( 3 hours)

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The Alliance is an open and inclusive gathering of people and organizations dedicated to empowering individuals and families to make decisions about how they lead their lives in the community.	Alliance for Community Living Contact the Alliance Last updated: 07/25/08