Minutes - Community Living Coalition - November 22, 2002

1. Introductions were made around the room.
2. Agenda was reviewed and items added - Willow Clinic, Nov 15 Treasury Board, Mental Health Teams
3. Updates:
   1. CLTSC Community Celebration - November 13th, 02: People reported that it was a powerful, emotional morning.  In particular:
      1. the Minister was clear in his commitment to the vision of the CLTSC,
      2. people who had entered the process as antagonists and finished as strong supporters,
      3. TSC members who expressed their relief and satisfaction at finding solutions that protected the lives and jobs of people with disabilities,
      4. Each TSC member presented the Minister with a gift in appreciation of his support for the process and to assist him to continue forward.
      5. See pictures of the celebration at: http://www.individualizedfunding.com/community_celebration.htm#celebration ,
      6. Five MLA's were present to see the powerful presentation,
      7. MLA John Nurany made a speech in the Legislative Assembly - he spoke of the strong vision for the future.
   2. Meeting with the Minister (November 14th, 02): Al Etmanksi, Laney Bryenton, Doug Walls, Chris Haynes and the Minister met and discussed:
      1. How to listen to and respond to people who are still in opposition to the TSC report.  Ensure that the Interim Board provides opportunities to hear from these people and understand their concerns.
      2. The consultation process: The Interim Authority needs to effectively inform communities around the province about the content of the TSC report and the work of the Interim Authority.  There will be 11 to 15 community information sessions between December and the end of January.  At least 3 board members from the Interim Authority will be at each community information session to provide direct feedback to the Board of the Interim Authority.
      3. The issue of Supported ChildCare was discussed.  There is deep concern in the community about the essential nature of this program to a majority of families with children with disabilities and its inability to sustain such massive cuts.
   3. Willow Clinic: BCACL organized a meeting with MCFD, families and Service Providers, to discuss the future of Willow Clinic - 16 people of 25 people are ready to move to community - 1 person has a plan - Doug Portfors from MCFD is working with Cam to place this person.  MCFD has a backup plan - a cottage at The Maples - in Burnaby, that could house 16 people.  People expressed dissatifaction with this as a plan. There is agreement that the $5 Million operating cost of Willow will be moved to the Community Living Authority.  There is not clarity about the $25 Million in the capital budget that was intended to replace Willow.  In the end, they agreed that the Interim Authority and the new Authority will deal with planning the Willow transition.   Previous discussions/planning around developing a facility on the Riverview grounds have been dropped.
   4. Treasury Board presentation - November 15, 2002 - Joint Budget Working Group proposal to protect all resources of community living of past year for the coming year and no change to people's services without the consent of all people involved was accepted.  Supported Childcare cuts of 28% have been delayed and options are being considered. 
   5. December 7th, 8th Family Gathering in Vancouver: People can register by calling Maria Glaze 604-575-2588 - email at mariaglaze@telus.net : Registration deadline of November 29, 2002.  Deadline for travel subsidy applications is November 24th, 2002.  For more information, see the IFFC website.
4. Interim Authority: Bill 65 - Interim Authorities - was given Royal Assent on October 30, 2002.  This is now the confirmed direction for community living services, but there are still huge variations possible in how this implementation is done.  We have six to eight months to create the structure for the new authority.  It is the responsibility of the Community to lead this process, to build community participation, and ensure people know how they can be involved.  The first meeting of the Interim Authority as December 9th, 2002.
   1. Board Appointments: The Minister appointed 13 people to the board on November 13th, 2002 and is requesting additional nominations.  The Coalition had a nominating committee who forwarded a number names last meeting.  In the last meeting minutes - November 7th, Klaus Linemayr's name was left off the nomination list.  Since then, Elaine Fawcett has withdrawn her name.  Astrid Metheral, from Peachland and Deb Kozak, from Nelson, have been nominated by Coalition members.  The process is that these people must fill out the nine page form like all other community nominations and the Minister and the Premier's Appointments committee will make the decisions about who gets selected.  Moved by Jane, seconded by Cathy A, that Deb and Astrid receive the support of the coalition with their nominations.  CARRIED
   2. Additional nominations: There is a process on the Ministry website requesting additional nominations by November 29th, 2002 - a nine page form. 
   3. Executive: Laney Bryenton, Al Etmanski, Tim Stainton, Lynn Rolko & David Driscoll have been named to the executive to date... Their may be additional appointments once the full board has been appointed.  The Interim Authority cannot hire staff but can second staff from the Ministry or contract with community people.  There will be a co-management group - three from MCFD (Elaine Murray, Les Foster and Robin Syme) and three from the Community (Doug Walls, Doug Woollard and a third to be named later) that will guide the transition of services to the new Authority.
   4. Community Consultation: The Interim Authority will develop the community consultation process, with 2 presentations in December and the rest to take place in January.
   5. Relationship between CLC & Interim Authority: There will be project teams within the Interim Authority to manage different transition tasks.  Each of these project teams may also have reference groups to provide community feedback as they work.  It was decided that once the structure of the project teams is confirmed, the Coalition will be asked to find community members for the teams and for reference groups.
   6. A question was asked regarding perceived and real conflicts of interests for Interim Authority appointments.  The nine page form is part of the review of potential conflicts.  No direct contractors with the Ministry will be on the Interim Authority.
5. Communications Update: Ernie & Lorraine talked about getting printed copies of the TSC Final report to the community facilitator volunteers, discussing with the volunteers strategies for sharing information in their communities, and connecting the volunteers with TSC members who could provide them with information.  Handouts of information from the website were distributed.
6. Mental Health Teams: The TSC recommendation to transfer funding to the Provincial Community Living Authority only safeguards the funding for mental health services for people with developmental disabilities.  The funding is MCFD funding that was transferred to Ministry of Health for the delivery of the service.  This funding should remain dedicated to Community Living people and all the services for people with dual diagnosis should be better integrated.  This will be a task of the Interim Authority - both to review the mental health services and to communicate to the community that the TSC recommendation is to protect the funding for community living people.
7. Disability Benefits: Yesterday, the Ministry of Human Resources exempted 5,000 more people with mental illnesses from the review process after pressure from BC Coalition for People with Disabilities.  As well, MHR has exempted any people that have files open with MCFD Community Living Services.  If people with developmental disabilities have been asked to complete the review form, they should call their community living social worker for assistance.
8. Woodlands Administrative Review: Families are organizing meetings around the province to get the information out to families about the Woodlands report.  For self-advocates, family members expressed concern about having self-advocates being forced to relive the whole institutional experience.  There no requirement for people to attend the information sessions. 
9. TSC Report: Hard copies have been sent to each BCACL association and to each Ministry office.  Full copies - with appendices - have been distributed to every library in the office.  A plain language version - 12 pages - is being developed and should be published on Monday, Nov 25th - on web, and three days later on paper.
10. Keep your MLA informed: Bring them a copy of the TSC report - ask them to support it and tell them it is a good news story the government.
11. Attendance at December 17th DDA meeting by CLC members - Cathy Grant noticed that DDA & the Cerebral Palsy Association were having a family information meeting on recent MCFD changes and is planning on attending.  Other CLC members said they have regularly attended these family network events and may attend on the 17th as well.
12. Steps Forward Inclusive Education Society - there is approval for 5 people with developmental disabilities to attend UBC in an inclusive manner in the fall 2003.  There is an information meeting in January - Down Syndrome Research Foundation... Brian will e-mail further information about time and place for those interested.  As well, the society is looking to build their membership base to share information and improve their fundraising ability.  Their membership fee is $10.00 per year.
13. Next Meeting: An evening meeting - December 16, 2002 - 7pm - Location to be confirmed.