People with disabilities in a Ridge Meadows supported work program will be out of work if the province withdraws support after 20 years.
A September 10 report in the Maple Ridge / Pitt Meadows Times said:
A program that supports people with disabilities working at the Ridge Meadows Recycling Depot will no longer be funded by CLBC because, executive director Kim Day was told, the program is an old model.
…But Community Living BC’s director of regional operations with the Fraser region, Carla Thiesen, said CLBC is “repurposing” its dollars to ensure people with disabilities get “real jobs for real pay.”
Bill Elder, Board member of the Ridge Meadows Recycling non-profit society, said:
We were notified basically about three weeks ago, the end of August, that our program was terminated and when we met with two people from Community Living, we were absolutely shocked.
…They considered our program not real work for real pay. To suggest that it is not real work is an insult to the people doing the work. This is a chance for these people to do meaningful work in the public eye.
Harry Bloy, puissant master of of BC’s third largest ministry, explained the situation:
Ahmmm. The decision, ah, was made by Community Living British Columbia. Ah, the final decision hasn’t been made in fact. Community Living BC is meeting with the parents and the society. Ahm, to, ahh, to come up to a solution with this. They’re all working together, ahh, to ahh, retain this program.
You, you know, the meeting has been, a meeting is planned and I believe the date is set. I don’t have the date. And, when I first heard about it, it was explained that they wanted to meet before the end of October and then it was, it was extended to the end of December so that they could have this meeting with the clients and with their parents, family support group and the society.
There you have it, admittedly with some absence of clarity. Bloy’s confusion may have been because of him misreading hand signals from ministerial staff who were listening to the speaker phone on which the interview was conducted.
This particular work program was terminated by a decision of CLBC, but the decision is not yet made and every party, except the actual subjects who have been excluded, is working together to retain the program unilaterally terminated with no notice. Now, it will close in December, giving the workers a chance to search for a place where they can perform real work for real pay. However, public push back is so strong, the provincial government might be forced to do the right thing. That is to continue the current effort or put meaningful, actual alternatives into place before unsettling lives of 29 people who are already doing real work for real money.
Incidentally, annual remuneration of Harry Bloy would fund the actual wages of more than half the disabled persons employed at the Maple Ridge Recycling Depot supported work program.
Categories: BC Liberals
in-sights.ca 
Looks like the 'blame it on the poor' is going on as planned within the Liberal party.
Have we seen this in history before?
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My sister works through CLBC in Courtenay and that helps giver enough income to live. I would be very upset if the government canceled her “job”. It makes her feel like part of the community and that she actually has a real job!!!
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Listened to MInister Bloy today on the CKNW podcast from Bill Good's Sept 15th, hour 2 show. I was shocked at how unprepared and unknowledgeable he is on this topic. He is way out of his league.
Unfortunately the CLBC spokesperson was interviewed and chose to give an inaccurate account and to try to make the program sound like a sweatshop or something.
This is completley disgusting. Even our Pro-Liberal city council in Maple Ridge is appalled.
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Norm, this is a tragic situation in a ministry that already had too much tragedy in it. I hear the ministry staff can no longer stand the sight or sound of their minister and have taken to openly mimicking the kind of language you quoted in their fits of black humour.
I'm very glad you picked that picture of him. Once a year when he showed up in a boy scout uniform, I had to shut the tv monitor off in my office. It was just too much for human eyes.
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Guy in Vic. One of the absurd aspect to this is that Liberals have a few people of real quality and potential sitting on the back bench. Maybe none of them want to take time away from their real careers to serve in Victoria for a lousy $150,000 a year salary plus expenses and the province's best pension plan this side of the BC Ferries executive offices.
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Harry Bloy has been missing in action for some time now and I'm sure he's still collecting his pay cheque. I've said before & truly believe there is only one reason for his absence. The Liberals are afraid that he makes the government look stupid and they've decided he needs training in public speaking & of course what his Ministry is all about. It doesn't take a fool that his appointment to this position was not based on knowledge and purely political. I've read & heard Harry Bloy in the early stages of his appointment and without a doubt, if he was in my employ he would have been cut or at least taken away from public contact. So while Harry is finishing his apprenticeship at tax payers expense, people's lives are being destroyed with fear of loss of employment and or changes (dramatic in many cases) in personal care. And yet some sheepish Liberal supporters are still prepared to defend this insanity.
Guy in Victoria
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Why are there so many front men to do the nasty work of the BC Liberals?
There seems to be no conscience anymore these days amongst the monied class. They get harder every year.
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Like everything the BC Lieberals touch, they spoil completely.
The BC government arrogance and disregard for anyone who is unfortunate to have fallen on hard times (medical, monetary or just plain bad luck) is beyond comprehension.
I remember when Ida Chong was being chastised for her $6,000 meal expenses – how she made all sorts of excuses. That money would have paid for a lot of hours for these handicapped/challenged individuals (often through no fault of theirs).
I cannot think of one good thing that the BC Liberals have done for British Columbia and it's people – not one.
Thanks.
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BC is a tangled mess of, lies, deceit, corruption, and thefts.
The amount of money going to Hahn, payouts, government salary's, and pensions right out of orbit, are unsustainable.
The Campbell/Clark BC Liberals, refuse to roll back their salary's. They have done, absolutely nothing about the price gouging in this province. Christy has done nothing about the run of the rivers, affecting the cost of our hydro. Food costs, gasoline costs, are through the roof.
There are not enough citizens in work, to pay for all the governments corruption. That's where our money goes, to pay corruption. Our assets have been sold. Mills have been shipped to China, along with our raw logs. The BCR is gone. Our rivers sold. The eco damage of the run of the rivers, is horrendous. Our salmon are being killed off by, dirty diseased fish farms.
BC has vast natural resources. There is not one excuse in the world, for our disabled citizens, should have their funding cut. Corruption kills, and that's why BC is terminally ill.
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The sick thing about this is that “each” of these individuals on an Hour to Hour or Day to Day basis in far more productive to this province than the likes of David Hahn and eons more productive than the likes of Pamela Martin.
Shame!!
Don F.
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The appointment of Harry Bloy as Minister of the third largest government ministry (or any ministry, for that matter) is proof of the crass political stupidity of one Christy Clark. And the appointment of one Christy Clark as BC Liberal leader, by default allowing her to squat unelected in the Premier's office, is proof of the crass political stupidity of the BC Liberal membership.
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The Liberals are bound and determined to destroy the lives of every disadvantaged person in BC. This and other programs like it are ,imho, very valuable, and I have no problem with some of my tax dollars going to it.Most employers would not hire these people without programs like this, and after they do, they find these people to be loyal and productive workers. Cancel the pensions for MLAs and there would be millions for these kinds of programs.
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