Province, city announce site for provincial autism centre – families’ voices ignored
Outgoing Premier Gordon Campbell made his final public appearance today, with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Children's Minister Mary Polak and Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid, to announce ( CORRECTION: Contrary to the announcement, we're told it's actually a property bordering ) Sunny Hill as the site of the proposed new Pacific Autism Family Centre (PAFC). The project is the long-time dream of Campbell's close friends and political funders, hoteliers Wendy and Sergia Cocchia, who along with the Aquilini family and others were charged with establishing a foundation to advance the project after Campbell's 2008 promise of $20 million in capital funding to help build a provincial residential school/centre of excellence.
No needs assessment
The Premier's commitment was made with no public consultation with families or professionals, no needs assessment, no competitive bidding and no public policy rationale offered by any provincial ministry. The promised provincial funding applies to construction costs only. Proponents have cited a long list of possible improvements to services in promoting the project. What they have not mentioned is that there is no funding to any of those things. Any of the centre's activities would have to be funded privately or by diverting funds from existing programs. The foundation promises to raise $14 million with the help of major supporters like the Canucks and other sports teams to help cover construction costs, but the total raised so far was not revealed.
The Province has to date never consulted with families or professionals, instead advising stakeholders to work with the PAFC proponents, whom the Province has charged with developing plans for the new centre. The strategic plan for PAFC would see the centre taking over responsibility for all autism services currently managed by the Ministries of Children, Health, Education and CLBC.
Plan would rob existing progams
The proponents continue to suggest that existing funding commitments would cover the centre's operating costs, but leaked Ministry briefing documents outlined plans under discussion to transfer existing autism program budgets (POPARD, ACT and BCAAN - the currently decentralized provincial autism assessment and diagnostic network) to PAFC to help cover its operating costs. Ministry staff warned that PAFC would not fit with the BCAAN program delivery models (both BCAAN and POPARD serve professionals, not families, via decentralized outreach models) and that the move would erode existing services, lengthening waitlists for children. But they nevertheless advised that senior Ministry staff participate in helping the proponents shape the PAFC business plan, since it would be happening anyway.
Just two weeks ago, top-level MCFD staff responsible for services for children and youth with special needs assured MOMS and other stakeholders in a provincial conference call that to their knowledge the PAFC proposal had been put on hold. But other reports indicate that Campbell personally continued to advance the project outside of regular ministry channels, making it clear to high-level ministry staff that they needed to be ready for him to make a formal project announcement before he left office.
Residential question
The promised $20 million capital funding, along with project development support (well over $1 million to date) has been financed from the budget for BC Housing,
whose mandate it is to provide housing for BC residents who have difficulty accessing safe and affordable housing. The residential component was dropped from the strategic plan following an outcry from families, but it remains unclear how BC Housing could justify to the Auditor General such a signifinant investment in a non-residential project if that is indeed the intent.
At Monday's press conference, the Premier praised the efforts of the Cocchia and Aquilini families heading the project (the Aquilinis also just donated $60,000 to the recent BC Liberal leadership campaigns, $25,000 of which went to incoming Premier Christy Clark). Premier Campbell added that the proposed centre had Ms. Clark's full support. No details were provided about how the center's operating costs would be funded, how much responsibility it would be given to take over delivery of existing provincial autism services, who would control the new centre, or how investing $20 million in another "bricks and mortar" Vancouver mega-project would better serve children with autism and their families across the province.
Governance
Given how much is at stake (and deep-seated traditional rivalries among BC's autism community groups) governance of the project remains a key question. To date, governance of the project development process has been assigned to PAFC, with support from key ministry bureaucrats and hand-picked community advisors, who meet behind closed doors, with no public reporting requirements.
Media were not allowed to ask questions at Monday's annuncements but were assured that the proposed centre enjoyed wide support from professionals and families. The director of ACT, Deborah Pugh, and the head of the Autism Society of BC, Michael Lewis, were on hand in a presumed show of support, along with ABA specialist Dr Glen Davies.
MOMS has repeatedly questioned the rationale for spending $20 million in scarce public funding on bricks and mortar, instead of investing in actual services, training etc delivered through traditional decentralized models that would equally benefit families outside of Vancouver. A survey of over 500 families in 2008 showed most would rather see the province invest in improving both the quality and quantity of existing services, not in constructing new buildings. Our concerns, along with those of other autism family groups from outside the Lower Mainland who have also challenged the plans, have been dismissed and critics shut out from the planning process.
This week, the BC Association for Community Living was among the groups, families and organizations who echoed many of our concerns around this project.
As BC's incoming premier Christy Clark secured a mandate over the weekend on promises of "change" and putting "families first," the first order of business on Monday seemed to be - well, business and politics as usual. Only time will tell whether the incoming Premier, who has promised to be a better listener than her former boss, will follow through on her commitments by demanding a full needs assessment and independent consultations with families and autism experts before deciding whether or not to break with Premier Campbell's final legacy.
Dawn & Cyndi, MOMS
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