Province Commits to Creation of New Abuse Registery
June 17, 2010
Manitoba is developing Canada’s first registry of people who abuse vulnerable adults including seniors, and people with disabilities or mental illnesses, Healthy Living, Youth and Seniors Minister Jim Rondeau, Family Services and Consumer Affairs Minister Gord Mackintosh and Labour and Immigration Jennifer Howard, minister responsible for persons with disabilities, announced today.
“An abuse registry for incidents involving vulnerable adults will give caregivers, support agencies and volunteer organizations another tool they need to more thoroughly screen potential employees,” Rondeau said. “Families need to know that we will make every effort to ensure their loved ones are in good, caring hands.”
A provincial committee with members from the departments of Health, and Child and Family Services, along with the Winnipeg Police Service and RCMP, and people who work with seniors and adults with disabilities has been studying what other jurisdictions are doing, and will make recommendations to government for the implementation of a Manitoba abuse registry.
“We need to make every effort to ensure someone with a history of inappropriate behaviour isn’t able to find employment with vulnerable persons,” added Mackintosh. “We’re going to tighten the rules and toughen up the penalties for abuse.”
“Manitoba is already a leader in this area, as one of only two provinces with a child-abuse registry and this effort will build on our commitment to the protection of vulnerable people,” said Howard.
In addition to a registry, the committee is looking at a number of options, improvements and legislative changes that will make it easier to discipline offenders and screen applicants who want to work with vulnerable people. Those options include:
- strengthening the penalties and increasing fines under the Vulnerable Persons Act and working to give other options for discipline if an offender is not facing criminal charges;
- developing strong human-resource policies and training around recruitment, selection, hiring processes and information about alleged offenders and indicators of abuse/neglect;
- providing more training for staff and public education on abuse indicators, abuse investigations and reporting requirements; and
- identifying areas where the Criminal Code could be strengthened to better protect vulnerable adults and lobbying the federal government to make those changes.
AGM and Celebration of New Beginnings
June 15, 2010
Thank you to everyone who attended our AGM and Celebration of New Beginnings at the Victoria Inn on June 15th. We had a great turn out, with almost 200 people in attendance. Among those celebrating this historical event, were our business associates, friends, families, staff members and most importantly the people we support.
It was great to see Caleb Friesen among those who attended. Caleb is a direct service worker with Epic Opportunities who designed our new logo.Thank you to Larry McFarlane at Krystal Dreams for his generous donation of the ice sculpture.What a beautiful way to present our new name and logo!
Thanks to Mark Toews for being our MC, to the people who shared their personal stories with us and to the many hands that went into making the evening such a success.
Can we afford not to make Manitoba fully accessible?
June 11, 2010
A new Canadian study, released by the University of Toronto-based Martin Prosperity Institute, has concluded that "releasing the constraints that limit full participation in the economy will create a significant force for economic growth." And its findings are clear:
"the demand for accessible goods, services, buildings and employment is not just large but growing, and will overtake the demand for their conventional counterparts. Of further importance is our finding that the impact of increased employment accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities will increase the average incomes of all Ontarians."
The study was undertaken to assess the economic impact of achieving substantially higher levels of accessibility on individuals and markets in the province of Ontario.
Following are highlights (all figures refer to Ontario) on the economic impact of improved accessibility:
Estimated Economic Benefits
- Estimated increase of between $1.8 billion and $6.2 billion in annual employment income of persons with disabilities
- Estimated increase of between $700 million and $1.6 billion in annual tourism expenditures within 5 years
- Estimated increase of between $3.8 and $9.6 billion in annual retail sales within 5 years
- Increased market access to the estimated $2 trillion in spending by persons over the age of 50 who live in Ontario and the United States
- Reduced ergonomic workplace time loss injuries which now cost over $1.7 billion per annum
- Increased incomes among families with children with disabilities (the shortfall in 2006 totalled $4.8 billion)
- Reduced government expenditures on social programs
- Reduced government expenditures on income transfers
- Increased tax and other revenues for government
It has become obvious that ensuring accessibility in our province is both the right and the reasonable thing to do. This study now provides clear evidence that ensuring accessibility also makes excellent 'business sense.'
Can we afford not to make Manitoba fully accessible?