Dear Minister Meilleur

Please reconsider the following aspects of the Bill 77.

1. Individualized budgeting: The bill sets out a standardized needs assessment and attaches a dollar value to those needs.  Tying results to funding rather than service requirements is problematic. Community agencies will receive funding based on the dollars attached to each client and lose the overhead costs needed for running an agency.  This will lead to an erosion of the quality of services agencies are able to provide.

2. Third party private brokers: With long waiting lists for agency services families will have no choice but to take individual funding.  Most working families do not have the capacity to hire and manage the many services their loved one needs, forcing them to turn to privatized brokers.  Brokers will take an automatic cut and then find the lowest bidder to provide services, opening the sector to privatization and lowest common denominator service provision.

3. Loss of services for some people who have them: The bill sets out to provide services to more people within existing funding dollars.  Given the goal of equalizing services for everyone with a developmental disability it seems inevitable there will be a loss of services for some already in the system.

Most families want quality support and services they can count on as provided by the community developmental service agency system.

If Bill 77 goes ahead as is, it will lead to a reduction in the quality of supports and services community agencies are able to provide. I ask that you make the above changes before moving forward with the legislation.