Edmonton – Official Opposition Seniors and Community Supports Critic Harry Chase is releasing documents today that show the PDD (Persons with Developmental Disabilities) board in Red Deer allocated some of their operational funding to reimburse board members for attending a partisan Progressive Conservative fundraiser.

According to minutes of the PDD Central Alberta Community Board meeting held in Red Deer on August 23, 2005, board members were to purchase tickets to an upcoming premier’s fundraising dinner and submit honoraria claims for reimbursement. In other words, taxpayer money – money that should be used to support people with developmental disabilities – was intended to support the partisan work of the Progressive Conservative party.

“This shows that the people in charge of the Progressive Conservative party simply have no shame,” Chase says. “To create an atmosphere in which PDD boards feel they need to divert taxpayer money to support the governing party, when funding for those boards is already lacking, is utterly outrageous. They’re stealing money from the most vulnerable Albertans of all. It’s sickening.”

Chase doesn’t blame the board members, noting that they are under enormous pressure to play by the unspoken rules of a bullying government.

“It’s quite possible that these folks planned to attend this fundraiser because they were afraid not to,” Chase says. “Last year we talked about a culture of fear and intimidation in health care. We were thinking too small. The Tory culture of fear and intimidation has infiltrated every aspect of governance in this province, and now we find out that it’s even affecting our most vulnerable citizens. It has to stop.”

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Attached: PDD Central Community Board meeting minutes for August 23, 2005

For further information, contact:

Earl J. Woods, Senior Communications Advisor
(780) 904-5430

Denis Lapointe, SALCO Director
(403) 860-4330

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