“I loved working there,” she says. “It was a nice job and we got paid for it. I liked everything about the job. All the people I work with I like very much — they are all my friends.”
Whincup’s workplace is — or was — a wastepaper sorting and disposal plant at Tunney’s Pasture where she and dozens of other developmentally disabled people have been gainfully employed disposing of copious quantities of secret and confidential federal government paper — as much as 40 per cent of it — since 1980.
As of month’s end, their workplace and sense of community and friendship will be just another empty federal government building. The group of 50 workers has been told to vacate the premises.
The Ottawa-Carleton Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities (OCAPDD) administered the work program in a joint agreement with Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and the provincial government. The province funded the salaries of two OCAPDD staff to supervise the workers; LAC, the federal government’s clearing house for the paper, paid the honorariums.
Cumulatively, the group cost the federal government $124,600 year in honorarium payments that supplement the workers’ provincial disability payments of about $1,000 a month.
Each honorarium is worth about $2,000 a year — or $1.15 an hour.
“We need work,” said Scott Helman, 45, who has worked at the plant for 26 years. “I like the place. I don’t think the program should die.
“We rely on the income,” he added. “We can’t just live on ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program). Most jobs are minimum wage now, but it’s hard for people like us with disabilities to find work. When you’re going to have 50 people out of paying jobs, it’s not nice.”
His colleague Robert Dore, 51, a trained forklift driver with 21 years on the job, said the extra money helps to pay for his basic needs.
“I’m bitter that it’s coming to an end,” he said.
Aside from laying off the cheapest labour in government, the cancellation of the program means that the 20 or so federal departments and agencies that used the service, will now have to individually fund their own paper disposal — likely through significantly more expensive contracts with private shredding and disposal companies.
“Ours has been a very cost-effective program for the government,” said OCAPDD program supervisor Jim Rudkoski, “and valuable for our individuals as well.”
OCAPDD management acknowledges that LAC gave them plenty of notice but say they never expected federal government to completely abandon the program.
“We figured the departments still need to have this work done for them, so we figured some other department was going to organize it,” said Rudkoski. “We felt they would come through and say, ‘This work still needs to be done, so we’ll let you do it.’”
LAC decided almost five years ago that it would eventually get out of the disposal business and focus on its core mandate of collecting and archiving.
All Government of Canada institutions are now responsible for storage and disposal of documents that have no archival relevance, said LAC in a statement to the Citizen.
“LAC acknowledges the excellent work provided by the OCAPDD throughout the length of this contract,” added the statement.
Up until a few weeks ago, OCAPDD thought the government would come through, says counsellor Jessica Eva, who has worked closely with the paper disposal workforce.
“It’s going to cost the federal government a ton more money,” she said. “It’s so unfair that they’re taking jobs from our guys — jobs that mean so much. They want meaningful work. They’re sad and anxious about the changes.”
The cancellation of the program has left the organization in shock and unsure of the future, added Judy Bernstein, OCAPDD director of support and services.
The association has rented another Tunney’s Pasture building for the short term to keep the group together, at least temporarily. But without meaningful work, the group supervisors are left with inventing activities to keep their clients occupied.
“We are looking for other work, perhaps from small businesses,” she said. “We’ve got 50 people who are hard workers. They are very capable and have shown that over the years. We’re knocking on doors, but I don’t know what’s going to come out of it.”
Bernstein figures the paper program might have become the unintended victim of the recent surprise resignation of former federal cabinet minister and MP John Baird, an ardent supporter of the program since his days in the Ontario cabinet.
“He helped us a lot,” said Bernstein, “and I think pulled a lot of strings in the background. When we told him the program was coming to an end, he was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s costing the federal government next to nothing and giving something meaningful to people with disabilities.’ He couldn’t wrap his head around it.”
The bureaucratic machinations mean little to Gladys Whincup and her colleagues, who maintain hope against the odds that their future days will be filled with meaningful work and not meaningless activity.
“We’d like more paying jobs,” she said. “We hope we’ll get contracts when we’re in the new building.”
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com/
Author: Chris Cobb
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