The following letter was sent to Premier Gordon Campbell and copied to Coast Reporter.
On behalf of the board of directors of Sunshine Coast Community Services Society, I strongly urge you to prevent funding cuts to the Ministry of Children and Family Development. We are extremely concerned by Minster Polak's announcement of a $10 million reduction for community based social services.
The impact in our community will be cuts to the family support and family preservation programs, youth in transitions program and the children's sexual abuse treatment program. These services provide a lifeline to our community's most vulnerable children, youth and families.
We will be forced to decide whether we should deny service to a child who has been sexually abused, or to a family struggling to overcome intergenerational abuse and addiction, or to a teenager with no family connections who relies on a youth worker to guide him to independent living. If you proceed with this budget reduction, I invite you and Minister Polak to sit with our board and help us make these choices.
There is much evidence that services such as these provide long-term savings for both the health care and justice systems. We believe that paying now and creating a healthy and safe community, rather than crisis spending later on hospitalization, policing and courts, is a wise fiscal investment in our future. Cutting hours of service will also reduce employment in our community. We need to retain jobs, not lose them.
We entrust our elected officials to plan wisely for a healthy future and to plan based on knowledge and sound research. We call on you to fulfill this trust and withdraw the proposed cuts to services for our most vulnerable children, youth and families.
Gloria Lifton
President/SCCSS
