The starting wage for starting residential support workers at enVision has seen an increase.

Executive Director Jeanette Delong says the province announced a wage increase to $13.00 an hour from $12.50 and will see another .75¢ increase to $13.75 in January 2016. Since it only addresses the starting wage of residential support workers, Delong adds there will be new staff with virtually no experience in the field making almost as much as employees who have been in the field for five to twenty years.

Delong notes it's also a bittersweet announcement because those who are not residential support workers or those who have been there for a longer period of time will not see an increase in wage. She notes the wage increase does not include disability support workers who are in a day service, independent living services or respite services.

"Our disability support workers have very similar responsibilities [to residential support workers]," notes Delong. "They are providing supports to adults who have intellectual disabilities and if those supports are centered around personal care, the person needs personal care supports whether they are living in their house or attending a day service. The type of work that's required is very similar. So it's hard to see that we can give an increased wage to one group of employees but there's just a whole lot of people that are not included and there's nothing I can say to them because it's completely out of our hands."

Delong says they have been wanting the government to address their sector for years. She adds, on one hand, it's a good thing because there's finally some recognition, however, she says the way the recognition is being given presents additional challenges for them because of wage compression and excluded employees.

In addition, Delong notes the funding is temporary at this point which means if the funding fails to become permanent those who have been given a wage increase may see it taken away.

"The intent to try to give higher wages to this sector is a good intent. Just the way the fund is set up is posing some additional problems."

Delong says she feels the sector as a whole needs restructuring including wage increases in all areas, education and qualification requirements as well as quality assurance measures.

"It's in need of some restructuring and the government is aware of that but it needs to be thought out in a strategic way rather than just cherry picking one issue here or another issue there," adds Delong. "Because as soon as you address one issue, if you're not also being mindful of how it impacts the other issues in the sector, then you end up just creating additional pressure in other areas. The problem just keeps moving and it's time that the whole sector gets addressed as a whole."