It could take a few months to get all the details, but the province has released enough information to bring about a jubilant atmosphere among direct support professionals across Manitoba.
Earlier this week, the provincial government announced a significant increase in baseline funding for wages of staff who support people with intellectual disabilities.
“There's a lot of celebration going on in the sector across the province,” says Jeannette DeLong, executive director at enVision in Steinbach. “This has been a long time coming. For a few decades now, we've been raising this concern with the province, that the wage level that they're funding, it hasn't reflected the level of responsibility and the importance of work that direct support professionals do in this province.
“And I think that the pandemic certainly showed just how critical our sector is and how important it is for there to be dedicated, qualified staff showing up to support people who live with an intellectual disability. So, we're thrilled with the announcement. The province has identified it as historic, and I would definitely agree that this is a historic announcement for our sector.”
Included in this $104-million announcement, $79.7 million will be used to increase the baseline funded hourly wage rate to $19 for direct service workers and $20.90 for supervisors and program support staff who provide residential, day and respite services to CLDS participants and their families will support increased wages for front-line staff.
"The information we have is that that's the wage rate that will get funded, and so that's a significant increase for us,” DeLong says. “Last year, the province announced a funded wage for residential direct support workers at $15.11 an hour. So, this is almost $4 an hour more of a funded wage.
“But the really important difference in this, as well, is that this does not just apply to residential support workers. For the last ten years, we've been saying to the province that they have to include all service types in their wage funding announcements. And so, finally this year, they have listened to that cry for a change, and they will be including day services, supported independent living and employment services.”
DeLong says this is a huge win for their staff because there has been quite a significant discrepancy in the funded wages between the different service types.
As soon as the new funding reaches the organization, DeLong says they will be able to work on improving their wage scale.
“We've been told that although it won't roll out by April 1st, that the funding will be effective April 1st,” she says. “So, even if it takes till June or July for the province to roll it out to us, they'll make it retroactive to April 1st. That's an important piece for us as well, that the implementation of it doesn't get delayed because it takes them a while to roll it out.”
With a vacancy rate of 17%, DeLong hopes better wages will help the organization attract and retain experienced employees. She says enVision has approximately 375 employees right now, supporting more than 400 people.
“When we do exit surveys with staff, the number one reason why people are leaving is because of the wage rates, because they can't afford to feed their family,” she says. “And there's a lot of our employees who have more than one job.”
DeLong says they are already hearing from some employees who believe the higher wages will be enough that they can choose enVision as their primary job.
“That's really exciting for us,” she says.
Direct Support Professional (DSP) Ammar Ibrahim works as a job coach. Here he is spending time with Denis Hund. (Photo submitted)
Sat, Apr 20, 1:00 AM
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