Do we need $200,000 cocktail parties in PEI?

Updated – Two years after this story, the Disability Services Review has come and gone without any material improvements in the PEI Disability Support Program.
 

May 2008 was a firestorm for the Ghiz government. It weathered  crisis after crisis generating reams of bad publicity.

The $200,000 cocktail party was especially galling considering the budget for the Disability Support Program was cut $35,000. Yes they had one of those luxury cocktail parties under the Tories and it was just as odious.

If then-Minister Valerie Docherty was in a party mood, maybe she could have one of those cocktail parties in every town in PEI and invite the poor and disabled instead of rich high-class friends.

It appears people get elected on a platform of “change” but once in power become mesmerized by the money. Economists say that most people can’t handle sudden a increase in personal income. It’s like winning the lottery.

For most of our newly elected officials, their incomes have doubled and tripled after the election. Obviously for some ministers the sudden wealth has gone to their head. They want to hobnob with the rich and famous. 

The cocktail party was organized by Myrtle Jenkins Smith on a contract basis for the government. Can’t blame her for the government’s lack of common sense. Myrtle is a hard-working business person and local volunteer. Her name crops in the disability community whenever there is money to be made such as the $250,000 donation last year to Rick Hansen and the $100,000 price tag for the Disability Services Review Committee.

Predictably the Disability Services Review Committee was mute on the $35,000 budget cut-back just as its predecessors were. Despite a fair amount of prodding the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Disability Issues pretended last year that the $1 million cutback didn’t occur. It was mute. Two of its members are on this year’s committee. We wonder if they have found there voice yet.

It remains to be seen if the Disability Services Review is any more than a side-show, a smoke-screen for government inaction. 

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network