Kim Skibsted, who is blind, says a funding cut and subsequent closures could be very detrimental, especially for seniors. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

longer wait times

CNIB and Vision Loss Rehab offices to close on Sept. 20 in four Alberta cities

Sep 16, 2019 | 8:40 AM

Longer wait times are on the horizon for thousands of Albertans who depend on local offices run by Vision Loss Rehabilitation Alberta (VLRA).

VLRA, launched in 2018 by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, was informed by the provincial government earlier this summer that it would not be receiving the funding needed to keep open its regional offices in Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Grande Prairie.

Branches in those cities will close September 20, and 11 people will lose their jobs, including reductions in Calgary and Edmonton, according to Matthew Kay.

“We are 100 per cent committed to continuing to provide you with support, we are continuing to advocate for additional dollars from the government, we are committed to supporting you through this obviously difficult time, Kay says, speaking to clients. “We are also going to be doing a letter writing campaign for clients to take part in.”

Clients in more rural areas can still receive core services to help with orientation and mobility, but that’s where the longer wait times come in because specialists will come exclusively from Calgary and Edmonton.

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Additionally, if a client wants to purchase a product such as a large print keyboard, handheld magnifier or another type of assistive device, it will need to be ordered from the Shop CNIB website. Until now, those items could be bought at regional offices.

(rdnewsNOW file photo)

Red Deer resident Kim Skibsted, who has been blind for 37 years thanks to diabetic retinopathy, calls the funding denial and subsequent closures especially concerning for seniors.

“When I need a new cane, I can go online because I’m computer literate, but most seniors are not. Those who are will then have to buy speech software for their computer to talk so they can buy these things,” she explains.

Skibsted understands the province is trying to save money, but rejecting an application for important funding isn’t the way to go about it, she says.

“When you’re cutting it off the backs of the blind population, people who don’t drive, mostly don’t use computers, and now they’re being told they’re going to have to order things via computer — it’s the seniors my heart really goes out to.”

Meantime, the closures could also affect ‘vision mates,’ volunteers who meet regularly with their visually challenged partners to offer assistance and camaraderie.

“If it took three to four months to go through the process, how long is going to take now? I have transportation, but not everyone does, so to drive an hour and a half from Red Deer or some other rural area, that might discourage people from looking to the CNIB to volunteer,” says Joseph Cote, who’s been a vision mate in Red Deer since August 2018.

“It’s just adding more obstacles to an already fairly complicated process. There’s already a lack of volunteers, and my partner waited over a year for a vision mate. If you already have a pool that is pretty shallow, it’s now only going to get shallower. I probably would’ve gone somewhere else to volunteer if this office wasn’t here.”

Support groups which run out of the regional offices are also going to be forced to find new homes. According to Kay, the organization has 429 clients in Red Deer, 139 in Medicine Hat, 450 in Lethbridge, and 316 in Grande Prairie.

A statement from Kassandra Kitz, Press Secretary for Community and Social Services Minister Rajan Sawhney, states, “The work organizations like CNIB do, through programs like Vision Loss Rehab, provides important supports to people with disabilities. CSS’ current agreement (April 2018 to March 2020) with CNIB remains in place at their current level. Funding remains stable, as it was under the previous government.”