Marcia Carroll CEO of PEI Council of the Disabled, an unaccounted for waste of taxpayers dollars

Why do the taxpayers waste $900,000 annually on the PEI Council of the Disabled

The disabled Parking Story at Canada Games UPEI is another example of how the PEI Council has failed us and act as frauds.

Grabbing the spotlight and belittling the work of others

When Wendy Guindon of the PEI Council of the Disabled returned my call on Wednesday at 2:30 PM, it was the first time she heard about the problem with Disabled Parking at Canada Games. Disabled advocates take action

She must have gotten calls from MLAs since she sent the MLAs this email disingenuously describing herself as the white knight. She played a role but not the only important role.

“Dear Members of the PEI Legislature

I wanted to give you an update on the disabled parking situation at UPEI.  A collegue and I took a drive over this morning (ed. Thursday) to assess the parking situation  for persons with disabilities to access the Canada Games site at UPEI.  There were four spaces that are designated and have been painted with the Universal Symbol for persons with disabilities to park.  In addition to this, a representative from UPEI came over to our office this morning and picked up 12 designated parking signs for the site. There will therefore be 12 designated spots.

UPEI and Canada Games representatives have more than adequately covered parking for people with disabilities to enjoy the events being held there.  I hope this clears up any misconceptions being stated.

Respectfully, Wendy Guindon. PEI Council of People with Disabilities

Note the “I hope this clears up any misconceptions being stated.” which is of course a cheap shot at me for bringing the whole matter up in the first place. There were no misconceptions stated Wendy. You are a liar to make that point and a coward to send it secretly to the MLAs.

What a horse’s ass is all I can say. We give her credit the day before for a promise and she digs the knife in our back. She’ll go far.

PS she’s wrong on the number of spots needed. According to the ratio of disabled permits to cars registered, they need about 20 disabled parking spots.

No accountability

The Auditor General of PEI reported this year the Province spends about $16 million on non-government organizations and doesn’t have any idea if the money is being spent wisely.

The PEI Council of the Disabled is one of the many NGO’s that could disappear overnight and no one would really care since they don’t any thing near the value of the money they spend.

The government could issue disabled parking permits from Motor Vehicle like Ontario as a picture ID permit for multiple years.

While formed years ago to advocate on behalf of the disabled, they have become a moribund and money wasting institution more concerned with their jobs than the disabled.

Parking

Disabled parking is the direct responsibility of the Council. They issue 5,000 disabled parking permits a year.

What do they do with the money? The don’t advocate for enforcement of disabled parking laws and people without stickers park in disabled spots with impunity.

They actually worked with UPEI to remove the last accessible parking on campus. Today 9 of the buildings a disabled student would take classes in do not have legally qualified disabled parking. Disabled find getting to class difficult at University of PEI, host of 2009 Canada Games

After that, the same students must travel long distances between buildings that are beyond their physical capacity. No wonder so few students with walking difficulties attend UPEI.

Marcia Carroll, CEO of the Council, supports that in writing and in the Charlottetown Guardian.

Disability Supports

9,000 seniors with disabilities are not covered under the PEI Disability Support Plan. The Disability Services Review Committee was designed to show the government how to fix that and other disability problems.

I personally lobbied the previous CEO of the Council to act as chair of the committee.

He and Marcia rewarded seniors with disabilities by making sure there was no mention of their pressing needs in the report of the SRC.

Advocacy

The PEI Council of the Disabled is dead-set against any advocacy on behalf if the disabled. I was on the board and resigned because their only interest appeared to be the free lunch, government grants and conflict of interest and insider dealings with trust accounts.

Other people have tried to turn the Council back to activism. Most recently, the past President Trisha Clarkin was driven from the Council by strong arm tactics when she tried to introduce advocacy for the disabled.

The $900,000 could be put to better use by the DSP helping more people who need it.