City agrees to look into how PDD cuts will affect community

by Sara Warr, Grande PrairieThe fight continues to stop cuts to provincial programs for people with developmental disabilities.Local respresentatives from Public Interest Alberta are hoping the City will help them in their lobbying efforts as well.A group approached council earlier this week to educate councilors about the potential fallout on communities as a whole, as well as the vulnerable who will be directly affected.Mayor Bill Given says they'll be looking further into the issue to see what kind of support they can provide to the situation."Council's asked administration to basically collect some data and information so that we can understand the issue and what it's impacts might be. I think next steps from there would be, once we had that data in hand, to move forward to communicating with the provincial government about the City of Grande Prairie's position. But we wouldn't be able to develop a position on this issue until we knew the data and facts."Public Interest Alberta and supporters continue to hold rallies every Friday, rotating between both local MLA's offices, MP Chris Warkentin's constituency office, City Hall, and the local PDD office to raise awareness for the issue.The province has agreed to re-evaluate and delay some of the changes, including a proposed 42-Million dollars in cuts.Read the article at HQGrandePrairie.com.