EDMONTON — Ahead of the provincial budget, Friends of Medicare and activists within the disability community are once again calling on the Alberta government to improve and properly fund home care. Without immediate investment, our home care system will continue to fail the 127,000 Albertans who rely upon it.
Despite the government repeatedly signalling their intention to shift Alberta’s continuing care services to include more care in-community, our home care system continues to suffer from chronic underinvestment. Across the country, inadequate funding has caused hundreds of thousands of Canadians to report unmet home care needs. Instead of receiving high-quality public care, our system has forced Albertans dependent on home care to pay out-of-pocket costs and rely on unpaid family caregivers — an entirely unacceptable outcome.
Last year’s provincial budget failed to address this problem. The funding provided in Budget 2024 did not even keep pace with inflation and population growth, let alone increased demand.
Budget 2025 is a chance for the Alberta government to end the underfunding of services and fix our home care system. This budget needs to include increases to funding that account for inflation and population growth, as well as improvements to home care that allow those dependent on it to live with full autonomy and dignity. Disabled Albertans, seniors, and their families deserve the best care from our public services — and the government must provide the resources to make this a reality.
Friends of Medicare continues to collect signatures on a petition demanding action on home care, which has had tens of thousands sign in support.
“I live every day with the acute awareness that the only reason I am to pursue an education, be active in my community, and shape my own future is because my family is, for now, able and willing to help me pay thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs to cover my basic care needs. I am also aware that most disabled people in this province aren't as lucky as I have been. When luck is the sole determinant of Albertans’ access to an independent and dignified life, our home care system is failing us. It is terrifying that our government is comfortable stripping us of our freedom, and offering only the excuse of limited resources in return.” — Erin Novakowski, Calgary disability activist & student.
“I can’t live my life or meet my needs in the home care hours allocated to me. Without reform and expansion of Alberta’s failing homecare system, the grim reality of institutionalization looms over me. The care insecurity crisis is one that affects every Albertan. Able-bodied is a temporary state, and a robust home care system is the only sustainable, ethical, and economical path forward. It is a systemic failure that demands our collective attention." — Karli Drew, Greater Edmonton Area disability activist, writer, creator & consultant.
“Rather than investing in home care, the government’s top priority appears to be restructuring our health care system and contracting out care services to private, for-profit providers. We cannot continue to let the needs of seniors and people with disabilities go unmet. Albertans deserve real investments in home care and Budget 2025 is an opportunity for the government to do just that.” — Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare.
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