Dozens of disabled workers losing jobs after Ottawa ends program

Gladys Whincup is one of 50 developmentally disabled adults employed by a government program that is at risk of closing May 1, 2015.

For 35 years, Gladys Whincup worked 9-to-5, five days a week, sorting and shredding paper for the federal government.

For the past couple of months, she’s spent her days watching movies and colouring.

“I’m okay,” she says through tears. “I’m just a little shocked.”

Whincup is one of 50 workers with developmental disabilities who are losing their jobs as Library and Archives Canada (LAC) shuts down the wastepaper disposal plant that employed them at a total cost of about $125,000 per year.

Workers receive $1.15-per-hour honorariums -- just low enough that they can continue receiving their disability income.

The program was put on notice two years ago as the government made plans to decentralize its shredding, according to Dave Ferguson, executive director of the Ottawa-Carleton Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities, which oversees the workers.

Ferguson says he asked Pierre Poilievre, Canada’s Minister of Employment and Social Development, and former Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird before that, to find a solution for the workers.

Poilievre said Thursday that the contract will be extended for another month and that he will find a long-term solution after that.

“These inspiring people show that everyone can contribute to hard work,” he added.

Ferguson fears many of the workers will lose their community and the sense of accomplishment they’ve established during their time at the facility.

Mike Sullivan, the NDP’s disability issues critic, says the government should have acted sooner.

“If they really cared about persons living with disabilities, and this particular work shop, they would have done something two years ago,” he says. “They would have started the planning.”

Meanwhile, sources say developmentally-delayed adults who water plants for the federal government could also lose their jobs.