Dear Editor:
Visiting ARC Industries in Guelph (now Guelph Day) I was shocked at the changes. I volunteered there for many years but since COVID-19 have met my friends (clients) on Zoom.
The whole first floor is rented out or closed to our special needs sons/daughters. The wonderful woodwork shop is gone, the huge back space where life skills, work skills, fashion shows, open house in November, is no more thanks to the previous Liberal government.
Parents alone raised well over $40,000 selling pointsettias, our crafts, homemade fudge, etc. at our open house each November. This was all for a place to learn skills, socialize with friends, have a safe place to go every day, help in finding a job if capable, if not, a place to feel accepted and important.
The Ford government doesn’t care about our children either, as they don’t answer my letters even with an acknowledgement they received my letter. My son is not allowed to go back to ARC, where he attended for over 30 years, because he lives in a group home, which is also in jeopardy because of a $3-million deficit in funding from our government for Community Living Guelph Wellington.
This building was built for our special needs sons/daughters and I am sickened by what has happened to it. Only a fraction of those who attended programs on a daily basis are allowed to attend and only two or three days a week. Is this the way our government treats those who are vulnerable and in need of supports for everyday living?
Sylvia Quinn,
Guelph