Rural community rallies to save group home for individuals living with intellectual disabilities

Preeceville, Sask. -

Questions are swirling from multiple people in the community of Preeceville, Sask., as one of the community’s three group homes for individuals living with intellectual disabilities gets set to close at the end of March.

According to Angie Pawliw, CUPE Local 3364 president and current group home worker at Mackenzie Society Ventures Inc., staff members learned of the closure on Jan. 20.

Staff were pulled into a meeting, where they were told that due to a lack of a supervisor, the group home would be shutting its doors, impacting at least eight staff members.

“For the group home to close, it’s sad, because these clients are going to be moved, not at their choice — and the clients haven’t even been told,” Pawliw told CTV News on Monday.

Pawliw said a supervisor had been working at the group home in question, “Group Home #3” along with another home, but Mackenzie had told them that the facility was without a supervisor for two years.

“It’s a poor excuse … we have heard people have applied, they keep telling us people aren’t applying,” she said.

The three clients impacted include one man and two women, Pawliw said.

She added that additional group homes operated by Mackenzie Society Ventures are also without a supervisor, creating worries from other staff members that this may just be the first domino to fall.

“We don’t have that indication [of immediate closures],” said Matt Thompson, CUPE National Servicing Representative.

“But we do know that two other homes don’t have supervisors as well. So it does beg the question, ‘Is this the first of many?’”

Allegations don’t stop at the lone group home.

Nancy Sikara is a former board member at the group home, spending six years on the board, ending her time in 2022.

She said following the COVID-19 pandemic, things began to deteriorate at the organization.

He daughter currently works at the Mackenzie Training Centre, where clients at one point were able to work on activities such as sewing in the facility to earn funds, and teach them the fundamentals of working in the real world.

Sikara said when her daughter started the program, she was earning around $45 per month. Following the pandemic, she claims the funds were taken away.

“Because there was a shortage of funds, management absconded that, and so nobody is getting anything, whatsoever,” she said. “$45 is no big deal, right? But to them, it was a little bit of something — appreciation for what they did. So, they’re not really interested in doing a lot right now either.”

Sikara describes that the back of the facility where clients work as “an awful place,” but the front, where management is, is consistently cleaned up and described as “beautiful,” for the management.

“In my opinion, it’s physically dangerous for some of them. We do have people with disabilities with wheelchairs … it’s not feasible for them to move around in there,” she said.

Mackenzie Society Ventures did not respond to a request for an interview with CTV News Monday.

The provincial government, which funds Mackenzie Society Ventures, is also searching for answers.

“I just heard of this recently, I asked the ministry to look into it. My understanding at this point, there wasn’t a lot of information shared with the ministry,” said Social Services Minister Gene Makowsky on Monday.

“My thoughts are with the residents of this particular group home and making sure they’re looked after if it comes to a situation where it does close.”

Makowsky acknowledged that he has heard the closure is due to a lack of a supervisor, but stopped short of confirming that to be the reason why it is shutting its doors.

“I hope a resolution can be found, that we can work with this group to continue services,” he said.

CUPE’s next steps following a rally held at Mackenzie Society Ventures Monday is to continue to push the public to put pressure on the organization, not to close the home.

CUPE said it would exhaust all avenues of legal action it can take, but encourages anyone with concerns around the organization to head to its website and sign its petition to keep services in Preeceville, Canora and Sturgis.Pree