LETTER: Life in plastic isn't fantastic, writes P.E.I. resident about AccessAbility Supports

This summer, Minister of Social Development and Seniors Barb Ramsay posed for photos, Rick Hansen among them, celebrating improvements to AccessAbility Supports. Like a dream house it appears great from the outside. Just don’t open any doors.

The improvements stem from the Davis Pier report, dated June 2025 and addressed to Shelley Cole, director of social programming. Released in June 2026, the day after the legislature rose, when no one could ask about it. Smooth move, Ramsay. I requested it through freedom of information and didn’t get it. Just like 1995, when I didn’t get Totally Hair Barbie either.

Self-directed funding? The minister told CBC’s Compass it had started. Shelley Cole told the standing committee the same. I asked and was told it hasn’t “rolled out yet.” Both can’t be true. Accessories sold separately.

Navigators, also announced as started, serve people turned away. Why focus outside the program when clients inside it are shouting for help?

The minister called asking seniors for bank statements an invasion of privacy. I agree. The policy vanished within days. Disabled clients still hand over three months of statements whenever asked. Privacy, apparently, has an age limit.

The design is archaic, original 1959 Barbie. We front money we don’t have, then wait weeks, even months, for reimbursement. Some go without food or medication. Support workers are paid as slowly, and they leave. You can’t blame them. Clients get 40 cents a kilometre for medical travel; MLAs and government staff claim up to 58 cents for work. At 40 cents, I miss my Barbie convertible.

A program serving medical needs requires clinical leadership. Non-medical staff deny medically recommended items. I asked for available funding paid directly to my pharmacy for medication and was told it’s “another department’s issue.” After surgery, I was refused extra funding and told home care nursing would cover me; it doesn’t provide that support. I was left in limbo between two departments; neither wanted me.

The manager of AccessAbility Supports has left the nest, and the executive director is away until Oct. 16. A leader doesn’t vacation when her program has no manager and a new director was just named. Cabinet has been shuffled eight times in 12 months. The province found money for a multimillion-dollar NHL sponsorship, not an online portal.

British Columbia and Manitoba offer portals, websites and handbooks. P.E.I. gatekeeps knowledge: no list of resources, not even a monthly statement showing where our funding went. When information is withheld, I raise an eyebrow. I’m not the ever popular Teacher Barbie, but I’m writing policy into plain language so clients can understand how to use their funding.

Disabled Islanders need a real date for self-directed funding, non-discriminatory financial treatment, and a named, clinically qualified person accountable for this program. The program is the Barbie at the bottom of the toy bucket: a haircut from little sister, marker across the face, missing a shoe and holding her own leg, in a ripped 1980s prom dress no one else wanted.

Fix the program first, then take the photo.

Victoria MacInnis,
Montague, P.E.I.