
Budget 2025 survey: Make your priorities known
As it does annually, the Alberta government is soliciting the views of Albertans on their priorities for government spending in the 2025-26 provincial budget. You have until January 12th to complete the government’s online budget survey which can be found here. This is an opportunity to make government aware of the critical importance of ensuring sufficient funding for programs that support children and adults with intellectual disabilities and their families to enable inclusive lives.
The Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) program received a budget increase last year that was below the rate of population growth and inflation and was not sufficient to serve the growing number of Albertans on the waitlist requiring support from PDD. The Family Supports for Children with Disabilities (FSCD) program received no increase.
Since Budget 2024, Alberta’s unprecedented population growth has added pressure to the PDD and FSCD programs as families move to the province for work. In 2024, more families than ever before contacted Inclusion Alberta for support and advocacy, many of them struggling without services or with insufficient services. The lack of increase to the FSCD budget has meant that parents of children in the critical early years are waiting two to three years after applying before they can access FSCD services to support their child’s communication, behaviour, development and inclusion in community.
Waiting with no support, or receiving inadequate support, has meant that parents of children and adults with intellectual disabilities have lost their jobs. In addition, many adults with intellectual disabilities could be working if employment support was available, and more could be developing the skills and relationships to enable their inclusion in community and ultimately reduce their need for paid support in the future.
Maintaining Alberta’s economic growth requires that housing and schools be built to provide for the growing population. As a critical component of Alberta’s social and economic infrastructure, PDD and FSCD services also must expand to address the growing population. Alberta’s economy depends on it. In a November 2024 poll by Leger, over two thirds of respondents agreed that due to Alberta’s population growth, increased funding for support for children with disabilities and their families is required.
This survey is an opportunity for you to communicate your own personal views on what the budget priorities should be. Below we offer suggestions on how your responses to specific questions in the survey can express that a top priority for you is for government to better support people with intellectual disabilities and their families.
FIND THE ONLINE SURVEY HERE.
Response suggestions:
- Is there anything else that affects your personal or household budget that was not listed above?
Describe any costs your family incurs or wages you forgo, as a result of not receiving the services you require from PDD or FSCD, or as a result of not receiving support to be included in Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC).
If you or your family member could be employed if the required employment supports were offered by PDD, describe the costs to your family of not receiving supports to be employed.
- How do you think the government should manage a potential revenue surplus? Please rank each of the following with 1 being your top suggestion and 4 being your last.
- Pay down debt
- Save for the future
- Provide cost of living relief to Albertans
- Increase government spending to support programs and services
Rank ‘ Increase government spending to support programs and services’ as number 1.
- Which of the following spending areas matter to you most? Please rank each of the following with 1 being the most important and 15 being the least important.
- Paying down provincial debt
- Infrastructure (e.g., roads, bridges, public facilities)
- Job creation
- Addiction and mental health programs and services
- Acute or hospital care
- Economic diversification
- Continuing care
- Wildfire response, including more money for equipment, such as water bombers
- Water, irrigation and other drought-mitigation projects
- Social supports
- Affordability measures
- Post-secondary education
- Public safety and policing
- K-12 education
- Health care
Rank ‘Social supports’ as number 1.
- Is there anything else that could improve Alberta’s productivity that was not listed above?
Your answer could include: “PDD and FSCD services are critical components of Alberta’s social and economic infrastructure and must be funded to address population growth and inflation.”
- Do you have any final thoughts to add about budget priorities?
Examples of responses you could use:
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“Provide funding to address gaps in FSCD services for rural and Indigenous families. Supports should be available regardless of geographical barriers.”
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“Increase FSCD funding to match inflation and caseload growth so that families receive timely access to services that are critically important for their children’s development and inclusion.”
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“Increase PDD funding to fully account for the inflation and caseload growth of 2023-24 so that funding will be sufficient to serve new individuals on the wait list. Plan future increases to the PDD budget to equal inflation plus caseload growth.”
Thank you for taking the time to consider our perspective and to complete the Alberta Government’s 2024 Budget Survey. The survey can be found here and is open until January 12th.
In January, 2025, Inclusion Alberta will be releasing the findings of our surveys of individuals and families about access to FSCD and PDD, and we’ll be asking you to speak to your MLA about the importance of these programs. Please sign up to receive our email newsletter here to receive information about this campaign.