Funding cuts are never welcomed by any organization. From my point of view, the problems with the funding actually began more than a decade ago. In about the mid-1990s, disability organizations started to feel the pinch in a major way. The pinch became more like a crushing—it was just awful—beginning in about 2000. It has become very difficult for disability organizations—and I would include those at the national level—to function.
The Learning Disabilities Association of Canada is down to three staff. The Canadian Council on Social Development has been laying people off. At CACL, there is hardly anybody there. Roeher is virtually gone. It has been a very difficult funding environment for at least a decade, so more cuts are never welcomed.
But I think there is a broader, longer-lasting problem here that has to be addressed as well.