The Halifax Regional School Board is going after a non-profit group for tens of thousands of dollars after it shut down one of its programs.
The executive director of Independent Living Nova Scotia says she never imagined she would be in a legal battle with the school board after more than a decade of partnership, and that the claim threatens the organization’s very existence.
“Never in all the years that we’ve been running this program has there been any question about our outcomes,” says Sherry Costa.
The Access to Community Education and Employment program – or ACEE – helps recent graduates with physical, mental or intellectual disabilities enter the workforce or get a post-secondary education.
ACEE was run by Independent Living Nova Scotia and the Halifax Regional School Board, but the school board ended the program last month.
The school board says Independent Living Nova Scotia hasn’t met its objectives and is now threatening legal action.
In a letter dated June 28, Halifax law firm McInnes Cooper says the school board could choose to seek repayment of more than $220,000 – the full cost of the ACEE program – but will accept a sum of $58,145 by June 8.
“What I see in the letter from the lawyer and the letter from the superintendent, to me, it was just an escalation of the bullying,” says Costa.
The school board declined a request for an interview, but it did issue the following statement:
"This is an issue of importance for the Halifax Regional School Board and we are engaged in discussions with ILNS in an effort to bring this matter to a resolution. We do not have anything further to say publicly at this time.”
Costa says the organization has hired its own lawyer and she plans to fight the claim.
“And I’m not going to allow our participants to be the ones who pay the price.”
However, some staff members are already paying the price. Jennifer MacNeil is one of three full-time staff members recently laid off due to the closure of the ACEE program.
“When you are a person with a disability that’s incredibly difficult,” says MacNeil, who was a career facilitator for the program. “A lot of times you get a label of ‘Oh, you have a disability. You can’t do that.’”
Independent Living Nova Scotia employs a wide range of people with disabilities and Costa says losing $58,000 would effectively shut down the centre, putting those people out of a job.
“It changed my life so much,” says employee Nicole MacDonald, who lives with spina bifida. “It makes me just feel like a normal person in society.”
Meanwhile, Costa’s staff are volunteering their time to ensure this year’s ACEE participants get to finish the program.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Sarah Ritchie
