It was not with all the attention deserved that, on June 2, federal minister Carla Qualtrough tabled Bill C-22 in the House. We must welcome this initiative, which aims to establish a basic income for all disabled people of working age. Such a benefit would represent a giant step in the accomplishment of the government’s plan to fight poverty. According to Statistics Canada, 40% of people living below the poverty line report that they live with a disability.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
However, many details remain to be settled. The federal government is planning consultations over three years to determine all the terms and conditions. Faced with many additional expenses to offset their handicap in addition to the effects of galloping inflation, the people concerned are right to find that the timetable is not ambitious enough.
But which individuals will be targeted? Eligibility for such a measure is a priority issue to be resolved. Linguistically and culturally, in French-speaking Canada, a handicap does not have the same significance as a disability (disability) in English Canada.
This is one of the reasons for the low rate of self-declaration of disability in Quebec. Our population claims the federal disability tax credit twice as much as in the other provinces.
Imagine if this measure, which is already a portal to other federal programs, became the eligibility criterion for this new anti-poverty measure! No deal.
In this context, it becomes imperative to challenge our decision-makers at all levels of government to create bridges between programs. For example, it would become automatic that a person already receiving benefits due to severe constraints in holding a job would be recognized as disabled in the eyes of Revenue Canada. The physical or intellectual incapacity to work is a major handicap in our society. After all, having a job is so central now. Currently, the tax law does not see it as such.
For a person with a disability, whether obvious or invisible, it is as difficult to ask his doctor to fill out yet another form certifying his disability as going to demonstrate in the streets.
Let’s be brave! Rapidly. Before the tabling of the next budgets. Decision-makers, don’t wait three years, the population will be behind you. An Angus-Reid poll1 published last year shows that 89% of Canadians agree with a Canada Disability Benefit. And it is in Quebec that support is strongest (91%).