Latest news with #RabiaKhedr
CBC
28-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Ontario won't claw back federal disability benefit
Amid growing concern from Ontarians with disabilities and their advocates, the province has announced it will not claw back the incoming Canada Disability Benefit (CDB). The CDB was passed in 2023, and the government committed $6.1 billion to it in the 2024 federal budget. Beginning in July, eligible recipients can receive up to $2,400 per year, or a maximum of $200 per month. In a news release on Tuesday, the province announced it will be exempting the federal benefit as income. That means recipients won't have money deducted from their provincial social assistance payments or entitlements such as the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). Since the CDB's passage, advocates have feared the provinces and territories may claw back the benefit. As of this March, at least seven have promised not to do that, but Alberta has announced it will claw back the benefit under certain circumstances. "It was a huge concern that this was not going to make it to the people who deserve to see this benefit," said Ron Anicich, co-chair of the ODSP Action Coalition. Advocates relieved, but wary Rabia Khedr, national director of advocacy group Disability Without Poverty (DWP), said the news from Alberta stoked fear and disappointment within the disability community. But Khedr said the Ontario government has previously taken "steps in the right direction," including its decision to increase the ODSP exemption from $200 to $1,000, giving her hope that the province would do the right thing. "I always felt strongly that, because they had committed to an earnings exemption, that there is no way they could justify clawing back a $200 federal benefit," she said. "So I'm glad that they have confirmed that today." Advocates say they still have other concerns about the benefit program, however. In order to be eligible for the CDB, recipients must be approved for the disability tax credit, and for that they must receive certification from a medical practitioner. "What we're seeing now is people scrambling to sign up for the disability tax credit," said Anicich. "Which is fine when people have family doctors, but there are two million people in this province that do not have family doctors who are just unable to access this benefit." To Khedr, the answer is to "simply cut red tape." "The folks that are in the provincial system who have already filled out medical forms and have already attested to their disability shouldn't have to complete that kind of scrutinizing process again," she said. Instead, many disability advocates have been calling for the federal government to make recipients of provincial programs such as ODSP automatically eligible for the CDB. In an email to CBC on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services said it's also calling on the federal government to change the Income Tax Act to align those eligibility requirements. "We believe people who already access the Ontario Disability Support Program and meet the other eligibility criteria should automatically qualify for the CDB, rather than be required to pay $200 under the program as it is presented," the spokesperson wrote. Concerns over amount Despite the good news on clawbacks, Khedr and Anicich still regard the CDB's maximum monthly payment of $200 as inadequate and are calling for an increase. "Ontarians with disabilities on ODSP and who qualify for the candidate disability benefits still will be well below the poverty line," Khedr noted. "And living with a disability costs at least 30 per cent above the poverty line." Khedr said recipients desperately need the financial help and will use it to improve their lives. "It means that maybe they can buy healthier food or supplements, maybe they can buy over-the-counter painkillers to manage their day so that they can even consider searching for work and improving their quality of life," she said. "It is money that will be spent on necessities of daily living." Khedr and Anicich are also calling for better collaboration among people with disabilities and their advocates, and demanded a say when decisions affecting their lives are made.
Globe and Mail
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
‘We are not a priority': Disability advocates say lack of minister sends a message
The lack of a minister for disabilities threatens to sideline the needs of millions of Canadians during what Mark Carney promises will be a period of transformation, advocates said Wednesday. The prime minister announced his smaller, 'purpose-built' cabinet meant to deliver change on Tuesday, but the 38-member team doesn't include anyone explicitly responsible for representing the interests of disabled Canadians. 'Not having big and bold disability inclusion and accessibility as part of a ministerial portfolio headline sends a message,' said Rabia Khedr, national director of Disability Without Poverty. 'Unfortunately, people with disabilities are being left behind.' She worries there won't be improvements to the Canada Disability Benefit, which offers a maximum of $200 per month to those eligible. That's not enough to accomplish the government's goal of lifting disabled Canadians out of poverty, she said. 'According to the government's own data, it will lift 25,000 people out of poverty, when we know that there's 1.6 million Canadians living with disabilities in poverty,' she said. 'We got the legislation, great. We made history after a lot of work. We got the budget but it was really disappointing. The regulations were adopted, but there's still work to be done to make them as robust as they should be.' The benefit is set to start rolling out on July 1, and the previous Liberal government committed in its fall economic update to making sure it was tax-exempt. That still needs to be done, and without a disability minister, it's not clear who will champion the initiative. There's also the question of the Accessible Canada Act, a piece of legislation that was passed in 2019 with the goal of making Canada 'barrier-free' by 2040. It's already woefully behind schedule, she said. 'The Accessible Canada Act truly needs a champion at the cabinet table to ensure that the Disability Inclusion Action Plan (developed in 2022) is indeed adopted through a whole-of-government approach, advancing accessibility in all facets of governing this country,' she said. David Lepofsky, chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, said the need for a disability minister goes beyond accessibility-specific legislation. 'This is a prime minister who has an ambitious goal of restructuring Canada's economy, building new infrastructure and restructuring the federal government,' he said. 'They're huge goals. More than ever, that's when you need a strong voice because people with disabilities so often get left out, get forgotten.' Take the issue of housing, for instance. 'We've heard tons of talk about housing and needing to increase the amount of housing in Canada – affordable housing. What they don't talk about is the need for a dramatic increase in the amount of accessible housing. We have an accessible housing shortage that is a crisis,' he said. Lepofsky said he remembers what it was like trying to advocate for accessibility before 2015, when the disability minister role was created, and he fears returning to that era. 'If you don't have a voice at the cabinet table, if you don't have a cabinet minister who could walk over to the prime minister – as a minister – and have a direct conversation about needing more action, you are really in a far more vulnerable position,' he said. Representatives for the Prime Minister's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the criticism, or which cabinet member would be responsible for accessibility legislation. Heidi Janz, a disability advocate and adjunct professor at the University of Alberta, said that in Carney's interim cabinet, which was in place from the time he became prime minister following the Liberal leadership race until the election campaign, the disability file fell to the employment minister. 'The danger of linking disability with employment is that the only disability issue becomes how to get disabled people employed,' she said. 'Linking disability with employment is missing the whole point of having a disability minister.' Krista Carr, CEO of Inclusion Canada, said she believes the disability file will now fall to Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu, who, she notes 'has a huge department now because that department used to have multiple ministers under it.' 'What we need is every minister and every secretary of state and every department to be thinking about how their legislation, their policies, their programs, their funding, their budgets, their whatever will impact people with disabilities,' Carr said. Deborah Gold, CEO of the Toronto-based non-profit Balance for Blind Adults, said she worries the lack of a dedicated disabilities minister is indicative of this government's overall priorities. 'It's more of a fiscal-oriented government,' she said. 'I'm concerned that it may speak to a shift away from the social policy ... of the previous Liberal government.'
CTV News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
‘We are not a priority:' Disability advocates say lack of minister sends a message
Members of Prime Minister Mark Carney's newly sworn in cabinet look on as Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks to reporters following a swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby Disability advocates say the lack of a minister tasked with representing their interests sidelines millions of Canadians during what Prime Minister Mark Carney promises will be a time of growth and rebuilding. Carney announced his smaller, 'purpose-built' cabinet meant to deliver change on Tuesday, but the 38-member team doesn't include anyone explicitly responsible for disability inclusion. David Lepofsky, chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, says disabled Canadians need a voice at the cabinet table fighting for their inclusion on the issues Carney has prioritized. He says those include building new infrastructure and tackling a housing shortage — but he says both things must be done with accessibility in mind. Rabia Khedr, national director of Disability Without Poverty, says she worries about the implementation of the Accessible Canada Act, which is meant to create a country 'without barriers' by 2040 and is already woefully behind schedule. Rabia Khedr This undated handout photo shows Rabia Khedr, national director of Disability Without Poverty. (Disability Without Poverty) Representatives for the Prime Minister's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the criticism, or which cabinet member would be responsible for accessibility legislation. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 14, 2025. Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press
