Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My apologies to the committee for being late, but I was stopped by Global media when I came in because of a very distressing case of a woman with an intellectual disability being assaulted on Wheel-Trans in Toronto today. They were asking for comments on that. In fact, that goes to the core of what I would like to talk about today.
Our mission as an association is to advance the full inclusion and rights of people with intellectual disabilities in Canada. We work very closely with the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres, and over the last year, 90 other disability organizations across the country that came together to produce this national action plan on disability.
This statement represents a consensus agenda of the disability community. We had the opportunity to present it last week to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, the Honourable Monte Solberg, and Minister Flaherty, both of whom attended our End Exclusion event last Thursday.
This agenda lays out four main priorities that our community has identified. Access to needed disability supports--personal attendants, aids, and devices--is the number one priority, along with addressing the poverty of Canadians with disabilities. We recognize that this is the jurisdiction of the provincial-territorial governments, but we call on the Government of Canada to take leadership with provinces and territories to address that issue, as two-thirds of Canadians with disabilities lack one or more needed supports.
The other major area we've come to a consensus on is the need to alleviate poverty. Canadians with disabilities of working age face poverty rates twice the general rate of poverty among Canadians, which is just over 13%. The poverty rate of Canadians with disabilities is about 27%. For people with intellectual disabilities living on their own, over 70%, an astronomical rate, live in poverty.
We think there are some very practical measures the Government of Canada can take within its jurisdiction and within the tax system to begin to take significant steps to address poverty among Canadians. We applaud the steps of the current government to establish the registered disability savings plan, to establish an enabling accessibility fund, and to establish a disability supplement to the working income tax benefit. These are important measures, and I think in implementing them there has been a recognition that much more needs to be done.
The one thing our community is coming together around in this country is refundability of the disability tax credit, and that's what we're calling for. The disability tax credit provides, at its face value, about $6,700. In terms of income tax relief, it provides a value of just over $1,000, approximately, and there are provincial-territorial credits on top of that.
The Department of Finance has said that the purpose of the DTC is horizontal equity so that after disability-related costs, taxpayers pay roughly the same amount of tax. We believe there should be a broader understanding of horizontal equity, meaning that all those who have disability-related costs would be treated equally. Those who currently don't pay tax, the poorest of the poor among Canadians with disabilities, can't take advantage of the disability tax credit.
The organizations you see here, especially the Canadian Association for Community Living and the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, have engaged the Caledon Institute of Social Policy to prepare a costing of what it would mean to make the disability tax credit refundable.
If we did that, we could enable about 650,000 Canadians now living in poverty to take advantage of the refundability. We're suggesting that we take the highest rate of the DTC, which is the supplement in Saskatchewan. That's currently the highest rate, at about $1,700, and that would put $1,700 into the hands of the poorest of the poor among Canadians to address needed disability-related costs that they can't get deducted through the medical expenses tax credit or the disability support deduction.
We think this is a very practical, very focused measure. The costs are significant, and we recognize that, at $1.3 billion, but we have not seen a major investment in disability in this country. Put on the scale of other major transfer programs--OAS/GIS, veterans allowances--for what we recognize as vulnerable Canadians, such as children living in poverty and also seniors, I think it's time to recognize that Canadians with disabilities are another vulnerable group deserving of the kind of attention that those other vulnerable populations have received.
So we would call on this committee to help us take this recommendation forward, and we think it's a very legitimate role for the federal government. We're not calling for a transfer to provinces. We're calling for a transfer to one of the most vulnerable groups in Canadian society.
Thank you for your time.