Good morning.
My name is Anna MacQuarrie. I'm with the Canadian Association for Community Living, the national federation that advocates for people with intellectual disabilities and their families.
It's exciting to be here today. I get to start by thanking all of you for Canada's ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on March 11 of this year. It was a proud moment, and certainly it was a turning moment for the rights of people with disabilities in Canada. If meaningfully implemented, the CRPD has the potential to make a real difference in the lives of Canadians with disabilities.
Our focus in our budget submissions for this year is to tackle the staggering and persistent rates of poverty facing Canadians with disabilities. When we look across the country today, we know that working-age adults with intellectual disabilities are almost three times more likely to live in poverty than working-age Canadians without disabilities. About 45.5% of working-age people with intellectual disabilities indicate they receive provincial or territorial social assistance. The employment rate is abysmal. We know that the employment rate for working-age adults is only one-third of the employment rate for people without disabilities and that the average income for people who are working is less than half of that of those without a disability.
The truth is that in Canada we have created poverty as the most likely outcome of life with a disability.
We know there has been building momentum to address these issues. In late 2009, we saw both the Senate standing committee, in their report “In from the Margins”, as well as the report from the finance committee, suggest that we have a refundable disability tax credit. The finance committee went on to recognize the need to address the registered disability savings plan in regard to concerns around the legal capacity of people with intellectual disabilities. We thank you for those recommendations, and we urge the committee and the Government of Canada to implement them and take some action.
We are suggesting that a refundable disability tax credit for low-income Canadians be a first step in a broader income reform strategy. To guide the broader income reform strategy, we suggest establishing an advisory committee that reports both to the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development to explore options for addressing poverty, income reform, and the federal role in income support for people with disabilities.
Additionally, we are encouraging the Government of Canada to take concrete steps to meaningfully implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Ratification was step one; we need to move on to probably the more difficult job of making it real and meaningful in our communities.
Lastly, in order to do any of the above, we need a robust and comprehensive disability data collection strategy. The current survey, which has been used in the past--the participation and activity limitation survey, more often known as PALS--has been cancelled.
We are working with the government. We know that a new data strategy is being developed. Any such strategy is going to need significant resourcing and time invested in ensuring we are not losing data. We do not want to find that four or five years from now we do not know what's happening with people with disabilities in this country because we don't have the data to understand it.
Thank you.