Good morning, and thank you for this opportunity.
We represent the families of Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network, known as PLAN. It was established 18 years ago to help families answer this question: What will happen to my child with a disability when I die? PLAN offers practical advice to families who want to assure the safety, security, and well-being of relatives with disabilities.
We have submitted a written brief that makes four recommendations to assist the hundreds of thousands of family members across Canada who are concerned about the future and the well-being of their relatives with disabilities.
The first recommendation is for a registered disability savings plan to enable families to plan for the future for their relatives. I'll speak to that recommendation.
I'd like to thank the Minister of Finance, who in his May 2 budget recognized a family's desire to secure a relative's long-term financial security when the family is no longer able to provide support. He appointed a panel to examine the options and to report back by November 9.
One of the options is the registered disability savings plan. There are a number of reasons why we ask you to support this. One, it will provide an easy-to-use mechanism that will enable families to provide for the financial and social well-being, and long-term security, of our relatives with disabilities. Two, it will provide a mechanism for the federal government to recognize family contributions, to promote more resilient families, and to encourage greater self-sufficiency. And three, it will enable persons with disabilities to improve their social and economic well-being beyond that permitted by government-funded programs.
Our research indicates that a registered disability savings plan would open the door for 400,000 families who would contribute more than $230 million annually towards assuring the safety and security of their relatives with disabilities. This would be at a cost of only $47 million to the federal government.
Perhaps more importantly, we think the introduction of a registered disability savings plan would act like a domino, beginning a chain of policy changes in Canada, a sea change that would shift our present welfare-based approach to disability to an investment-based approach. The welfare-based approach makes social assistance a ceiling above which families and persons with disabilities are deterred from rising. It makes persons with disabilities, and their families, cheaters.
An example of what the welfare approach looks like came last week, when we had a senior couple in our office. They have a 48-year-old son who sustained a head injury as a child. He's always managed, but barely. He now also has diabetes. His $310 rent cheque doesn't cover his rent in a market where a decent one-bedroom apartment goes for over $700 per month.
When Terry met with a provincial bureaucrat, he was told that his parents couldn't give him $400 a month, even if it was necessary to cover the difference in his rent bill. If they did, Terry would have to declare it as income, and it would be deducted dollar for dollar. Instead, the worker suggested that his parents give him varying amounts at different times of the month. That way, it would be less likely to raise suspicion; it wouldn't look like income when they reviewed his bank account records.
A shift towards an investment-based approach would look differently. In an investment-based approach, social assistance would represent the floor of Terry's economic well-being. He would be encouraged to improve his quality of life beyond what social assistance could provide. His family would receive a tax deduction for contributing to their son's registered disability savings plan, and he would be able to live with dignity, in decent accommodation, without cheating the system.
If he were to withdraw funds from the plan each month to supplement his rent, he would not have to hide his family's contributions. Instead, he would pay taxes. Terry would be encouraged to be self-sufficient. His family's contributions would be recognized. No one would have to worry about what would happen if they got caught.
A registered disability savings plan will represent one of the most significant national disability initiatives in the last 20 years. As families, we've been pulling our weight, with 75% of the day-to-day supports required by persons with disabilities being provided by us.
My husband, Ron, and I know that the well-being of our daughter Stephanie is too precious to leave exposed to the winds of political change. We want a partnership among persons with disabilities, families, and our government. The disability savings plan would represent that partnership, and it would be the first domino leading to changes that would bring families peace of mind and a good life to all people living with disabilities.
Thank you.