Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Hicks, I'm really glad you're here and I'm really glad you presented. This issue is very near and dear to my heart.
My colleagues know, but you may not, that I spent 10 years in municipal government prior to running federally. One of the things I focused on most was persons with disabilities and how to make a change there, both in my public life as well as my private life. I was on some boards dealing with that, so this issue is important, and I thank you for being here.
I want to start off by saying that one of the things we were able to do in my municipality was hire some people with cognitive disabilities and put a training program in place. We worked with an organization that provided the “outside the job“ skills that were needed. For example, they learned how to take the bus to work every day and created that routine of who to go to.
We also knew with this partner organization the business case. To Mr. Liepert's point, the business case for hiring a person with a disability is actually there. They tend to be more loyal. There are some upfront costs, maybe in terms of accommodation, but they tend to not have to rehire someone, especially in the service industry.
That being said, I want to expand on your recommendation in terms of changing some of the tax systems. In my experience, those with disabilities tend to never find paid employment—it's usually only volunteer—to build up their résumés. Nobody ever hires them for paid employment, and sometimes it's a disadvantage to be paid because then they will lose their disability credit, or they will lose because of that income gap where you get benefits and then you lose them if you supplement them with anything else. This impacts someone's ability to be in the meaningful labour market.
Can you speak about what that means and the disadvantage of finding paid employment in terms of those other tax benefits or disability tax credits?