We didn't mention the labour market agreement for persons with disabilities program in our presentation because we needed a lot more time. This program has been around in one shape or another since 1962 and has gone through a number of iterations. As a rehab counsellor, it's been absolutely essential in helping me move my clients who are patients in hospitals from being persons with disabilities to being people who are actively engaged in their education and retraining.
As Tova and I said in our presentation, it's a program that's been stretched, and for a decade its budget was frozen. We saw a slight increase in Nova Scotia last year, but if you had $100 in 1994 you'd need $121 today to have the same purchasing power. In Nova Scotia, because of the lack of funding and the increased demand, any person with a disability who now wants to go to post-secondary study has to apply for a student loan.
A lot of people who become disabled for one reason or another get into financial crisis. They may go bankrupt or be forced to default on a student loan. Because of that financial crisis, when they apply for a student loan today they may be ineligible. That means as a rehab counsellor I don't have any way of helping them to move toward training, because generally my clients have been out of work long enough that they don't have EI eligibility.