I understand what you're saying, Mr. Mantis. My brother also lost an arm when he was 18 years old. He was listed as disabled on his driver's licence, but from a tax standpoint, he was not entitled to a credit because he wasn't deemed sufficiently disabled. He had problems finding a job and was always told that he couldn't be hired for insurance purposes. It's not like he was applying to drive a bulldozer. He was a white collar worker.
Mr. Crawford, as far as budgets cuts are concerned, as Mr. Caplan was saying, they all affect the same taxpayer. However, as I see it, tax revenues allocated to non-governmental organizations, whether for disabled persons or for some other purpose, represent an investment. If we don't put money into rehabilitating people, we'll be paying to keep them locked up. Building prisons is not a solution. These individuals are entitled to a life.
I know of mentally disabled persons who hold down jobs. However, they may be so severally disabled and because of time constraints, they may not be getting the attention they need from people.
If you had the same operating budgets as you had in 1993, before the Liberals started to slash program spending, could you hire people to properly supervise disabled persons working in an industrial setting? Would that help you promote the development of mentally or physically disabled persons?