Human Resources Committee on May 7th, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we are studying the federal contribution to reducing poverty in Canada.

I want to thank all of our witnesses for taking the time to be here today. We have Mr. Bruce Drewett and Courtney Keenan from the Canadian Paraplegic Association. From the Active Living Alliance for Canadians with a Disability, we have Jane Arkell and Jason Dunkerley. From the Canadian Association for Community Living, we have Anna Macquarrie. From the DisAbled Women's Network of Canada, we have Bonnie L. Brayton. From Independent Living Canada, we have Rick Goodfellow. From the Council of Canadians, through video conference in St. John's, we have Marie White.

I'm going to give the floor to Mr. Savage, and then we will start with Mr. Drewett from the Canadian Paraplegic Association.

Mr. Savage.

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Thank you.

Allow me to welcome the witnesses.

To begin this meeting, I want to mention that a number of us are in wheelchairs today: Madam Minna, Mr. Martin, and Madam Cadman. A number of others had expressed an interest, including the chair and Mr. Lessard, in being in a wheelchair. This is the brainchild of the CPA. Last year I spent a day in a wheelchair. I had the opportunity to be the chair of the committee meeting. I'm delighted that this year a number of parliamentarians are doing this. Next year we're going to look for many more to do it. The purpose is to give people some insight into what it's like to live with a disability, if only for a single day. Ottawa is one of the most accessible places in Canada, yet we still find many challenges.

I was pleased that we were able to schedule witnesses from a number of groups representing people with disabilities. Far too many people with disabilities live in poverty, and we have to find a way to make that better. This is the parliamentary committee that has responsibility for the status of persons with disabilities, and we have to do more for them.

I want to thank everybody for coming. I want to thank the CPA for the work they've done, and I want to thank the committee for scheduling this meeting. We were originally scheduled to be on the road, for hearings on poverty. We were able to reschedule that to be here. I thank the chair and the staff for their indulgence.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you, Mr. Savage.

Mr. Drewett.

[Bruce Drewett, President, Canadian Paraplegic Association]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Bruce Drewett, and I have the privilege of serving as the president of the Canadian Paraplegic Association. With me today is Mr. Courtney Keenan, our vice-president.

The Canadian Paraplegic Association would like to thank the standing committee for the opportunity to present today.

I would also like to point out, as did Mr. Savage, that on this day, May 7, we have a number of members of Parliament who are taking part in an awareness event on Parliament Hill. I would like to thank specific members of this committee for their involvement in this event. They include Mr. Savage, Ms. Cadman, Mr. Martin, and Ms. Minna, all easily recognizable around this table as using wheelchairs.

We believe the ideas we generate through forums such as these are invaluable, as they contribute to broadening the understanding of the issues facing Canadians with disabilities. It is our hope that our presentation and further discussion to this forum with regard to key decision-makers will help to serve and highlight the needs of the most vulnerable in our community, people with disabilities living in poverty, and that our recommendations will be considered within a broader strategy for meeting those needs.

I would like to begin with a short description of the CPA and its work with people with disabilities.

At CPA, which was formed almost 65 years ago, we are dedicated to assisting persons with spinal cord injury and other physical disabilities to achieve independence, self-reliance, and full community participation. We create direct links with Canadians with spinal cord injury, as well as with their families and caregivers, through our member services and peer networking programs.

The CPA maintains its relationship with Canadians with disabilities throughout their lives. We meet newly injured people with spinal cord injury and their families in hospitals, provide counselling services during rehabilitation, and continue to advise and assist them as they learn to navigate the community in new ways and become productive members of society once again.

While our client services remain the centrepiece of our activities, we have also been successful in bringing peers together to socialize and participate in recreational opportunities. Based on the principle that lived experience will allow people with spinal cord injury to jointly devise strategies for greater community participation, our members find improved health outcomes and empowerment through new friendships.

It is through this one-on-one and group interaction that we're able to speak to the evolving needs of people living with spinal cord injury in Canada. In working to improve the lives of people with disabilities, we also provide an important contribution to Canadian society by helping such persons overcome barriers to participation and by providing services and information to reduce health and social service costs.

More than 4.4 million Canadians have a disability of one type or another. Poverty and isolation are a shared reality for the majority of this community. In fact--

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Mr. Drewett, could you slow down a bit? Translation is having a hard time keeping up.

[Bruce Drewett]

Sure.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

I realize we make you pack a lot into five minutes, as well. I recognize that.

[Bruce Drewett]

I will slow down a bit.

In fact, Canadians with disabilities are almost twice as likely to live in poverty compared to other Canadians. For Canada's aboriginal population, the rate of disability is more than one and a half times the rate of the non-aboriginal population. Women are more likely than men to have a disability, regardless of age. We're also seeing an increase in the needs of individuals aging with spinal cord injury. Not only are members with SCI developing more complex needs as they age, but more elderly people are having spinal cord injuries.

In Canada persons with a spinal cord injury and other disabilities are discriminated against on a daily basis and often face economic, social, and environmental barriers. Clearly government processes and programs in place to promote equal participation for Canadians with a disability are not working well. It is our respectful submission that poverty underpins these. It is through the creation of opportunities to employment, education, and other socio-economic participation that persons with a spinal cord injury will fully realize their contribution to Canadian society.

Statistics do not reveal the emotional and financial effect that barriers facing persons with a disability have on the community, their family members, loved ones, neighbours, and co-workers. Daily obstructions experienced by Canadians with a disability include accessible, manageable transportation; available, affordable, and accessible housing; accessible educational opportunities whether they be at the publicly funded elementary and secondary level or at higher levels of learning; attention to personal needs through attendant care and other such means; admission to leisure and entertainment facilities; recreational opportunities; physical education; and an underemployment rate that continues to be greater than 55% for this sector of the population.

For many years, Canada has been an international leader in the promotion of rights and opportunities for people with disabilities. More recently, this position has slipped as disability advocacy groups have been forced to jockey for government funding and support. Too frequently it is almost impossible to get a wheelchair-accessible taxi, while city buses often do not have accessible routes. I'm certain that Mr. Savage, Ms. Cadman, Mr. Martin, or Ms. Minna can already attest to the problems they have been faced with in making use of the special vans here on Parliament Hill, and their day in using a wheelchair is only half done. Many Canadians with a disability do not have higher education, making poverty among this group equal to third world populations.

Notwithstanding the fact that many Canadians with a disability live in poverty, in Ontario alone, the potential market for persons with a disability continues to be significant at the national level. One can only imagine how this buying power could be expanded to benefit all Canadians with a comprehensive investment in the alleviation of poverty experienced by the disabled community.

The time is now for a comprehensive investment by the Government of Canada in the alleviation of poverty experienced by Canadians living with a disability. While it is easy to see that the reduction in poverty within this community will be directly linked to a reduction in government social-support-related expenditures, this is not just a disability community issue. If poverty is reduced in this sector, all Canadians will benefit. As the Ontario government recently noted in its poverty reduction document Breaking the Cycle:

...we have another equally compelling rationale for reducing poverty. As a society, we can't afford it. An educated, healthy and employable workforce is critical to the economic future of this province. Our economy is changing before our eyes and we need everyone to be ready to contribute to our future prosperity. Economists agree that investments in reducing poverty would close the prosperity gap, benefiting individual Ontarians and their families, but also Ontario as a whole.

A federal investment targeted toward giving persons with disabilities the tools to remove themselves from a life cycle of poverty will make a critically important contribution toward a healthy, dynamic Canadian economy.

I want to turn it over to my colleague Courtney for final comments.

[Courtney Keenan, Vice-President, Canadian Paraplegic Association]

We wish to highlight our key area of concern and proposed courses of action for your immediate consideration.

We recommend that the Government of Canada initiate concerted efforts to develop a joint strategy on poverty with the provincial and territorial governments and first nations to meet the needs of Canadians with disabilities.

Within this comprehensive strategy and investment on disability and poverty, we suggest that the federal government does the following: change the disability tax credit from a non-refundable tax credit to a refundable tax credit; continue federal investment in the federal-provincial housing agreements; ensure that housing units where federal investment is made include at least 15% of units that are universally designed; and expand the contribution limit to the registered disability savings plan, increasing the age limit of this same plan.

Further initiatives under the above objectives may include enhanced service delivery, policy reform proposals, research promotion of best practices in new service delivery models, capacity building, and knowledge sharing and dissemination. Initiatives supported will have outcomes that either address federal responsibilities or have federal significance.

We believe this action plan can help us collaborate with the governmental, non-governmental, and private sector to create an inclusive Canada that lifts persons with disabilities out of poverty. Together we can succeed in the removal of barriers and promotion of the full and equal participation of Canadians with disabilities.

Before I conclude, we would like to acknowledge our profound appreciation for the ongoing funding that we receive from the Office for Disability Issues in order to assist Canadians with a spinal cord injury.

We would again like to thank the committee for bringing together stakeholders working to alleviate poverty and improve the lives of Canadians with a spinal cord injury and other disabilities.

In conclusion, we welcome you, after question period, to come outside to Centre Block to cheer on the members of Parliament who are taking part in our awareness event--Mr. Savage, Ms. Minna, Mr. Martin, and Ms. Cadman--as they take part in friendly wheelchair races against one another and other members of Parliament.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

We're now going to move to the Active Living Alliance for Canadians with a Disability. Ms. Arkell, you have the floor for five minutes, please.

[Jane Arkell, Executive Director, Active Living Alliance for Canadians with a Disability]

Thank you very much, Mr. Allison.

I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Jane Arkell. I'm the executive director of the Active Living Alliance for Canadians with a Disability. With me today is my colleague Jason Dunkerley. Jason runs a community program out of our office. He is a Paralympic medallist, so we have fame in our room.

I'll tell you a little bit about our organization. The Active Living Alliance has been in existence for 20 years. We're dedicated to the wellness of Canadians with all disabilities through physical activities, sport, and healthy living.

We recognize that it's more important for someone with a disability to be physically active than it is for someone without one, for a variety of reasons: it helps with isolation, it reduces secondary disabling conditions, it increases self-esteem, and it gets people out and active and making friends.

I'd like Jason to talk a little about his own personal experience and why he feels it has positive links to poverty.

[Jason Dunkerley, Coordinator, All Abilities Welcome, Active Living Alliance for Canadians with a Disability]

Thanks, Jane.

Thanks again for the opportunity to be here this morning.

I'll offer just one or two considerations, I think. From my own experience, as a person with a disability who was born blind, and who grew up with brothers who were blind as well, we were very fortunate, I think, to really be challenged. That's number one. I think that's a really important thing for a person with a disability. People with disabilities need to be challenged in the same way as able-bodied people of all abilities.

We were challenged to play in our neighbourhood when we were growing up. We played soccer with a ball that had a plastic grocery bag attached around it, which allowed us to hear the ball in the air and have the experience of playing soccer. Out of that, we had the confidence to become involved in other sports. For me, I got involved in track, in middle-distance running. I've had the fortunate experience of competing three times at the Paralympics.

The common denominator, really, has been being challenged all the way through--by my parents, by coaches, by teachers in school, and also by guide runners with whom I've run. So challenge is very important.

As well, I think giving educators and coaches and parents the tools to know how to assist a person with a disability is very important. That's some of the work we're doing with Active Living Alliance. In the program I work with, we promote inclusive strategies so that people know how to help people with a disability, how to challenge them to overcome their situations, to evolve and grow as individuals, and to realize their human potential.

I'll pass it back to Jane, who's going to talk about some of the programs we offer at the alliance.

[Jane Arkell]

Thanks, Jason.

The alliance itself is a very unique organization in that we work with all disability groups. At our table, we have over 125 organizations from community, provincial, and national levels and some that are even international partners. Together, we work for the wellness of Canadians with disabilities. We have organizations that represent mental health, intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, and sensory disabilities. We're organized in every province and territory across Canada and we're all working towards the same goal.

Right now, we run three particular programs. We're fortunate that we receive some funding from the Office for Disability Issues and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

One program that we're very proud of--and it was nice to see my colleague Mr. Drewett here, who was part of the early days of the development of this program--is called “Moving to Inclusion”. Basically, it's a tool and a leadership program and it helps teachers, coaches, or community leaders involve a child with a disability in their ongoing physical activity programs. No longer do children with disabilities have to go to the library during phys. ed. People have the tools to be able to adapt an activity, change the rules, and change colours of equipment so that everybody can participate, hopefully on the same playing field.

It's a very exciting program. It's now going online. We're going to be delivering it through Canadian universities and colleges across the country, so we hope that when teachers graduate and become teachers in the ongoing school system, they'll have the tools they need to include a child with a disability.

Jason, will you continue?

[Jason Dunkerley]

We also have two other programs that are very important to us at the moment. We have the youth ambassador program, in which we really try to promote the value of healthy, active living among youth with a disability. We provide information and training to youth in order for them to go back to their communities and live a healthy, active lifestyle, to really advocate for that in their communities at different levels within their schools, or even with their local member of Parliament, and also to become role models for other young people with a disability and really promote the advantages of healthy, active living. That's one of our key programs.

Another one, the one that I work with closely, is a program called “All Abilities Welcome”. As the program suggests, we're really trying to reach out to people of all abilities in Canada to promote an attitude of inclusion. We're working with service organizations and recreation providers to help them with simple strategies to make their programs more inclusive. Also, we're trying to reach out and empower people with disabilities to take advantage of the opportunities for active living that are available in their communities.

This program and, really, all our programs are connected to the ideas of trying to empower people with a disability and to promote knowledge of the importance and value of including people with a disability in active living--and also because of the transformative benefits this can lead to. We feel this is very closely tied to alleviation of poverty as well.

We have a couple of closing comments, so I'll pass it over to Jane.

[Jane Arkell]

There are some recommendations we'd like to leave with you today.

We recommend that the Government of Canada substantially increase its investment in the healthy living fund, through the Public Health Agency of Canada, to ensure that Canadians with disabilities are given the same healthy living opportunities as their able-bodied peers.

We recommend that the Government of Canada continue to invest in the enabling accessibility fund, through the Office for Disability Issues, to ensure that buildings are accessible for Canadians of all abilities.

Moreover, we recommend that the federal government recognize the significant transportation challenges faced by people with disabilities in communities across Canada and that it develop a transportation support initiative in line with the enabling accessibility program.

We recommend that the Government of Canada invest in the core operations of national organizations that have direct connections to and daily interventions with people with a disability who are living in poverty.

Finally, we recommend that the Government of Canada place a concentrated emphasis on fostering public will with respect to the social inclusion of people with disabilities and that this commitment be driven by a public awareness campaign that engages all levels of society.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you, Ms. Arkell and Mr. Dunkerley. We appreciate your presentation.

We're now going to move to the Canadian Association for Community Living and Ms. Anna MacQuarrie. The floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[Anna Macquarrie, Director, Government Relations and Strategic Initiatives, Canadian Association for Community Living]

Thank you for having the Canadian Association for Community Living here today. We are a national federation of 13 provincial and territorial associations that have about 400 local associations across the country supporting and promoting the full inclusion and full rights of Canadians with intellectual disabilities and their families.

I want to talk a little about what it's like to live with a disability in Canada. Canadians with disabilities are three times more likely to live in poverty than any other Canadians. Just over 75% of adult Canadians with intellectual disabilities who do not live with their families are living in poverty. Children with disabilities are twice as likely as other children to live in households that rely on social assistance as a main source of income. Families of children with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty than other families.

These numbers don't exist in a vacuum; they exist largely because people don't have the supports they need, and are unable to access employment and the things they need to keep their jobs. We know that over two million Canadian adults with disabilities lack one or more of the educational, workplace, aids, home modification, or other supports they need. Slightly more than half of children with disabilities do not have access to needed aids and devices.

Employment statistics are staggering. Over 55% of working-age adults with disabilities are currently unemployed or out of the workforce. For people with intellectual disabilities that number goes up to 70%. These numbers are pretty staggering in a country as prosperous as Canada; frankly, they are appalling.

Our poverty is entrenched, and our systems are designed to have disincentives to getting out of poverty. We know the lack of access to disability supports is probably the number one driving force behind the poverty of Canadians with disabilities. Poverty is a result of both exclusion and the lack of those supports, and it contributes to further exclusion and vulnerability in a vicious cycle.

Too often we see that Canadians with disabilities are exiled to inadequate, stigmatizing, and ineffective systems of income support. Social assistance programs were not designed to provide the long-term flexible supports needed by people with disabilities. They were built as a system of last resort, yet they have become a system of first resort for Canadians with intellectual disabilities.

Our existing systems also have built-in disincentives, where we unfortunately find that people are financially better off on welfare than getting off welfare. There are significant challenges. Eligibility for needed disability supports goes down as your income goes up, so people have to choose between being able to earn an income and having the supports they need to be able to gain that income and keep that job.

Further, we know that income derived from employment is often clawed back in many jurisdictions, again forcing people to rely on income security programs to gain access to those disability supports. We need broad system reform to address these disincentives and build a more appropriate support system of income and disability supports.

In the past few years the disability community, under the leadership of the Canadian Association for Community Living, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities--Marie White will be speaking shortly--and Independent Living Canada have worked together to create an ”end exclusion” initiative. We initially developed a vision for an inclusive and accessible Canada, and in the last couple of years have developed a national action plan on disability that identifies four key roles: enhanced disability supports; enhanced federal role in alleviating poverty--which is what we're here to talk about today; labour force inclusion measures; and a national social development role. I know Marie is going to speak more about the national action plan, so I won't spend too much time on that.

I will focus on the fact that we need a long-term disability strategy, and there are five things we could begin to do today to shape the long-term comprehensive agenda that's needed. It is time for a comprehensive agenda. A lot of work has been done in the more than 25 years since the Obstacles report was first released, but we need to see substantive change. We need to have new investments and reform of existing systems instead of continued incremental change.

One way we think we can do this is by establishing a high-level table. The federal government could establish a table that reports to both the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development to explore the options for addressing poverty and income reform, including an expanded federal role in income support. It could help set the vision that could guide us on this comprehensive agenda.

We also have to see some connections between the federal Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and the provincial and territorial counterparts. We know that there is significant overlap between jurisdictions in their roles for disability. A constructive dialogue is needed to better understand the distinction between those roles, where they have to work together, and what we can be doing collectively to address the staggering needs of people with disabilities. In particular, we could be looking at what an expanded federal role in income support could mean at a provincial level by freeing up dollars that could then be reinvested in disability supports provincially. We know that in most provinces, more than half of welfare caseloads comprise people with disabilities.

Third, we can explore the federal role in income support. Our colleague mentioned the creation of a refundable disability tax credit. We've seen the federal government demonstrate leadership on this issue in the past. We've seen it through initiatives for seniors, veterans, and children. The federal government has both the tools and the capacity to address the longstanding entrenched poverty.

Another thing we need is data. The participation and activity limitation survey, also known as PALS, is a crucial source of data for our community. The future of PALS currently remains in question. It has not yet been renewed for 2011 and beyond. Not only does this data provide us the crucial research and policy information the disability community, our governments, and other civil society organizations need; it also enables Canada to meet its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We continue to call on the federal government to secure PALS for 2011 and beyond.

Our last suggestion is on the UN convention. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has been in force for just over a year. Over 50 countries have ratified it, but Canada is not yet one of them. The convention provides us with a useful framework that we can be using here at home to better understand how to develop and implement a comprehensive disability agenda. It also provides Canada with an opportunity to share its expertise and knowledge internationally. I can speak personally that there are countries around the world looking to Canada to continue to provide leadership on this file. We again encourage and urge the government to swiftly move toward ratification without reservation.

The time for action is now. To be honest, we don't need another Obstacles report; we need action. We need change in the lives of people with disabilities, and I do believe the government has the capacity to do that.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you, Ms. Macquarrie.

We'll now move to Independent Living Canada and Mr. Rick Goodfellow. You have five minutes, sir. The floor is yours.

[Rick Goodfellow, National Chairperson, Independent Living Canada]

Thank you, and thank you for inviting our organization to be here today.

I would like to applaud the members, by the way, who are in wheelchairs today, although I have to tell you it makes it tougher to know which of you are uprights.

Having said that, I have to say that we had a look at some of the questions you had asked us. Independent Living Canada is an organization that is cross-disability. We deal with everybody, no matter what they are. Our boards and our staff are predominantly people with disabilities. It's part of our mandate, if you will. So we see a very experiential piece across the board on this.

I can say that through my own situation after my accident, I can really understand about recovering from trauma. I didn't have the money to pay my power bill. This type of thing crosses all boundaries. They turned my power off while I was upstairs having a shower in my house. My lift didn't work. I had to crawl down the stairs to get to my wheelchair and then try to get the money together to pay my power bill. So I've been there, and I know what that looks like and what it sometimes takes to get out of it.

The first thing we looked at when we were analyzing this situation was your question on the definition of poverty. Of course we've talked about this for years and years now at the federal-provincial-territorial level and have tried to discuss it. We suggested that one of the things that's problematic is looking at it in terms of dollars and cents.

The first recommendation we had about that particular issue was to have a look at some of the work that the Romanow report has brought out and some of the work that the federal-provincial-territorial groups as well as some of your own staff have been doing, because they have worked very long and hard trying to figure a way to measure quality of life. I think that's probably a pretty good place to start, because it's not always about dollars and cents. It is about the quality of life and those issues.

I'll give you a little bit of background. I always like to mention that in the NGO sector, one of the things that we always talk about is that we measure poverty at the door. We see it when it comes through the door, and we see it in everyday life. So again, it's a good place to start.

We also recognize--and Anna had mentioned a little bit earlier, about the numbers--some of the work that has been done. The Saskatchewan government did some work and estimated that at least 80% of the folks who are on social assistance there are likely living with undiagnosed disabilities. We talked to the people in corrections, and they look at the fact that probably most of their folks have some sort of disability, such as addiction. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder of course is becoming a hugely emerging issue. We recognize as well that most, if not all, of the people who are on the streets have a disability.

So you start to recognize that most of the people who are living below the poverty level probably have disabilities or are connected with them in some way, and they don't go away. That's one of the things that we certainly recognize. Disabilities aren't something you can fix, so even the folks we do help into the workplace or into independent work we will still see over a lifetime. They don't go away, and the issues don't go away.

We recognize that the independent living movement around the world is really about empowering people to take control of their lives and live as much as they can with dignity of risk and whatever they need to do, but that still won't go away without some supports.

I Identified priorities for us. The first and foremost one that has come up in every discussion we've had, whether it has been with the NGO sector or with individuals themselves, is that there is a tremendous need in this country for adequate barrier-free safe and secure housing. It was unanimous. One of the issues that we know came up from that is that it's not a sexy issue for builders. We are just now coming out of a phase where there was a real need for housing. What we saw in Calgary, for example, was that the subsidized housing there was being decimated. The people who owned the buildings would get rid of them because it was way more cost-effective for them to be able to sell them as condos. So we had people being booted out onto the streets at such a rate that actually, at one point in time there--and I think there are still around 1,000--we had about 2,000 working homeless.

We know that if those folks can't find a place to live, then the folks with disabilities are going to be way further down the food chain. Having said that, we also heard very loudly and clearly that the housing that's there needs to be something that's acceptable. If you talk to the folks in the east end of Vancouver right now, they'll tell you that if you put people in a hotel where they have to worry about the cockroaches and the rodents and everything else that is crawling in and out, those folks would rather be on the street.

When we talk about housing, we need to make sure it looks after that piece of it. So our recommendation is that we need increased government resources and leadership and a housing strategy that's within federal jurisdiction. Of course we've had that and backed away from it a little bit. I think it's more a matter of re-engaging and recognizing we need an investment of resources into barrier-free, safe, affordable housing.

Having said that, if you provide that type of housing and you don't provide the necessary supports that go with it, it's falling. It won't work. If there's one thing we've seen, it's that folks who have good stability within that sector do very well. So when we talk about the adequate supports that are needed, we talk about financial supports. And I won't get into it very much because I think it's really been covered well by some of my colleagues here. We need to have a look at that and find out what it is.

We do have an agreement that was reached a few years back, called “In Unison”, that lays out a lot of the guidelines for this. It was signed on to by all the provinces and territories and it was agreed that it was a good document even with first nations and with all the disability community. So we do have the groundwork laid. This isn't something that has to be invented, and we do have the buy-in from the province and territories on it. We very strongly recommend that financial supports be looked at.

With respect to disability supports,“In Unison” really went into this. We know right now there's a lack of access to supports when they are available. There are limited opportunities—as the Active Living Alliance has talked about—for community involvement and social interaction and that's key to the health and well-being of Canadians with disabilities.

And we can get into specific things like transportation, to which we also have a serious problem getting access. There are insufficient supports for daily living as well. I actually had one of our consumers say to me, completely out of the blue, “Do you know that it costs me $150 a month because I have to phone long distance to Vancouver to get a crisis line?” This is a man with severe mental health issues. He said, “I have to do that because I don't have access to a crisis line.” So again, “In Unison” laid out some of those recommendations.

One of the things that have come up here that we recognized as being critical, as well, is a collaborative and coordinated disability support group across the country. We had the capacity a while back where all the national organizations could come together, strategize, and work on some of these issues and try to create, if not standards, at least a coordinated approach to it that really set some good common goals for us. Collective national goals would help. We need to get back to that again and facilitate the development of a strong national network. That will really help on the ground with being able to approach these issues.

And finally—and this is the one I think is a challenge for anybody in this area—how do you break that cycle of dependency on subsistence living? Where that shows its face—and you've heard it from around the table—is that a great, great number of our folks are reliant on social programs to get them through the day. And I can tell you I was talking to a fellow, an ex-bureaucrat who is now on long-term disability because he was injured on the job, who is afraid to come forward and talk about these things because he feels his income supports will be threatened if he does. That is a reality in our community, which we have to deal with.

Somebody once asked us why we didn't make more progress in what we do. One of the comments was that it was because we have a bunch of folks right now whose entire thought is to keep their head down, their mouth shut, stay in the corner, and keep quiet so people won't take away what little they have now. We have to address that. One of the ways of breaking this cycle of dependency is to have a look at some of those things, at systems that unintentionally create this cycle.

We have policies right now and systems that are created to catch people who are going to try to abuse them. That's the way it's done. And I know because I've been in government where we've gone through this. And I've said, “You know, Future Shop knows that no matter what security they put in, somebody is going to steal from them”. So they don't strip search everybody who comes through the door; they simply recognize there are going to be people who will steal from them. So they say, “Let's give the best service we can and write into our margin that we will accept that's going to happen. We'll still do the best we can.” We need to start looking at that with some of the policies we have in government. Stop being so restrictive in trying to stop people from abusing it and start really creating the systems to try to help the people who need it.

I'm getting a little carried away, but it's true. Move away from the black and white and recognize the grey areas. And also, look at these things through a disability lens and make sure we don't inadvertently create problems that shouldn't be there.

To wrap up, after all this is said and done, we've heard again that we need to establish a system to monitor and measure the progress. But I always qualify that we need to do it in the areas where it's affected. So what we do is we measure what we value, and whatever decisions are made around this table need to be about what we value. If we don't measure what we value, we can very quickly end up valuing what we measure.

I love to use money as an example, because money was something that was created as a medium so that we could increase our quality of life, so that we could trade with other people, and get things that we couldn't get. We couldn't measure quality of life easily, but money is really easy to measure. So we've forgotten now that what we really wanted to do was increase our quality of life, and we focus on money. That's what happens.

I really emphasize that we need to make sure we're going to measure what we value. If we don't, we'll end up valuing what we measure. We did it with money. Let's not do it with this piece.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you, Mr. Goodfellow.

We're going to move next to Bonnie Brayton.

Welcome, Bonnie. It's nice to have you here today. You're with the DisAbled Women's Network of Canada. The floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[Bonnie Brayton, National Executive Director, DisAbled Women's Network of Canada]

Thank you.

I thought I had ten minutes. It doesn't matter.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

You do the best you can.

[Bonnie Brayton]

I'll do the best I can.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Bonnie Brayton and I have been the National Executive Director of the DisAbled Women's Network of Canada for the past two years.

My name is Bonnie Brayton and I'm the national executive director of the DisAbled Women's Network of Canada. I want to thank you all for having us here today. We also wish to thank and acknowledge the people of the Six Nations and the Haudenosaunee people for the use of their lands today. And we of course would like to thank the chair and the members of the committee for inviting us to participate in this process.

It is indeed only through bringing women with disabilities to the table that we can hope that.... The situation that over 35% of women with disabilities face in this country each day is indeed poverty. Many of my colleagues today spoke in terms of numbers and statistics, and I have a few. Certainly I think a lot has been said already about the realities that all people with disabilities face. I think the most important thing that I need to bring to the table today is the double discrimination that women with disabilities face.

DAWN-RAFH Canada is the only national organization in Canada focused on women with disabilities. Consequently, in the last two years, since opening our national head office in Montreal, we've developed a strong voice and presence for women with disabilities across the public and private sector through our affiliates, representatives, and partners, many of whom are here at the table.

Marie, it's nice to see you. I'm glad you're going to be the closer here, because I know you'll do a great job.

I also would like to say that it's quite exceptional and wonderful to look around this room and to see something quite unusual, which is a broad representation of women with disabilities. It's quite unusual and certainly it is a big part of what I think I need to speak to today.

Unemployment rates for women with disabilities in developed countries like Canada are 75%. This is a very real number. We've talked about 50%; it's even higher for women with disabilities. In developed countries unemployment rates are 75%, but globally it's closer to 100%. The global literacy rate for girls with disabilities is just 1%. The rates of violence against women and girls with disabilities are at one and a half to ten times the rates for able-bodied women.

With considerably less access and sometimes no access to housing, to women's shelters, to legal services, with poor access to education, we've become the forgotten sisters. That is something that I repeat over and over wherever I go. Disabled women of this country and around the world are the forgotten sisters of the women's movement, and we indeed are statistically almost non-existent in terms of studies and research. Certainly there has been some work, and DAWN Canada has certainly contributed to that work over the years. We can say that since 1984 we have done our best to represent women with disabilities in this country.

The very real organizational impact of women with disabilities in crisis is something I experience every day in my office. As we are the only national disability organization focused on women, I receive calls from women in crisis on a daily basis. In fact, last night as I sat in my office trying to prepare for this presentation today I received a call from a woman. It happens almost every night as I'm sitting in my office. I have to tell you that when trying to do the work of a national women's disability organization while I receive calls daily from women in crisis across this country, it not only makes me sad, it makes my angry. It makes me angry that we're still at a stage where I'm asking for and urging this committee to understand that there is a complete lack of resources in the community for women with disabilities. Access to shelter continues to be a serious issue, as well as access to education, access to employment.

In terms of the people we need to engage, it's everybody. In terms of stakeholders, I have my friends here from the disabled community who stand beside us. Again, as I say, I work on an ongoing basis with the women's community across Canada and around the globe to ensure that we're present. But when I say there is only one women's disability organization in this country, it means we're under-represented all the time.

There was a world conference of women's shelters in Alberta last September. There were 750 different shelter groups involved in access to shelters, and groups dealing with violence against women were there. There was one panel that DAWN Canada headed up with Australia and Barbados that spoke to access to shelters for women with disabilities--one panel. On the Association for Research on Mothering last year, our representative was again the only person there to speak for women with disabilities.

I was at an educational conference at McGill University last week, and I have to say that the biggest conundrum I faced was how to figure out a way to be in each room as we broke off into panels to make sure that somehow women and girls with disabilities would be remembered.

We have specific recommendations, and many of them are duplications of some of the things that have been said here, but I certainly would like, for the record, to go through them.

I would like to say that women with disabilities—and particularly lone-parent mothers with disabilities—are the poorest people in this country. There's no statistical argument that can be made that denies this fact. The lowest income level in this country belongs to women with disabilities. The poorest people in this country are women and children with disabilities. I would say, in terms of recommendations, that an increased child tax benefit specifically directed at lone-parent mothers with disabilities is an absolutely critical must-do. As my friend here said, this government and you all can choose to make that choice today and go forward from these consultations knowing that the very first and most imperative thing you can do is put more money in the hands of single mothers with disabilities.

I also wish to bring to the attention of the committee the particular circumstances of aboriginal women with disabilities, who suffer a higher rate of poverty than any other women with disabilities in this country.

Our specific recommendations are for affordable, accessible housing, involving creating new units and retrofits where needed; rental supplements to ensure that housing is accessible based on income; early childhood development initiatives for girls with disabilities, including affordable, quality child care for girls with disabilities and their mothers; improved high school completion rates and literacy rates; demand-driven training that engages the private sector, training institutions, and employment programs; and the removal of barriers to employment for women with disabilities.

On transportation, I'd like to share a personal experience. When we opened the national head office for DAWN Canada in Montreal, my office was in old Montreal and there was no handicap parking. I had to get to work every day, so I had to figure out what to do. It took two years, $2,000 of my own money, and an unbelievable fight just for me to be able to go to work every day. I need to drive. I can't take public transportation. I have an invisible disability, but I have one that means that taking public transportation is not possible. Like I said, it took two years and an incredible fight, and what I managed to get was a public parking space in front of the building, which means that I still face, every day, the possibility that when I get to work there will be nowhere for me to park, and that I have to figure out a way, or I have to go into my pocket, or go home. That's me. I'm not facing the same challenges that some of the women and people we spoke about today face. I can tell you that this kind of struggle, in every small way, is at the core of what you guys need to understand today in terms of the challenges.

I'm sorry. I'm a little emotional.

Other recommendations are for improved minimum wage and enhanced supplements to low earnings through working income tax benefits, and for flexibility in terms of women with disabilities entering and leaving the workforce. Some 74% of women in this country have some type of chronic illness. Chronic illness has not yet been studied on a significant enough level, but I know that what we will find—and again, I go back to what my friend said about the PAL survey—is absolutely critical. The PALS information must continue. In fact, the PAL survey needs to be enhanced so that there's more information collected on gender and disability together. One of the huge problems I face is that I have no data to hit you with except the data that I can pull from elsewhere. I can tell you now that we need to look closely at what's going on. The numbers will speak for themselves. The numbers you heard today speak for themselves. When you take the numbers in terms of the types of systemic discrimination that women face and people with disabilities face, and you put them together, you have a big problem.

We need to make improvements to the EI system and reforms that extend benefits, reduce the contribution hours, and provide flexibility for women with disabilities in terms of their ability to move into and out of the workforce.

We need strong links between research, program development, and services delivered to women with disabilities, and we need to stop working in silos. There's an aging population in this country. A lot of those people are women, and a lot of those women are aging into disability. I still find we're working in silos. We're not bringing everyone together. It goes back to what my colleague said about bringing everyone together, bringing everyone to the table. That can't happen unless you agree it needs to happen.

We're all NGOs. We don't have big budgets that allow for us to do this. It's very important for the Government of Canada to support us being able to come together, not only to speak with you but to work together and develop national strategies that will start to make a real difference.

Two years ago almost to the day I started my job as the national executive director of DAWN Canada, and I presented, with my president, before the status of women committee. It was on economic supports for women with disabilities. It's two years later, and not a thing has changed except that the numbers continue to rise. Only the numbers have changed.

There's an urgent need for resources, a critical need for resources and referral services for women with disabilities in their communities. You don't have to reinvent the wheel here. There are lots of services in place, but without any kind of specific and explicit attempt to include women with disabilities, I can tell you, they aren't included.

I would like to briefly speak to you about the fact that legislation is another important way by which I really believe we have to address poverty. There are international instruments, including the CEDAW, the CRPD, and the CRC, that exist but are not enforced. In addition, I would also point out that representation of women with disabilities, with the exception of this room, is almost non-existent. There's no one at the table for us. And because there's no one at the table, we aren't spoken of, we aren't remembered, and we continue to find ourselves the poorest and most vulnerable people in this country.

Since you seek recommendations, I want to bring up something that comes out of Quebec. From having our head office in Quebec, I can say that an interesting thing to look at and something I think the committee needs to consider is an act to combat poverty and social exclusion. This is legislation in Quebec, and I can say, as an employer in Quebec, that I've seen how this is working.

How this works in my daily life is that I have the ability to hire and bring in people with disabilities to work for my organization, and I have the support of the government and the employment programs in Quebec to do so. And I don't mean small support; I mean significant supports, not only to bring people in but for retention. Those supports come in the way of salary supplements, training. This is very specific, very real, and it's working today, now, in Quebec. It's certainly something the committee should look at.

Finally, I would say that it's always critical and a must-do: the intersection between disability and gender has to be part of everything we do. You must always bring gender and disabilities together. Whether we're talking about research, whether we're talking about programs for delivery of services, if you do not do the intersection, we remain forgotten.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you, Ms. Brayton.

[Bonnie Brayton]

I want to again thank everybody for your time today, and welcome any questions you may have.