Thank you very much.
I apologize for the kerfuffle coming in late. I was asked to step in for someone at the last minute.
My name is Bev Matthiessen, and I'm the executive director of a small non-profit organization called the Alberta Committee of Citizens with Disabilities. We are provincial, we're cross-disability, and we're an advocacy group. All of our board members have disabilities and some of our staff members have disabilities. We are the provincial affiliate of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities. I am sure you have heard of that group.
Based on Statistics Canada's PALS 2006, people with disabilities make up 16.5% of the adult population, or nearly 4.2 million people. For people with disabilities, the poverty rate is 14.4%, comprising nearly 600,000 people.
The definition of poverty for me, as someone who is working on the front line, is like the phone call I received yesterday from someone who is living on an income support program and can't pay the rent. They don't have enough money from the $1,188 to afford the rent in Calgary, Fort McMurray, and other places, which is $800 and up, leaving them around $300 to buy food, to have any kind of quality of life such as being able to go to a movie or have coffee with a friend, to have transportation to be able to get to work, to a volunteer job, or even to get an education.
Canadians with disabilities are more than twice as likely to live in poverty as other Canadians. The incidence of poverty among aboriginal people with disabilities is even higher. People with disabilities face exclusion from quality education, employment, and from participation in their communities. Compared to men with disabilities, women with disabilities face additional economic disadvantage. Historically women with disabilities have experienced lower rates of participation in the labour force, less access to income support programs, and higher rates of poverty.
Having a disability means, for many people, living in poverty for their whole lifetime, living on an income support program or social assistance that pays at best $14,000 and at worst less than $7,000 a year. Many persons with disabilities look forward to turning 65 so that they can get a better income.
The Government of Canada has committed to bringing forward a federal disability act. Canadians with disabilities will support the proposed act, which hopefully will address disability issues and allocate resources for improving access and inclusion and ensuring a strong enforcement of the act.
My recommendations here today are to make the disability tax credit refundable. At present only those with taxable income receive any benefit from the disability tax credit. Make those eligible for a Canada pension automatically eligible for the disability tax credit. Make the Canada Pension Plan disability benefits non-taxable.
Update the National Building Code of Canada to ensure universal design principles are respected. Develop accessibility regulations for federally regulated modes of transportation, and restructure the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Accessible Transportation. Create a universal design centre that would become a centre of excellence in universal design and become a resource to governments, community, and the private sector.
Re-establish the parliamentary committee on the status of Canadians with disabilities to address the ongoing concerns of Canadians with disabilities and submit to Parliament an annual report on the status of Canadians with disabilities.
Work with band councils to ensure equal access to disability-related supports for first nations people with disabilities living on reserve.
The Government of Canada must create the national socio-economic and political conditions for people with disabilities to empower themselves and to achieve their full potential. Work with the provinces and territories to explore ways of increasing access to and improving the range of available disability supports, and work with the provinces and territories to provide support for the building of safe, affordable, accessible, and supportive housing.
On the call that I received yesterday, there are over 12,000 people in Calgary waiting for subsidized housing. The person I talked to will never get on the list because other people have higher priority.
Enhance disability supports to enable independent living, active citizenship, and full participation.
There is a shared vision for an inclusive and accessible Canada and consensus among the disability community.
An inclusive and accessible Canada is a Canada where Canadians with disabilities have the necessary support to fully access and benefit from all that Canada has to offer, where independent living, principles of choice, consumer control, and autonomy are made real. Canadians would have safe, adequate, accessible housing and would not be relegated to living in institutions and confining places. Canadians with disabilities and their families would have appropriate income, aids and devices, personal supports, medications, and environmental accommodations that make social, economic, cultural, and political citizenship accessible and inclusive to all.
Women with disabilities, aboriginal people with disabilities, persons with disabilities from visible minorities, and those from other marginalized communities would be equally able to access all aspects of and benefit from Canadian society. Canadians with invisible disabilities, chronic illness, episodic disabilities, or environmental sensitivities, or living in rural or remote areas would be equally able to access and benefit from Canadian society. The result would be that the people of Canada would be able to contribute to and benefit from Canadian society in the same way as other Canadians.
Thank you.