The registered disability savings plan is a great program and an important one. I was one of the three appointed by Minister Flaherty to help create the program.
It has come from a variety of sources. It is a very good program that will assist families—as you described your family—I hope, in many ways, and will assist over a long-term period.
As you know, it is a savings plan. Dollars are locked in.
I'm really pleased with the uptake. I think it far exceeded the Department of Finance's expectations, and I think you will see many more people opening up RDSP plans in the near future for a variety of reasons.
There are two challenges that I see in the present program. One is, who qualifies? To qualify for an RDSP, you must be DTC eligible—that is, disability tax credit eligible. So you must meet that definition of prolonged, severe, and markedly restricted activities of daily living.
For those people with mobility, sensory, hearing, or vision loss, etc., it's easier to define because the evidentiary base is much easier to obtain. But for those people with cyclical disability, particularly mental health concerns, learning disabilities, etc., the definition is more challenging.
Michael and I were on a tax committee in the previous administration with Minister Manley, looking at those two communities—those with mobility sensory impairments and those with cognitive impairments—and how we assured qualification.
I think we may in the near future have to look at the definition of DTC, because we're building many of our programs and benefits on that definition. The child disability benefit is based on DTC, the RDSP is based on DTC, we have the DTC itself, and then we have the caregiver credit and the accommodation feature for people in education and employment based on DTC eligibility. So if you meet that criterion, you may have access to a whole range of programs, but if you don't meet it, you still probably have disability and limitations in your life. We're setting one bar as the criterion for all things.
The other challenge, which Michael can speak to more eloquently than I, is the issue of financial institutions' willingness to open plans in the name of individuals whose capacity they wonder about to direct those plans.