Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, Madam Minister. Thank you for being here.
I pinched myself when I read in budget 2024 that a maximum amount of $2,400 per year was announced for the Canada disability benefit. That's $200 a month, or, as the groups representing people with disabilities put it, $6 a day, starting in 2025.
As I understand it, you're not complying at all with the Accessible Canada Act, which was enthusiastically welcomed last year by all the groups consulted—I'd even say with jubilation and almost a hand over the heart—to show that, this time, we were there.
The act provided that the eligibility criteria, the conditions under which benefits would be paid, the amount of the benefit and the method of calculation would be defined by regulation, among other things, according to the “nothing without us” principle.
This is important for the government. The regulations were due to be tabled a year later, in a month's time.
We still don't have any regulations, there was no consultation with the people concerned for whom those regulations were to be defined, and now a maximum benefit of $2,400 is being announced as of July 2025.
Madam Minister, do you agree that what is historic is the total violation of the act?