The cost of living is much higher for a person with disabilities, and they don't earn as much income. Even if they receive a disability pension of $800 a month, they need to come up with the rest. The guaranteed income supplement doesn't increase their income that much. Those who are on welfare, on the other hand, see a difference, because they get $1,300 more.
It's no better if you are in a couple. I didn't qualify for welfare, which forced me to apply for disability and live on only $800 a month. Now I've used up all my registered retirement savings plan money and I'm at the end of my rope. We don't even know how we're going to live together as a couple, because unless we live alone, we can't make ends meet. We've been going to food banks for two years because we have no choice: we don't make enough money.
Something should have been done long ago for people with disabilities to give them a much higher guaranteed income. Anyway, we're facing an emergency across the country, no matter where people live. The cost of living may vary from one place to another, but we have people in trouble everywhere. The sooner we lift people with disabilities out of poverty, the better off we will be.
As another witness said at the beginning of the meeting, sometimes I'm a little ashamed to be Canadian. People with disabilities, some of whom have become disabled over time, are belittled. We're not really part of society anymore, because we can't afford to go out, we can't afford luxuries or anything. That means we can't go to restaurants with our friends, because we can't afford it. It means some things are out of reach.
When people with disabilities retire in Quebec, 32% of their disability pension is clawed back. We experienced that, so my pension will be cut down. Couldn't we be allowed to keep that pension when we retire? Again, the cost of living won't be going down for me. As a person with a disability, I'm in a manual wheelchair and I have to buy gloves to be able to handle it better. Those gloves cost $50 or $60 a pair, and they don't last for 100 years. That's an example of things that we have to buy and that involve additional costs. Whatever disability we have, we always face other costs and, for us, those costs are always much higher than normal.
The main reason this is important is that it will help people with disabilities in Quebec and across Canada to get their heads above water. We're living in poverty across Canada.