moved:
That this House call upon the government to develop a comprehensive program to level the playing field for Canadians with disabilities, by acting on the unanimous recommendations of the committee report “Getting It Right for Canadians: the Disability Tax Credit”; in particular the recommendations calling for changes to the eligibility requirements of the Disability Tax Credit so that they will incorporate in a more humane and compassionate manner the real life circumstances of persons with disabilities, and withdraw the proposed changes to the Disability Tax Credit, released on August 30th, 2002.
Madam Speaker, I am very pleased today, on the occasion of the NDP official opposition day, to introduce the motion that is before us. Let me say at the outset that I will be splitting my time with the member for Dartmouth, who serves very capably and energetically as the critic for persons with disabilities.
Second, I want to say at the outset that I intend to propose a very minor amendment to the motion we have introduced today. We do so because we are very anxious today, as we indicated in advance, to be able to come to an agreement in the House to cooperate as all parties, all members of Parliament, to end the harassment of disabled persons that has been taking place over the last many months since finance officials introduced proposed changes to the disabilities tax credit.
I want to use the few minutes available to me to explain why the New Democratic Party has introduced the motion that is before us. Let me say that the backdrop for this resolution is the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, adopted in 1975. I think that it is very important to keep this in mind as we consider what it is we can do and what it is we must do to begin to live up to the spirit of that international declaration of rights of the disabled.
I will quote briefly from the declaration, which states:
Disabled persons have the inherent right to respect for their human dignity. Disabled persons, whatever the origin, nature and seriousness of their handicaps and disabilities, have the same fundamental rights as their fellow-citizens of the same age, which implies first and foremost the right to enjoy a decent life, as normal and full as possible.
For almost two decades, and I think there would be a consensus on that, there has been some improvement, incremental, not sufficient and not dramatic enough, but some incremental improvement both in terms of protecting the rights of the disabled and moving to put into place various supports that would make that stated vision of enabling and supporting disabled persons to live “a decent life, as normal and full as possible” become something more of a reality.
It has been suggested that we now have lived through a decade of disappointment, really a decade of backsliding from progress made. Let us talk about Canada. In 1996, there was a very good parliamentary report from a task force on persons living with disabilities. Many important recommendations were put forward. Sadly, six years later, one has to lament the fact that only 20% of the recommendations of that task force have actually been acted upon by the government. Instead, what we are working together to try to reverse, which is the purpose of the motion, is the introduction of draconian changes in the last year that literally have resulted in the harassment of disabled persons living with disabilities in this country.
What is that source of harassment? It is the changes that have been proposed to the disability tax credit. Unbelievably, some 106,000 Canadians recently received notification that they would not continue to receive that disability tax credit. Let me make it clear that this is a modest income supplement to disabled persons living with disabilities, intended to assist them with the costs of and the barriers to living that full life that we intend for them, a small supplement to assist them with the extra costs and burdens of living with disabilities. It is a maximum of $960 in a year, but in many cases is far less than that, and of course spread over 365 days of the year, we are talking about a tiny sum of money.
One hundred and six thousand Canadians were notified that they would no longer be receiving that benefit unless they re-qualify. Some people would ask what is wrong with that. What is wrong with that is that we are talking in many cases about people who are severely mobility impaired, dealing with severe illnesses or dealing with very major disabilities. In some cases we are talking about people who bear the burden of being forced to go to a doctor to have a further examination, for heaven's sake, to demonstrate that they have not grown back the limbs that were amputated which resulted in their receiving the disability tax credit in the first place or have not regained the eyesight from the state of blindness that qualified them for the disability tax credit. There are many other similar absurdities.
These people are being required to go to doctors. In some cases the government will not pay for the examination required or pay the doctors for the work involved in this. We know we have an overloaded health care system. What is the government doing? It is making the most vulnerable segment of Canadian society go through hoops to re-qualify for a tax credit which, in the first place, is meagre compared to what the need is for those disabled persons to maximize their opportunities in life.
Today we have introduced a motion that we invite every member of Parliament, and that means from all parties on the government side and the opposition side as well, to take the opportunity to say very clearly that the government must make a commitment that the proposed changes to the disability tax credit that were introduced some months ago will in fact be withdrawn and that improvements will be introduced to the disability tax credit.
In 1996 when that parliamentary task force reported it talked about how there was an enormous gap between the saying and the doing when it comes to support for disabled persons. Today members of Parliament have an opportunity to demonstrate that there is not a gap between what they have been saying and what we are doing as a federal government to support disabled persons. If people are serious about supporting persons living with disabilities, at the very least the government should be prepared to withdraw these proposed changes and follow through on the unanimous recommendations of the subcommittee working on issues affecting disabled persons.
In the moment or two remaining I want to go quickly to the very small amendment that I am suggesting. I want to make it very clear that this has been achieved because of collaboration back and forth with the government bench to try to come to a consensus that will allow all members to speak with one voice in support of the motion that the NDP has put on the floor today and that will be voted upon in the House.
The wording of the motion has already been read into the record but I want to refer to the latter part of that motion. Let me read the proposed amendment in context.
--in particular the recommendations calling for changes to the eligibility requirements of the Disability Tax Credit so that they will incorporate in a more humane and compassionate manner the real life circumstances of persons with disabilities--
The amendment to that would read “and withdraw the changes to the Disability Tax Credit proposed on August 30, 2002 by finance officials”.
The reason for proposing that amendment is that we are very eager for persons with disabilities to understand that Parliament stands together in recognizing that they need not be harassed by bureaucratic changes that have been put into the pipeline, but rather deserve the support of the House and the government for improvements to the disability tax credit, ones that recognize that unless it is to be simply empty rhetoric we have to put our money where our mouth is. We have to do less talking and more doing to support persons living with disabilities.