Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in the House today to talk about the NDP opposition day motion. It is a pleasure because there are many people in my riding of Palliser who are very interested in this topic. They have come to my community offices to talk about their concerns and experiences with regard to the disability tax credit and the sudden decision by the government. These people had been declared disabled but must now reapply.
I congratulate the leader of our party and our critic on disability from Dartmouth for putting the motion forward. I also want to recognize the work that has been done by the Subcommittee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities. I know the chair, the member for St. Paul's across the way, is following the debate closely as I think are a number of the members of Parliament.
That subcommittee has done excellent work which unfortunately has been ignored by the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency and the Minister of Finance. Therefore it is doubly important that our caucus has brought this issue forward to remind Canadians and the House that we as a country are failing those who have received the disability tax credit. They need our help, not the back of our collective hands.
The great American song writer, Woody Guthrie, had a line in one of his songs about the kind of people who would take nickels from a blind man's cup. I was reminded of that when my colleague from Windsor West talked about the years that he had spent with the chapter of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind in Windsor, helping people who desperately need our assistance.
Unfortunately some of those people may be on the other side or may be working with the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency. We maintain that they are harassing disabled Canadians.
Many people with disabilities encounter costs that the rest of us do not have to bear, as the member for Windsor West so eloquently noted. This may mean, for instance, that they need to have help in preparing their meals or help in getting dressed in the morning.
We know that about 200,000 Canadians who receive CPP disability benefits have also been eligible for a modest disability tax credit, $960, against the federal income tax they pay. This is not a lot of money for individuals. There have been problems with the credit because the federal government has been applying the regulations, as I have indicated, in the most restrictive way possible. Some people who have been denied the credit have gone to court and have won.
Six years ago a federal judge broadened the general scope of the restrictive tests that the government put people through by saying, “If the object of Parliament is to give to disabled persons a measure of relief that will to some degree alleviate the increased difficulties under which their impairment forces them to live, the provision must be given for a humane and compassionate construction”.
A humane and compassionate construction is something we have not seen from the government on this particular issue.
Last fall, CCRA sent letters, as has been pointed out, to 100,000 Canadians receiving the disability tax credit telling them that they would have to reapply in order to maintain that benefit. These letters were sent despite the fact that the individuals involved had been receiving the tax credit for years and despite the fact that opposition members from the Bloc Quebecois, the New Democratic Party and the Progressive Conservative Party had stood up and asked pointed questions to the appropriate minister of the day as to why the government was proceeding with those letters.
People now have to get a doctor's certificate and have to fill out a form all over again. Incidentally doctors often charge those people who do not have a lot of additional disposable income to spend in that regard.
As I indicated at the outset, we have received many calls in Regina and Moose Jaw from constituents who are frankly confused, frightened and angry about what has happened, people who know that their health has not improved. At the very least, it has been probably maintained and in many cases it has probably worsened. They are asking why in heaven's name they are being put through this kind of a torture chamber.
Our fear was that the government was using this bureaucratic process to force some recipients to give up their credit, and we believe that these fears have now been realized. About one-third of those receiving letters have been denied the tax credit because they are no longer considered eligible to receive it.
Then a few short months ago, at the end of August, the newly minted Minister of Finance announced that he would amend the Income Tax Act to write these new restrictions into the law. These changes to the Income Tax Act clearly reverse the gains that people with disabilities have made in court. I cited the 1996 decision. The minister has indicated that he intends to tighten the rules by restricting the definition of whether people are capable of feeding themselves. A tax credit will no longer be provided to someone who has to spend a great deal of time shopping or preparing food.
These narrow definitions mean that as long as people can manage to put an arm through a sleeve they will no longer qualify for the benefit. These are callous decisions. One individual said that people almost had to be dead now before they would receive the disability tax credit. I maintain that is not what was ever intended, but it is the way it is being interpreted.
A lot of people are saying that people with disabilities are being cut off. I would also like to emphasize that I met with a couple last week during our constituency week in my office in Regina. It is not just a matter of the fact that this couple's two sons have now been cut off and have been denied at all the appeal stages. It is also the fact that the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency sent them a bill for more than $1,200 because they had been receiving the tax benefit. Suddenly it was deemed to be money that was owed by this couple for their sons who had previously been considered as eligible for the disability tax credit. That is just totally unacceptable. They came to my office and said that their collective decision was that whatever was required they would continue to fight because this was simply wrong, that it was inhumane and that something had to be done.
The government is doing a very good job of uniting not only opposition parties on this issue, but I think a lot of their own backbenchers, and the disability community is galvanized as never before. If changes are not made, this fight will grow and continue. I put the government on notice for what will happen if it does not wake up and realize that it has made a significant mistake and is perpetuating that mistake.
Another person who came to my office had been receiving the tax credit for 10 years as a result of a heart attack. Her tax credit has now been disallowed.
A woman in Saskatoon, who I spoke to at our convention on the weekend, said:
I am still waiting, as are many, for a response saying that I still qualified for the Disability Tax Credit. I qualified in previous years and believe, as do my doctors, that I still qualify...
I filed my taxes and expected over $3,000 in a refund based on the Disability Tax Credit. Instead, I was billed. I paid that amount in anticipation that someone would realize a mistake was made. The doctors I see know a heck of a lot more about me and my condition than some doctor that reads my tax files from Winnipeg.
These are comments from ordinary Canadians across the country and across my province. The government has to make the significant changes to address this problem and eliminate this crazy notion of having people who had already qualified for disability tax credits to reapply.