Mr. Speaker, the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency is requiring over 100,000 people who are currently receiving the disability tax credit to requalify. The reason is, according to the CCRA, that between 1985 and 1996 the governments of the day did not properly scrutinize the claims.
What is the effect of this bureaucratic bungling? For starters, let us consider the impact on the health care system. In order to qualify people must have confirmation from a doctor. That means hundreds of thousands more visits to the doctor at a time when Canada's health care system is stretched to the breaking point. Then there is the huge inconvenience for the 106,000 people affected whose disabilities run the gamut from paralysis, missing limbs and blindness to chronic debilitating diseases like multiple sclerosis.
No one denies that there must be standards for tax breaks like the DTC. What galls me is that the government is asking disabled Canadians and Canada's health care system to clean up yet another Liberal government mess.