Mr. Speaker, it is with anger that I rise today and am forced to move the amendments asking for the deletion of clauses 74 and 75 of Bill C-28 which deal with the proposed restrictions to the disability tax credit. These clauses show contempt for the House. On November 19 the House unanimously passed the following motion:
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 30, 2002.
The government reluctantly withdrew the amendments released on August 30 but injected them back into the ways and means bill in the February budget which was followed by clauses 74 and 75 of Bill C-28, the budget implementation bill.
Those clauses of the bill show that the finance department, the finance minister and the government as a whole cannot understand that Parliament is supreme. Parliament said on November 19 that the tax credit being dealt with should be reformed in a compassionate and humane manner reflecting the real life circumstances of persons with disabilities. What clauses 74 and 75 propose as changes to the eligibility criteria for the disability tax credit is to further restrict eligibility for this credit. That is contemptible.
The disability tax credit is already so restrictive that officials of the department admitted to the committee that Terry Fox would not be considered as having a disability under its draconian interpretations of the law. All of us should consider that for a minute. Terry Fox was a fighter and continues to live on in everybody's dreams for a better, healthier society where we all work on behalf of persons with disabilities and fight for people struggling with cancer. All of this is because of Terry Fox who lost a leg to cancer. At this point in time he would not be considered to be disabled under the laws of our government.
By proposing these changes the finance department is saying that people who have a hard time eating, those who are challenged every day because most of the food available to Canadians will kill them, should not be considered as having a disability. Finance department officials are also saying that just because some people have no arms and cannot dress themselves or need special clothes, they should not be considered as having a disability. Through these clauses the finance minister is saying that the amendments in the unanimous report of the HRDC committee are wrong and should be ignored.
Last week the finance minister clearly showed that he has no respect for the democratic process or for this chamber. He did this by reissuing an almost identical response to the committee's report that the House condemned in November. The committee and the House asked to have the system fixed and make the credit refundable. We have asked for the system to be co-ordinated and to make eligibility conditions reflect the real life conditions of people with disabilities. Here we see that the disability tax credit is still not refundable so that the vast majority of those who are most vulnerable, those with no income or a low taxable income, still get nothing.
I am proud to have led the fight to change this bad tax credit. I congratulate my colleagues on all sides of the House who have stood up against the Minister of Finance's proposal to further restrict who would receive this small tax credit.
Thousands of letters have been received from people across Canada. My friend from the Bloc received over 6,000 names on a petition. Every member of the House, with the exception of the Minister of Finance, stood up and asked that those restrictions be withdrawn.
I call on members from all sides of the House to once again show the finance department who runs the country and join with me to eliminate these clauses. Let us show the minister, the deputy and the department that they are not above the will of the House. What finance officials lost on the floor of this place last November, they are trying to sneak back in through those clauses in Bill C-28.
I do not believe the House will stand for that. I know that Canadians with disabilities are watching very closely to see how people on all sides of the House behave at this point in time with these critical amendments which will have a critical impact on the lives of persons with disabilities.