Mr. Speaker, I move that the 20th report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, presented on Wednesday, May 8, be concurred in.
I will be splitting my time with the member for Nanaimo—Ladysmith.
The Liberals have let Canadians down. They have broken another promise. They promised a Canada disability benefit that would lift persons with disabilities out of poverty, but they did not deliver. Those in the disability community are angry, and they should be; it is obvious that the government failed to listen to them.
Disability advocates and organizations, including the government's very own advisory council, were ignored by cabinet when it released a Canada disability benefit of $200 a month. Of course, this amount is woefully inadequate. In consultation with community, the Liberals heard about the barriers of the disability tax credit and how many low-income people with disabilities were unable to access it; however, that is what the Liberals decided to propose to deliver.
After years of waiting and official input from 8,000 Canadians, and after receiving over 5,000 pieces of official input, this is what the government came up with. Either it did not try to live up to its commitment or it did not care. The government knows what this benefit needs to include, yet the cabinet acted on none of it. This is a cruel and callous government that continues to leave the most vulnerable behind.
I tried to imagine what the discussion was like at that cabinet table. Liberals must have discussed how choosing the absolute minimum amount of a benefit would hurt people. While discussing how low they could go, knowing that they would be hurting people, did they laugh? Did they laugh knowing that persons with disabilities cannot afford their rent or food? I want the government to explain how it could propose what it did.
However, the Conservatives are no better. Their history is one of cuts and more cuts. They have never invested in persons with disabilities, and they are certainly not going to now. In fact, they voted against the disability benefit, dental care for persons with disabilities, diabetes medication for persons with disabilities, child care for persons with disabilities, contraception for persons with disabilities and school food programs for persons with disabilities. It goes on and on.
Why has the NDP brought this debate to the House today? We brought it to tell the government that there is still time for it to fix its deadly mistake. The Liberals can make good on their promise to the disability community. They can fix the benefit. Their cabinet has the power. All the consultation is in. They have heard what is needed. Now, they just need to get to work. It is urgent. No one else should die on the Liberals' watch, and that is not overstating it. Suicides, unnecessary MAID and deaths by poverty are a reality in this country, and the government must do better.
Over one million persons with disabilities are living in poverty, and during committee study on the disability benefit, Employment and Social Development Canada shared a comparison between the highest poverty lines per province and the standard amount of provincial disability supports, which is inadequate. Not a single province provides income supports to persons with disabilities that are even close to the poverty line. These numbers are from 2020; with inflation, the gaps are surely higher now. Those gaps do not even include the additional cost of living with a disability in this ablest country.
This benefit needs immediate change. It needs to be raised to an adequate income that truly lifts persons with disabilities out of poverty, including the costs of a disability. This $200 is an insult. This is a new benefit for a new generation. It needs to live up to the expectations of the community and fulfill its legislative commitments. The time is now to have proper income supports for persons with disabilities.
It is simple to explain what needs to be fixed. This $200 a month is profoundly inadequate. It is hidden behind an inaccessible disability tax credit, which is totally unacceptable. There is no protection from clawbacks, which needs to be changed.
It is a disgrace that the Liberal government does not care about the impact of clawbacks. A person with disabilities relying on the income benefits they are entitled to knows that clawbacks are deadly. Anyone living in poverty knows this. The benefit needs to be protected from clawbacks.
I think about the CERB. Many Canadians applied for the CERB in good faith and got it. Now, we have a cruel and callous federal government that has decided it is a good idea to start targeting people already living in poverty to get their CERB back. The government knows that people are living in poverty. It knows that the incomes of the people it is going after are the lowest in Canada, but it is still doing it. At the same time, it is giving free rides to the greediest corporate CEOs.
This benefit also needs to get into people's bank accounts right away. There is absolutely no reason for the government to wait until 2025 to deliver income supports for people who are hurting now. There is still time to do what is right, which can be stated in two words: “fix it”.
Persons with disabilities continue to live in poverty, with no relief from the government. We have seen rents soar over the last year, pushing many Canadians out of the housing market; they are unable to afford safe and adequate housing. For persons with disabilities, accessing housing that meets their needs is nearly impossible. When we add discrimination on top of that, we find that more and more stories are coming out from across Canada about the reality of persons with disabilities living rough, living in the streets. We see it right here in Ottawa. Persons with disabilities are forced into homelessness because of the lack of affordable housing options. Organizations, including food banks, are at a breaking point because more people are relying on these services.
Many persons with disabilities do not have an adequate level of income, because of discrimination. What the cabinet has brought forward for the Canada disability benefit is discriminatory. Many persons with disabilities are currently using 80% to 90% of their incomes to pay for housing alone.
I end by saying that the Liberals promised “nothing without us”. They should not disappoint. I ask the cabinet not to deny the human rights of persons who have disabilities. They should fix it.