Wendy Lill

[Supply, November 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, we have been talking about the disability tax credit, which is a non-refundable disability tax credit at the present time. I would like to look back at a recommendation made by a member of his government in a 1996 report entitled “Equal Citizenship for Canadians with Disabilities: The Will to Act”.

The recommendation was for a refundable tax credit. The point of a refundable tax credit is to more accurately recognize the cost of disability. At that time the member said that a disability tax credit would combine the best features of the disability tax credit and the medical expense tax credit, and that like the DTC, the new credit would be available to persons with disabilities that prevent them from performing the basic functions of daily life even with the assistance of a technical device.

I would like to have his comments on a refundable disability tax credit.

[Supply, November 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I cannot turn down the opportunity to thank the hon. member for his very thoughtful rumination on why it is that smart people do dumb things. I find that a very interesting phenomenon. I have thought about that a lot at various times of my life.

I appreciate the respect the member afforded the subcommittee's work. As a member of the subcommittee I concur that we did an enormous amount of work. More to the point, we heard from hundreds of people who know clearly what is needed at this point in time. We synthesized the material and put it forward for this chamber to deal with and to take seriously. I thank the member for his support.

[Supply, November 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from the Bloc, who has shown a very compassionate and sensitive involvement in our disability subcommittee, for his comments today.

Families of persons with disabilities and all advocacy groups have said to us that they forgo income, they forgo sleep, they forgo a great deal emotionally and financially to care for family members with disabilities. They pick up thousands of dollars of costs in terms of drugs, assistive devices, transportation, special shoes, special foods, special adaptive devices. There are many significant costs.

The latest figures put out by the National Council of Welfare show as a percentage of the welfare costs that they are below the poverty line. Persons with disabilities continue to see a decrease in terms of their overall income in provinces such as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and many others.

Based on the real disparity that is rampant for persons with disabilities, does the member support the concept of a refundable tax credit that recognizes the costs of disabilities and a tax credit that more accurately reflects the actual costs to individuals with disabilities?

[Supply, November 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for her comments about our opposition day motion. I also want to let her know something that is exciting to us. The Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly also has just passed a motion calling on the federal government to restore the previously existing criteria for the disability tax credit. Last week, the Nova Scotia legislature also passed a motion denouncing the changes to the DTC.

The member is probably aware that the chair of the disabilities subcommittee spoke eloquently earlier about her concern regarding amendments passed by the finance department, which will cut off a whole class of people from the disability tax credit. She also spoke of her concern that the Federal Court's recommendations about compassion and fairness be dealt with.

Will the member be following the chair of the disabilities subcommittee, who said that she would be voting in support of the opposition day motion, and give her support to persons with disabilities in this country?

[Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, November 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to reiterate to anyone on the government side who is listening that the government's tax policies are punishing the wrong people, while the real tax culprits are left unchecked.

According to the CCRA's own figures there are $16 billion in outstanding income taxes.

When will the minister instruct his officials to stop harassing individual Canadians for a $989 tax credit and crack down on a $16 billion income tax giveaway?

[Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, November 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the finance minister.

The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency is regularly cutting cheques for millions of dollars to used car salesmen without documentation. At the same time government officials have been denying disability tax credits to some people with severe disabilities.

Why is the government giving out GST cheques to non-existent claimants while at the same time taking away tax credits from 46,000 Canadians with disabilities?

How can the minister justify targeting the most vulnerable people in this country?

[Supply, November 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member from the Bloc for her insightful comments.

I found her summary of the Hamilton case and the issue of persons with celiac disease being cut off the disability tax credit very interesting.

I was also interested in the whole issue around the way the federal government very quietly and surreptitiously tabled its response to the disability subcommittee's report. I am sure all the committee members were embarrassed when they received calls from the media saying that the media had heard the report was out and that the finance committee had put forward some new amendments. We knew nothing of them and when we did see them they were punitive and meanspirited. We were left feeling very much that the whole democratic process we had undertaken in good faith with people in the disability community and with professionals in the medical community had been for naught and had been a joke.

New Democrats have a letter writing campaign to put this whole issue on the table. I am happy to hear that the Bloc is doing the same kind of thing as a petition in Quebec.

What does the member think of this type of strategy on the part of the government? It released the response in the middle of the summer. It released proposed amendments in the dog days of summer when in fact no one was around to respond, to herald it or to criticize it? What does that really say to her about the kind of government we are looking at here?

[Supply, November 19th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, I thank the member from the other side of the House for his comments. I was interested that he talked about ongoing consultations with advocacy groups on this issue. I have heard that consultations have broken down and they are very discouraged by what the finance committee has been putting forward.

I have to come back to the people I have put forward as examples of persons with disabilities who are fearful and who have been asked to have their credit reviewed. One is a woman with multiple sclerosis, an episodic illness which does not seem to fit into the categories that Department of Finance is putting forward. People with mental illnesses and illnesses that are intermittent do not fit into the government's constellation of disabilities.

I ask the member how is it that persons with disabilities incurring additional costs, such as people with MS, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, will be comforted by his speech and what he says the government will do if the people do not fit into the proposed amendments put forward by the finance department?

[Supply, November 19th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, I agree completely with my colleague from Churchill.

With regard to the whole issue around appealing these situations, it is important for people in the House to realize that many people, even though they are very much disadvantaged, have taken the government to court over the loss of their disability tax credits and they have won. The Federal Court of Canada in several cases has recently awarded on behalf of persons with disabilities and not the federal government. We have to keep that very central to our debate today.

[Supply, November 19th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, there is an expression, “Go hunting where the ducks are”.

Aside from the exposé today about the multi-million dollar tax frauds that we have heard regarding the GST, car flipping and input tax credits, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency has admitted in its annual performance report of last week that it has been unable to collect over $16 billion in outstanding taxes last year. Yet here we are today trying to defend the slim and vastly inadequate tax credit of our most vulnerable citizens.

I find it stunning. I know all members on all sides of the House feel the same way. We must keep in perspective the people who are being affected here, the hundreds of thousands of persons who are vulnerable and who are incurring additional costs because of their disabilities. Yet they are not able to get what is truly a small but important tax credit to offset their additional disability costs.