Mr. Speaker, first and foremost I want to thank my colleague from Port Moody—Coquitlam for all of her advocacy and work. It is clear that we have an advocate and an ally for people living with disabilities across Canada, and I am incredibly proud of the work that is being done.
This is a very important debate for us to be having today. We should be debating the issue every day until people living with disabilities are lifted out of poverty and have access to their basic human rights. This is what we should be talking about until it is done, and it is so far from where it needs to be.
I do not understand how we live in such a wealthy country, Canada, and people living with disabilities are expected to make ends meet with such a minimal amount of funds. I do not know whether anybody in the chamber has been to the grocery store lately, but there is just nowhere near enough money going to people living with disabilities to be able to keep food on the table, keep a roof over their head and be able to make ends meet.
We know that almost one million people across Canada are living with disabilities, and we know that the numbers are going to continue to increase as we have inadequate health care in place and inadequate access to mental health supports. We are setting ourselves up for a disaster moving forward if we do not look at how we can adequately support people so they are able to make ends meet.
There are many pieces that we know we can be doing to lift people living with disabilities out of poverty, yet we are not doing that. It is incredibly frustrating. As a result of the work of the NDP, there has been a national disability benefit finally moving forward. This is a huge move in the right direction. Absolutely, the Liberals worked with us, although it sure was not easy pulling them along to put the disability benefit into place.
It was a win for people living with disabilities, but instead, the Liberal government put into place $200 a month for people living with disabilities. It is nowhere near enough. I have heard from people living with disabilities who have said that this is “a slap in the face”. It is a slap in the face to say to them, “Here is $200 a month to be able to make ends meet.” That does not even cover the very basics of what they require.
There have been consultations with people living with disabilities. We have all the information we need, and now it is time to see the solutions being put into place. One of those solutions is, first of all, to raise the national disability benefit to ensure that people living with disabilities are no longer living in poverty; $200 a month is not the amount needed. That is the very first thing we know we can do.
Another thing we can do is make sure there is a system set up that allows people to apply for the disability benefit in a way that does not have barrier after barrier. We heard from people living with disabilities, prior to the benefit's recently having been implemented, that it cannot be tied to the tax credit. We know there are barriers to accessing the tax credit, but the Liberal government implemented the benefit in a way that requires it to be attached to the tax credit. It makes no sense.
Recently I hosted a workshop in my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith, and I am so thankful I had my colleague from New Westminster—Burnaby there with me, to talk to people in Nanaimo—Ladysmith about how to access the disability tax credit. With very little advertising or information having been put out, the room was filled; there were no seats left. The room was filled with people who are struggling to make ends meet and are experiencing endless barriers in being able to access the disability tax credit. We know that the system to access the disability tax credit is set up in an ableist way, which is not the way to set up a system for people to access money they need and deserve.
During the workshop, I received endless questions from people about how they apply for the disability tax credit, and it became very evident to me that the system is full of barriers. What is interesting is that we know that years ago, the government used to put into place people who would go into communities to discuss with people and help people with applications. All of that is gone; it has been cut. People are left to their own devices to try to sort out how to access the funds they need and deserve.
Clearly there are huge barriers in being able to access the disability tax credit, and now the government has tied the national disability benefit to the tax credit. Instead, people living with disabilities are asking for the disability benefit to be tied to the provincial and territorial benefits. This step would allow people who are already accessing funds through the provinces and territories to also receive the national disability benefit. We know that this is a system that would reduce barriers and allow people to access the supports.
There are clearly some solutions that could be put into place. For the disability benefit, we also need to make sure that the Liberal government is working with provinces and territories to ensure that there are not any clawbacks. It is not good enough for the federal government to put into place a benefit to help lift people out of poverty, which has yet to happen. I hope that this is what we do see. We also need to ensure that the provinces and territories are not going to be clawing back the benefit once the disability benefit is received. In the end, if there is a clawback, people again are going to continue to live in poverty.
I could go on. Clearly the issue is near and dear to my heart, because I am incredibly frustrated to see a government that is not putting the rights and the best interests of people living with disabilities at the forefront. People are reaching out to me, and they are exhausted with the system that has set them up for failure, the system that keeps them in the cycle of poverty. They are unable to get out of the cycle of poverty because of the systems that have been put into place by the government.
The Conservatives are, by far, nowhere near better. I am so concerned about Conservatives standing up and saying that they have the solutions for people living with disabilities, while at the same time they cut, cut, cut. They cut the supports and the programs that people need in order to make ends meet. They cut the health care programs. While the Conservatives were in government, 800,000 affordable homes were lost. They voted against dental care. How many people living with disabilities in Nanaimo—Ladysmith have come up to me and shared with me that they are finally accessing the health care that they need to be able to get their teeth fixed?
The Conservatives made cuts to mental health supports. The Liberals have not fixed the problem. Why is it that people cannot access mental health supports? If we want to look just at the financial side of this, how is it cost-effective to be looking at helping people once the situation has gotten so complex, rather than looking at getting help to people who need the help when they need it?
I could go on for much longer, because this is what we need to be talking about in the House. This is exactly what we have been elected to do: to represent people in our communities. People living with disabilities are struggling to make ends meet. People living with disabilities in our communities are in pain and they need to see members of Parliament standing up for them to get them the help they need and deserve.
