Human Resources committee  I'll start. EI is a program that has a threshold of eligibility, and if you don't meet the threshold of eligibility, then you're not going to be able to get the benefits. The reason I started out by mentioning 10 different disability systems, 10 different bureaucracies and 10 d

Human Resources committee  I'll start the reply. First of all, I'm looking at these definitions, and I was especially struck when Deanna was talking about the CPP definition. Our income security system has come through almost 100 years of growth, and it seems that each program and definition corresponds t

Human Resources committee  First of all, I would like to provide some context for my response. When we look at income security for working-age Canadians, 18 to 65, we're spending about $60 billion overall in every sort of program. Most of our income security goes to people over 65 and to children. I'm goi

Human Resources committee  Once again, I would like to look at the larger picture. In terms of gross domestic product, Canada has north of a $2-trillion economy, and the total amount of money that's paid out in income security benefits of all types is somewhat north of $180 billion, meaning that we spend a

Human Resources committee  As I said earlier in my opening remarks, disabilities are not on any schedule. They don't observe time limits, and yet so much of our income security system bases itself on arbitrary time limits. Fifteen weeks is not a lot when you think of various types of workplace mishaps and

Human Resources committee  I'm not so much leaning toward it, but just trying to impart the understanding of why it's so popular. When you have programs where the only way you can get them is to have worked, it means that probably for a good part of your life you have been disability-free and then you've

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to be here, Mr. Chairman, members, staff and fellow guests. I'm going to talk about disability income programs this morning. I will look at 10 programs, or 10 systems. I'll say them slowly, in no particular order: one, the RDSP,