A gaggle advocating for folks with disabilities is looking on the federal authorities to expedite passage of a brand new Canada Disability Benefit at the moment making its approach by means of the House of Commons.
Known as Bill C-22, the laws would create a federal revenue complement for low-income, working-age folks with disabilities.
“People with disabilities are pressured to go to meals banks, they can not afford primary drugs and actually, in some circumstances, folks really feel a lot despair that they really feel the one approach they’ll have dignity is to die utilizing medical help in dying,” Disability Without Poverty nationwide director Rabia Khedr informed CTV’s Your Morning on Monday.
She pointed to a research from Statistics Canada, citing 2014 information, which discovered that folks with disabilities made up 41 per cent of the low-income inhabitants.
In 2017, 6.2 million folks in Canada aged 15 and older had a incapacity, representing 22 per cent of the inhabitants.
Khedr urged parliamentarians to “do proper by folks with disabilities,” who she says had been forgotten throughout the pandemic, and for funds to arrive as early as fall 2023.
“It’s now not adequate for folks with disabilities to stay in poverty on this nation of loads,” she mentioned.
Bill C-22 was tabled in June, however waited for members of Parliament to return in September earlier than advancing additional, regardless of a push from the NDP final spring to see the Liberals comply with by means of on implementing a brand new federal incapacity profit “directly.”
After passing second studying unanimously on Oct. 18, the bill was referred to committee.
On Monday, sponsor of the laws, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Carla Qualtrough will testify earlier than the House Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities Committee that’s finding out the bill.
This is the second time the federal government has introduced this profit bill ahead. An preliminary model of the laws died within the House final 12 months, when the federal election was known as.
Although it’s unclear how a lot candidates may obtain from the profit and who could be eligible, a legislative abstract of the bill says it might be modelled after the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors.
“We’re a First World nation. It’s only a unhappy state of affairs if we will not do proper by our society’s most susceptible members,” Khedr mentioned.
Watch the complete interview with Rabia Khedr on the high of the article. With information from CTVNews.ca Online Politics Producer Rachel Aiello.