A bunch advocating for individuals with disabilities is asking on the federal authorities to expedite passage of a brand new Canada Disability Benefit at present making its means by means of the House of Commons.
Known as Bill C-22, the laws would create a federal earnings complement for low-income, working-age individuals with disabilities.
“People with disabilities are compelled to go to meals banks, they cannot afford primary drugs and in reality, in some circumstances, individuals really feel a lot despair that they really feel the one means they’ll have dignity is to die utilizing medical help in dying,” Disability Without Poverty nationwide director Rabia Khedr instructed CTV’s Your Morning on Monday.
She pointed to a examine from Statistics Canada, citing 2014 knowledge, which discovered that folks with disabilities made up 41 per cent of the low-income inhabitants.
In 2017, 6.2 million individuals in Canada aged 15 and older had a incapacity, representing 22 per cent of the inhabitants.
Khedr urged parliamentarians to “do proper by individuals with disabilities,” who she says had been forgotten in the course of the pandemic, and for funds to arrive as early as fall 2023.
“It’s now not adequate for individuals with disabilities to stay in poverty on this nation of a lot,” 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 observe by means of on implementing a brand new federal incapacity profit “at once.”
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 learning 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 yr, when the federal election was referred to as.
Although it’s unclear how a lot candidates might obtain from the profit and who could be eligible, a legislative abstract of the bill says it will 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 weak members,” Khedr mentioned.
Watch the complete interview with Rabia Khedr on the high of the article. With recordsdata from CTVNews.ca Online Politics Producer Rachel Aiello.