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Advocacy & Issues 06/27/2023

1.5 million people with disabilities are living in poverty across Canada.

Last year, Parliament unanimously passed Bill C-22: the Canada Disability Benefit Act, which commits the federal government to create a new income support program to reduce poverty among people with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 64. 

Across the country, 50 percent of people with a disability over the age of 16 are food insecure.

That’s why we’ve joined The Daily Bread Food Bank, Disability Without Poverty, and several national organizations in signing a letter, published in the Globe & Mail on February 7, 2024, calling for a fully funded Canada Disability Benefit that:

  • Is adequate enough to lift people with disabilities out of poverty
  • Barrier-free and inclusive of people with all types of disabilities
  • Supplements -- not replaces -- existing disability supports
  • Is rolled out without any provincial, territorial, or federal clawbacks

We are calling on the federal government to work closely with disability organizations and people with disabilities as they design the benefit and work out key questions like who will be eligible, how much they’ll receive, and what they’ll have to do to apply.

We want a Canada Disability Benefit that is adequate enough so people with disabilities can afford life's basic needs, including nourishing food.

And, we’re urging the government to roll out the benefit this year because people living with disabilities have waited long enough. They can’t afford to wait any longer.

We need your help to make sure politicians get the message loud and clear: no more delays!

Join us and urge Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and the government to: 

  • #BudgetTheBenefit this spring
  • Roll out the Canada Disability Benefit before the end of 2024.

Send Finance Minister Freeland and your MP a digital postcard and urge them to #BudgetTheBenefit today!

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