Election Canada 08 Disability

Shawn Murphy MP Liberal

Q- Will you support an increase in the CPP up to the single person LICO (low income cut off)? The disabled living on CP Disability are living below 60% of the LICO.

Response – If elected, the Liberal Party will make the Disability Tax Credit refundable so if a disabled person does not pay taxes they will still receive the support, which could amount to as much as $1025 per year. I believe this can be a positive step in helping to raise the level of income for people with disabilities. There is still much more to be done though and with the Liberals 30/50 Poverty Plan, many of the systematic issues that place people in unfortunate situations will be addressed. It is becoming even clearer to me, especially in going door to door, that many people with disabilities are living in poverty and need more support

Q – Will you support a national drug program with a co-pay for the disabled of less than $1,000 per year. The current suggestion of $5,000 does not consider that the disabled poor are often living on $12,000 per year.

Response – In response to your concerns about drug coverage, last week the Liberal Party announced their Catastrophic Drug Coverage plan that will invest $900 million to ensure Canadians living with serious illnesses can focus on their health and not their finances.

 Q – Will you support a national program of disability supports to replace the current patchwork quilt of provincial supports? On PEI, only 11% of the disabled population is receiving supports.

Response – I support a national strategy but I recognize that many of the programs disabled persons utilize are administered by provincial jurisdictions but I am willing to continue to work with the provincial government to ensure that the level and access of support and programs are strengthened.

 Q – Will you support a Canadians with Disabilities Act similar to the US ADA as amended? Canadians with disabilities need protection not a Charter. The attached article contains a recent post on the ADA.

Response – No Comment

Thank you for contacting me again about disability issues. I have enjoyed working with the disabled community and I am committed to improving their situation here in Charlottetown,

Shawn Murphy, MP

Kate and Peter Bevan Baker

Peter Bevan Baker, candidate for the Green Party, replied to our questions. I placed the pre-amble to his reply at the end to keep the resonses clear.

Q – Will you support an increase in the CPP up to the single person LICO (low income cut off)? The disabled living on CP Disability are living below 60% of the LICO.

Reply – Yes.

Email

Hi Stephen,
It was good to meet you. Here are my answers to your questions:

Q- If you are elected, what will you and your party do for Islanders with disabilities?

Here is our policy on disabilities, taken from “Vision Green” – I’ll be referring to it in subsequent answers.

b) People with disabilities
Canadians with disabilities and their families live with disproportionate levels of poverty and exclusion. To better understand the underlying factors, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) and the Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL) commissioned the Caledon Institute of Social Policy to study the situation and propose solutions. It concludes that:
1. Canadians with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty than other Canadians. Poverty is both a result of exclusion and lack of supports, and it contributes to further exclusion and vulnerability in a ‘vicious cycle’;
2. Children with disabilities are twice as likely as other children to live in households that rely on social assistance as a main source of income;
3. Poverty rates of Canadians with disabilities result in large part from the lack of needed disability supports, which enable access to education, training, employment, and community participation;
4. Canadians with disabilities are too often exiled to inadequate, stigmatizing and ineffective systems of income support that were never designed to address the real income needs of Canadians with disabilities; and,
5. The federal government has a key role to play in addressing the poverty and income security needs of Canadians – they have done this through Employment Insurance, CPP/QPP, Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, the National Child Benefit, and Child Disability Benefit, and various tax measures.
The Caledon Institute propose that the federal government invest in a new initiative, which they have called the Basic Income Programme to best provide the support that Canadians with disabilities desperately need.
Our Vision
The Green Party of Canada believes that it is time to treat Canadians with disabilities with dignity. We endorse the Basic Income Programme proposed by the Caledon Institute, which asserts, when all factors are taken into account, will actually save the government money. We urge the adoption of this income security programme for people with disabilities as soon as possible as an interim measure to a full poverty eradication federal-provincial program is established to provide for income security for all Canadians.
Green Solutions
Green Party MPs will:
Institute a basic income for people living with disabilities so that none of them live in poverty by:
• The conversion of the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) to a refundable credit as a first step in creating a national Basic Income program for working age adults with disabilities;
• Establish rigorous “needs based” eligibility standards for basic income to permit an affordable benefit system that provides adequate benefit levels; and,
• Use a redesigned Canada Pension Plan/Disability Benefit (CPP/D) test to incorporate the DTC definition of disability and permit employment, rather than the CPP/D definition that requires a ‘severe’ disability to be life-long and to be the cause of any incapacity to pursue ‘any gainful occupation.’ The revised definition allows individuals to work while retaining eligibility for basic income.

Thanks for this Stephen. Speak soon,Peter.

Social issues are almost non-existent from this year’s election campaign in Canada. So we asked local Island politicians what they will do if elected for Islanders with disabilities.

Canadians and Islanders with disabilities make up 16% of the population, or 22,000 people on PEI.

If you are elected, what will you and your party do for Islanders with disabilities?

Will you support an increase in the CPP up to the single person LICO (low income cut off)? The disabled living on CP Disability are living below 60% of the LICO.

Will you support a national drug program with a co-pay for the disabled of less than $1,000 per year. The current suggestion of $5,000 does not consider that the disabled poor are often living on $12,000 per year.

Will you support a national program of disability supports to replace the current patchwork quilt of provincial supports? On PEI, only 11% of the disabled population is receiving supports.

Will you support a Canadians with Disabilities Act similar to the US ADA as amended? Canadians with disabilities need protection not a Charter. The attached article contains a recent post on the ADA. ADA

Thank you,

Stephen Pate
PEI Disability Alert