HUMA Committee Report

4.  The Sub-Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities recommends that the federal government fulfil its commitments in the Speech from the Throne for persons with disabilities as soon as possible.  Specifically, the Sub-Committee recommends that:

• funds be allocated as soon as possible for the investment in new technologies to assist persons with disabilities that was promised in the Speech from the Throne;
• the federal strategy paper on innovation and job skills include persons with disabilities in any comprehensive framework;
• a comprehensive labour market strategy for persons with disabilities should build on the existing activities of the organizations that assist people with disabilities gain employment while avoiding any duplication or overlap.

The availability of disability supports and services including measures to meet the additional cost of disability remains, as our roundtable re-emphasized, a key item of the disability agenda.  For the disability community it remains the critical element in attaining full citizenship and participation.  The Sub-Committee welcomes the inclusion of many of our proposals in the 2000 Budget and the Budget Update.  At the same time, we are aware that reforms to the tax system cannot solve all the problems related to the provision of disability supports and that the federal government needs to maintain the provision of supports as its priority in its discussions with the provinces and territories.

The Sub-Committee observes that one of the most important reasons that the children’s agenda has moved forward while the disability agenda has stalled in terms of providing supports and services results from the commitment of federal money to provide additional supports for children.  We believe that the federal government, if it accepts that disability is a priority issue, needs to provide increased support to the provinces in terms of a federal fund or transfers to the provinces.  It is obvious that providing support to individuals to purchase disability supports (the demand side) through the tax system, will not work if these supports are not available at the provincial level (the supply side). 

Our final roundtable on the disability income system provided us with a depressing picture of an income support system that allows thousands – possibly hundreds of thousands - of Canadians with disabilities to fall through the cracks.  We recognize that during a period of cutting costs, administrative measures need to be put in place that contain expenditures but we share the concern of independent policy analysts and disability organizations that the current disability income support programs operated by the federal government, notably the Canada Pension Plan – Disability (CPP-D), has not recognized the fundamental realities of many people who live with a disability.  It does not have humane measures in place to provide prompt service; it does not adequately address the issues of cyclical and degenerative diseases and it does not address the question of mental illness and disability in an appropriate fashion.  As Members of Parliament, we constantly confront this reality in assisting our constituents who come to us for aid in finding a way through the bureaucratic jungle.  In addition, the disability system as a whole imposes major impediments to seeking and achieving labour market reintegration.  To us, a fundamental flaw in the system is the way that disability benefits are presently linked to an individual’s ability to work.

During the roundtable, our Sub-Committee received several recommendations about practical and useful measures that could address some of these problems with the disability income system generally and CPP-D in particular.  We are not going to include these recommendations in this interim report, because we believe that a comprehensive study, either by this Sub-Committee or by the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, should be undertaken as an urgent priority.  This program has gone unexamined for too many years.  It is time that the CPP-D reflected today’s circumstances not those in place over thirty years ago when it was created.  In the meantime, however, we believe that the useful dialogue between officials from Income Security Programs at HRDC and the disability community that began at our meeting should continue.

5.  The Sub-Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities recommends that Income Security Programs Branch of Human Resources Development Canada should create an expert panel including representatives of disability organizations to provide an ongoing forum for a dialogue over the ways and means of providing income to people with disabilities through the Canada Pension Plan (Disability).

Overall, throughout our hearings, we were struck by the difficulty that various eligibility requirements impose on people with disabilities in order for them to gain access to employment, supports and services as well as income.  Perhaps more than anything else that we heard, this impressed us as a reflection of the need for horizontal consideration of disability issues.  This is as true for programs that function within a single federal department such as HRDC, as it is among programs operated by different departments (e.g. HRDC and Finance).  Accordingly, the Sub-Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities would like to propose a little test of the principles and practice of horizontality.

6.  The Sub-Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities recommends that the Government of Canada convene a taskforce of relevant departments and agencies as well as representatives from the disability community to study the harmonization of definitions of "disability" in place in federally-administered, disability programs and services.  This taskforce should provide this Sub-Committee with a progress report in June 2002 and the results of its work should be included in the Report on Plans and Priorities and in its Departmental Performance Report in 2002 and annually thereafter.