What people with disabilities want to hear from party leaders in this election

By Mouhamad Rachini, CBC News, RCI

As the federal election campaign enters the final stretch, advocates are urging the next government to improve the Canada Disability Benefit not only by increasing the payments but also by ensuring that provinces don’t claw money back. Retired lawyer David Lepofsky, who is blind, is calling on all parties to make the Accessible Canada Pledge, which he says would tackle a significant number of barriers impacting Canadians with disabilities. Photo: CBC / Mike Smee

Election Day is less than two weeks away, but Rowena Edwards is still unsure who she should vote for.

Honestly, I don’t like any candidates, the 63-year-old told CBC News through an email interview.

Edwards is one of more than eight million Canadians living with a disability. She says she spends around 20 hours a day in a hospital bed at home in Sherwood Park, Alta. — by herself and unable to work.

She said she feels forgotten by Canada’s federal party leaders.

Our leaders don’t even think about us, she said. I have no faith that things will change for us.

She’s not the only person who feels that way. Disability activist and retired lawyer David Lepofsky, who is blind, told CBC News people with disabilities are victims of a vicious cycle that muzzles their voice.

Activists are calling on federal parties to remember people with disabilities in the final weeks ahead of Election Day on April 28. Photo: CBC

Lepofsky says Canada is miles behind other countries when it comes to disability support programs and accessibility. And while U.S. tariffs are understandably an important issue in this year’s federal election, he says it’s not the only one.

The next government that takes power after this election in Ottawa is gonna be mandated to govern for four years, he said. Not just about tariff barriers, but about all barriers, including those which impede people with disabilities from equal opportunity in our society.

There’s no good reason why our politicians shouldn’t be answering what they would do to tear those barriers down, said Lepofsky, who is also chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Alliance.

More disability benefits

Last week, Lepofsky hosted a debate to hear what the federal parties were promising in this election.

Candidates from the Liberal, NDP and Green parties — but not the Conservatives — attended the debate.

We’re looking for real concrete commitments from all the politicians and all the parties on key issues that matter to over eight million people with disabilities and everyone else in Canada who’s gonna get a disability later in life, he said.

I wish each candidate had to live our lives for one week, only then do I believe things would change.

Part of that includes improving on the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) Act, which came into effect in 2024. The act established the CDB (new window), which gives working-age, low-income people with disabilities up to $200 a month if they qualify — a paltry amount, according to Lepofsky.

People with disabilities don’t just have the cost of living that everybody else has, he said. There are added costs associated with living with a disability, possibly getting supports or expensive technology or services.

Even if you factor in provincial support plans, Lepofsky says people with disabilities are going to be left languishing in poverty.

Retired lawyer David Lepofsky, who is blind, is calling on all parties to make the Accessible Canada Pledge, which he says would tackle a significant number of barriers impacting Canadians with disabilities. Photo: CBC / Mike Smee

For example, a person with a disability in Ontario, if they’re living in poverty, can qualify for the Ontario Disability Support Plan, he said. “It will give an individual a maximum of … under $1,400 a month (new window). The poverty line is over $2,000 a month.”

The paltry $200 a month maximum [of the new CDB] … is not going to lift the vast majority of impoverished people with disabilities, he said.

This is a greater challenge for people with disabilities who can’t work, such as Edwards.

She says her disability income for 2024 was just over $22,000, which she mainly uses on rising grocery costs and hired labour. She said she often has to keep her meals between a dollar or two, and set her thermostat to just 14 C on winter days because I can’t afford the heating bills.

It’s been years since I bought a steak, even though I dream about having one, but I can’t justify spending the money, she said.

That’s why some advocates are calling for an increase in benefit payments, by $1,000 to $2,000 a month, at least, said the Disability Justice Network of Ontario’s Brad Evoy.

An extra thousand [dollars] a month would be life-changing, Edwards said. Maybe I could have my heat at 16 next winter, what a luxury that would be.

Furthermore, most disability benefits have an end date at age 65, including the CDB (new window) and Canada Pension Plan disability benefits (new window).

Some benefits may kick in at that stage, like the Old Age Security  (OAS) pension (new window). OAS eligibility isn’t determined by employment history, but it is determined by how long a person has lived in Canada after the age of 18.

Still, some people are concerned about losing CBD and provincial benefits when they turn 65.

Don’t kick us off of disability when we reach 65, she said. We are still disabled. This is extremely important and this part of the system has definitely failed us.

Streamlining appliations

Disability activists also want to see politicians streamline the benefit application process.

Since she first started having disability difficulties in 2011, Edwards has moved from Alberta to British Columbia and then back to Alberta.

She said it took her four to five years to get an official diagnosis due to the difficulty of the application process.

And even when she got on B.C.’s provincial benefits, she had to start the whole process again when applying for federal benefits.

Rowena Edwards says she has little faith in things changing for the better for people with disabilities post-election. Photo: CBC / Michael Wilson

Once you are on provincial disability, you must apply for federal disability and start the whole process over, with it again being very difficult to get accepted, she said.

And what needs to change is there is no interprovincial acceptance. So when I moved back to Alberta in 2022, I had to apply for a third time on [the Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped program].

Lepofsky says he predicted this problem when the CDB was before the House of Commons in 2024. He said disability organizations asked that anyone who qualifies for disability benefits should automatically qualify for the federal top-up to those benefits.

That’s not what Parliament did. Instead, they restricted the Canada Disability Benefit to the very problematic qualifications and bureaucratic way to qualify for the narrow Canada Disability Tax Credit, he said.

So they’ve set up a legal barrier to people who are in poverty, who need the Canada Disability Benefit, and a process that costs money potentially to even apply for it. It’s a catch-22.

WATCH | During Ontario’s election, disability advocates called for accessible polling stations:

Taking the pledge

With just weeks to go until Election Day, Lepofsky is calling on all parties to make the Accessible Canada Pledge (new window), which he says would tackle a significant number of barriers impacting Canadians with disabilities.

So far, the only party that’s answered us and commendably made the Accessible Canada Pledge is the Green Party, he said. It’s time for the other four candidates for prime minister to step up to the plate and to show us that people with disabilities in Canada matter too.

But Edwards says she has little faith in things changing for the better for people with disabilities post-election.

I wish each candidate had to live our lives for one week, only then do I believe things would change, she said.

With files from Ali Chiasson

This article is republished from RCI.