QUESTION PERIOD — Employment and Social Development
Canada Disability Benefit
December 5, 2023
My question is also for Senator Gold.
When she appeared before the Senate Social Affairs Committee last year regarding the Canada Disability Benefit, Minister Qualtrough indicated, “What I have been saying consistently is the benefit will be delivered in 2024.”
She suggested that the relevant regulations would be in place and benefits delivered 12 months after Royal Assent, which would be June 2024.
This morning, at the National Finance Committee, officials from Employment and Social Development Canada indicated they believed the benefit would be in place by June 2025 at the latest. This is one year later than the previous minister’s commitment.
Persons with disabilities across Canada are waiting. Will the government be honouring the previous minister’s commitment to deliver the benefit by 2024?
Thank you for your question. The bill and the program to which you are referring, as we all know, is a transformative national program.
The government knows that Canadians with disabilities want to see these benefits become a reality as soon as possible. It is very important in such a transformative national program — the first of its kind in this country on the issue of disability — that the government find that right balance between expediency, delivering the benefits as quickly as it can and as is clearly desired, and ensuring that it gets it right and that it engages fully with the diverse and multiple communities affected by the program.
I understand that the engagement process is under way, and the government will continue to work efficiently and effectively to get it right.
Thank you, Senator Gold. Persons with disabilities were asked to trust that the government’s proposed approach of framework legislation plus a regulatory process would deliver an adequate Canada Disability Benefit in a timely manner.
Could you please provide a concrete timeline for the work that remains before the benefit can be implemented and for when persons with disabilities can expect to begin receiving the benefit?
Thank you for your question. I understand the intent behind it and the urgency and importance with which it is animated, which underlies the question, but I am not in a position to provide the timeline, precisely for the reasons that I said — that the government needs to engage, wants to engage and should be engaging with the disability community. That process has begun, but is not yet complete.
This is the kind of program where it is important that those in the disability community have ownership and responsibility for the timelines as they will be developed.
