The federal government’s bill to implement a new Canada Disability Benefit passed Parliament on Tuesday.
Bill C-22, from Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Carla Qualtrough, proposes to create a federal income supplement for low-income, working-age people with disabilities, modelled after the Guaranteed Income Supplement.
There has been pressure on the federal Liberals to make good on this commitment for years, after a previous version of the bill died in the House with the call of the last federal election.
Qualtrough has billed this proposal as “an important part of Canada’s social safety net” and a “game changer” that would benefit hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities. However, it remains unspecified how much money would be offered.
“This is an historic day! With this final vote in the Senate, Bill C-22 – the Canada Disability Benefit Act – is now on it’s way to receiving Royal Assent,” Qualtrough tweeted Tuesday evening. “This is the culmination of years of activism from members of the disability community. This is your victory.”
It was the first bill debated at the start of the fall sitting, and passed the House in February. In the months since, the Senate has had its hands in the bill, ultimately making a handful of amendments.
Because the Senate had amended the bill, it bounced the legislation back into the House of Commons for re-consideration. Last week, the House voted to approve with some slight adjustments, five of the six Senate changes to Bill C-22, including acknowledgements of the rising cost of living and intersectional and systemic barriers facing the disability community, as well as stronger timelines for implementation.
However, senators Marilou McPhedran and Kim Pate voiced concern that the federal government rejected a “key” proposed change to the legislation that they said would have protected the disability benefit from potential private insurance claw backs, due to “concerns over provincial jurisdiction over the regulation of the insurance industry.”
“Time will tell how this private insurance loophole may be exploited. If—and when—it is, Parliament will have a second chance to correct it. But, it will come at the expense of the disabled community, who will be made to suffer because the government failed to act courageously at the outset,” said the senators in a joint statement.
On Tuesday, senators passed a motion from the government’s representative Sen. Marc Gold, to concur with the House, paving the way for this bill to receive royal assent likely in the next few days.
Sen. Brent Cotter said before the vote that much as he would like to include protections against future claw backs, doing so would likely be unconstitutional.
“Whether we like it or not, and I don’t, the no claw backs clause has within it the seeds of an almighty constitutional fight, which Ottawa would assuredly lose,” he said.
“I’m not happy with that outcome,” he also said. “I am as concerned about the stories that you have heard, that I have heard, as anybody, but there are limits to what we can do. Indeed, we have an obligation to respect those limits, whether we like it or not.”
The passage of Bill C-22 is being celebrated by the disability advocacy community, as a “historic milestone,” while noting work remains to develop the regulations that will determine the benefit’s parameters.
Last week, 10 national disability organizations called on senators to pass Bill C-22 “immediately,” noting the limited time left in Parliament before the summer break, and the fact that people with disabilities make up 40 per cent of Canada’s low-income population.
“The transformative law begins to close a gaping hole in Canada’s social safety net, offering persons with disabilities greater financial security, more choice, freedom, and dignity to live inclusive lives in the community,” said Inclusion Canada in a statement on Tuesday.
TORONTO – A 21-year-old man is dead after what police are describing as an “interaction” with officers during the execution of a search warrant in Toronto.
York Regional Police say their officers were executing a search warrant in the area of Evans Avenue and Sherway Gardens Road at approximately 5 a.m. Monday.
Police say officers had an “interaction” with a man.
They say a 21-year-old man suffered life-threatening injuries and was taken to hospital.
Police say the man was pronounced dead there.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit is investigating.
The watchdog agency investigates the conduct of police officers that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or discharge of a firearm at a person.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
The head of a group that helps homeless people in Saint John, N.B., says it is mourning the death of a 58-year-old man whose body was found in an encampment over the weekend.
Johanne McCullough of Street Team Saint John says John Surette was known for his kindness and for taking care of people around him.
The Saint John Police Force say Surette’s body was found in a tent near Paradise Row in the north end of the city Saturday morning.
Investigators say the circumstances of the death are not considered criminal in nature and an autopsy has been scheduled.
Surrette was found not far from where three people died last winter in two separate tent fires.
McCullough says the community will remember Surrette for his helpfulness and generosity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Liberal House leader Karina Gould lambasted Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre as a “fraudster” this morning after he said the federal carbon price is going to cause a “nuclear winter.”
Gould was speaking just before the House of Commons is set to reopen following the summer break.
“What I heard yesterday from Mr. Poilievre was so over the top, so irresponsible, so immature, and something that only a fraudster would do,” she said from Parliament Hill.
On Sunday Poilievre said increasing the carbon price will cause a “nuclear winter,” painting a dystopian picture of people starving and freezing because they can’t afford food or heat due the carbon price.
He said the Liberals’ obsession with carbon pricing is “an existential threat to our economy and our way of life.”
The carbon price currently adds about 17.6 cents to every litre of gasoline, but that cost is offset by carbon rebates mailed to Canadians every three months. The Parliamentary Budget Office provided analysis that showed eight in 10 households receive more from the rebates than they pay in carbon pricing, though the office also warned that long-term economic effects could harm jobs and wage growth.
Gould accused Poilievre of ignoring the rebates, and refusing to tell Canadians how he would make life more affordable while battling climate change. The Liberals have also accused the Conservatives of dismissing the expertise of more than 200 economists who wrote a letter earlier this year describing the carbon price as the least expensive, most efficient way to lower emissions.
Poilievre is pushing for the other opposition parties to vote the government down and trigger what he calls a “carbon tax election.”
The recent decision by the NDP to break its political pact with the government makes an early election more likely, but there does not seem to be an interest from either the Bloc Québécois or the NDP to have it happen immediately.
Poilievre intends to bring a non-confidence motion against the government as early as this week but would likely need both the Bloc and NDP to support it.
Gould said she has no “crystal ball” over when or how often Poilievre might try to bring down the government
“I know that the end of the supply and confidence agreement makes things a bit different, but really all it does is returns us to a normal minority parliament,” she said. “And that means that we will work case-by-case, legislation-by-legislation with whichever party wants to work with us. I have already been in touch with all of the House leaders in the opposition parties and my job now is to make Parliament work for Canadians.”
She also insisted the government has listened to the concerns raised by Canadians, and received the message when the Liberals lost a Toronto byelection in June in seat the party had held since 1997.
“We certainly got the message from Toronto-St. Paul’s and have spent the summer reflecting on what that means and are coming back to Parliament, I think, very clearly focused on ensuring that Canadians are at the centre of everything that we do moving forward,” she said.
The Liberals are bracing, however, for the possibility of another blow Monday night, in a tight race to hold a Montreal seat in a byelection there. Voters in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun are casting ballots today to replace former justice minister David Lametti, who was removed from cabinet in 2023 and resigned as an MP in January.
The Conservatives and NDP are also in a tight race in Elmwood-Transcona, a Winnipeg seat that has mostly been held by the NDP over the last several decades.
There are several key bills making their way through the legislative process, including the online harms act and the NDP-endorsed pharmacare bill, which is currently in the Senate.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
