Achi news desk-
As Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland prepares to deliver the federal government’s budget next week, new data suggests overwhelming support for the Canada Disability Benefit, a form of financial assistance for people living with disabilities that was signed into law in June last
According to a survey by the Angus Reid Foundation, 91 percent of respondents claim to support the proposed Canada Disability Benefit.
Such support spans the political spectrum, the research suggests, with 83 per cent of former Conservative voters and 98 per cent of former Liberal voters in favor of the benefit. Up to 99 percent of past NDP voters and 98 percent of Bloc Québécois voters also share support for disability resources to be included in the federal budget, according to the survey.
In an interview with CTV News last September, Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities Minister Kamal Khera called the benefit a “generational national program.”
“I think it’s very important that we find the balance between, of course, the convenience and the care that he needs to make sure that we do things right, and engage with the community. So, that is exactly what I am committed to in this new role,” Khera told CTV News.
Khera’s comments came against a backdrop of criticism from Canada over the government’s slow pace of implementing disability resources.
According to Angus Reid, only one in 20 (five per cent) of respondents said they were “confident the federal government will follow through, while 45 per cent doubted it will and 13 per hundred say they are certain the benefit will never be distributed. .”
The benefit, called Bill C-22, passed the Senate on June 20, 2023. The federal government estimated it would take more than a year to establish.
The data shows that Canadians across the political spectrum believe that the current resources available to those living with disabilities are generally inadequate, with 58 per cent of former Conservative voters, 66 percent of former Liberal voters and 77 percent of NDP voters describe disability support as “inadequate.”
“As the federal government’s Canada Disability Benefit is being debated, the provinces have gathered how they might handle the new benefit and whether they would recover their own support for people living with disabilities,” it read. Angus Reid’s report highlights the findings of the survey.
“Advocates worry that this would counteract the federal benefit’s goal of lifting Canadians living with disabilities out of poverty.”
Methodology
The Angus Reid Foundation in partnership with Daily Bread and Disability Without Poverty conducted an online survey between March 26 and 28, 2024 among a representative random sample of 1,610 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. Just for comparison, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies within or between totals are due to rounding. The survey was self-commissioned and paid for jointly by ARI, Daily Bread and Disability Without Poverty.
With files from CTV News Senior Digital Parliamentary Correspondent Rachel Aiello
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