It’s a big, bold goal: Better public policy to achieve food security for Canadians with disabilities 

• Nearly 1 million working-age disabled Canadians lived below the poverty line in 2022, which is about twice the rate of those without disabilities. 

• There is a lack of sufficient funding for disability benefits and programs, even with an overall growth in government spending.  

• The government has a crucial role in supporting individuals with disabilities who cannot fully meet their own needs, and public funds should prioritize lifting them out of poverty. 

Samuel Ragot and Daniel Béland: Poverty among persons with disabilities is a policy choice 

• The federal government has a key role to play in helping Canadians with disabilities live with greater comfort and dignity. In its current proposed form, the Canada Disability Benefit is not high enough to help Canadians with disabilities escape poverty and food insecurity. 

• Provincial and territorial social assistance programs often perpetuate poverty by reducing benefits when recipients earn income, discouraging employment. 

• There is an urgent need for provincial and territorial governments to boost their own disability benefits and other support programs as well as address the programmatic designs that lead to clawbacks and powerful work disincentives. 

• Canada should aim for ambitious poverty reduction targets that seek to promote inclusion and employment opportunities for all, including persons with disabilities. 

Taylor Jackson: It’s time to fundamentally rethink how we support those with disabilities 

Taylor Jackson is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Toronto and has worked with several think tanks in Canada and the United States and previously served as a senior advisor to Ontario’s Minister of Finance

• Canada’s disability support programs are failing to meet the needs of disabled Canadians. 

• The structure of disability benefits in Canada often creates a paradox where earning more can mean taking home less, a trap that undermines the goals these programs seek to achieve by discouraging work, savings, and financial independence.  

• The structure of these means-tested benefits that are withdrawn as income rises inadvertently creates the effect where a small increase in income results in a sudden and significant loss of benefits. 

• Instead of penalizing additional income, we need policies that encourage financial independence while maintaining a safety net for those who need it.

Jennifer Robson: Food insecurity among Canadian adults with disabilities is shockingly high. Here’s what we could do about that 

Jennifer Robson is an Associate Professor of Political Management at Carleton University and Visiting Professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University and a Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Research on Public Policy 

• Food insecurity signals severe financial stress, especially for working-age adults with disabilities. Federal and provincial support systems need improvement to better assist these individuals. 

• Current support systems often exclude and police rather than help, discouraging eligible people from accessing benefits due to stigma and administrative hurdles. 

• Canada needs a portable, nationally-recognized disability certification to reduce administrative burdens and improve access to benefits, rather than relying on CRA tax agents to adjudicate disability.  

Sarah Stern: Working to solve the problem of food insecurity in Canada 

 Sarah Stern is the Executive Director of the Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security 

Amanda MacKenzie and Neil Hetherington: How government policy is failing disabled Canadians 

Amanda MacKenzie is the National Director of External Affairs at March of Dimes Canada 

Neil Hetherington is CEO of the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto as well as a board member of the Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security  

• The greatest rise in food insecurity is occurring in those who are severely food insecure, and it is particularly acute for people with disability.
• The complexity of rules and paperwork involved make it incredibly difficult to access disability benefits. The bureaucracy involved is redundant, expensive, and ties up resources that can be better allocated.
• The federal government can play a leadership role in supporting Canadians with disabilities, and provinces should commit to not clawing back disability programs because of the Canada Disability Benefit.
• Policy makers should remove barriers to accessing benefits, including removing the Canada Disability Tax Credit as the means of accessing the CDB, and increase the investment into the CDB to effectively lift people with disability out of poverty and food insecurity.

Sam Sullivan: How we can better support disabled Canadians 

Sam Sullivan is, the founder of the Global Civics Policy Society, a former B.C. Cabinet minister and former mayor of Vancouver  

• Disability benefits often exist with perverse incentives.
• Earning employment income can be disincentivized due to fear of the government clawing back disability benefits including those related to transportation, housing, and medically assisted devices.
• People with disability should be incentivized to work if they are able to do so, and benefit adjustments should be gradual to allow them to earn more income, rather than imposing a benefits cliff.
• Government programs need to respond to real needs, and interactions with program administrators should humanize those that interact with the systems.

Jennifer Robson: Providing support, dignity and respect to disabled Canadians 

Jennifer Robson is an Associate Professor of Political Management at Carleton University and Visiting Professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University and a Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Research on Public Policy 

• Policy makers need to design a system that includes people who have been discouraged or disincentivized from accessing benefits that exist.
• Defining disability is difficult and encompasses a range of disabilities including relapsing and remitting cases. This leads to a patchwork of what is needed to interact with government programs.
• The Disability Tax Credit is used as a key to access various programs, and it is not designed to do so.
• Canada does not have good resources to move between government programs and navigating the various programs that exist.
• Incentives for increased independence and participation in the economy or community are worth the extra cost base.
• One-third of DTC certificates are issued on a temporary basis, and to renew the certificate one has to go through the entire process from the beginning.
• There is a high administrative burden of accessing the DTC through the tax system, and therefore a wider range of benefits and programs unrelated to the tax system itself, including the CDB.
• Certification of a disability could be delegated away from the CRA to an agency such as Service Canada, and this can help facilitate ones access to benefits and programs to which they are entitled.