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Increased poverty and increased insecurity is a fact among people living with disabilities who continue to be left unsupported by governments at all levels.
It is a fact that is and has been very disturbing and discriminatory to me for the past 42 years. As an example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployed Canadians were being much better looked after than people living with disabilities were. Persons with disabilities were totally being neglected as always by governments.
If you became unemployed during the pandemic, a Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) application resulted in a $2,000-per-month income for four months, which was extended, while persons with disabilities continued to receive the same monthly amount — about half the CERB amount — with no extra assistance being offered.
I believe equal treatment should be the prevailing factor when governments give considerations on providing assistance, and they should look to help and assist and treat all Canadians equally. There should be no discrimination.
There is no doubt governments should move with great speed and great precision — COVID-19 or not. That should be something all governments should be able to agree on and actually do. However, the situation has always been very disturbing and discriminatory when it comes to people with disabilities.
The federal and provincial governments have continued to offer Canadians with a disability very little, which was the case even prior to COVID-19, and this is still the case to this day.
The federal government’s response to disabled Canadians during COVID was a one-time payment of $600, and that is all that was ever provided by the federal government, and that one-time payment was not provided until October 2020 and provided only if the criteria was met by people with disabilities. Programs for unemployed Canadians, however, were implemented with rapid speed by the federal government and very early in 2020.
However, the CERB was not a type of emergency response provided by the federal government to disabled Canadians. It excluded anyone who was not employed and did not receive a certain amount of income in the year prior. A very high number of people in this category were individual Canadians who were receiving disability payments, which amounted to about half the CERB amount per month.
Low employment rates, with very limited government support, has led to increased poverty and insecurity among many people living with disabilities who were and continue to be left unsupported. The CERB certainly did not respond to disabled and vulnerable Canadians.
It has been just over 42 years since my life was permanently altered by an impaired driver and yet, over these past 42 years, I have had to tolerate the great lack of any support, which has been mostly non-existent, and it certainly never ever came from any level of government.
Doug Abernethy
Gravenhurst
