Canadian disability news clicks

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Canadian disability news clicks

Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD)

A Voice of Our Own and the Horror Gazette

We're terribly impressed with two online publications produced by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities -- A Voice of Our Own at http://www.ccdonline.ca/publications/Voice/0403.htm, a quarterly trombone documenting the latest legal and political challenges undertaken by this national advocacy association, and the annual Horror Gazette at http://www.ccdonline.ca/publications/horror-gazette/index.htm, which reviews each year's most offensive and often tragic affronts to the disabled.

Here's a sample from the most recent April, 2003 edition of A Voice of Our Own:

CCD Social Policy Working Group: CCD Commentary on the Federal Budget (February 2003)

1. Employment Assistance for Persons with Disabilities (EAPD)

What we wanted! Expansion and investment of new dollars in EAPD.
What we got! Renewal of EAPD with no new dollars.
Comment: Can new agreements be reached with the provinces and territories when no new dollars are on the table? Will the In Unison process continue when after 5 years of talk there are no resource for actions?

2. Disability Tax Credit (DTC)

What we wanted! Expansion of the eligibility for DTC and the DTC made refundable.
What we got! A one year evaluation of DTC and a technical advisory committee to provide advise on DTC reforms to Finance and Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCR). A projected expansion of DTC spending in 2004 of $55 million. Re-introduction of the restrictive amendments to the Income Tax Act, related to "feeding and dressing" eligibility criteria.
Comment: On what basis is the projected increase of $55 million expenditures made when the "evaluation" has not occurred? Why at this time are the regressive amendments being re-introduced when the evaluation of DTC has not been done? For those without a taxable income DTC reform does nothing unless it is made refundable.

3. Support to Low Income Families of children with severe disabilities

What We Wanted! Investment in Disability Supports
What we got! A Disability Children's Benefit of $40 million in 2003 and $50 million in 2004 for children who are DTC eligible and whose family has an income of less than $33,000.
Comment: This is the most positive disability initiative in the budget. It will put cash in the hands of those eligible. In provinces where the national child benefit is clawed back from social assistance it will have limited benefit. This piece is new money.

4. Social Development Partnership Program (SDPP)

What We Wanted! Renewal and allocation of more dollars to the SDPP which supports organizations of persons with disabilities.
What We Got! Status quo - renewal but no new investment.
Comment: Funding has not increased for 5 years. Thus renewal with no new dollars actually is a reduction in support. Disability organizations without an increase will have to reduce their activities.

5. Reinvestment in Disability Supports

What We Wanted! A plan for re-investing in disability supports to enable Canadians with disabilities to participate in community life.
What We Got! Expansion of the Medical Expense Tax Credit (METC) to include real time captioning and gluten free diets.
Comment: The METC expansion is marginal at best. Most hard of hearing individuals do not have the money to pay for captioning and then wait for a year to get a partial reimbursement of their expenses. There is no plan for a disability supports investment or even for a smaller small labour market strategy to address the needs of people with disabilities.

Overall

Other than the children with disability benefit this budget indicates no overall plan or framework for addressing the erosion of supports for Canadians with disabilities.

Most new benefits are tied to the tax system and will have little impact on the needs of most Canadians with disabilities because they live on social assistance and do not have a taxable income.

Pow!

Now here's a sample item from the Jan. 10, 2001 Horror Gazette on the tragic death of wheelchair-bound Dwayne Gough, who died from dehydration following a reduction in the number of home care visits he received:

Cutbacks and Decisions; Life and Death
January 10, 2001 Vol. 4 No. 1

"Dehydration caused a shutdown of his major organs". That's how a tri-organizational, December 19, 2000 news release described the death, in his Victoria apartment, of a 32-year-old former wheelchair athlete and CPA volunteer, Dwayne Gough.

The groups -- the B.C. Paraplegic Association, B.C. Coalition of Persons with Disabilities and the Victoria-based, Home Support Action Group--are backing the family's call that an bi-partizan provincial investigation be undertaken to answer the "disturbing questions" (to further quote from the release) that the Gough case brings to the fore.

Gough died at some point over the September 16-17 weekend. He had recently been cut off home support by provincial health authorities. "If Mr. Gough had not been cut off his home support," says BCCPD Provincial Co-ordinator, Margaret Birrell, "a worker would have visited his apartment on the Saturday of the weekend he died. He would have obtained immediate medical treatment that could have saved his life."

Gough was hardly an exorbitant system user. Birrell states that just a few home care worker visits per month afforded him " ... a clean, healthy apartment and regular monitoring of his health and diet. So little support meant so much to his life, yet his services were cut."

Both publications are authoritative, well written and extremely concise -- even the many legal articles we've seen so far. This advocacy group provides a quick and dirty look at key disability issues in each province and, although we may not always agree with the choice of national challenges undertaken, we find the writing and the quality of analysis to be uniformly top drawer.

For more information about these publications, contact:

Council of Canadians with Disabilities
926-294 Portage Ave.
Winnipeg, Man.
Voice/TTY: 204-947-0303
E-mail: ccd@ccdonline.ca
Website: www.ccdonline.ca

For more information about Gough and the crisis in home care, click on http://www.straightgoods.com/item413.shtml, Young man's death illustrates crisis in Canadian home care by Nancy Pollack at Straight Goods, on http://www.bccpd.bc.ca/trjafe02/trjafeind.html#home, Home support: the struggle continues by Glen Sanford in Transition magazine, January/February 2002, on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/disabilitystudies/message/445, a Yahoo disabilities forum that discussed the issue, and on http://www.langleyadvance.com/032102/opinion/032102le3.html, a letter to the editor in the Langley Advance following the coroner's inquest. For recent articles on continued cuts to B.C. home care, see http://www.bccpd.bc.ca/commalert/homesupcuts.html at the B.C. Persons With Disabilities website. The articles provide a link to authoritative home care studies by Hollander Analytical Services Ltd. at http://www.hollanderanalytical.com/main.html. See also the July/August, 2004 Transition home care issue available free on our homepage.

Ed.

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