By Kendall Worth!
Well here we are into the holiday season 2022, and as I talked about in blog posts over the past couple of months, there are a lot of concerns around celebrating Christmas this year. The principal concern behind 2022, is inflation which is on the rise, and it is hitting people in poverty hard. Lately, I have been hearing from my community of people living in poverty, and what plans they are finalizing this year. People living in poverty are wondering if the Christmas meals are making a comeback this year. COVID Restrictions have ended. So far people in the community are reporting that nothing is advertised regarding Christmas meals.
On Wednesday December 14th 2022, however, some good news came to light. Premier Tim Houston announced a one time payments of $250.00 for Income Assistance recipients. This comes as good news especially at this time of year, but there are a lot of mixed feelings in the community about this one-time payment. First, and foremost , this payment should be monthly as an increase in the Income Assistance rate beyond Christmas! It is clear that when the 2022 holidays are over, inflation is going to continue. That one time $250.00 payment is certainly not enough to say that Premier Tim Houston saved Christmas, although he likely improves things for some individuals this month. But for those who, for example, have rent that is not affordable, they are going to use that $250.00 to catch up on bills, instead of Christmas expenses.
However the Disability Community is upset this Christmas for unrelated reasons. News came out on Wednesday -- the following tweet tells the story…
This means the House of Commons has adjourned before Bill C22 made third reading. The Disability Community is not too happy about that one. The potential relief this Disability Benefit could provide was badly needed before Christmas and now there is no chance of that happening.
The following tweet explains exactly what the Disability Community has been counting on happening before Parliament rose.
As this tweet encourages people to lobby their MP…
Even though this tweet talks about someone in Ontario, Nova Scotians with disabilities were counting on getting their first payment of the disability benefit before Christmas. After all that ODSP $1100 a month to live on, is not much more than the $950 standard household rate, for income assistance recipients, here in Nova Scotia. So I suggest talking to your MP before January 29th.
You can find my previous posts about this issue at: On The Disability Benefit: https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/search/label/disability%20benefit and on Disability Rights. https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/search/label/disability%20rights
Speaking of Disability Rights, one of the reasons the Disability Community is upset that Parliament rose before Bill C22 made 3rd reading, is based on the fact that Persons with Disabilities have just as much right to celebrate Christmas as the able bodied. This year the Community of Disabled People, will be celebrating Christmas no different from any other year. As a matter of fact, this year will be more difficult due to inflation!
Members of the Disability Community I am in-touch with, are saying the following tweet may be true:
It is all about Quality of life improvement and celebrating the holidays is part of life quality. If the government cared about quality of life then they would have completed Third Reading before Parliament rose. The community wants to know why the Government is not paying attention to the struggle facing Persons with disabilities?
I say this year, 2022, let’s celebrate the holiday season, the best way we all know how.
Merry Christmas!
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