By Kendall Worth!
On January 30th 2023 the House of Commons will resume, in Ottawa. The big questions on people’s minds these days are:
Is the Federal Government going to reach a deal with provincial Premiers on Health Care funding transfers?
Is Bill C22 going to pass and get Royal Assent in a timely manner, and how much is The Canadian Disability Benefit going to provide to those who qualify? And who will qualify?
With inflation continuing to be on the rise, does the federal Government have any plans to provide help to those in need? Any plans to address rising inflation in general?
What about addressing the fact that the homeless population continues to increase?
Recently I found this update on Bill C-22 on twitter.
Nova Scotians with Disabilbites are hoping that this tweet will mean that either the Disability Benefit will not affect Income Assistance, OR something can be worked out so, at the very least, income assistance recipients can receive the Disability Benefit and still get their bus passes and prescriptions covered by Community Services.
Anyway Lets wait and see, but the the fight to get Bill C22 passed, has got to continue.
We need to continue fighting for the benefit is going to provide enough to live on, meaning something much better then the $950.00 standard house hold rate, here in Nova Scotia.
Something-Else that is worrisome for the Disability Community is all this talk about Medically Assisted Death, and the planned expansion to those with mental illnesses.
The following tweet displays the Concern:
Persons with Disabilities are saying Medically Assisted Death is not the answer!
And yet another concern coming from the Disability Community is about this new Leader of the Conservative Party -- Pierre Poilievre. People in my community are saying he is just not looking at reality. His opinions on why inflation is on the rise is wrong. We have not heard one supportive word about persons with Disabilities coming out of Poilievre’s mouth, since he became leader.
Regarding health care, we hear that it is the same across the country… a crisis as it is here in Nova Scotia. Recently two people passed away after not being treated in Emergency rooms, in time. We still have a long list of people here in Nova Scotia without Family Doctors. All Provinces in Canada are asking for an increase in health care funding from the Federal Government, and the Community continues to hope they will soon reach a deal with the provinces.
But what-else the Federal Government needs to be addressing when the house does return is not limited to reaching a Health Care agreement. They need to tackle inflation. Lately on the news we have been hearing about first time home buyers cancelling their purchases because of interest rates rising on loans and mortgages. We have been hearing about how people who are becoming homeless over this past year are not limited to those on welfare, but we have people going to work from their tent – the only accommodation they can find! We hear more and more about working people - meaning people with full time jobs becoming homeless these days. As my recent BLOG post explains, there is an expected 60% increase in Food-Bank usage in 2023 and this unacceptable. The $2000 a month existed for it’s short lived time. My suggestion “Bring back the CERB amount” People need to live better these days.
So I will end this by saying, that I hope that during this upcoming session, the Health system will get addressed, Bill C22 will pass 3rd reading and get royal Assent, they will make changes to proposed Medically Assisted Dying, and tackle Inflation. Those are the expectations of the Disability Community for this upcoming session of the federal parliament.
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