Question Period Note: CANADA DISABILITY BENEFIT

What has the Government of Canada done to ensure the Canada Disability Benefit is implemented on time and benefits working-age persons with disabilities? What is the Government of Canada doing to engage provinces and territories to ensure no clawbacks?

• As the Minister of Jobs and Families and the Minister responsible for disability issues, I am focused on launching this important new benefit.

• As you know, Budget 2024 committed funding of $6.1 billion over six years, beginning in 2024-2025, and $1.4 billion per year ongoing, to the Canada Disability Benefit. The Budget also committed to beginning payments in July 2025, following successful completion of the regulatory process and consultations with persons with disabilities.

• The Canada Disability Benefit Regulations have been made and came into force on May 15, 2025. With the regulatory process now complete, we can begin delivering the benefit as promised, with first payments flowing to Canadians this July.

Legislation and regulations

On June 2, 2022, the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough, reintroduced in the House of Commons the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) Act, Bill C-22. The Act was framework legislation, establishing the benefit and enshrining the main objective of the benefit which is to reduce poverty and support the financial security of working-age Canadians with disabilities by supplementing existing income support measures, such as provincial and territorial social assistance. The details of the benefit were to follow in regulations.

The Canada Disability Benefit Act received Royal Assent on June 22, 2023 and came into force on June 22, 2024. The benefit is a key component of Canada’s first-ever Disability Inclusion Action Plan, which was released in 2022.

The regulatory process for the Canada Disability Benefit started in 2023 when the Government launched pre-regulatory engagement by inviting Canadians to comment on the general regulatory authorities under the Act. During this phase of engagement, the Government heard from over 8,000 Canadians and received over 5,000 pieces of input from a variety of stakeholders, including national disability organizations, academics, and legal clinics, among others. Input received during this phase of the engagement was used to inform the drafting of the proposed regulations.

On June 29, 2024, the proposed regulations for the CDB were pre-published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, for an 86-day comment period (ending on September 23, 2024). A total of 2,734 comments from over 900 commenters were received regarding the draft regulations. In addition, the Government received close to 7,000 emails from two letter-writing campaigns during this period.

The final Canada Disability Benefit Regulations were made in February 2025 and published in the Canada Gazette, Part II, on March 12, 2025 along with the Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement, which includes a summary of outcomes based on engagement with the disability community. The regulations set out key details of the benefit, including eligibility and amount.

Engagement: The Canada Disability Benefit Act includes requirements to ensure accountability and engagement with the disability community:
• Section 11.1 provides that “The Minister must provide persons with disabilities from a range of backgrounds with meaningful and barrier-free opportunities to collaborate in the development and design of the regulations, including regulations that provide for the application process, eligibility criteria, the amount of a benefit and the appeal process.”
• Sections 11.2 (1) and (2) require that two progress reports on the engagement of the disability community and the development of the regulations must be submitted to Parliament. The first was due by December 22, 2024 and was tabled in Parliament on December 12, 2024. The second, presenting progress made with respect to the regulatory process, is due by June 22, 2025 to be tabledand is drafted for tabling in the House of Commons and the Senate.

Supportive Measures

Budget 2024 proposed several key commitments to support the take-up of the Canada Disability Benefit:
• funding for ongoing community-based navigation services to improve awareness and take-up of federal, provincial, and territorial programs available to working-age Canadians with disabilities, including the Canada Disability Benefit
• funding to cover the cost of the medical forms required to apply for the Disability Tax Credit, to help address financial barriers associated with benefit take-up (led by the Canada Revenue Agency).

To help ensure that recipients of the Canada Disability Benefit keep the full value of the benefit, the 2024 Fall Economic Statement announced the Government’s intention to bring forward legislation to exempt the benefit from being treated as income under the Income Tax Act. This is being led by Finance Canada.

Provinces and Territories

Provincial and Territorial (PT) governments are critical partners in developing the CDB. Bilateral and multilateral engagement at all levels with provinces and territories has been ongoing. The federal government continues to engage PTs to understand how the CDB may interact with existing provincial and territorial income-tested programs, including disability programs and social assistance, to avoid persons with disabilities facing claw backs if they receive the CDB.

Engagement with PTs began in summer 2021 with a meeting of Federal, Provincial and Territorial (FPT) Ministers Responsible for Social Services (MRSS) where the former Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion (EWDDI) communicated the purpose of the CDB and the expectation that it would supplement, not replace, existing PT disability benefits

Between November 2023 and June 2024, bilateral engagements at the Ministerial level took place with PT counterparts with five of the meetings taking place before the Budget 2024 announcement which provided funding details on the CDB.

In September 2024 a Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers Responsible for Social Services Forum meeting took place. After this meeting, Ministers released a joint communiqué in which they welcomed the opportunity to discuss the Benefit and agreed that the social and financial inclusion of persons with disabilities are top priorities. Ministers highlighted the importance of respecting PT programs and ensuring equitable and simple access for those most in need.

Since then, several provinces and territories have shared additional feedback on the design of the Benefit with the federal Minister. While the responses of PTs to the Benefit have generally been constructive and positive, the Government of Alberta has chosen to claw back the CDB from its social assistance programs, in particular Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH). Several PTs have confirmed to federal officials that they intend to not claw back the CDB, however many have either expressed the importance of the amendment to the ITA or identified it as a condition.

Departmental officials have also been engaging bilaterally and multilaterally with their PT counterparts in technical discussions to support PTs’ work in determining their treatment of the CDB, and to seek to avoid potential negative interactions.

Modern Treaties and National Indigenous Organizations

ESDC engaged Indigenous partners including modern treaties and self government agreement holders and National Indigenous Organizations throughout the process. For example, in fall 2022, ESDC sent letters to holders of Modern Treaties and Self-Government agreements to request their input into the design and delivery of the CDB, and again in fall 2023, to invite them to engage via the online engagement tool. Since that time, ESDC has written the Indigenous partners to update them on every development and invited them to engage including on the regulations.
Consistent with Article 32 of the Nunavut Agreement, ESDC has communicated with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc (NTI) throughout the development of the Canada Disability Benefit.

If Pressed (Canada Disability Benefit)

P/T Engagement
• We continue to work closely with provinces and territories to support their work on potential interactions between the CDB and PT programs. The federal government’s goal is to maximize the benefit’s impact on supporting the financial security of working age persons with disabilities.

If Asked About Alberta
• We are disappointed that the Government of Alberta has decided to claw back the CDB from their social assistance benefits, including Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH). We will continue to engage with Alberta and we urge them to reconsider their position, or to reinvest the funds into programs that will directly benefit persons with disabilities.

• We are very pleased that several other PTs have indicated that they will allow the CDB to supplement their social assistance benefits.

• Our proposal to amend the Income Tax Act to exempt CDB from the definition of income will also be an important signal to PTs that we are setting an example by ensuring there are not any negative interactions at the federal level.

Indigenous Engagement
• My officials actively engaged Indigenous Partners on the Canada Disability Benefit because of the important perspectives they provide from coast to coast to coast, and because of the impact that the CDB will have on the lives of persons with disabilities in Canada, including Indigenous persons with disabilities.