Question Period Note: CANADA DISABILITY BENEFIT

What is the current status of the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB)? What is the Government doing to engage provinces and territories to ensure no clawbacks? What is the Government doing to address the cost of Disability Tax Credit (DTC) medical fees? Is the Government still planning to exempt the CDB from being treated as income?

In June 2025, the Government of Canada successfully launched the Canada Disability Benefit to improve the financial security of working-age Canadians with disabilities. First payments began in July 2025.

The Canada Disability Benefit provides a maximum of $2,400 per year to eligible low-income persons with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 64. So far, hundreds of thousands of Canadians have received payments.

The government reaffirmed its commitment in Budget 2025 to lowering barriers to accessing the Canada Disability Benefit by helping to offset the costs of applying for a Disability Tax Credit certificate. The government proposes to provide a supplemental payment of $150 for each Disability Tax Credit certification, or re-certification, resulting in entitlement to the Canada Disability Benefit

IF PRESSED (DTC Costs and the Canada Disability Benefit)

Budget 2025:

Budget 2025 proposes funding of $115.7 million over four years, beginning in 2026-27, and $10.1 million per year ongoing, for the supplemental payment of $150. These payments will be retroactive to the launch of the CDB and will start to be paid following the successful completion of a regulatory process to amend the Canada Disability Benefit Regulations.

Budget 2025 also reaffirmed the government’s intention to amend the Income Tax Act to exempt the Canada Disability Benefit from being treated as income. This will help Canadians keep the full value of their benefits, including other federal income-tested benefits and programs such as the Canada Child Benefit.

Engagement with provinces and territories:

Provinces and territories play a critical role in providing supports to Canadians with disabilities. While recognizing that provincial and territorial authorities are ultimately responsible for determining how their programs will treat the Canada Disability Benefit, the federal government has called on them to exempt Canada Disability Benefit payments from counting as income in relation to provincial or territorial supports. We continue to engage with them on the CDB, with the goal of maximizing the benefit’s impact.

Alberta:

We are disappointed that the Government of Alberta has decided to claw back the Canada Disability Benefit from their social assistance benefits, including under its Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) program. 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 Provinces and Trerritories have indicated publicly that they will allow the Canada Disability Benefit to supplement their social assistance benefits.

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 Canada Disability Benefit will have on the lives of persons with disabilities in Canada, including Indigenous persons with disabilities.

Legislation and regulations

Bill C-22, the Canada Disability Benefit Act, was introduced on June 2, 2022. The Act received royal assent on June 22, 2023, and came into force on June 22, 2024. As the framework legislation for the Canada Disability Benefit (CBD), the Act enshrines the main objective of the benefit which is to reduce poverty and support the financial security of working-age Canadians with disabilities.

The key details of the benefit, including eligibility and amount, are set out in the Canada Disability Benefit Regulations, which came into force on May 15, 2025.

The regulatory process for the CDB 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 were pre-published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, for an 86-day comment period A total of 2,734 comments from over 900 commenters were received, in addition to close to 7,000 emails from two letter-writing campaigns during this period.

The final Canada Disability Benefit Regulations were 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.

To help offset the costs of applying for the Disability Tax Credit (DTC), the government announced that it will offset the costs of applying for the DTC by providing a supplemental payment of $150 for each DTC certification or re-certification resulting in CDB entitlement. These payments will be retroactive to the launch of the benefit and are expected to be paid to Canadians by 2026-27, following the successful completion of a regulatory process to amend the Canada Disability Benefit Regulations.

Budget 2025 also reaffirmed the government’s intention to amend the Income Tax Act to exempt the CDB from being treated as income, so that Canadians keep the full value of their benefits, including other federal income-tested benefits.

Supportive Measures

Fourteen community-based organizations across Canada are currently funded by the Government to provide accessible, individualized navigation services to help navigate federal, provincial and territorial disability benefits, including the Disability Tax Credit and the CDB. These organizations reduce and mitigate barriers by providing one-on-one services, free of charge, to support individuals with disabilities and their families as they navigate all stages of an application for benefits, including support through any appeals.

Provinces and Territories

Provincial and territorial (PT) governments are critical partners in the implementation of the CDB. Bilateral and multilateral engagement at all levels with provinces and territories has been ongoing.

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

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 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 and several PTs have publicly confirmed they will not claw back the CDB, 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).

Modern Treaties and National Indigenous Organizations

ESDC engaged Indigenous partners including Modern Treaty and Self-Government agreement partners and National Indigenous Organizations throughout the development of the Canada Disability Benefit Regulations. Consistent with Article 32 of the Nunavut Agreement, ESDC communicated with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc (NTI) throughout the development of the CDB. All Indigenous partners were notified of the publication of the final regulations in March 2025. The notification included an invitation to meet bilaterally with ESDC officials.

Progress reports

The Canada Disability Benefit Act requires that two progress reports on engagement with the disability community and the development of the regulations be tabled in Parliament. The first was tabled on December 12, 2024. The second was tabled on June 16, 2025, in the House of Commons and June 17, 2025, in the Senate.

Working-age persons with disabilities are less likely to be able to earn income through employment compared to other working-age Canadians and are almost twice as likely to be living in poverty. “The Canada Disability Benefit is a critical step forward in our work to improve the financial security of working-age persons with disabilities. As the Minister of Jobs and Families, I want to assure you that the government remains committed to making it easier for lower-income persons with disabilities in Canada to access the benefits and supports they are entitled to.”