Salvation Army a Victorian era charity still needed to help the poor in Canada
During the coldest week of winter, people on Prince Edward Island who are living in poverty discovered that the Salvation Army has run out of emergency oil support.
Editor – Part of a series reporting the ten years of harassment of Canadians with disabilities by Canada Revenue Agency. This archived story from the CCD is dated 2001. It is the first public acknowledgment of the income tax problems to come as Canada Customs and Revenue tries to remove the DTC from thousands of Canadians with disabilities. Continue reading
Alexa McDonough Canadian NDP Leader (1995 - 2003) Reuters photo
By Stephen Pate, Polio PEI, November 21, 2002 (from our archives)
In an unprecedented vote Wednesday in the House of Commons, government MP’s supported an NDP Motion and defeated the government’s changes to the Disability Tax Credit.
The Liberal Government’s Department of Finance introduced draft legislation on August 30, 2002 intended to introduce restrictions in the ability of Canadian taxpayers with disabilities to obtain tax relief.
The Disability Tax Credit provides approximately $1,000 of tax savings to 400,000 severely disabled Canadians.
On Tuesday, November 19th, 2002, NDP leader Alexa McDonough introduced an opposition Motion that was debated for most of that day. Continue reading
The Standing Committee on Health, Social Development and Seniors made a recommendation that Minister Janice Sherry include seniors in the PEI Disability Support Program.
The DSP provides assistive devices like wheelchairs and hearing aids to non-seniors with disabilities along with comprehensive home care.
Following up on that report Opposition Leader Olive Crane asked the Minister in Question Period if she would commit to including Seniors in the DSP by April 1, 2011.
Minister Sherry waffled in her reply deferring to another government committee comprised of NGO’s and volunteers.
How long will the 8,980 Islanders 65 years of age and older have to wait for relief from the crushing cost of wheelchairs, hearing aids and home support that will keep them living independently?
On December 7th, 2010 during Question Period, Crane asked about Sherry about “a large number of seniors with disabilities in the province. Madam Minister, will eligible seniors be able to access this program in April 1st of this coming year?” (Hansard) Continue reading
Merry Christmas from CBC, sorry you're life is not so merry
Nothing is more obscene than the pampered people at CBC with their annual do-gooder turkey drive. CBC wastes it’s considerable resources attacking the wrong end of the stick.
Do they think one turkey at Christmas will alleviate the crushing weight of poverty or is this all just another WKRP radio station publicity stunt?
If the folks at CBC really carried about Christmas and the message of Christ, they would use their considerable resources to report stories about the reality of PEI’s poverty problem.
A short stint of real reporting at CBC would inform the public and embarrass the government into fixing the problem once and for all.
Dr. Robert Coull wrote that charity drives make him angry. “The need for charity is something that makes me very angry. It reminds me that our society is unjust. The poor continue to be poor, while the rich get richer. Rich people ‘feeling good’ about giving a few dollars or a few hours of their time to the ‘deserving poor’ is something I would love to see the end of.” Continue reading
Minister of Community Services, Seniors and Labour Janice Sherry, press release to follow
The world celebrates UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities. On Prince Edward Island, we can look forward to political hot air.
The appropriate minister will rise in the Legislature to acknowledge her love for and empathy with the situation of Islanders living with disabilities. Those speeches are fulsome, with profound words that puff up those who listen. In reality, they are hollow with pontificating and prevarication. Continue reading
The UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities may be a publicity stunt or a grim reminder to many of the 4 million Canadians living with disabilities that they are locked in last place in the Canadian experience.
The UN press release says “The Day aims to promote a better understanding of disability issues with a focus on the rights of persons with disabilities and gains to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of the political, social, economic and cultural life of their communities. The goal of full and effective participation of persons with disabilities in society and development was established by the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1982.” UN Enable
How good is life for people with disabilities in Canada? Continue reading
The Caledon Institute has presented a proposal, Caledon Basic Income Plan, to overhaul Canada’s patchwork and failing system of social supports for working age Canadians who are severely disabled and living in poverty.
The new system would prevent the abject poverty that afflicts Canadians with disabilities where a single adult in New Brunswick is subsisting on roughly $8,000 a year, which is less than half of the LICO (Low Income Cut-Off).
This poverty exists despite the billions being spent at the Federal and Provincial levels.
The proposal is comprehensive but not a system that purposes major increases in social spending.
Instead it proposes to use the existing systems, like the Income Tax Act and Canada Pension Disability Benefit, to streamline and reorganize benefits making them more effective in eliminating poverty for working age Canadians with severe disabilities. Continue reading
Federal Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Diane Finley (photo Government of Canada)
Bob Speller, Liberal candidate in the Haldimand-Norfolk riding, blasted Federal Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Diane Finley for having an office that is not wheelchair accessible.
“She keeps making announcements saying the government is doing so much for the disabled, but she doesn’t seem to care in her own riding that they don’t have access,” said Speller. “It goes to show she’s not serious about the issue. She should be setting an example. This is embarrassing.” (Cnews.canoe.ca)
The access to Finley’s office is by way of a set of stairs and a barrier at the door. People in wheelchairs cannot navigate stairs or door sills.
“Bob Speller is simply trying to distract from the dismal Liberal record on helping person with disabilities,” said a statement from Finley’s office. “In fact, Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals are constantly voting against support for persons with disabilities such as when they voted against the creation of the historic Registered Disabilities Saving Plan and the Enabling Accessibility Fund.”
That’s cold comfort to her constituents who must make an appointment with Finley and meet her off-site, perhaps at Tim Horton’s.
The lack of accessible office space is the tip of the iceberg for Finley, who despite her own vision impairment has little sympathy for Canadians living with disabilities.
Yes she piloted the Registered Disabilities Saving Plan through Parliament. That helps the children of upper-middle class Canadians save for the time when the parents have passed on. Those lucky few children with disabilities, then adults, face the bleak future of struggling to exist in Canada’s disability wasteland. The program is useless for most Canadians with disabilities who are struggling to survive. Where are they going to find disposable income to save for their childrens’ income? Continue reading
J. P. Blackburn Minister of Veterans Affairs meets with Veterans (pnoto UN Nato Veterans)
J.P. Blackburn, Canadian Minister of Veterans Affairs, said the Government is sticking with the lump sum benefits that replaced the former life pension for veterans with a disability.
Veterans, their families and Canadians can only feel the cynicism of the Minister and the Harper government for going back on his assurances during Veterans Week that the Charter would be reformed.
Remembrance Day is last week’s news. This week veterans will have to continue the battle to get the benefits they need and deserve.
“I feel obliged,” Blackburn said in a copyrighted statement Saturday to the Calgary Herald, “however, to draw one line in the sand.”
Then he went on to firmly denounce those who want the Veterans Charter reformed. “There are those who insist that Canada should abandon its lump-sum payments and the ongoing financial supports that come with them. They want us to turn back the clock and fully restore the previous system of disability pensions. I believe this would be a serious error. And, quite frankly, I believe those advocating such changes probably are not familiar with all the details of the Charter.” Continue reading
Patient on dialysis (image Razor Gator)
by Robin Fields, ProPublica
In 1972, after a month of deliberation, Congress launched the nation’s most ambitious experiment in universal health care: a change to the Social Security Act that granted comprehensive coverage under Medicare to virtually anyone diagnosed with kidney failure, regardless of age or income.
It was a supremely hopeful moment. Although the technology to keep kidney patients alive through dialysis had arrived, it was still unattainable for all but a lucky few. At one hospital, a death panel — or “God committee” in the parlance of the time — was deciding who got it and who didn’t. The new program would help about 11,000 Americans, just for starters. For a modest initial price tag of $135 million, it would cover not only their dialysis and transplants, but all of their medical needs. Some consider it the closest that the United States has come to socialized medicine.
Now, almost four decades later, a program once envisioned as a model for a national health care system has evolved into a hulking monster. Taxpayers spend more than $20 billion a year to care for those on dialysis — about $77,000 per patient, more, by some accounts, than any other nation. Yet the United States continues to have one of the industrialized world’s highest mortality rates for dialysis care. Even taking into account differences in patient characteristics, studies suggest that if our system performed as well as Italy’s, or France’s, or Japan’s, thousands fewer patients would die each year. Continue reading