May 2024

Inclusion Matters

May 2024

Canada Disability Benefit Update: Write your MP today!


Inclusion Canada joins the disability community in expressing our dismay and frustration at the government's recent federal budget announcement, which allocates a maximum of only $200 per month for the new Canada Disability Benefit. This amount is significantly lower than what was recommended by the community and far from sufficient to meet the needs of people with disabilities living in poverty.


As the graph shows above, a maximum of $200/month, or only $6/day, will do nothing to bring people with disabilities living in poverty above the poverty line.


To learn more about the community recommendations, as given to the government over a year ago, please look at our What We Heard (WWH) Report. Our WWH materials were developed from a year of consultations with the disability community. They told us what needed to be in a new national disability benefit to make a significant difference for them. It wasn't $6/day and they specifically asked that it not be delivered through the Disability Tax Credit (DTC).


We are currently working with our national disability partners to develop an advocacy strategy to make the benefit better. We would like to encourage you to use the template letter below and write to your Member of Parliament (MP). The more MPs hear about the importance of the benefit and what is needed, the more likely they are to listen and make changes.



Links to MP Template Letter:



Find your MP here. >

Petition the House of Commons on the CDB!


We also invite you to support an active petition in the House of Commons on the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB). The petition urges the Government of Canada to revise current CDB proposals. Every signature counts, so please sign and share this petition widely.


Petition:



Advancing Accessible Communication for People with an Intellectual Disability


For the last three years, Inclusion Canada, People First of Canada & the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health have been exploring ways to make information more accessible for people with intellectual disabilities and their families. We’re excited to share this work with you!


611 people, including self-advocates and family members, helped us create recommendations for the Government of Canada. Visit our website to read our plain language report, easy read recommendations, and best practice info sheets:


English resources here. >

Ressources en français ici. >



Preventing and Responding to Crime Through Access and Inclusion: What is Listen Include Respect?

On May 14, we hosted a webinar to learn about Listen, Include, Respect, and its applicability to the justice system. Listen, Include, Respect is an international tool to promote inclusion. It was developed by people with an intellectual disability. We're inviting lawyers, judges, social workers, and other justice professionals to get excited about making the justice system more accessible and inclusive.


Recordings of the webinar are now available! If you missed this, we invite you to take some time to watch, learn, reflect, and act. This event was hosted in English with French simultaneous interpretation, ASL, LSQ, and English and French CART captioning. 


Watch the English version here. >

Regardez la version en française ici. >

Inclusion Canada in Action


  • Ready, Willing and Able Assistant National Director, Frank Fagan was a featured panellist for the 2024 Canadian Congress on Disability Inclusion – May 24, 2024. The Panel also featured The Honourable Kamal Khera, Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities, and discussed accessibility in employment. 
  • RWA has recently launched 12 new assets on its online resource hub, The Inclusive Workplace. Amongst these new assets are a number specifically intended to assist persons with an intellectual disability looking to explore self-employment and entrepreneurship.   
  • Tara Levandier presented Inclusion Canada’s work on easy-to-understand information in health and accessibility legislation to international organizations working on inclusive participation for people with an intellectual disability and their families.
  • On May 28th, Krista Carr spoke at the Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work's (CCRW) evening event in Ottawa to mark this year's National AccessAbility Awareness Week (NAAW).
  • From May 29 - June 1st, Krista Carr attended Inclusion BC's (and partners) annual conference, titled: Everyone Belongs 2024, held this year in Nanaimo, BC.


Canadian Dental Care Benefit


People with disabilities often have more issues in accessing proper dental care. This can be because it’s hard for some people with disabilities to maintain good oral hygiene or get adequate and affordable oral health care.


The new Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) is meant to help make it easier and more affordable to get oral health care. This is targeting up to 9 million Canadian residents with an adjusted family net income below $90,000 and who don’t have dental insurance.  

 

Persons with a valid Disability Tax Credit (DTC) can apply beginning June 1.

All other eligible Canadian residents, including persons with a disability without the DTC, can apply in 2025.

 

You can apply if you:

  • Have no access to dental insurance; 
  • Have an adjusted family net income of less than $90,000; 
  • Are a Canadian resident for tax purposes; and
  • Have filed your tax return in the previous year.


Click here to find out more info and if you're eligible. >

The Right to Decide


From Sept 2022 to August 2023, in collaboration with funding from Employment and Social Development Canada, Inclusion Canada worked to support Community Living Ontario’s ongoing project, along with other partners, to better understand the challenges and barriers people with intellectual disabilities and their families face in exercising their legal right to make choices and decisions.


Our collaborative work uncovered many enablers of legal capacity, as well as many barriers. We were pleased to support this work and the resources that have been developed. Although pertinent to Ontario, several resources have been developed that will also be very relevant for use in other areas of the country.


Stay tuned for more information on this project soon.


Click here to learn more. >

Inclusion Canada - Annual Feedback from People with Intellectual Disabilities and Families 


We want to hear from you about how we're doing! 

 

Each year Inclusion Canada asks people with an intellectual disability and their families and allies for feedback on our national work. We appreciate your thoughts on how you feel we are advancing inclusion for people with an intellectual disability and their families. Your honest answers allow us to flag important opportunities for growth and improvement in the areas that matter to you. 

 

The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete, and there is an opportunity at the end of the survey to be entered to win an Inclusion Canada prize package. 

 

We hope you can take a few minutes to share your thoughts! The survey will be open until June 7th 2024.


Complete the English version here. >

Veuillez répondre, ici, au sondage en français. >

Inclusion Canada in the News

Globe and Mail, With subtle phrases, job postings inadvertently weed out job seekers with disabilities

The BMJ, Disability community feels ignored in Canada's assisted dying expansion


Upcoming Dates & Events

 May 26-June 1 - National AccessAbility Week

June 12-13 - 17th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD

June 16 - Father's Day

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