2008 Party Platforms
www.ndp.ca
New Democratic Party of Canada
NDP Platform Commitments regarding People with Disabilities
- Implement a Canadian Disabilities Action Plan based on the vision of an inclusive and accessible Canada. Our goal is to ensure the full participation of all persons with disabilities in every aspect of life.
- Develop and implement accessibility standards and laws for all areas under federal jurisdiction.
- Use federal government funding to leverage improvements to employment, public transit and services. For example, we will use universal design principles in federally-funded infrastructure initiatives.
- Make the federal disability tax credit fully refundable and accessible to all CPP disability pensioners.
- Establish a Canadian Disability Employment Fund to assist employers under federal jurisdiction with the costs of providing reasonable accommodation.
- Establish specific targets within labour market agreements negotiated with the provinces and territories to assist those with disabilities.
- Create a Canadian Disability Accommodation Commissioner to advise Parliament and the responsible minister on issues affecting persons with disabilities.
- Support a pan-Canadian strategy to stop violence and abuse of disabled persons.
- Establish nation-wide goals to ensure that every Canadian in need of non-acute care will receive an appropriate level of care, including home care.
- Immediately implement the UN Covenant on the Rights of People with Disabilities, which Canada signed.
www.liberal.ca
Liberal Party of Canada
Liberal Party Commitments regarding People with Disabilities
- Make the Disability Tax Credit refundable
- Renew the Residential Rehabilitation Program and the Homelessness Partnering Initiative
- Help provide for 30,000 new social housing units – an investment of $620 million
- Implement a plan to ensure Canadians have access to catastrophic drug coverage
- Change CPP disability requirements to ensure that those with episodic illness do not jeopardize their ability to collect CPP disability benefits if they work when able.
www.green.ca
Green Party of Canada
Green Party Election Platform regarding People with Disabilities
- Enhance support for disable people
- Work with leading experts to develop a National Housing Policy that provides sufficient funds through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
- Committed to increasing available social housing units, building new units, in areas of mixed-income housing
- Provide tax incentives to invest in affordable housing
- Institute a basic income for people living with disabilities so that none of them live in poverty by:
- The conversion of the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) to a refundable credit as a first step in creating a national Basic Income program for working age adults with disabilities;
- Establish rigorous “needs based” eligibility standards for basic income to permit an affordable benefit system that provides adequate benefit levels; and,
- Use a redesigned Canada Pension Plan/Disability Benefit (CPP/D) test to incorporate the DTC definition of disability and permit employment, rather than the CPP/D definition that requires a ‘severe’ disability to be life-long and to be the cause of any incapacity to pursue ‘any gainful occupation.’ The revised definition allows individuals to work while retaining eligibility for basic income.
www.conservative.ca
Conservative Party of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada
A re-elected Conservative government led by Stephen Harper will…
- Allow families where one spouse is not working full-time in order to care for one or more family members with disabilities – whether children or adults – to split their income between spouses for tax purposes.
- Make it easier for families to plan for the future of their children with disabilities by improving the Disability Savings Plan. We will allow the proceeds of a deceased individual’s RRS or RRIF to be rolled over on a tax deferred basis to the Disability Savings Plan of a financially dependent infirm child or grandchild.
- Increase the Senior Age Credit Amount by an additional $1,000 on top of already planned increases. This will result in savings of more than $400 per year for eligible seniors receiving the full value of the credit.
- Work with Canada’s major neurological charities and provide $15 million for a four-year study of Canadians affected by illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
- Will increase funding for the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers to $50 million per year through 2012.
The Conservative government has already announced that…
- The Homelessness Partnering Strategy has been extended for the next two years.
- There is renewed funding for the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program to assist low-income Canadians in renovating their homes and for the Affordable Housing Initiative, which supports the creation of new rental housing units.
www.presentpourlequebec.org
Bloc Quebecois
Bloc Quebecois Platform
The Bloc Quebecois does not have a platform based on policies that would be implemented outside Quebec, and does not field candidates in any riding outside Quebec. The platform does contain many pledges in areas of seniors, healthcare, etc. Both English and French versions of the Bloc Quebecois platform are available at www.presentpourlequebec.org