The tangled web of disability governance and policy in Canada needs to clarified and centralized
By Jennifer Zwicker and Stephanie Dunn University of Calgary At a recent Senate committee hearing on the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) and the Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP), the father of a child with autism made a heartfelt plea and a chilling statement: “We are impacted by the inability to secure our son’s future. We…
More spending on health care is an expensive way to buy health. Spending on social programs will make people healthier
By Daniel J. Dutton and Jennifer Zwicker University of Calgary It’s budget season and Canadian provincial governments are continuing the tradition of spending more on health care than any other single portfolio. But that money is misspent. For example, Alberta spends almost half its provincial budget on health, an estimated $22 billion this year, which…Why is the Canada Revenue Agency denying the tax credit to those who need it most?
By Jennifer Zwicker and Stephanie Dunn University of Calgary “Providing benefits not burdens” is how former Health Minister Judy LaMarsh once described the vision for disability policy in Canada. Unfortunately, this vision is not a reality when it comes to one of the main benefits open to Canadians with disability: the federal disability tax credit…
We lack critical information on the diverse and often unmet needs of Canadian children with disabilities, as well as the out-of-pocket costs paid by families
By Stephanie Dunn and Jennifer Zwicker University of Calgary “The true measure of a nation’s standing is how well it attends to its children, including their health, safety, material security, education and socialization, and their sense of being loved, valued and included in the families and societies into which they are born,” according to UNICEF.…