ALT In late 2020, over half a year after the pandemic started, select disabled received a one-time $600 from the Liberal Party to help with pandemic-related costs. At first it was only for those with a valid Disability Tax Credit (DTC), but the NDP pressured the Liberals to modestly expand eligibility to include other federally administered programs — Canada Pension Plan Disability (CPPD) and Veterans benefits. The Liberals initially had no plan to include CPPD — directly under their purview.

ALT In June 2022, Carla, in reintroducing the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) bill, held a press conference and took a series of questions. She was asked for a ballpark figure on expected CDB amount. In her answer a dollar figure wasn’t given, only her goal of lifting disabled to matching GIS/OAS level, but she did say that those on CPPD currently receive $19,000–$20,000 a year: “Well, if you look at the annual amount of the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), it’s around $19,000, CPPD is around $19,000–$20,000, they all range from $19,000–$20,000.”

ALT At least a few people following me/I follow back, are on CPPD currently receiving approximately $700 a month or roughly $8,000 a year, while some others are receiving slightly higher but also well below $1,000 a month or $12,000 a year. I personally do not know of anyone on CPPD receiving $19,000–$20,000. What’s most concerning about Carla’s answer, is that she apparently already considers CPPD to be at her expected CDB level of support: [lifting disabled to] approximately $1,600 a month or roughly $19,000 a year. So that could potentially be interpreted as planned exclusion of CPPD from CDB eligibility. Carla should be made to immediately clarify.

ALT Also for the fact that, as already stated, CPPD is under the Liberals’ purview; there isn’t anything preventing them — i.e. oft-used excuse of “provincial jurisdiction” — from providing those on CPPD or other federally administered programs an interim emergency disability benefit until the CDB itself is in place. (They could, but haven’t.) And Carla’s central reasoning on why the CDB hasn’t been fast-tracked, has been the necessity of working with provincial and territorial governments regarding the issue of their respective governments and potential clawbacks; not CPPD-related.