Disability and ‘who we are’ / fixing Canada Disability Benefit

A visiting scholar and a new study offer some valuable insights into the nature of disability and some thoughts about how we can support Canadians with disabilities.

During a Houston Centre presentation (‘Reckoning with Our Humanity: How Chronic Illness and Disability Tell Us Who We Are’) February 5, Dr. Devan Stahl “will explore how medicine and theology have shaped contemporary interpretations of disability and chronic illness and how the field of theological bioethics brings these conversations together.” 

And the non-partisan think tank Cardus has just published a 27-page report: ‘Still Not Enough: How to Fix the Canada Disability Benefit to Really Help Canadians with Disabilities.’ The authors are Taylor Jackson and Renze Nauta.

Reckoning with Our Humanity

Devan Stahl specializes in theological bioethics, disability ethics and the visual arts within medicine at Baylor University and volunteers as a clinical ethicist consultant at a local hospital.

She is cohost of the podcast Bioethics for the People, and author (or editor) of several books, including Imaging and Imagining Illness: Becoming Whole in a Broken Body (Cascade Books), Disability’s Challenge to Theology: Genes, Eugenics and the Metaphysics of Modern Medicine (Notre Dame Press).

Stahl will speak at Regent College’s Chapel, addressing these themes:

Chronic illness and disability can be transformative experiences within the human lifespan.

Yet, these experiences can also reveal taken-for-granted norms concerning what it means to be human: What does it mean to have a ‘normal’ or ‘healthy’ body? What do we need to flourish? What is most essential about us? Who are we in relation to others?

Such questions contain ontological (what is the nature of being?) and ethical (what should we do?) dimensions. In their own ways, both medicine and theology provide answers to these questions through systems of belief and practice.

Responding to Stahl’s address will be Dr. Quentin Genuis, an emergency physician and ethicist at St Paul’s Hospital. He serves as the physician ethicist for Providence Health Care, and is a Professional in Residence at Regent College, where he teaches on topics including medical ethics and addiction. He is the author of Recovering People: Addiction, Personhood, and the Life of the Church (Cascade Books, 2025).

Regent College will be hosting a book launch with Quentin Genuis for Recovering People February 10.

Still Not Enough

The introduction to the Cardus report states:

Canadians with disabilities, just like all Canadians, want to thrive. Financial stability, meaningful work and social connection are among the pillars of a fulfilling life. Yet, for too many Canadians with disabilities, these pillars are elusive.

Income support programs have proven inadequate, labour market barriers persist and social isolation is experienced far too often.

The Canada Disability Benefit is a federal initiative that is fundamentally about the first of these pillars, has a direct impact on the second, and has an indirect impact on the third.

However, its scope and design have raised questions about how well it enhances the financial stability of Canadians with disabilities.

This paper begins by examining data on the challenges that Canadians with disabilities face in terms of income security and workforce engagement. It then establishes guiding principles by which to evaluate the Benefit.

Next, it uses these principles to assess how well the Benefit addresses these challenges.

Finally, the paper explores the roles of the federal government, provincial governments, charities and businesses in three broad pathways for improving supports for people with disabilities in the context of the Canada Disability Benefit.

These are the key points of the study:

• Canadians with disabilities face significantly higher financial insecurity and food insecurity, compared to those without disabilities.
  • Those of working age and with a severe or very severe disability have an after-tax median income of $30,590. For Canadians in this age group who do not have a disability, it is $46,080.
  • The poverty rate for those of working age and with a severe or very severe disability is 18 percent. For those in this age group who do not have a disability, it is 7 percent.
  • Nearly 8 percent of those with a disability experience severe food insecurity. For those without a disability, the rate is 2 percent.
• The federal government has sought to augment assistance through the Canada Disability Benefit, which provides $200 per month to eligible persons, beginning in 2025.
  • The Benefit’s strengths are that it is indexed to inflation and has a relatively generous clawback rate.
  • The Benefit has several weaknesses. (1) $200 per month is too low to effectively address the financial insecurity of the target population. (2) Problems result from using the Disability Tax Credit as an eligibility condition. (3) Provinces may reduce their own disability support programs in response to the Benefit.
  • Of all the things that governments spend money on, support for persons with disabilities should be high on the priority list.
• We offer three broad pathways for supporting people with disabilities:
  • Reform the Benefit by increasing the Benefit amount.
  • Transfer funds to the provinces to target the Benefit more closely to individual needs.
  • Support non-governmental institutions in providing tailored, person-centred assistance that reflects the dignity of those they serve and involves them in decision-making.

Go here for the full Cardus report.