​On July 26, 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a federal cabinet shuffle which saw several ministers reassigned to new portfolios. The Honourable Kamal Khera was appointed as Canada’s first Minister of Diversity, Inclusion, and Persons with Disabilities. March of Dimes Canada wrote to Minister Khera to share our priorities for building the financial security of people with disabilities through the new Canada Disability Benefit. Read our letter below.

The Honourable Kamal Khera, PC, MP 

Dear Minister Khera,

On behalf of March of Dimes Canada, please accept my warm congratulations on your appointment as Minister of Diversity, Inclusion, and Persons with Disabilities.

As you know, March of Dimes Canada is a leading national charity committed to championing equity, empowering ability, and creating real change so the more than six million people living with disabilities across Canada can unlock the richness of their lives. We do that by providing programs and services that empower our clients to thrive at home and in their communities. Our work is grounded in the voices of the people we serve, built on a foundation of service, and backed by a more than 70-year history of success. 

Based on our many decades as a service provider, resource and advocate, we have seen firsthand the impact of deep and systemic financial insecurity on people with disabilities across Canada. For this reason, March of Dimes Canada has been engaged as a stakeholder on the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) since it was first announced in 2020, as we saw the enormous potential of this new benefit to reach its goal of ending disability poverty. At each step along the way, we have led community advocacy, ensuring the issue remained at the top of the government’s agenda and the voices of our community members were amplified. 

We applaud the recent passage of Bill C-22, creating the legal framework for the CDB. With the July 24, 2023 announcement that the CDB regulatory process will soon be underway, March of Dimes Canada anticipates that you and your department will fulfill the government’s commitment to co-creation made to people with disabilities, to our community of stakeholders, and to Parliament. We stand ready to inform and to participate fully in an inclusive, co-creative regulations development process that will result in the policy and infrastructure required for a barrier-free CDB, and enabling payments to flow to recipients no later than January, 2025.

Crucially, as the CDB regulations are developed, March of Dimes Canada is focused on ensuring CDB applicants and recipients do not experience barriers to access, as required in the enabling legislation. Our recent report in partnership with Prosper Canada, A Benefit without Barriers: Co-Creating Principles and Recommendations for Canada Disability Benefit Administration (enclosed) delivers advice from the disability community and validated by people with disabilities for grounding the CDB application and administration in person-centred accessibility standards. This report has been shared with many of your Parliamentary colleagues, as well as officials in the Office for Disability Issues, the Department of Finance, and the Canada Revenue Agency. 

The federal government cannot achieve the CDB’s ambitious goal of ending disability poverty alone. A true partnership between people with disabilities, government, and the stakeholder community is needed. To this end, March of Dimes Canada has submitted a proposal for a Summit event in 2024 to the Office for Disability Issues, to bring together stakeholders and government to action plan to support successful access to the CDB. Convened by March of Dimes Canada and partners, and deeply informed by the experience of people with disabilities, this Summit would aim to achieve consensus on common goals and develop an Action Plan to co-create policy and systems related to CDB implementation. 

Our team would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to continue this important conversation on CDB regulations, accessibility, and implementation. In addition, you will receive a request to meet from a larger stakeholder group of disability organizations; we highly encourage you to accept this invitation. 

Sincerely,

Len Baker

President & CEO 
March of Dimes Canada