March of Dimes Canada issued an open letter to each of the major federal party leaders, asking them to commit to building a Canada where people with disabilities can thrive. You can read March of Dimes Canada President and CEO Len Baker’s letter to the party leaders below – and we’ll post their responses here as they’re received.
Letter to Party Leaders from March of Dimes Canada
Note that each letter had a customized greeting for each leader.
Sent on: March 31, 2025
Dear federal party leaders,
March of Dimes Canada (MODC) is a leading national charity committed to championing equity, empowering ability, and creating real change that will help people with disabilities across the country unlock the richness of their lives. We’re paving the way for people with disabilities to experience full and meaningful lives in an inclusive world.
People with disabilities have a right to independence, dignity, and autonomy, and need the Canadian government to invest in benefits, programs, and services that facilitate the true expression of these rights. After years of progress, we have witnessed programs and policies that advance accessibility, diversity, inclusion, and equity being challenged in North America. The full benefit of these initiatives has not yet been realized – we know it can take years to affect meaningful change. We need all parties to commit to upholding these values as an essential part of their mandates and platforms.
To that end, we are asking all federal party leaders to actively commit to building an inclusive and equitable society in two key policy areas. In developing these requests, MODC has listened to the priorities of our service users and stakeholders.
1. Financial Security
We commend all federal political parties for their unanimous support of the
Canada Disability Benefit (CDB). With regulations now finalized, we welcome its launch in July 2025. However, the CDB in its current form is insufficient to eliminate disability poverty in Canada, which is the CDB’s stated goal in the Canada Disability Benefit Act. No person with a disability in Canada should live in poverty.
We are asking you to commit to:
- Increase CDB funding to ensure people with disabilities are lifted above the poverty line, factoring in the additional costs of living with a disability.
- Expand eligibility to include all 1.6 million people with disabilities living in poverty and remove barriers to access.
- Pass legislation that exempts the CDB from income definitions and solidifies the CDB’s status as a tax-exempt benefit to prevent provincial and territorial governments from clawing back the benefit and ensuring those eligible receive its full value.
Furthermore, the
Disability Tax Credit (DTC) is a critical gateway to the CDB and the Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP). Yet, only 40 per cent of eligible people hold a DTC certificate, revealing systemic access barriers as MODC and Prosper Canada noted in our
Benefit Without Barriers report.
To remove these barriers, we are asking you to commit to:
- Expand automatic approvals to permanent disabilities and conditions, like the existing process for diabetes and blindness.
- Eliminate unnecessary re-assessments for people with lifelong disabilities.
- Implement a reimbursement system for professional fees related to DTC certification.
- Ensure automatic DTC eligibility for recipients of federal, provincial, and territorial disability income supports.
Finally, we support previous government efforts to implement automatic tax filing for individuals with simple tax situations, particularly those receiving disability income supports. Automatic tax filing is essential to improving benefit take-up rates and ensuring people with disabilities receive the financial support to which they are entitled.
We are asking you to commit to:
- Fully implementing automatic tax filing by the 2026 tax year for those with simple tax situations.
2. Accessible, Affordable Housing Based on Universal Design Principles
According to Statistics Canada’s most recent Canadian Survey on Disability (2022), 27 per cent of Canadians aged 15 and older identified with having at least one disability – an increase of 4.7 per cent from 2017. This trend is likely to continue as Canada’s population ages. In 2017 at least 13 per cent of those with physical disabilities were unable to obtain the accessibility features and aids that they needed in their homes. We can assume this is increasing as Canada’s population grows and people with disabilities comprise a greater proportion thereof.
Safe, accessible, and affordable housing is a basic right for people with disabilities. As a signatory to the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Canada is required to ensure people with disabilities in Canada have equal access to housing, and uphold their rights to live independently and be included in their communities. However, due to the lack of affordable, accessible housing in Canada, many people with disabilities are unable to access housing that meets their needs and enable them to remain independent in their own homes and communities.
The new National Housing Design Catalogue has accessibility as a core principle. This is a positive step forward. But current building codes, both provincial / territorial and federal, don’t properly address accessibility for existing buildings and facilities.
To make sure everyone in Canada can live in a home that is safe, accessible, and affordable, we are asking you to:
- Increase investment in accessible housing and mandate accessibility standards in all federally funded housing initiatives.
- Prioritize development, implementation, and enforcement of the Accessible Standards Canada (ASC) standards, and parallel harmonization of the National Building Code (NBC) across the country, to improve accessibility and adaptability of new and existing housing based on universal design principles.
I would appreciate you taking the time to respond regarding your party’s commitment to a Canada where people with disabilities will thrive by April 20, 2025. All responses will be publicly shared. We look forward to connecting with you and your team in the coming days.
Yours sincerely,
Len Baker
President & CEO
March of Dimes Canada
