The federal government has announced the next step in the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) rollout. ISAC attended a public meeting on June 26, 2024, where Economic and Social Development Canada (ESDC) staff shared that they will publish the first draft of the regulations that implement the Canada Disability Benefit Act on Friday, June 28, 2024. Regulations are detailed rules on how the law will be carried out.
How can we give feedback on the draft regulations?
The draft regulations will be available here as of 2pm ET on June 28, 2024, and formally published in the Canada Gazette on June 29, 2024. The government says it is committed to having people with disabilities collaborate in the design of the regulations. After the draft regulations are published, the government will open an online public consultation process to collect feedback on the draft regulations.
The online consultation will be open for 86 days starting from the date the consultation process opens (likely June 28 or June 29) and closing on September 23, 2024. When the consultation process opens, you can access it here. There will also be options to provide feedback by email and mail if the online process is not accessible to you. There are currently no options to provide video feedback in either official language, ASL or LSQ. There will be no in-person consultations or technical roundtables.
To help the public understand the regulations, the government will also publish other documents on the ESDC website on June 28 (note: where possible, we have updated the following points to include a link to each item):
- A “regulatory impact analysis statement”, which will include a description of the draft regulations, reasons why they took the approach they did, assessment of costs and positive and negative effects, and a summary of the fall 2023 public consultation;
- A plain language summary of the draft regulations;
- Examples of how the benefit amounts will be calculated; and
- Frequently asked questions / additional information on the proposed regulations, including scenarios
ESDC will also hold a second public information session where they will summarize what the draft regulations say. Details of this session will be announced in the next few weeks.
What do we know about the draft regulations?
ISAC will review and analyze the draft regulations once they are published and post our analysis here in the coming weeks. We’ll be especially keen to see how the regulations deal with eligibility criteria, the ways people can access the benefit, and the dispute resolution process. You can read more about our concerns in the recent letter we sent Ministers Freeland and Khera here. Stay tuned for more on how to engage in the online consultation process and key messages on how to improve the CDB.
The ESDC staff said that the government plans to publish the final version of the regulations in spring 2025 before the launch of the Canada Disability Benefit in July 2025. The government also plans to publish all comments received about the draft regulations after the consultation process closes. ESDC staff at the June 26 info session said that they are open to hearing feedback on all aspects of the regulations, but the overall envelope of funding announced in Budget 2024 will not change.
When and how can I apply for the CDB?
ESDC staff did not provide a date for when CDB applications will be available to the public. They did provide some additional information about what the CDB will look like, but we are awaiting the regulations to know for sure.
They also shared that planning is underway for a number of key supports: For example, community-based navigators will be available to assist people with disabilities in applying for the CDB and other disability benefits. Funding will also be available for health care professionals to complete Disability Tax Credit applications. No details or timelines are available yet for either of these supports.
I have more questions!
We do too. We think a lot of questions will be answered by the regulations once they are released. We are going to take some time to review the regulations when they come out, and will post more information and analysis soon.
If you are in Toronto and would like to join other people with disabilities, allies, and advocates in calling for an improved CDB, a rally is being held on July 4th at 11 am outside of Chrystia Freeland’s office at Bloor and Spadina. More details on the rally can be found here.