25 Years of Progress - What of the Next 25?

By Melanie Redman

This year marks the 25th anniversary for both the International Year of Disabled Persons and the first Parliamentary report on disability, Obstacles. The year 2006 is also the 10th anniversary of the Scott Task Force Report, Equal Citizenship for Canadians with Disabilities: The Will to Act. In celebration of these important events and to plan for the future of disability policy in Canada, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) and the Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL), along with a myriad of partners, hosted a day-long forum in Ottawa on November 2nd called An Inclusive and Accessible Canada.

The morning was indeed a celebration of the progress in Canada catalyzed by Obstacles, with several compelling speakers sharing their personal experiences with inclusion and exclusion over the last 25 years. Marie White, chair of CCD, hosted this conversation, adding her own reflections and hopes for Canadian adoption of a Federal Disability Act. To view the proposed framework for this Act and other background documents, visit www.endexclusion.ca. Minister Diane Finley from HRSDC added some important remarks to the morning, including the mention of the federal Disability Savings Plan as a priority in keeping with 2006 budget commitments.

Later in the day, the conversation moved to the nuts and bolts of moving forward with a Federal Disability Act. The most compelling presentation and discussion in the afternoon came from Caledon Institute of Social Policy. CCD and CACL commissioned Caledon to develop a paper exploring the parameters for a Basic Income program in Canada that would apply to persons with disabilities. The purpose of the paper is to begin a dialogue with the broader community about the Federal government's role in income support and the possibility of increased investment in disability supports at the Provincial/Territorial level. Caledon expects to release their final paper later this year. Keep abreast of this important work at www.caledoninst.org. Caledon hopes that a Basic Income program in Canada would eventually expand, thus providing the financial tools and supports required for all Canadians to actualize themselves out of the context of poverty. As the Obstacles report and the developments in the subsequent 25 years prove, real change starts with a compelling vision.