Please read the following letter sent by Elizabeth May, MP for Saanich–Gulf Islands and Leader of the Green Party of Canada, and Mike Morrice, Green Party Critic for Disability Inclusion and Housing, to the Minister for Jobs and Families, the Hon. Patty Hadju.
June 11, 2025
Re: Concerns regarding the Canada Disability Benefit and Disability Tax Credit
Dear Minister Hajdu,
We are writing you today to urge you to follow two recent calls of the disability community.
First is to ensure your department opens applications for the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) without further delay, to ensure the benefit can begin being paid out in July 2025 as prescribed by regulation. Applications have been delayed several times since originally being promised to open on May 1, and still have not yet been made available.
This follows a pattern of repeated delays with every aspect of the CDB that is leaving folks with disabilities rightfully concerned that payments will also be delayed. Please direct Employment and Social Development Canada to open applications immediately to prevent further delay.
Furthermore, the federal government should also take responsibility for delays surrounding the Canada Disability Benefit and work to minimize the impact. This includes implementing a minimum 60 day grace period for applications, recognizing the additional barriers people with disabilities face in completing complex application forms, to replicate the period applicants would have had to complete applications had they opened on May 1. Applicants who apply within this grace period should receive retroactive payments to the July 2025 start date.
We also continue to urge your government to fix and fully fund the CDB as the disability community has been calling for years (including removing barriers to application by automatically enrolling recipients of provincial and territorial disability support programs and increasing the income threshold to one that is above the poverty line).
Second is to amend your government’s proposed legislation – Bill C-4 – to remove a provision that would reduce the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) and Medical Expense Tax Credit (METC) from 15% to 14%. This current issue with the legislation would mean that 900,000 low-income Canadians who rely on the DTC would actually lose $98 in tax credits as a result of a bill that is purportedly about making life more affordable for Canadians.
The National Disability Network has already offered a solution to maintain these credits at 15% by amending C-4 to preserve sections 118.2(1) and 118.3 of the Income Tax Act. We request your government either propose this amendment at committee, or that your government support an amendment that Ms. May will bring forward to fix this issue.
We urge you to act on both these items without delay, and would be pleased to meet with you to discuss further.
Thank you for your service to Canadians.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth May
Member of Parliament
Saanich Gulf Islands
Leader of the Green Party of Canada
Mike Morrice
Critic for Disability Inclusion and Housing
Green Party of Canada