Tories to pitch change to benefits clawback for disabled people

The federal Conservatives will keep rolling out policy this week, with the latest move in their playbook being a new approach to disabilities benefits.

The pitch will come in the form of a private member’s bill sponsored by Tory finance critic Pierre Poilievre.

A Conservative source told The Canadian Press the idea is to ensure people with disabilities aren’t at risk of losing their benefits if they seek to work longer hours or for a higher rate of pay than currently allowed.

Poilievre’s bill will be introduced in tandem with one from Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, who last week put forward the idea to stop taxing employment insurance benefits accessed by those on parental leave.

Both measures are part of the Conservatives’ efforts to start presenting proposals they say will go further than the Liberals’ approach to helping the middle class.

The Tories argue the government’s policies hurt more than they help and they are offering up new tax changes as a way to undo that damage.

The new policies also, however, harken back to the Harper Conservatives’ strategy of offering niche tax breaks as incentives to targeted pools of voters — a strategy the Liberals have argued voters rejected in the 2015 election.

Today, the Conservatives plan to once again remind Canadians about the 2016 vacation that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family took on the private Bahamian island of the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims.