Adviser resigns, slams ‘colossal failure’

Professor says funding is ‘too low,’ benefits ‘too few people’ and ‘too complicated to access’

A member of the federal Disability Advisory Group has resigned in protest of the newly created Canada Disability Benefit, calling it a “colossal failure” by Justin Trudeau’s government.

It’s the latest in a barrage of criticism by advocates and opposition parties after funding for the longawaited benefit was announced in Tuesday’s budget — and fell far short of what advocates felt they had been promised.

Michael Prince, a professor of social policy at the University of Victoria, said the amount of funding allocated to the benefit violates the legislation meant to reduce poverty among people with disabilities.

“We’ve been lied to, we’ve been played again … the government has abandoned us and has forgotten us,” Prince said in an interview with the Star on Friday.

“This has turned out to be a colossal failure, a profoundly disappointing outcome, and whatever influence I might have had is probably better placed off it, and I will continue to work actively with disability groups locally and nationally.”

The long-delayed benefit announced Tuesday will start July 2025 and provide a maximum of $2,400 a year or $200 a month before income-adjusted clawbacks — an amount experts and advocates say will have no significant impact on poverty.

The benefit also came under fire because it will cover far fewer people with disabilities than those the government acknowledges are living in poverty. At its peak, the government estimates the benefit will cover more than 600,000 people, although federal officials said it will take years to reach that number because of barriers in accessing the disability tax credit, a must for eligibility that requires a doctor’s note.

“The benefit is too low, too few people in need are covered, it is complicated to access, lacks collaboration, and waits too long to meaningfully reduce poverty,” Prince said in his resignation letter to Kamal Khera, the minister for persons with disabilities.

Prince is also questioning the process that led to deciding the amount of funding. Having been on the advisory group since its creation during the COVID-19 pandemic by Carla Qualtrough, who was the minister of disability inclusion, he mused that the cabinet shuffle that moved Qualtrough to minister of sport in the summer of 2023 could have changed things for the worse.

“The idea would be to lift people out of poverty and get people to a point where they are no longer living in poverty,” she said when tabling the Canada Disability Benefit Act in 2022, which did not commit to specific funding levels.

If Qualtrough was still the minister responsible for the benefit, Prince said, he believes the Liberals would not have backpedaled on their original promise.

Asked Friday about the critical response to the funding, Freeland told a news conference in Toronto that the benefit was a “historic investment” and that she was glad it was in the budget.

We’ve been lied to, we’ve been played again … the government has abandoned us and has forgotten us.

MICHAEL PRINCE PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL POLICY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA