Allow families to split their income between spouses to
reduce their taxes in situations where one spouse is not
working full-time in order to care for one or more family
members with
disabilities whether children or adults.
Improve the Registered Disability Savings Program by making
it easier for a person with disabilities to access money that
has been transferred from the unused retirement savings of
a deceased family member.
Health: Supporting Research and Improving Treatment
for Major Diseases
“The Conservative Government is proud of its record in
working to fight some of the gravest diseases facing Canadian
families like cancer, spinal cord injury and mental illness.
We established the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and the
Mental Health Commission of Canada and supported the Spinal Cord
Injury Translational Research Network of the Rick Hansen Foundation.
A re-elected Conservative Government will continue to take creative
measures to tackle major lung, heart and neurological diseases.
We will also work toward bringing an end to discriminatory life
insurance practices.”
Liberal Party of Canada
Election Platform Commitments
30 – 50 Plan to Fight Poverty
Reduce the number of people living below the poverty line
by at least 30 percent, so that 1 million more Canadians are
better able to realize their potential. Reduce the number of
children living in poverty by at least 50 percent, to give nearly
400,000 children a better chance in life.
Tax measures to help low-income Canadians
Creation of a new, refundable child tax benefit worth $350
per child;
Replace the Conservatives’ regressive, small, poorly
designed $1,000 employment credit – with a $1,850 refundable
employment credit targeted at those Canadians who earn less
than $50,000 per year which will put up to $250 per person
into the
pockets of those working Canadians who need it most;
Increase the Working Income Tax Benefit above the level
legislated by the Conservatives, encouraging work by having
this benefit available on the first
dollar earned, which is $3,000 sooner than the Conservative plan, and
ensuring that it benefits more families by phasing it out more
slowly; and
Make the Disability Tax Credit refundable, ensuring that
low-income individuals who are disabled are able to directly
benefit from
this tax credit.
Income measures
Create the Guaranteed Family Supplement, to help 500,000
of Canada’s poorest families with children by providing
up to $1,225 a year more per family. To provide further help
to
lower-income families with children, we will ensure that
all families with incomes up to $26,000 keep all of the National
Child Benefit Supplement which is currently phased out
at incomes
of approximately $21,000.
Change the CPP disability requirements
to ensure that those with episodic illnesses – such as
Multiple-sclerosis and some mental illnesses – do not
jeopardize their ability to collect CPP or QPP disability
benefits if they work when they
are able to.
Employment Insurance
Make permanent three measures that were introduced as pilot
projects by the previous Liberal government in
2004 and 2005 in areas of high unemployment:
workers who accept temporary work while receiving benefits
will be allowed to earn the greater of $75 or 40 percent of
the benefits without it being clawed back;
benefits will be
based on the 14 best weeks of earnings in the 52 weeks preceding
a claim;
Healthcare
The Liberals would invest $900 million for a new catastrophic
drug plan. A Liberal government would work with the provinces
to determine the level of
catastrophic drug coverage that should be provided as a national minimum
and the federal government will directly compensate those provinces
that are providing
that level of coverage.
New
Democratic Party
Election Platform Commitments
People with Disabilities: Opportunities for All
Implement a Canadian Disabilities Action Plan based on
the vision of an inclusive and accessible Canada. Our goal
is to
ensure the full participation of all persons with disabilities
in every aspect of life. Develop and implement accessibility
standards and laws for all areas under federal jurisdiction.
Use federal government funding to leverage improvements
to employment, public transit and services. For example, we
will
use universal design principles in federally-funded infrastructure
initiatives.
Make the federal disability tax credit fully refundable
and accessible to all CPP disability pensioners.
Establish a Canadian Disability Employment Fund to assist
employers under federal jurisdiction with the costs of providing
reasonable accommodation.
Establish specific targets within labour market agreements
negotiated with the provinces and territories to assist those
with disabilities.
Create a Canadian Disability Accommodation Commissioner
to advise Parliament and the responsible minister on issues
affecting
persons with disabilities.
Support a pan-Canadian strategy to stop violence and abuse
of disabled persons.
Establish nation-wide goals to ensure that every Canadian
in need of non-acute care will receive an appropriate level
of care, including home care.
Immediately implement the UN Covenant on the Rights of
People with Disabilities, which Canada signed.
Pharmacare: Affordable Prescription Medicines
Establish a Canada-wide prescription drug program, phasing
in drug coverage for all citizens, beginning with catastrophic
drug costs, in cooperation with the provinces and territories.
Reduce the cost of prescription drugs for average Canadians
and save billions of dollars from provincial health care
budgets by implementing a bulk-purchasing plan, in agreement
with the
provinces and territories.
Introduce measures to ensure that new drugs are evaluated
through evidence-based research to be more effective, before
they are
prescribed by doctors and paid for by Canadians.
Make necessary drugs more affordable by implementing measures
to replace high-cost patent drugs with lower-cost generic
drugs. We will phase out the “ever-greening” of
patent drugs, no longer allowing large pharmaceutical corporations
to continually
renew their patents with little or no control.
Note: The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada
is a non-partisan health charity and provides information about
the election for the benefit of all who are interested in MS
issues. The MS Society of Canada does not support specific parties
or candidates.
