More than 6.2 million Canadians live with a disability that impairs their daily activities. In Ontario, 25 per cent of people live with a disability, most with more than one type. While physical disabilities related to pain, flexibility, and mobility are the most common, mental health-related disabilities are on the rise as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
Current evidence suggests Canadians living with a disability are not thriving. They have lower workforce participation, lower wages, and higher unemployment rates. They also experience disproportionately high rates of poverty. This is particularly true for women, single parents, those living alone and those with more severe disabilities.
Nearly one million Canadians with a disability live below the official poverty line, nearly 40 per cent of all people experiencing poverty. No disability social assistance programs provide enough income for them to reach the poverty line. In Ontario for example, social support for a single adult with a disability provided only $15,871 in 2022. This amount is well below the official (Market Basket Measure) poverty line of $27,631. It is also less than the Deep Income Poverty threshold of $20,723, which is defined as having a disposable income of less than 75 per cent of the Market Basket Measure.
Wellesley Institute believes Canadians with a disability deserve to thrive, not just survive. Federal and provincial governments have made commitments to strengthen the social support network for Canadians with a disability. In Ontario, Ontario Disability Support Program rates have increased nearly 12 per cent in the past year and are now indexed to inflation. While this is a step in the right direction, it will do very little to lift people with disabilities out of poverty, as the support still falls well below the poverty line.
The Government of Canada has also made a commitment to engage with the disability community to develop the Canada Disability Benefit. This new benefit aims to reduce poverty and provide financial and employment support for working-aged Canadians with a disability. To ensure that people with a disability can thrive, the Canada Disability Benefit must be designed based on adequacy, rather than a simple dollar amount for each recipient.
Wellesley has launched a new project under our Thriving in the City framework to provide a better understanding of what it means to thrive for persons with a disability, and to inform this thinking. This project will set out the resources that a single adult with a disability in the GTA needs to thrive, rather than just survive. It goes beyond basic needs and will consider food and nutrition, housing, transportation, healthcare, personal care, social participation, physical activity, professional development, and planning for the future. Robust thriving frameworks have previously been developed by Wellesley for single adults, older adults and families. This framework is being developed in consultation with leaders from the disability community, including individuals from the GTA with lived experience.
Day-to-day expenses for all Canadians are increasingly unaffordable. For people with disabilities, lack of support means greater food and housing insecurity and the possibility of having to make difficult choices around necessary disability aids and medications.
Thriving research can help be part of the solution. We look forward to communicating the results of this research.