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Chronic Shortfalls in Disability Supports – Cowie

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August 4, 2019

Chronic Shortfalls in Disability Supports – Cowie

By William Cowie

From Every Canadian Counts

The Pearson Centre has invited various leading thinkers to contribute their ideas towards the Progressive Platform to generate good ideas for debate in this general election. The views expressed here are those of the writer. We thank the writers for putting forward their ideas for this important project.
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Addressing the Chronic Shortfalls in Disability Supports in Canada

Dr. William Cowie

An organization in Canada has produced a policy paper which addresses the on-going and critical shortfalls in the disability support system in Canada.  Entitled “Moving Forward: Building the Framework For An Inclusive Future for People With Disabilities and their Families In Canada: National Disability Strategy Formulation Report.”  Prepared by the Every Canadian Counts Coalition (ECCC), an activist organization on behalf of persons with disabilities created in the fall of 2014. It was formed in the knowledge and belief that the support system in Canada for people with disabilities was not only failing but, in many jurisdictions, was getting worse.

The cause of this failing is seen as simple: underfunding. The entire sector needs an injection of significant new funding.

This paper addresses that issue by proposing a radically new and different funding model in the form of a national public disability insurance program. It also presents ideas about how to engage Canadians in the discussion about its design and comprehensiveness.

Over the course of ECCC’s engagement not only with Canadians generally, but also among the supporter community,  people with disabilities, family members and other carers who support people with disabilities as well as with experts in the field, it became apparent that the approaches of the last 30 years, based on measures such as tax concessions to encourage additional private expenditure have had minimal effect. Following de-institutionalization, we jumped off a cliff and tried to make the parachute on the way down. We have crash-landed and nothing captures this more than one reality – perpetual waiting lists for services, in every province. Canadian governments at all levels have spent on the order of $25 billion on the disability welfare system, not including the billions of dollars spent on related services. Despite this, there remains an unmet need for services – and it is growing, even with the support of innumerable family and other caregivers providing unpaid services and support.

The lack of a national perspective and proper coordination, planning and resource allocation, coupled with the growing demand at growth rates of (5-10% per year?), means the situation in the coming years will be substantially worse if the current system of supports does not change.

The Every Canadian Counts Coalition believes fundamental – indeed, transformational – change is required.

What would this transformational change look like? First, it would be a move away from the short term, ad hoc resource allocation and decision-making to a system where need, rather than chance or bureaucratic dictum would determine the kind and quality of personal supports. Under this new system, the world of opportunity and possibilities for people with disabilities and their caregivers could open up, for the benefit of all Canadians.

A new system to replace the welfare/free market model of the last decades would see the creation of a comprehensive public insurance program that would deliver individualized care and supports to people with chronic and severe disabilities throughout their lifetime. This foundation, coupled with other measures such as income support and housing, would allow people with a disability to live in dignity.

The disability community in Canada and the broader Canadian community, as a whole, have not yet embraced the possibility that such a transformation is even possible. That is why Every Canadian Counts’ central recommendation is that the Canadian Government, in consultation with provinces and territories, engage in a public education and information sharing campaign to inform the disability community and the wider Canadian public of the merits of a transformational approach to the delivery of essential supports to people with disabilities that a public insurance model affords.

The objectives of the campaign should be to:

  • Educate and inform the Canadian public and policy makers about the public insurance option and how it addresses the crisis in disability support services in Canada;
  • Build and strengthen the constituency, alliances and representative organizations that would make building a national consensus about the viability and feasibility of the public insurance option possible; and
  • Provide the basis and confirming support for and completion of a feasibility study on a national insurance program

 

For a full copy of the report please go to http://everycanadiancounts.com/reports/

 

 

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