I am a disabled artist, entrepreneur and advocate. I am a quadriplegic, thriving with Cerebral Palsy, living in Elk Ridge, Saskatchewan, in Treaty 6 territory. I’m a 3rd year student working towards a B.A. in Disability Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University and like most
university students, it’s hard to make ends meet. Here are my perspectives on what it means to be a disabled university student living on provincial disability benefits and the new Canada Disability Benefit.
Like many people with disabilities in Saskatchewan, I rely on Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability (SAID). This means living on as little as $30-$40 per day, about half of the official poverty line. The Saskatchewan government will allow me to earn an additional $20ish/day before they claw back benefits. Clawbacks mean that my ‘living income’ will always be well below the poverty line. Disabled Canadians live in fear of government clawbacks because it means the difference between living below the poverty line and living in deep poverty. No one knows this more right now than Albertans with disabilities whose government has already announced that it will claw back the new Canada Disability Benefit from Albertans who receive provincial disability income supports. AISH recipients are mandated to apply for the Disability Tax Credit and the new Canada Disability Benefit ($200/month) so that the Alberta government can claw back the new federal benefit. Did I mention that disability poverty is a government policy choice?
Unlike most university students, my university program of study has to be ‘approved’ by the Ministry of Social Services’ SAID program to ensure the outcome leads to ‘employability’. My specific program also has to be approved by the Ministry of Advanced Education’s Student Aid program which administers student financial aid programs for Saskatchewan. Here’s what that lived experience looks like. In my three years of university, I’ve been kicked off SAID twice, leaving me without income, twice. I’ve fought and won to get back on SAID, twice. This year the Saskatchewan Student Aid program surprise-denied me access to the Canada Student Disability Grant and the Canada Saskatchewan Grant for Services and Equipment for Students with Disability. These are the very programs that were put in place to ensure that people exactly like me can go to university, supported in their academic accommodations. So, now I pay for academic supports out of pocket - a tutor, a typist, a notetaker. Or, I go without.
Being disabled and going to university is expensive and hard and full of assessments and exhausting to administer. I am constantly worried that I’ll be kicked off or kicked out of programs because it literally happens all the time. Approval for one program or benefit often comes with a corresponding cut, clawback or denial somewhere else.
Next month (June) I will apply for the Canada Disability Benefit along with 1.5 million other Canadians with disabilities. I helped fight for this benefit, even travelling to Ottawa to join Disability Without Poverty to rally Members of Parliament and Senators to pass Bill C-22 to create the #CDBby2023.
I believed that the Canada Disability Benefit would transform lives. I volunteered for Disability Without Poverty to lead peer-to-peer interviews for Saskatchewan people with disabilities of all ages to hear their hopes for the Canada Disability Benefit.
What would you do with more income through the Canada Disability Benefit, I asked?
One woman wanted to hire more home care so she could have three showers a week, not two.
One high school student wanted to move into a group home.
The new CDB is devastatingly low, $6.66/per day.
For a university student like me, this will get me exactly 13 minutes and 12 seconds each day with a typist because the provincial government cut funding for my academic supports.
These are the hopes of Saskatchewan people who live somewhere between the official poverty line and deep poverty. The reality is, the CDB won’t end the cycle of disability poverty. It will contribute to it. Until policy makers truly want to end disability poverty, it will persist.
But, here’s the important part. The only way the cycle of disability poverty breaks is if we’re loud. Please apply for the Canada Disability Benefit along with me and keep insisting for better.
Quinn Smith-Windsor and her mom Jaimie co-founded The Possability Shop based on a shared vision of creating more inclusive communities through disability arts, entrepreneurship and advocacy.
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