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House Hansard - 111

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 17, 2022 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 111 - Oct/17/22
Mr. Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard, CPC)
  • Oct/17/22 3:50:22 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-22 
Madam Speaker, when the minister started the debate on the Canada disability benefit act, she stated that a sum would be paid to each person who is eligible for the benefit. The problem with the wording of the bill is that it does not say how much the person would receive or who would be eligible. There is no mention of the eligibility criteria, which will be determined by cabinet. In the first days of the debate, I mentioned that the Old Age Security Act would be a good example to follow for making amendments to Bill C‑22. Would the member be prepared to copy some sections and paragraphs from the Old Age Security Act to ensure that persons with disabilities in Canada will be entitled to a benefit similar to the one that was created by the Old Age Security Act?
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Context: House Hansard - 111 - Oct/17/22
Mr. Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard, CPC)
  • Oct/17/22 5:05:50 p.m.
  • Watch
  • Re: Bill C-22 
Madam Speaker, one of the things that I have been asking members on the government benches about, and I am hoping that maybe the member has thoughts on this too, is that there is not a lot of content in this legislation right now. The Old Age Security Act is actually very similar, when we are talking about providing a benefit to individuals at the very bottom of the income scale in order to support them. Old age security is meant for pensioners, those people who have retired or simply cannot work and happen to find themselves struggling in very difficult situations, which is kind of what we are talking about here, helping those who are unable to work due to whatever disability it is that they have. The Old Age Security Act already has a lot of good content examples, for things like criteria and cost of living adjustments, to make sure that the benefit received is not impacted by inflation. I wonder if the member would agree with me that we should look at the Old Age Security Act at the committee stage to try to remove some of the ability for cabinet to simply set things by regulation, so that we parliamentarians can then set it into legislation so that it becomes fixed. Having it in legislation is a much better proposition for persons with disabilities. It gives them certainty. I wonder if the member agrees with that.
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