The ground-breaking Canada Disability Benefit Act received Royal Assent on Thursday, June 22, 2023. In the spirit of "Nothing Without Us" and as required by the Act, collaboration with and feedback from persons with disabilities will be essential in the development of the Canada Disability Benefit Regulations.
Today, the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough, announced the timeline and details of the engagement process for the Canada Disability Benefit Regulations.
There will be two phases of engagement. During the regulatory design phase, there will be a series of engagement opportunities to inform the design details and implementation of the new benefit, as well as the drafting of the Regulations. These include:
- August 2023: An information session will be held with disability stakeholders to establish a common understanding of the regulatory process.
- September 2023-ongoing: Technical roundtables and bilateral meetings will be held to bring together the views of experts, stakeholders, and persons with disabilities on key areas under the regulations.
- Fall 2023-Winter 2023: There will be an online survey and portal for open submissions to gather input from all Canadians.
The second, more formal, phase will begin with the publishing of proposed Regulations in Part I of the Canada Gazette. Canadians will be able to review and provide comments on the proposed Regulations. The Government will then analyze the comments received and may make changes to the Regulations in response to the feedback received before finalizing them. The final Regulations will then be published in Part II of the Canada Gazette, at which time they will become official.
In parallel to the regulatory process, there will be engagement and discussions with provincial and territorial governments, who are critical partners in developing the Canada Disability Benefit. The focus of this work will be on optimizing benefit interaction to ensure persons with disabilities have more money in their pockets at the end of each month.
