Meet Basic Needs
You can review our description of this priority here.
These are the three questions that we posed to each party related to this priority issue.
If elected to from the government ...
- How will your party ensure that program participants and the broader disability community have leadership roles in evaluating the new provincial Manitoba Supports for Persons with Disabilities program?
- Does your party commit to neither directly nor indirectly clawing back Canada Disability Benefits payments from their intended recipients and preventing clawbacks by private insurance companies?
- How will your party work to increase the availability of affordable and accessible housing options throughout Manitoba?
Party Responses
Green Party of Manitoba
Green MLAs will support funding for skills training and engagement, so needed to ensure program participants and the disability community have key roles to plan in implementation and review.
Manitoba Liberal Party
Q: How will your party ensure that program participants and the broader disability community have leadership roles in evaluating the new provincial Manitoba Supports for Persons with Disabilities program?
A: To be clear, Manitoba Liberals want to move beyond the PCs Supports for Persons with Disabilities and move to two new programs without the limitations of Manitoba’s EIA program, which has long been one of the worst in Canada. Instead, Manitoba Liberals are proposing two new programs:
- We want a provincial, guaranteed minimum income for individuals with disabilities. People would be free to work and volunteer.
- We will consult with program participants and leaders to ensure that issues are addressed, and that the process is fair, equitable, responsive and convenient.
Q: Does your party commit to neither directly nor indirectly clawing back Canada Disability Benefits payments from their intended recipients and preventing claw-backs by private insurance companies?
A: Yes Manitoba Liberals will not directly or indirectly clawback benefits from recipients, as both the PCs and NDP have done for individuals to whom they had a duty of care.
Q: How will your party work to increase the availability of affordable and accessible housing options throughout Manitoba?
A: We have committed to the construction of 10,000 units of affordable housing over the next ten years. We update new accessible and universal design codes so that construction reflects the change.
New Democratic Party of Manitoba
The Manitoba NDP wants to ensure that people with disabilities can live with dignity and receive the benefits they need. One of the best ways to do that is to include people in the process. We believe members of the disability community need to be directly involved in evaluating the new Manitoba Supports for Persons with Disabilities program, and in recommending any needed changes going forward.
We commit not to clawback benefits from the intended recipients as it relates to the Canada Disability Benefits program, and to work with stakeholders to prevent clawbacks from other benefit providers.
An NDP government will invest in and build affordable and social housing across the province, with a renewed focus on accessible housing for seniors and Manitobans with disabilities.
Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba
Q: How will your party ensure that program participants and the broader disability community have leadership roles in evaluating the new provincial Manitoba Supports for Persons with Disabilities program?
A: Our PC government was proud to bring in the new Manitoba Supports for Persons with Disabilities program, after years of advocacy illustrated how the EIA program was ill-suited to Manitobans who face severe and prolonged barriers that preclude them from working. We were also happy to index the basic needs allowance for those individuals to the rate of inflation, after the NDP froze benefits for 17 years.
To ensure the broader disability community has a leadership role in program evaluation, representatives will be asked to join an initial review process to be completed in 180 days. With the current cost of living crisis, making sure we’re getting this vital new program right is of the utmost importance.
Q: Does your party commit to neither directly nor indirectly clawing back Canada Disability Benefits payments from their intended recipients and preventing clawbacks by private insurance companies?
A: Our PC Party commits to neither directly nor indirectly clawing back Canada Disability Benefits payments from their intended recipients, and will move to exempt the Canada Disability Benefit in regulation for Manitoba Supports.
Q: How will your party work to increase the availability of affordable and accessible housing options throughout Manitoba?
A: Our PC Party has a plan to increase the availability of affordable and accessible housing options throughout Manitoba, in part through continued strengthening of the EIA Rent Assist program, which enhances affordability with portability. We know that persons with disabilities may experience barriers to housing, which is why we have enhanced shelter benefits to help Manitobans make ends meet. Manitobans living with disabilities have also benefited from other affordability measures undertaken by our PC government, which is providing $5,500 in total savings for the average two-income family by 2024, with more to come.