Asking the Province to maintain the definition of disability for recipients of the Ontario Disability Support Program - by Councillor Brad Bradford, seconded by Councillor Paul Ainslie

A narrower definition of disability could limit access to enhanced support of Ontario Disability Support Program to a portion of future applicants living with disability and also to some of the current 120,000 Ontario Disability Support Program recipients living in Toronto if these recipients are not grand-fathered together. The change to the definition of disability may mean other vulnerable people with disabilities that are episodic, including people undergoing cancer treatments, people with Multiple Sclerosis, people living with HIV, and people with arthritis or diabetes, will be denied benefits. Multiple groups have identified significant challenges with changing the current definition of disability under the Ontario Disability Support Program, including the Income Security Reform Group, the First Nations Income Security Reform Working Group, and the Urban Indigenous Table on Income Security Reform, and Ontario 360. The Council-adopted Poverty Reduction Strategy Action Plan for 2019-2022 has recognized that provincial regulatory and funding changes for social assistance will have detrimental consequences for Toronto's low-income residents and for Toronto's ability to respond to the effects of poverty. For reference, the new Official Poverty Line published in the 2019 Federal Poverty Reduction Strategy has been set at $1,699 per month for a single person; the maximum Ontario Disability Support Program monthly allowance is $1,169 (32 percent under poverty line), the maximum Ontario Works monthly allowance is $733 (57 percent under poverty line).

of people living with disability to participate in decisions affecting them by creating a meaningful process of co-reviewing and co-designing programs of social assistance and adjudication processes.