AODA Alliance
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update
United for a Barrier-Free Ontario for All People with Disabilities
Website: www.aodaalliance.org
Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com
Twitter: @aodaalliance
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News Outlets Around Canada Report on Disability Community Objections to Prime Minister Carney’s Eliminating the Cabinet Post of Minister for Disability Issues
May 15, 2025
SUMMARY
Canada’s news media has quickly picked up on disability community objections to Prime Minister Carney’s eliminating the Cabinet post of Minister for Disability Issues, including objections from the AODA Alliance among others. Below you can find the May 15, 2025 Toronto Star report by the Canadian Press. This CP report has been picked up by a number of media outlets around Canada.
As the May 13, 2025 AODA Alliance Update noted, from 2015 to early 2025, Canada’s Federal Government had a cabinet minister designated as responsible for people with disabilities. In Mark Carney’s new Cabinet announced two days ago, there is a minister responsible for women, a minister responsible for seniors, two separate ministers responsible for Indigenous Peoples, and even a minister of sport.
It would not be sufficient for Prime Minister Carney to simply proclaim that he considers disability issues a major priority for his Government. We have gotten similar proclamations from government after government and political leader after leader. If we had a dollar for every time we’ve gotten such statements, we could retire the national debt! It’s their actions, not their words, that matter.
Eliminating the Minister for Disability Issues sends a strong signal to federal public servants that disability issues are de-prioritized. Public officials watch for and act on such signals.
Over its last term in office, the federal Liberals publicly embraced and repeated the disability community slogan “Nothing about us without us.” Having no voice at the Cabinet table flies in the face of their repeated invocation of this important principle.
In his new Cabinet, Prime Minister Carney has revived the idea of appointing several Secretaries of State for different issues. It would not be sufficient for him to now create a Secretary of State for Disability Issues. A Secretary of State is not a full member of Cabinet who attends and can speak at all Cabinet meetings. We need a minister who attends and can speak at all Cabinet meetings to be assigned with the disability portfolio. Disability issues can arise across most issues that will come before Cabinet. People with disabilities need a watchdog there at all times.
How You Can Help
- Email Prime Minister Mark Carney at pm@pm.gc.ca and tell him to revive the Cabinet position of Minister Responsible for Disability Issues.
- Contact your local media. Urge them to cover this issue. Tell them why it matters to you.
Learn more about the battle to get the Accessible Canada Act strengthened and effectively implemented by visiting the AODA Alliance website’s Canada Page.
Explore our battle to strengthen the weak Canada Disability Benefit Act by checking out the AODA Alliance website’s Bill C-22 page.
MORE DETAILS
Toronto Star May 15, 2025
Originally posted at https://www.thestar.com/politics/we-are-not-a-priority-disability-advocates-say-lack-of-minister-sends-a-message/article_d3590f9a-36f1-5786-bba4-32767d53e4e2.html
Disability advocates say lack of minister sends a message
Move threatens millions of Canadians, they warn
Nicole Thompson The Canadian Press
The lack of a minister for disabilities threatens to sideline the needs of millions of Canadians during what Mark Carney promises will be a period of transformation, advocates said Wednesday.
The prime minister announced his smaller, “purpose-built” cabinet meant to deliver change on Tuesday, but the 38-member team doesn’t include anyone explicitly responsible for representing the interests of disabled Canadians.
“Not having big and bold disability inclusion and accessibility as part of a ministerial portfolio headline sends a message,” said Rabia Khedr, national director of Disability Without Poverty.
“Unfortunately, people with disabilities are being left behind.”
She worries there won’t be improvements to the Canada Disability Benefit, which offers a maximum of $200 per month to those eligible. That’s not enough to accomplish the government’s goal of lifting disabled Canadians out of poverty, she said.
“According to the government’s own data, it will lift 25,000 people out of poverty, when we know that there’s 1.6 million Canadians living with disabilities in poverty,” she said.
“We got the legislation, great. We made history after a lot of work. We got the budget but it was really disappointing. The regulations were adopted, but there’s still work to be done to make them as robust as they should be.”
The benefit is set to start rolling out on July 1, and the previous Liberal government committed in its fall economic update to making sure it was tax-exempt. That still needs to be done, and without a disability minister, it’s not clear who will champion the initiative.
There’s also the question of the Accessible Canada Act, a piece of legislation that was passed in 2019 with the goal of making Canada “barrier-free” by 2040. It’s already woefully behind schedule, she said.
“The Accessible Canada Act truly needs a champion at the cabinet table to ensure that the Disability Inclusion Action Plan (developed in 2022) is indeed adopted through a whole-of-government approach, advancing accessibility in all facets of governing this country,” she said.
David Lepofsky, chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, said the need for a disability minister goes beyond accessibility-specific legislation.
“This is a prime minister who has an ambitious goal of restructuring Canada’s economy, building new infrastructure and restructuring the federal government,” he said.
“They’re huge goals. More than ever, that’s when you need a strong voice because people with disabilities so often get left out, get forgotten.”
Take the issue of housing, for instance.
“We’ve heard tons of talk about housing and needing to increase the amount of housing in Canada – affordable housing. What they don’t talk about is the need for a dramatic increase in the amount of accessible housing. We have an accessible housing shortage that is a crisis,” he said.
Lepofsky said he remembers what it was like trying to advocate for accessibility before 2015, when the disability minister role was created, and he fears returning to that era.
“If you don’t have a voice at the cabinet table, if you don’t have a cabinet minister who could walk over to the prime minister – as a minister – and have a direct conversation about needing more action, you are really in a far more vulnerable position,” he said.
Representatives for the Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the criticism, or which cabinet member would be responsible for accessibility legislation.
Deborah Gold, CEO of the Toronto-based non-profit Balance for Blind Adults, said she worries the lack of a dedicated disabilities minister is indicative of this government’s overall priorities.
“It’s more of a fiscal-oriented government,” she said. “I’m concerned that it may speak to a shift away from the social policy … of the previous Liberal government.”
The Canadian Press