National Indigenous Peoples Day
June 21st is National Indigenous Peoples Day (#NIPD), which celebrates the culture, heritage, societal contributions and resilience of First Nations, Inuit and Métis across the country.
Indigenous Tourism BC has compiled a list of some key NIPD events in BC, which you can find here. Many are free. We encourage you to check out these or other events where you live.
We’d also like to highlight the work of two of our community partners:
- Our Access RDSP partner Indigenous Disability Canada / British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society (IDC/BCANDS) celebrates their 33rd year of successfully delivering Indigenous disability programs and services across Canada this year! Learn about their work here: https://www.bcands.bc.ca/.
- Our Tax AID partner Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society is hosting an NIPD celebration tomorrow in Kelowna. Details here. They are also celebrating an anniversary this year: their 50th! Learn about their work here: http://www.kfs.bc.ca/.
Bill C-403 Could Increase Access to Disability Benefits
On June 13th, 2024, Members of Parliament, Bonita Zarrillo and Laurel Collins, introduced a new federal bill (Bill C-403), which proposes that people receiving the Persons with Disabilities Benefit (PWD) receive automatic approval for federal benefits, including the Disability Tax Credit (DTC), Canada Pension Plan-Disability (CPP-D), and Canada Disability Benefit (CDB).
A recording of the news conference can be found here and you can read the proposed bill here.
DABC is in full support of Bill C-403; if adopted it will bring forward a change that we have advocated for over many years. Last year, in our submission to BC’s poverty reduction strategy, we advocated that “the level of stress and pressure placed on individuals to “prove” their disability can be mitigated against through finding ways to streamline the process” and that “individuals who have already gone through an application process for a different disability benefit should not need to go through the same validation process again.” If passed, Bill C-403 could reduce such stress and increase greater access to these benefits for countless people with disabilities in BC and across Canada.
