What is in Budget 2021 for Mental Health?

Expanding Access to Supports for Students and Borrowers with Disabilities

Students with disabilities face some of the highest costs and most significant barriers to long-term success. Every year, the Canada Student Loans Program supports over 75,000 students and borrowers with permanent disabilities through enhanced grants and repayment assistance. But these supports are not available to students whose disabilities are not lifelong.

• The government is announcing its intention to extend disability supports under the Canada Student Loans Program to recipients whose disabilities are persistent or prolonged but not necessarily permanent.

Supporting Accessible Child Care Spaces

For families that have children with disabilities, it is often challenging to find affordable and accessible child care spaces that meet their needs.

• To make immediate progress for children with disabilities, Budget 2021 proposes to provide $29.2 million over two years, starting in 2021-22, to Employment and Social Development Canada through the Enabling Accessibility Fund to support child care centres as they improve their physical accessibility. This funding, which could benefit over 400 child care centres, would support improvements such as ramps and accessible doors, washrooms, and play structures.

A New Disability Benefit

Since 2015, the government has taken steps towards building an inclusive and resilient economy that supports people with disabilities. In addition to enacting ground-breaking legislation to create a barrier-free Canada, the government has also taken concrete steps to help people with disabilities receive enhanced programming and access to benefits, savings plans, and education funding.

• The pandemic has exposed many of the long-standing challenges persons with disabilities face, including an increased risk of poverty. The Government of Canada has several programs and services in place that provide support to Canadians with disabilities. Still, these are often complex and can be challenging to navigate for users. To ensure all persons with disabilities have the support they need to overcome persistent barriers to full economic and social participation, the government is committed to bringing forward a new disability benefit. Budget 2021 proposes to provide $11.9 million over three years, starting in 2021-22, to Employment and Social Development Canada to undertake consultations to reform the eligibility process for federal disability programs and benefits. This will help maximize the reach of these programs and improve the lives of Canadians living with disabilities. This work would feed directly into the design of a new disability benefit.

Improving Access to the Disability Tax Credit

In 2017, the Government of Canada reinstated the Canada Revenue Agency’s Disability Advisory Committee to ensure tax measures for persons with disabilities are administered in a fair, transparent, and accessible way. Since the release of the committee’s first annual report in 2019, the government has introduced many significant changes, including improvements to its communications and outreach activities for the Disability Tax Credit and changes to Registered Disability Savings Plans to protect beneficiaries better. As the government considers new recommendations from the committee, released in a second report on April 9, 2021, the government is proposing to take further steps to act on the committee’s guidance by improving the eligibility criteria for mental functions and life-sustaining therapy. To help more families and people living with disabilities access the Disability Tax Credit and other related support measures like the Registered Disability Savings Plan and the Child Disability Benefit:

• Budget 2021 proposes to update the list of mental functions of everyday life that is used for assessment for the Disability Tax Credit. Using terms that are more clinically relevant would make it easier to be assessed, reduce delays, and improve access to benefits.
• Budget 2021 also proposes recognizing more activities in determining time spent on life-sustaining therapy and reducing the minimum required frequency of therapy to qualify for the Disability Tax Credit. To ensure these changes enable applicants to have a fair and proper assessment of their eligibility for the Disability Tax Credit, the government will review these changes in 2023.

Making Our Communities and Workplaces More Accessible

Every day, hundreds of thousands of Canadians with disabilities face accessibility challenges. Organizations want to become more accessible, but costs can be prohibitive, especially for smaller organizations. The Enabling Accessibility Fund provides funding for renovation, construction, and retrofit projects—from building ramps to support for the hearing impaired to automatic door openers—that make communities and workplaces more accessible for persons with disabilities. To reduce barriers to employment, activities, and programs for persons with disabilities:

• Budget 2021 proposes to provide additional funding of $100 million over two years, starting in 2021-22, to Employment and Social Development Canada to triple funding for the Enabling Accessibility Fund and support small and mid-sized projects with not-for-profit organizations, women’s shelters, child care centres, small municipalities, Indigenous organizations, territorial governments, small businesses, and businesses of all sizes. That would help offset the costs of renovations, retrofits, and accessible technologies in workplaces.

To read the Budget 2021 speech or to review the budget documents, please visit https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/services/publications/federal-budget.html