Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Minister Carla Qualtrough sits down for an interview in Ottawa on Thursday, February 15, 2018. iPolitics/Matthew Usherwood

Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Minister Carla Qualtrough says Canadians with disabilities will enjoy enhanced support from new government initiatives to help residents weather the financial blow of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As people with disabilities generally have lower incomes than average Canadians, she said they stand to gain more from federal COVID-19 economic aid programs such as increases to the GST/HST credit and the new Canadian Emergency Response Benefit.

For example, she said 70 per cent of Canadians eligible for the disability tax credit will receive the enhanced GST/HST benefit, which effectively doubles the maximum amount available to recipients for the 2019-20 fiscal year, because of their income levels.

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“It’s really an important subset of our population that’s particularly vulnerable during this crisis,” Qualtrough said of Canadians with disabilities in an exclusive interview with iPolitics.

“So it’s really important that we do turn our minds to these kinds of issues. We’ve made sure that we’ve taken into account the needs and the interests of people with disabilities in all of our measures that we’ve delivered so far.”

The Liberal government’s recently announced CERB payment is designed to relieve the overburdened employment insurance system for all COVID-19-related claims, providing Canadians who are out of work due to the pandemic $2,000 per month for four months.

The government has also pledged to cover 75 per cent of eligible workers’ wages for employers that see a 30-per-cent drop in revenue. All smaller employers are eligible for 10-per-cent wage subsidy, regardless of their reported revenue.

Despite the slew of new federal economic aid benefits, Employment and Social Development Canada announced on Friday that it was closing all Service Canada locations to regular walk-in traffic because of staff safety concerns, though the agency vowed to still accommodate individuals who cannot file employment insurance and COVID-19 related-benefit applications online.

Asked how the closures would impact applicants with disabilities, Qualtrough said for the past two years, federal government websites have all been in compliance with the highest level of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The new Accessible Canada Act that was passed into law by the Liberals in the last Parliament requires organizations to eliminate accessibility barriers in information and communication technologies.

“We’ve worked very hard to make sure that all of our government Canada websites, Canada.ca being the biggest one, and…any kind of interactive, secure modules within our website, so the EI components or Canada Revenue Agency, (meet) these standards,” she said.

“We’ve been really working closely with the disability community for years. And those standards haven’t in any way been compromised during this crisis. We want to make sure people have access.”

As for the impact of all Service Canada locations closing to walk-in traffic, Qualtrough said the government has “tried to streamline and automate” services as much as possible and that phone lines have been set up to allow Canadians to reach appropriate public servants who can walk them through the application process.

Qualtrough acknowledged that her office has fielded questions from those in the disability advocacy community regarding the Service Canada office closures but said she hasn’t heard of any follow-up issues once she explained the resources that are available.

“We’re asking for everyone’s patience in terms of how long you might have to wait. But people are understand(ing) that we’re doing our absolute best and public servants are working very heard,” she added.

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