The disabled-bus-pass rally on the front lawn of the legislature Wednesday keyed an intense debate inside the building later that exposed some raw nerves.
The Liberal government continues to appear bewildered at the reaction to the move in the budget that will see disabled people, starting in September, paying for bus passes that used to be subsidized by the government. Liberals thought the increase to the disability allowance by up to $77 a month that was announced at the same time would cover any unhappiness about the new cost.
The rally, the heated debate and the continued focus on the bus passes show they thought wrong.
Social Development and Social Innovation Minister Michelle Stilwell, a quadriplegic Paralympic champ, almost lost her composure briefly during sustained hostile questions.
“I truly understand that people were hoping for more of an increase to their rates. As a person with a disability, I know exactly what they go through each and every day. I’ve lived it. I’ve been there. I’ve been on income assistance, so don’t tell me I don’t understand, because I do.”
She was responding to questions from NDP MLA Melanie Mark, about how disabled people will have to choose between basic transportation and trying to keep up with rising costs.
“Why does the minister think that the freedom of choice she offers people on disabilities really is any choice at all?” Mark asked.
The government’s position is that disabled people will have the freedom “to make their own choice about how to meet their own unique transportation needs.”
Currently, the government subsidizes passes for disabled people to the tune of $52 a month, or provides a special transportation benefit, for a modest $45 annual administrative fee. The September change means clients will buy their own passes, which will consume between $52 and $66 of the $77 increase to their benefits.
So the $77 more is actually only $11 or $25 more, if they want to use transit. The rationale was that almost half the 100,000 disabled people didn’t get or use passes, so the current programs are unfair.
After NDP Leader John Horgan demanded she “restore” the bus pass, Stilwell said: “I find it very difficult to understand how I restore something that hasn’t been cancelled.”
Stilwell said: “They bring everybody here for a photo op — a photo op — for their political gain, while they create anxiety and fear for people with disabilities around this province, when we are trying to assist them as best we can, when we can.”
At one point the Opposition used a Surrey mother as an example. She can’t drive due to epilepsy, so she will pay $52 for a pass, money that could be used for her children.
Stilwell said: “I can assure the member again today that she simply has it wrong and I can assure the person she’s speaking of will receive the bus pass in the same way, if she chooses, with a $25 rate increase to her income assistance.”
Horgan rapped the Liberals for not having “the jam” to speak to the hundreds at the rally. Stilwell said she would have, but was meeting her federal counterpart in Vancouver.
“That’s a shame,” Horgan said. “Too bad for the minister. But where were the rest of you? Having lunch, I guess.”
The indications at this point are that the government is going to try to ride this out. They’ll hold to the premise that the disabled will be better off in September than they are now. But they’ll have to face down a lot of dismaying examples of disabled people making exactly the choice the government set up for them — buying a bus pass or curtailing their transit use in order to cover monthly living expenses.
It will cost $170 million over three years to increase the income assistance rate for the disabled. The bus-pass change is eating up a lot of the goodwill that the increase would have generated.
Just So You Know: A column Tuesday erroneously quoted B.C. Hydro CEO Jessica McDonald as saying the work of revising a three-year plan was going to be “more expensive than you can imagine.” The actual phrase was “more extensive than you would imagine.”
My apologies for the mistake.
