Guaranteed public services

Recommendation 29: Provide all residential school survivors with a guaranteed livable income for the rest of their lives. Increase federal pensions and provincial income and disability rates to the Market Basket Measure. Eliminate barriers to accessing income and disability assistance by reducing unnecessary eligibility criteria and simplifying the application processes. End clawbacks, increase earnings exemptions, and raise all asset limitations for those on income and disability assistance.

Guaranteed public services

Recommendation 33: Provide a free transit pass for children ages 0-18 years old, all youth transitioning out of government care till age 25 years old, and for all adults on pensions, income assistance, and disability assistance.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 61: Increase income and disability rates to the Market Basket Measure to reflect the cost of an adequate standard of living, and index them to inflation.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 63: Eliminate barriers to accessing income and disability assistance by reducing unnecessary eligibility criteria and simplifying the application processes. This includes:

1. Removing the two-year financial independence requirement for income assistance.
2. Basing income assistance eligibility on current income only.
3. Removing the penalty clawback for failure to work search requirements for income assistance.
4. Removing the work search requirement for mothers with children over the age of three years old.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 65: End clawbacks of income and disability assistance including clawbacks of Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefits and penalties for cohabitation.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 66: Increase earnings exemptions for those on provincial income and disability assistance program, and any clawbacks must be incrementally tied to income.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 67: Raise all asset limitations for those on income assistance to bring them in line with asset limitations for those on disability benefits.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 68: Amend income and disability benefits assessments so that only relationships that display significant financial dependence or interdependence are relevant for the purposes of eligibility, and remove financial interdependence by default on the basis that a person indicates parental role for a child unless a spousal relationship can be established.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 73: Eliminate the prohibition on accessing Rental Assistance Program (RAP) and Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters (SAFER) housing subsidies for people on income and disability assistance.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Provincial income assistance

Recommendation 74: Extend coverage for health supplements for people accessing income or disability assistance, such as counselling services that are particularly relevant for Indigenous women.