The Numbers
$200/Month vs the Poverty Line
$200/Month = $2,400/Year
The Canada Disability Benefit Act received Royal Assent in June 2023. The regulations setting the benefit amount were published in mid-2024. Maximum benefit: $200 per month. For a single person, this is $2,400 per year — roughly 11% of the Market Basket Measure poverty threshold (~$22,000 for a single person). The benefit was announced as "transformational" and "historic." At $200/month, it does not lift a single recipient above the poverty line.
The MAID Intersection
The same government that set the disability benefit at $200/month simultaneously expanded MAID eligibility to include people whose sole underlying condition is a disability (Track 2, Bill C-7, 2021). The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities declared Canada's MAID program an "extreme concern" specifically because of Track 2's impact on disabled Canadians. A disabled Canadian who cannot afford medication, housing, or assistive devices on $200/month can access state-funded death. The benefit is less than the cost of the procedure that eliminates the need for it.
Disability Groups Called It Insulting
National disability organizations described the $200/month amount as "insulting" and "not transformational in any meaningful sense." The Disability Without Poverty network advocated for a minimum of $2,200/month to achieve the stated goal of poverty reduction. The government delivered less than 10% of what disability advocates requested.
The Arithmetic of Life vs Death
MAID procedure: ~$2,500 (one-time). Disability benefit: $200/month ($2,400/year). After 13 months, the disability benefit exceeds the cost of death. The government that funds death at $2,500 per procedure funds disability at $200 per month. The policy architecture is aligned: it is cheaper to die than to live with a disability in Canada. This is documented. This is arithmetic. This is the government's own numbers.