The Manitoba government has approved sending special payments to people with disabilities already receiving provincial assistance during COVID-19.
Premier Brian Pallister announced May 26 that the Manitoba government would send $200 cheques to Manitobans with disabilities already receiving provincial support.
Pallister claimed there was no easy way for the province to add a similar means test to the similar seniors support program.
The provincial 55 PLUS Program provides quarterly benefits for low-income seniors in Manitoba.
“We’re offering this support to those who are already in receipt of income support because we believe they are by definition more vulnerable,” Pallister said.
“We don’t have commensurate data on seniors, so that were we to apply an income test in hindsight to a seniors benefit payment, it might take weeks - months in fact - to design and get out to them.”
The government already approved sending similar cheques to seniors earlier this month. Pallister sent a signed letter along with the cheque to seniors and said he plans to do the same with the disability cheque. Around 23,000 Manitobans with disabilities are eligible to receive $200.
The province has announced direct funding measures for seniors and people with disabilities in recent weeks, while not offering similar support for other vulnerable groups like minimum wage workers, children in care, homeless people and others. It is not currently known if similar measures for other groups will be announced.
“I can’t say [$200] is anything but a guess as to impact,” he said.
“Everyone is different… Doing analysis 20,000 times is going to do nothing but delay the ability to get money in the hands of people who were already vulnerable.”
Along with support for Manitobans with disabilities, the province jointly announced that, along with governments in Yukon and B.C., they would advocate for a mandatory paid sick leave from the federal government during the COVID-19 recovery.
“I’m not interested in using the pandemic to try to create a fundamental change in the national social fabric,” Pallister said.
“What I’m trying to do here is make sure we don’t have a COVID comeback.”
Manitoba’s start date for phase two of reopening the economy is expected to be announced later this week. Dr. Brent Roussin, the province's chief provincial health officer, will be hosting a telephone town hall May 26 at 7 p.m. to receive additional feedback.
Pallister said the province has received more than 4,000 responses to the online survey asking opinions on their phase two plan. The survey can be found at engagemb.ca.
Later in the day, the province announced there were no new cases of COVID-19 detected May 25.
