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CTV News
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Marking National Drowning Prevention Week
Atlantic Watch The Lifesaving Society of Nova Scotia shares important safety advice to help prevent drownings this summer.
CBC
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- CBC
AISH recipients panicked over looming provincial deadline: health providers
Health providers say people who receive Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) are calling them in a panic over a letter from the province that threatens to cut their benefits if they don't meet a September deadline. The providers tasked with filling out the forms for the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) and Canada Disability Benefits (CDB) say they are overwhelmed by the calls and confusion over the deadline set by the province. A copy of the letter obtained by CBC News states that AISH clients are "required to access all sources of income they may be eligible for, including federal programs." The letter tells clients to update their local AISH office about the status of their DTC and CDB applications prior to Sept. 5, 2025. "Clients who have not communicated the status of their CDB application to their AISH office prior to September 5, 2025, may see an equivalent amount to the CDB benefit, $200, deducted from their monthly AISH benefits, beginning with the October 2025 period of assistance," reads the letter. The province plans to keep AISH payments at the same amount but take back the $200 monthly amount for the federal benefit. The Alberta government has said it has the highest payments in Canada and exceeds the minimum set by the federal government. Why AISH recipients won't get extra money from a new federal disability benefit 4 months ago The federal government is rolling out a new Canada Disability Benefit this summer, but qualified recipients in Alberta won't see the extra money if they already receive payments under AISH. As Travis McEwan reports, it's frustrating some Albertans. AISH recipients, who receive $1,901 a month from the province, say they are being forced to pay upfront for the medical evaluations in order to apply for the benefits. Ivy Hays, from Coronation, has received AISH benefits for nearly 20 years due to a number of permanent health issues that resulted from a massive heart attack in her late 30s. Hays said her physician is charging $400 to fill out the medical form for the DTC application. She said she asked to pay the clinic in instalments but the office insisted she had to pay the entire cost upfront. "My heart hit the floor," Hays said. "I have no living family. I have no way to come up with that $400." Her AISH caseworker arranged for a loan that she could pay back over a series of months, but Hays said she has learned the form will still take at least two months for the physician to fill out, taking her past the Sept. 5 deadline. At an unrelated news conference on Thursday, Assisted Living and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon said his government isn't expecting AISH recipients to complete the federal application process by September 5. Nixon said they are required to check in with their caseworker by that date and update them on where they're at with their application. "We will not be cutting off AISH benefits in September if people are still working through their process with the federal government," he said. 'Very sad' Patty Wilson, a nurse practitioner in Calgary, said her clinic is getting deluged with calls from patients with disabilities worried they will miss the September deadline. Others are concerned they received the letter because they did something wrong. "I'm sad, very sad, for my patients, as well, that this is another hurdle that they have to jump through, another added stressor they have to go through," Wilson said in an interview. Wilson estimates each form takes her about two to three hours to fill out. There are so many people in the queue, Wilson said she'd be lucky to get all them done by September 2026 She already has a one-year wait list for people needing medical forms to get AISH. Dr. Ginetta Silvalaggio, a family physician in Edmonton, said the forms have contributed to her working more hours. While she is managing to keep up at the moment, she worries what will happen by the end of August as the deadline creeps closer. Silvalaggio said she can't understand why the province is taking this action when it ended the last fiscal year with an $8.3 billion surplus. "Why target the disabled community in particular in the name of saving a buck?" she asked. "There's a lot of distress because the time frames are so tight." Research A new brief from the Disability Policy Research Program at the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy compiled reaction to the changes from 241 AISH recipients who were allowed to stay anonymous so they could speak freely. If they could keep the Canada Disability Benefit, respondents said they would use that $200 to buy more and healthier groceries, pay for prescriptions not covered by health benefits, and cover rent increases in market housing. Others spoke about the ability to set aside $5 or $10 a month for a small emergency fund or even have the ability to leave their apartment. "I'm housebound because transportation is too expensive," a respondent from Edmonton wrote. "I feel trapped and being able to get out once in a while would be life-changing." Another respondent said the extra money would allow them to live with more independence and dignity "For someone relying on AISH, $200 isn't just money; it represents hope, stability, and a chance to live with real choices." Senior research associate Brittany Finley was involved in the report, which was an initiative of the Disability Policy Research Program and eight organizations across the province, including Inclusion Alberta, Disability Action Hall, Alberta Ability Network and Inclusion Grande Prairie. Finley said the responses showed that people on AISH believe the government is leaving them behind. "You don't feel that you're being valued as a citizen in the province where you were born and where you live," she said. "And I think that just makes people feel like they've lost hope."
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Adventure Play Days give Sudbury kids a chance to use their imaginations
While a lot of children in northern Ontario are enrolled in summer camps or organized sports for the summer, there's an effort in Sudbury to encourage more unstructured play. Émilie Pinard, a professor at Laurentian University's McEwen School of Architecture, and Pierre Harrison, the founder of an organization called PLAYLearnThink, have launched Adventure Play Days at two local playgrounds. The play days happen throughout the summer, every Tuesday evening at the Riverdale Playground and Wednesdays at the Antwerp Playground. The idea is for children to play with loose materials like cardboard boxes, art supplies and even some tools like hammers and handsaws. "The key component of a play day is giving control to the children," said Harrison. "When children are controlling their play, they're developing things like problem solving, resilience. It's absolutely wonderful." Harrison said if a child plays with a telephone, for example, but pretends it's a car, that's fine. "That's the beauty of loose parts," he said. "It can be anything as long as the children are free to do whatever they want with it." Harrison said children don't have as many opportunities today to participate in unstructured play. "There are psychologists that have been studying that and they've also noticed that, you know, anxiety, depression and suicide amongst children has been increasing as the abilities or the opportunities for play have been decreasing," he said. Pinard's own children have participated in the play days. "They really enjoy it. They asked to come back." For Pinard, there's also a research component attached to the Adventure Play Days. "I'm looking at how our cities can better support children's well-being and health," she said. "And play is one key factor." Pinard is interviewing parents about their children's experiences with unstructured play. "By better understanding, you know, how children participate in Adventure Play Days we can offer different types of programs than just typical playgrounds that are usually targeting a specific group age, or where kids are maybe getting bored pretty quickly," she said. Ashley Hurley, a parent who brought her children to a play day at Riverdale Playground, said she thought it was a great idea to organize opportunities for unstructured play. "I think the biggest barrier at home is the supervision and the mess that it makes," she said.
