Alberta NDP calls on UCP to reverse cuts to AISH recipients

More and more Albertans are feeling the pinch in their wallets due to inflation. But those living on a fixed income may be feeling it even more particularly since the province stopped adjusting compensation according to the cost of living.

NDP Finance Critic, Shannon Phillips and Marie Renaud, MLA for St. Albert, were in Lethbridge calling on Travis Toews and other UCP leadership candidates to immediately return to the legislature and reverse their cuts to AISH, the Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped. 

According to Renaud this includes people with Down Syndrome, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries and stage four cancer.
“People with disabilities and medical conditions have additional expenses that most of us do not,” says Renaud.

According to Lethbridge-West MLA and Finance Critic Shannon Phillips, Leadership candidate Travis Toews de-indexed the benefits of the province’s most vulnerable.

“He froze benefits of people with disabilities…meaning their benefits don’t keep pace with inflation,” says Phillips, adding that Toews, “literally picked the pockets of those Albertans who have the least in our society and gave billions of dollars in giveaways to already profitable corporations.”

BCN reached out to Travis Toews for comment, but did not receive a response.

There are currently around 70,000 Albertans who receive AISH.