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The penalty had long been contested by people with disabilities. It will now be cancelled in 2025.
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Suzanne Bélanger was at home watching coverage of the Quebec government unveiling its latest budget on Tuesday when the announcement she had tuned in for finally came.
Saying he has been made aware of its negative repercussions, Finance Minister Eric Girard announced Quebec is nixing its long-contested retirement pension penalty for seniors with disabilities.
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“I dropped my knitting needles and started to cry tears of joy,” said Bélanger, 58, who’s part of a group that has been pushing to have the penalty abolished. “I’m so proud to have been part of this fight.”
Introduced in the late 1990s, the law in question reduced Quebecers’ retirement pensions by up to 24 per cent when they turned 65 if they had previously received disability pensions between the ages of 60 and 64.
People with disabilities and advocacy groups have argued for years that the law is discriminatory and places already vulnerable people in an impossible position come retirement age.
Last summer, the Tribunal administratif du Québec ruled the penalty violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and called for the law to be changed. The Coalition Avenir Québec government appealed that decision, however, prolonging the legal battle.
But in its 2024–2025 budget unveiled on Tuesday, the government announced it will now “completely eliminate” the penalty as of January 2025.
“A recipient reaching age 65 will be eligible to receive the full amount of the pension they would have received had they retired at that age,” Girard said in his speech.
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Some 75,000 seniors with disabilities will benefit from the change, as will another 23,000 who are between the ages of 60 and 64 today. The government says it could mean a gain of up to $3,930 per year in their retirement pension.
In a statement issued after the budget was released, one of the groups fighting the law, Les Invalides au front, called the change a “historic win” for all Quebecers living with a disability.
“It is thanks to the power of numbers, social pressure and collective mobilization that we were able to bring down this discrimination,” the group wrote.
In an interview Wednesday, lawyer Sophie Mongeon, who has been helping with the cause pro bono for several years, said the change means more money in the pockets of people who “really, really need it.”
Mongeon was invited to Quebec City for the budget unveiling on Tuesday but said she didn’t know what to expect, thinking the government might have planned to simply reduce the penalty.
When it was announced the penalty was being eliminated altogether, Mongeon said she felt a wave of emotion wash over her.
“I couldn’t believe it. It was a dream come true,” she said.
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The legal cases surrounding the law still need to play out. The next hearings in Superior Court are scheduled for September 2025. A separate class action over the penalty is also ongoing.
Mongeon said she hopes “something reasonable” can come from the cases now that the penalty has been cancelled.
“Plan A was to get rid of the penalty, which is mission accomplished,” she said. “For the rest, we’ll let the dust settle and take it from there.”
Most important, Mongeon said she wanted to highlight how the change is a “team win” for all those with disabilities who stood up for their rights.
Through the years, the group has held protests, travelled to the National Assembly for news conferences and flooded the offices of elected officials and government bodies with letter campaigns.
Often, members’ children or spouses have taken up the fight after their loved ones died. It’s the case for Kevin McLean, whose father, Richard, died after being one of the initiators of the class action.
“A special word for my father,” McLean wrote on the group’s website after the announcement. “Although he left us no financial inheritance, he left a priceless legacy to every Quebecer with a disability, now and in the future.”
jfeith@postmedia.com
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