u/NythilMahariel

One of them is based in the UK, one in Australia (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/adap-multinational-contractor-aish-alberta-changes-9.7249421). These companies are the intake that then funnel us to existing employment services. Meaning, these people aren't even part of the social work system. They are office workers.

I have seen people say that some people deserve to be disabled. I have had a dentist be told I am autistic and then say I must be "one of those really smart people." I had someone, upon being informed that a service dog would be psychiatric and have mostly PTSD related tasks, reply with "oh good lord, PTSD? You been through a lot of combat up there in Canada?" and then tell me I was "an unbelievably self-centred narcissistic person" and "lucky that [my] family puts up with [my] crap."

Hell, the last therapist I was handed off to ask for me to give her the paperwork with my official diagnoses and then respond "huh, they kind of just diagnosed you with everything," and then suggest I didn't have them and they were all autism, tell me I couldn't "therapy my way out of autism," and tell me to look into how it changes my reactions to things. But when I understood more, I could come back later, of course. I was there for trauma therapy.

I have encountered more people who do not understand the concept of disability, or that invisible disabilities even exist, than I have otherwise—including in the medical system. Considering these are generic employment services, we could be faced with people who have no concept of how any of our barriers work. This isn't assistance for someone who is disabled, this is generic with no guarantee of whoever we get assigned to having even heard of some diagnoses. We could get hit with "oh, yeah, I have a cousin with that, but they're just lazy."

I swear everything we learn, the more I want to just... let go. Because where's the hope? How am I supposed to explain all the reasons I can't work to someone with most likely no experience with this when it took me years of convincing people who actually knew what I had, and told me going on AISH was "giving up?"

Edit: This was autoflagged as separatism, but that's definitely not my topic.

Yeah, this got away from me.

This is the result of being ignored at every turn by the people who are meant to be the ones you go to in the event of governmental concerns. This is long. I am both sorry and not sorry, but it also numbered by point further down. I'll be honest, this is more for someone who doesn't understand the issues with everything. I know for a lot of us, I'm telling you what you already know. However, being wordy and accidentally writing a semiformed essay is how I handle anger, apparently.

At the very end are sources. It's been a long time since I had to format sources, so I have no doubt it's a bit funky. As this was written in a moment of frustration and not the result of days of research, my sources are limited to news articles and government websites. It is likely I have overlooked arguments and have weird formatting, but frankly I’m angry and not being graded on this, so the first draft is all I’m doing. If there's a citation link that you notice is wrong, let me know, please, and I'll fix it. I wasn't sure which flair to use, so if I got that wrong I apologize. Some things I have assumed to be prior knowledge, but I'm happy to pull sources if someone doubts them.

I have attempted emailing the MP and MLA for my area, as well the office in charge of social support. I have emailed the provincial and federal governments both. Naturally, there is never a response (it's fascinating to me that there never seems to be an auto response either, which is something almost everything else has, including most small businesses with online platforms). Given that no government office is ever open at times when someone can actually seek their attention in person, typically open during select weekdays from late morning to mid afternoon, it's obvious that none of this is accidental. Even my closest AISH office shutters at 4:30 and is not open on weekends. Being inaccessible is by design. (Also, the MP for my area left a 5 star review for his own office's Google page, which is just embarrassing. I'm sure you can see how helpful that particular local representative would most likely be.)

The point is, I have tried everything I can to contact someone of relevant position to talk to about ADAP and the consequences, only to be faced with silence. I am screaming into a void. I cannot attend nor organize any form of civic displays, I have no online presence and thus no audience, and I have no convenient associates within relevant circles. I am alone, as are all of us who will suffer from this, because people, to generalize broadly, seem to prefer it that way.

As a population, we on AISH are fractional compared to the rest of Alberta. We are small enough to ignore, and small enough that many do not mind doing so as long as we’re a nebulous distant entity and not people they personally know. In the face of other issues, including blatant undemocratic offences (such as Danielle Smith's latest threat to use the notwithstanding clause¹), ADAP has fallen out of conversation rather than being included beside it, and the date of introduction is looming. The federal government appears to have forgotten Alberta exists outside of pipelines and remains silent as the province is forced to twist towards distinctly un-Canadian healthcare changes, so they certainly have little regard for this. This is my last option: seeking some way to return attention to the wildly flawed and thinly—if at all—veiled attempt to lessen support for the sake of saving money by using far too many words.

I have broken down some issues with the launch of ADAP into a numbered format for clarity and readability.

1. ADAP is expensive.

On the official Alberta site² it claims:

"AISH clients who transition to ADAP in July 2026 will receive a $200 monthly transition benefit that will keep their financial benefit the same as their existing AISH benefit amount until December 31, 2027."

As well as:

"Alberta’s government will cover the cost of one medical assessment for current AISH clients who transition to ADAP in July..."

So, not only are they still paying the same amount for nearly another year and a half, they also have to cover the cost of medical assessments for every single one of them. According to Alberta Assisted Living and Social Services Open Data³, in December 2025 that was 79,419 people (the number has likely not changed much since then, given how volatile the entire system has been to deal with since then). Except, of course, for "Current AISH clients who meet the criteria for automatic approval for AISH do not need to take any action – they will be identified by AISH and notified prior to July 2026."

Ultimately, if the concern is about saving money, this is an incredibly counterproductive way to go about that. By providing people the ability to spend money, they tend to actually spend money instead of holding back, which is in favour of the economy. To reinforce this, I will also draw on a page from the federal Canadian website⁴:

"SPOs are important economic contributors. They are also key to Canada’s advancement of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals." In this context, SPO refers to Social Purpose Organizations. Cutting funding is expensive and will not benefit the economy, if you’re seeking a purely fiscal reason to be against ADAP.

2. ADAP is going to overwhelm understaffed systems.

The medical system is, quite clearly, struggling. Just last week, there was another instance of a man dying while waiting for emergency care⁵. I had to wait a year and a half for a sleep specialist appointment. I am on a potentially multi year long waiting list for dental work under general anesthesia, which is so long that what could have been a root canal will be instead pulling a tooth because it will have advanced too far in the meantime. The actual offices of AISH have not, to my knowledge and attempts to find such information, revealed their exact employee numbers. However, logic dictates that either they're woefully understaffed or they're simply ignoring files, since it can take hours to reach them by phone due to being on hold and months to seek approvals. I waited six months for an approval for orthotics that took so long, the request has to be resubmitted. If you add in a sudden mass influx of at a minimum tens of thousands of people seeking specialist appointments and paperwork for processing, the consequences are not difficult to predict.

3. AISH is already insufficient.

There are many things it does not cover (such as a service dog, a dental implant regardless of the importance of the tooth, or over the counter medications, such as I have been advised to take by my doctor and thus is indeed medically necessary) and the highest possible benefit—prior to the clawback caused by the federal government realizing that we exist—was $1,940.00. To be generous, I shall use the brief window where the benefit was not clawed back, making it $2140.00.

According to the province's median market rents report⁶, even a bachelor apartment with no rooms can reach over $1200. Certainly some places are cheaper; moving is expensive, though. Even in the best case income scenario, if you happen to live in Calgary, you could be facing up to $1700 for rent for a bachelor apartment. Many of us are simply not able to live in rural areas even if we could afford to move, out of pure practicality. If you require on demand transportation for appointments, access to stores, food banks, and other vital supports such as an AISH office, you either have to find transport there or give up. My own closest AISH office is over an hour away by car, and I have no access to reliable public transit. Add in the office hours designed to make it nearly impossible to access it and if I need to contact them in person, I can’t without someone else taking a day off work to bring me in.

The clawback already means that we get $200 less, and part of our income is now on the third Thursday of every month. Most bills are not split like that. And recall that you could be facing $1700 in rent with an income that currently permits $1740 with a three week later $200. Even as it is, you can be faced with the choice of medical costs not covered by AISH, or food. Or, food for your family or yourself. Basic supplies, or replacing your shoes because cheaper items wear out faster and we can't afford the kind that lasts.

All of this is set on the backdrop of the current cost of living crisis. In regards to the federal grocery benefit, I make so little that it becomes pointless since it's based on GST, which is based on taxes, which as AISH is my only income I have no balance to pay. I don't get a tax return, and I certainly don't get enough to have any sort of savings (if you do, it would cut your support anyway). According to the consumer price index on the provincial site⁷, in March of 2026, Albertans paid 2.3% more for goods than in 2025. Not to mention, of course, the incredible rise in gas prices that is so difficult to manage that a fight broke out for a place in line at a cheaper gas station⁸.

It's worth at this point recalling that AISH is fixed income, and the current thresholds according to the Market Basket Measure by Statistics Canada in Alberta locations measured are all over $50,000⁹.

4. ADAP is going to kill.

There is no way around this. If you live in a city with a rent cost, say, $1500 a month, and you now make $1540 with another $200 near the end of the month (which at this point feels almost insulting, considering what government officials make) for a total cut of $400, you now have $240 dollars for the entire month. $40 is going to have to stretch to the third Thursday. Now, add in costs of transportation, family care, uncovered medical costs, food, utilities not included in rent, phone, internet (which is a basic need according to the CRTC¹⁰).

This is, obviously, unsustainable. People will lose housing, go hungry, suffer, be ill. Thanks to the increasing efforts of the province to limit universal healthcare (which, given that healthcare is a point of pride for many Canadians, it is rather interesting that a province can make these changes alone. Whilst I could take time to include a discussion of the economic and human costs of a private system by simply using the United States as a case study, that is, though certainly not being addressed enough, outside the scope of this, as are many issues that are all related in some capacity) and the current clogged medical system that will be made worse by mass appointments, there are going to be people who die from the condition that is the very reason they are meant to be receiving this aid. I would be foolish to not include suicides in this, as it robs home and hope from people who are betrayed by the support that was the only lifeline we had.

5. The proportion of people working while on AISH does not merit this, especially since AISH already requires you to not be able to support yourself due to disability.

Only approximately 13% of people, around 10,000, are currently working according to an Edmonton Journal article from 2025¹¹. You already are required to have a medical professional attest you are not able to work in a capacity that will be able to support you, permanently. The Alberta site for AISH¹² says so itself under eligibility requirements: "You have a medical condition that substantially limits your ability to earn a living." It further requires a medical professional to attest it is expected to be permanent, not substantially eased by a form of treatment, and meet financial requirements. Further, there is a rise in unemployment. In fact, Alberta surpassed the national average in May of this year¹³.

And for as much as businesses claim they're equal opportunity, they don't hire anyone who is disabled. We all know this; the legal solution is to simply not say it. It is a well known occurrence in any minority group, especially if you are in multiple. Even if you are hired, you have slower wage growth, which means all of this is still a problem as inflation rises and your support remains cut¹⁴.

I want to take a moment here to address in that article that Alberta technically is held high with smaller gaps. I will remind you that being the least rotten fruit on the shelf is not the achievement it is presented as. This is an oft parroted line when someone brings up that we struggle so they can dismiss the concern. If Alberta is the province with the highest core rate, then surely nothing is wrong!

Well, no. Because what that actually shows is that if we're struggling, so are literally all of us in the country. Someone in Manitoba or in the Northwest Territories is struggling like I am; that does not negate that I am still struggling. This is, in fact, a logical fallacy¹⁵, and quite frankly it is beyond exhausting to hear it over and over, and concerning that no one ever seems to point this out when they are in a position for people to listen to it. I further want to address the issue with those who claim we should only focus on necessities, as we don't need anything frivolous. While technically not part of animal rights in Alberta law, enrichment is commonly part of animal welfare concerns, and can technically fall under the requirements to ensure an animal is not in distress. Recall that humans are, in fact, animals.

I invite those people to live without joy and see if they don't classify themselves as being distressed. Then, I invite them to live on our income and see how that works out in tandem.

Glossing over the fact that people seem more willing to provide enrichment and entertainment to zoo denizens than us because this is long enough, we should not suffer because we had the gall to be disabled.

The ultimate point here is that there is no need for ADAP as a redundancy.

6. This is an almost pathetic attempt to obscure the true intent behind ADAP: lessen social safety nets.

If they wanted to give us the ability to earn more, all they have to do is raise the limit on what we can earn. Simpler, easier, cheaper, and less political risk. Clearly, that is not the actual goal. It’s like setting your entire kitchen on fire because you wanted to microwave something.

Vulnerable populations are the first to suffer because we have the fewest advocates, the fewest voices to be angry and garner attention and demand humanity from those in charge. If the government is taking advantage of the vulnerable, it is testing how far it can go. Doing this now, as everyone is struggling and costs are only rising, is beyond cruel. Watching the province take small steps that are warning signs to damaging democracy, including opposition to democracy (such as using the notwithstanding clause to ignore the law¹⁶), opposing cultural liberalism (such as targeting trans healthcare¹⁷) controlling access to media (such as book banning¹⁸,¹⁹), and this entire issue about AISH and ADAP²⁰.

Before I am accused of "making it worse than it is," I would like to remind you that democracy relies on active, consistent, concerted effort, and then recall both Smith's office and her personal friendly behaviour towards the United States as it slips down the slope directly into a form of fascism that is quite clearly copying notable historical beats from Germany. I don't want to be making this connection, but it's unfortunately there. To be exceptionally clear, I am not comparing Smith to anything nor anyone. I am, however, drawing attention to the distressing similarities, and that the vulnerable being taken advantage of is a warning bell when combined. The people who supported this, the government officials who have stayed silent in both the provincial and federal government, and the news outlets that are running stories about a pipeline instead of calling attention to the path the Alberta government is treading are complicit. There is no such thing as an innocent bystander when you have an audience to draw the attention of to injustice. How a society treats those who need aid is a sign of what they will do when the fewest people are outraged or paying attention. We are one of the canaries in this coal mine, and the air in here is getting pretty damn toxic.

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Bibliography

¹CTV News. “Smith Says She Could Use notwithstanding Clause on Separation Petition.” YouTube, May 14, 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-pCGVc5pcc.

²Alberta.ca. “Alberta Disability Assistance Program,” August 22, 2025. https://www.alberta.ca/alberta-disability-assistance-program.

³Overview, Program. “Classification: Public Alberta Assisted Living and Social Services Open Data Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH),” February 2026.

⁴Canada, Employment and Social Development. “Social Innovation and Social Finance.” www.canada.ca, December 22, 2016. https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/social-innovation-social-finance.html.

⁵Pasiuk, Emily Rae. “Royal Alexandra Hospital Patient Died in ER Waiting Room: AMA.” CBC, May 17, 2026. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/royal-alexandra-hospital-patient-died-in-er-waiting-room-ama-9.7202645.

⁶Alberta.ca. “Median Market Rents - Open Government,” 2025. https://open.alberta.ca/publications/median-market-rents.

⁷Alberta.ca. “Government of Alberta,” June 24, 2025. https://economicdashboard.alberta.ca/dashboard/consumer-price-index.

⁸Staff, CTVNewsEdmonton.ca. “Drivers Fight over Cheap Gas in Edmonton, Police Called to Scene.” CTVNews, May 8, 2026. https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/drivers-fight-over-cheap-gas-in-edmonton-police-called-to-scene/.

⁹Government of Canada, Statistics Canada. “Market Basket Measure (MBM) Thresholds for the Reference Family by Market Basket Measure Region, Component and Base Year.” www150.statcan.gc.ca, September 8, 2020. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1110006601.

¹⁰CBC. “CRTC Declares Broadband Internet Access a Basic Service,” December 22, 2016. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/crtc-internet-essential-service-1.3906664.

¹¹Tran, Cindy. “ADAP: Alberta to Launch New Specified Disability Program, AISH Will Remain in Place.” edmontonjournal. Edmonton Journal, February 4, 2025. https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/alberta-launch-disability-program-aish.

¹²www.alberta.ca. “Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) | Alberta.ca,” n.d. https://www.alberta.ca/aish.

¹³Gilligan, Melissa. “Alberta’s Unemployment Spikes in April, Surpassing National Rate.” CTVNews, May 8, 2026. https://www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/article/albertas-unemployment-spikes-in-april-surpassing-national-rate/.

¹⁴Hardy, Vincent, and Daniel Vergara. “This Article Examines Recent Trends in the Labour Market Situation of Persons with and without Disabilities Using Annual Data from the Labour Force Survey Supplements Program. The Analysis Focuses on Demographic, Employment, and Labour Force Characteristics That Intersect with Disability Status. The Article Aims to Provide Insights That Can Inform the Public and Policy Makers on the Labour Market Situation of Persons with Disabilities.” Statcan.gc.ca. Government of Canada, Statistics Canada, May 14, 2025. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-222-x/71-222-x2025001-eng.htm.

¹⁵Purdue University. “Logical Fallacies.” Purdue Writing Lab. Purdue University, 2025. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/logic_in_argumentative_writing/fallacies.html. See "Red Herring."

¹⁶Black, Matthew. “Alberta Introduces Back-To-Work Legislation, Imposes New Contract to End Teachers Strike.” edmontonjournal. Edmonton Journal, October 27, 2025. https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/alberta-teachers-strike-back-to-work-legislation.

¹⁷Markusoff, Jason. “Danielle Smith’s notwithstanding Clause Triple Play on Trans Youth Rights.” CBC, November 19, 2025. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/danielle-smith-alberta-transgender-rights-notwithstanding-clause-9.6983899.

¹⁸Williams, Emily. “The Handmaid’s Tale among More than 200 Books to Be Pulled at Edmonton Public Schools.” CBC, August 29, 2025. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-school-books-removal-1.7620807.

¹⁹French, Janet. “By the Book: Alberta Schools Pull at Least 160 Titles from Shelves to Meet Provincial Order.” CBC, March 9, 2026. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-school-book-ban-order-graphic-novels-9.7118495.

²⁰Soucy, Robert. “Fascism - Common Characteristics of Fascist Movements.” In Encyclopædia Britannica, February 22, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/topic/fascism/Common-characteristics-of-fascist-movements.