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This article was originally published in the on April 24, 2026

A child’s access to disability support in Canada depends too much on where they live and too little on what they need. This isn’t just inefficient public policy — it is inequity by design.

Programs, eligibility rules and funding levels vary dramatically across provinces. Families must navigate systems never designed to work together, each with unique forms, thresholds and definitions of disability. The result is a patchwork of inconsistent support, with parents spending too much time fighting bureaucracy to secure the services their children need.

B.C.’s recent disability reform is a case in point. It is billed as a fairer, more-inclusive model, and in some ways it is. But it also exposes the limits of provincial reform in a country without a coherent national disability strategy.

On paper, B.C.’s new model offers improvements. It expands community-based services and introduces two broad funding streams: a disability benefit for children with “significant and/or complex support needs”, and a disability supplement.

The province says these streams will reach more than 48,000 children, up from about 30,000 under the current Autism Funding Program.

For many families who have historically received little or no support, the expansion will make a meaningful difference. More families will gain funding and flexibility, and that is real progress.

But progress is uneven. About 5,000 autistic children are expected to lose funding because they no longer qualify under either stream, losing critical support when early intervention shapes development, education and long-term participation.

A reform that expands access for some while removing support from others does not solve the problem — it simply shifts who is left behind.

Governments should not confuse broader reach with a genuinely fair system. The deeper problem is that the system still relies on diagnosis-driven eligibility. Diagnosis remains the primary route into B.C.’s disability benefit, with eligibility tied to a narrow set of conditions. Families can be shut out if a child’s diagnosis is not on the list, even when their needs are substantial.

To address that, the province created a secondary pathway based on need. In principle, access to support should not depend on whether a child’s needs fit neatly inside a diagnostic label.

In practice, B.C. has set the bar so high that only children with “significant and complex” needs will qualify. Children with moderate, evolving, episodic or less-visible disabilities may still be left without meaningful support.

B.C. is hardly alone. Across Canada, disability support often hinges on diagnosis, administrative categories and provincial policy choices rather than need. That should be unacceptable in a country that claims to value equity.

B.C.’s disability supplement exposes another weakness in the system — dependence on the federal disability tax credit (DTC). To qualify for the supplement, families must first secure DTC approval. But the DTC is difficult to access, with burdensome paperwork, long waits and frequent denials over technicalities.

When provinces use federal programs like the DTC as gateways to essential supports, they layer one broken system on top of another. Problems in the federal system spill into provincial programs, and families are left to sort out the consequences.

This is the central lesson of B.C.’s reform. Even well-intentioned provincial changes can reproduce exclusion inside a fragmented national system. Provinces can announce new funding, new pathways and new service models, but without coordination across jurisdictions, they risk simply moving barriers around.

Canada needs real national coordination. Eligibility should be based on functional support needs, not narrow diagnostic lists. Provinces should rely less on the DTC as a gateway to support, and federal and provincial systems must be better aligned so families are not navigating duplicated paperwork and conflicting rules.

B.C. deserves credit for trying to improve the system. But its reforms also show the limits of what any province can do alone. Until Canada builds a coordinated disability support system instead of a provincial patchwork, families will continue to fall through the cracks — not because their children don’t need support, but because of where they live.

Jennifer Zwicker is director of health and social policy at the University of �����о���’s School of Public Policy and chief scientist for Kids Brain Health Network. Patricia Basualto is a PhD student at the University of �����о���. MacKenna Jardine is a research associate at the School of Public Policy.