Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list inclu...
While the provincial government on Monday said its new changes to the Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disabilities (SAID) program would make it easier to navigate and understand, at least one anti-poverty advocate in Regina was frustrated and angry with the moves.
“I’m very concerned that this is just going to be another sweeping attempt to take away necessary special needs at a time that we really need to be re-investing and enhancing the program,” said Peter Gilmer, with the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry.
Read more:
- Sask. government says new grocery benefit will not affect income support and disability programs
- Nearly half of Saskatchewan residents struggling financially: StatsCan
- Ottawa’s plans for GST relief set to cost $12.4 billion over 5 years, PBO says
“The reality is that the majority of people on the SAID program are going without meeting the most basic needs as it is — they’re not just living in poverty, they’re living well below the deep poverty or basic needs poverty level,” he explained.
The program is meant to provide income to people who have a significant and enduring disability who aren’t expected to be able to make enough money through work to sustain themselves.
According to a news release from Terry Jenson, Saskatchewan’s social services minister, clients and partners have said the program is too complicated.
“This complexity makes it difficult for clients to know what they are eligible for, and limits ministry flexibility to adapt to individual circumstances that also slows down support for clients.
“Changes beginning April 1, 2026, will better address client needs and support them to receive all the benefits they are eligible for in the simplest and quickest way possible,” the release said.
Legislative changes to the program have been made through an Order in Council from Jenson’s office.
Benefit and exemption changes
Some of the benefits which had paid out the actual cost of expenses, including for service animals, are being changed to a flat-rate benefit. The province said people who had been getting more than the new flat-rate will continue to get the same amount.
Gilmer said advocates have always felt the best coverage for things is the actual cost.
“There are circumstances which suggest that people need to have the actual cost covered, otherwise they’re going into significant debt or they’re going without,” said Gilmer.
He pointed to the Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) program, which stopped paying for utilities separately and required the cost be taken out of a shelter benefit, which Gilmer said is already inadequate.
The SAID changes also remove benefits the ministry said were outdated, not being used by clients, or are being provided by other programs.
The ministry will increase the money people can have in the bank and still apply for the SAID program — up $500 to $2,000 from the previous $1,500 per member of the household. It’s also planning to increase the same SIS exemption by $500.
Gilmer said increases to any exemption in these programs is welcomed, but $500 isn’t enough. He said there had been discussions about a significant boost to the asset exemption across the board.
“Certainly those discussions were not about just an additional $500 for people coming on the program, it was about allowing people to have some backfill when crises arrive,” he explained.
They also combine specific policies into broader categories. This includes replacing a number of employment-related benefits with one larger Employment and Training Benefit, and combining a number of benefits around things like furniture needs and garbage removal into the Household Health and Safety Benefit.
Gilmer said the government calling them “broader categories” was confusing to him, saying there are two ways to make sure people’s most basic needs are met: either include special needs programming that fully covers people’s needs, or have a benefit level high enough to give people a livable income.
He said people on the SAID program right now are thousands of dollars a year below what it would take to meet their most basic needs.
Program of last resort
Gilmer noted the province is now using the phrase “program of last resort” in its messaging and is including it in the legislation. He said when the program was created in 2012 it wasn’t intended to be another income-tested welfare program.
“It was deemed to have implications of income recovery or income replacement for people who were not in the workforce due to disability, and it was really supposed to be a sensitive program that took people’s individualized needs into consideration,” he said.
Gilmer said using terms like “program of last resort” indicates the province is moving away from an income replacement program into a means-tested welfare program.
The provincial government and various ministers of social services have frequently used “program of last resort” terminology when talking about the SIS program
Still more changes
According to the ministry, these changes are part of a review it did on the SAID program in 2025.
Gilmer said he and the ministry have been “swamped” trying to help clients over the past several months navigate the changes made through that review in areas where he said the ministry believes it’s been overpaying.
“Everything from phone coverage for people in care homes, to expecting that one of the last locked-in pensions that had been exempted is now being deemed to be income, to forcing people on supplemental special diets to have to pay out of their own pocket up front,” he said.
Gilmer believes the provincial government is just trying to save itself some money with cuts to the program.
“This is the absolute worst place for the Government of Saskatchewan to be looking at saving money, because it’s a place where we’re already seeing massive under-funding in terms of both the benefits and needs coverage that people with significant and enduring disabilities are receiving,” he said.
However, the Ministry of Social Service said in a news release that the changes set to come into effect on April 1 will be cost-neutral.
Gilmer said he’s very concerned about the changes and, while he wants to get clear on what changes are taking place, he has no doubt he and others will be challenging them and continuing the fight with the provincial government.
