Social services shadow minister says UCP has wanted to make changes to AISH for years

By ZOE MASON on March 12, 2026.

zmason@medicinehatnews.com

The controversial changes to the province’s disability income assistance framework have been a long time coming.

At least, that’s what NDP MLA and Shadow Minister for Community and Social Services Marie Renaud believes. And the actions of the UCP government appear to back her up.

In 2019, the UCP government under then-premier Jason Kenney de-indexed AISH, the first move in a back-and-forth of adding and taking away annual inflationary adjustments that has lasted years. But that legislation also made a more lasting change, by relocating the definition of a “severe handicap” out of the general regulation attached to the legislation.

“Then COVID happened, so they couldn’t do it. But now they can create that definition in regulation, without debate in the legislature,” said Renaud.

“What that means is, everybody is labelled as severely disabled now, so they’ve gone through that assessment. The government has said that is all completely wrong. We are now going to decide what the new definition of a severe disability is. (But) that’s a medical definition.”

Since that time, that definition has been dictated by regulation. Now that a second disability program has been rolled out alongside AISH, uncertainty around that definition and what it means for eligibility has gained new importance.

That criteria – which has yet to be outlined – will be used to determine who stays on AISH, and who is expected to enter the job market as a part of the new ADAP program, which prioritizes work for disabled Albertans.

“I do think employment is the solution a lot of the time, but you have got to do the work,” said Renaud.

The government has increased investment into career and employment services to help disabled Albertans train for and find work, allocating an additional $60 million, though that program reported a 67 per cent success rate in 2024. Through ADAP, the province will direct tens of thousands more disabled people to those services on July 1.

On Monday evening, Assisted Living and Social Services released some information about which clients would not be required to reapply for AISH. These included palliative patients, people over 60 and individuals receiving Persons with Developmental Disabilities services.

But Renaud says detailed eligibility information is desperately needed by Albertans on AISH, and that was left out of Monday’s announcement. The Ministry of Assisted Living and Social Services did not respond to numerous questions from the News by deadline on Wednesday.

In addition to a near-doubling of funds for program planning and delivery from $42.6 to $88.4 million in Budget 2026, the ministry has also substantially increased its budget for appeals, from $4.4 to $7.8 million.

These increases come despite a proposed deficit of $9.4 billion.

Renaud says she suspects that money will be used to staff medical appeal panels the government will use to distinguish individuals who can return to AISH from those who remain on ADAP.

Last week, Premier Danielle Smith said the AISH benefit was the most generous disability benefit in the country, a fact that was prompting people to move to Alberta specifically to exploit its social services.

Renaud says that is not true.

“There’s already rules in place,” she said. “You have to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to access those.”

During Tuesday’s sitting of the legislature, an NDP MLA raised the question of AISH with Minister of Assisted Living and Social Services Jason Nixon.

“The real challenge for people within the disability community that want to enter the workforce is that prior to this they were stuck underneath NDP programs that punished them for going to work,” said Nixon. “The NDP, when they were on this side of the aisle, never bothered to change that. Instead, they took away every dollar those people earn, and this side of the house has fixed it.”

“I mean, anyone could fact check his ridiculous statements,” said Renaud. “When NDP was in government, if you were on AISH, were you able to work? Yes. Were you able to retain your income? Yes. There’s no difference.”

Under the new framework, the overall income threshold is being lowered across both programs. Prior to July 1, AISH recipients could retain up to $1,072 of monthly income before incurring clawbacks.

Under the new system, AISH recipients can earn $350 before having clawbacks at a rate of 100 per cent – meaning for every dollar over $350 earned, they will lose a dollar off their financial benefit.

ADAP was initially announced with the same income threshold. Under pressure from advocacy groups, critics and municipal governments, that threshold was revealed Monday to be doubled to $700 in Monday.

The government says the ADAP program will allow individuals to earn a higher annual income before losing benefits entirely, and will continue to provide for medical benefits even after the maximum income threshold has been surpassed.

Detailed information on the structure of the clawbacks leading up to that point has not yet been released. The government says it is forthcoming by regulation this spring.

Nixon also used the re-indexing of AISH payments as an example of his government’s commitment to supporting Albertans with disabilities. That reindexing was undone by Bill 12 in November.

That legislation removed the requirement to adjust benefits according to inflation annually. Instead, Renaud says the government has the power to adjust benefits at its discretion, with no obligation to do so annually, and the annual increase was capped at 2 per cent.

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