Since being founded in 1989, PLAN families have been recognized as community leaders in many ways.
We pioneered the world’s first Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) and worked with the Government of Canada to implement this option, enabling families and people with disabilities to save for the future.
Other important milestones include:
- Collaborating to develop and implement the Representation Agreement in British Columbia, a grassroots alternative to legal guardianship.
- Successfully advocating for an increase to British Columbia’s asset limit for people with disabilities, allowing families to invest and save for the future without impacting disability benefits.
- Contributing to national advocacy for the creation and implementation of the Canada Disability Benefit, a landmark initiative aimed at reducing poverty and ensuring financial security for people with disabilities across the country.
- Supporting the Disability Filibuster, a groundbreaking grassroots protest that united disabled artists, activists, scholars, and allies to challenge ableism and protect the dignity of people with disabilities by opposing harmful amendments to Canada’s assisted suicide laws.
- Supporting Disability Without Poverty, a grassroots, inclusive movement led by disabled people to end poverty in Canada, ensuring diverse voices and lived experiences guide advocacy towards the Canada Disability Benefit.
- Supporting a group of siblings to come together, secure funding, and develop grant projects that led to the formation of the Siblings Collaborative and, ultimately, Siblings Canada, which raises awareness of the critical role siblings play in creating robust systems of care and ensures siblings are recognized, valued, and supported across Canada.
- Founding Plan Institute in 1999 as a sister organization to share the concepts and practices developed by PLAN, fostering public policy development and curating knowledge to improve the lives of people with disabilities and their families.
- Receiving the Meritorious Service Medal awarded by the Governor General of Canada to our founders, Jack Collins, Vickie Cammack, Al Etmanski, and Joan Lawrence, for their outstanding contributions.
- Being honoured with the 2008 Arthur Kroeger Award for Citizenship and Community Affairs.
- Celebrating our co-founder Al Etmanski’s recognition with the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia.
- Reframing the concept of “disability” to emphasize equal citizenship, highlighting the right of all individuals to contribute to society.
PLAN also maintains an extensive network of business advisors and collaborates with lawyers, trust officers, financial and estate planners. We are proud to partner with organizations such as Vancity Community Foundation, the Law Foundation of British Columbia, the Vancouver Foundation, and many others.