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C-217 — An Act to amend the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act and the Income Tax Act
Every bill summarized in plain language. Not clear enough? Ask for an explanation.
C-217
An Act to amend the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act and the Income Tax Act
NDP
In progress
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BILL C-217
An Act to amend the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act and the Income Tax Act
Last activity : Outside the Order of Precedence
NDP
In progress
Commons · 1st2025-06-19Commons · 2ndCommons · 3rdSenate · 1stSenate · 2ndSenate · 3rdRoyal assent
Sign-in required — one request per person, no anonymous requests
What it does, in plain language
- Creates a new federal benefit that covers tuition fees for students with disabilities.
- Applies to people who qualify for the disability tax credit (section 118.3 of the Income Tax Act) and are enrolled at a designated educational institution.
- Requires the Minister to pay the tuition directly to the school rather than to the student.
- Treats the payment as a grant to the student, meaning it does not have to be repaid.
- Makes the money tax-free by adding it to the list of amounts excluded from income under the Income Tax Act.
- Allows the government to set, by regulation, the conditions that must be met before a payment is made.
- Grounds the measure in the preamble: roughly one in four Canadians aged 15 and over has at least one disability, and the 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability found youth with disabilities face a higher risk of being out of school and out of work.
- Provides an alternative short title, the Post-Secondary Education Financial Assistance for Persons with Disabilities Act; introduced by Mr. Davies as a private member's bill, first reading June 19, 2025.
🤖 AI-generated from the bill’s official text as introduced — may not reflect amendments adopted since.
✋ What does “challenging” mean?
Clicking “Ask for an explanation” is a citizen request for the bill's sponsor to explain it in plain language — and for us to keep an eye on it together.
An account (email) is required — one request per person, no anonymous requests. 🔥 At 1,000 requests on the same bill, a public post is made, in the hope an MP agrees to sponsor a petition to the House.
It works on any bill, including one that has already received royal assent — that is often the one people want to understand.
Votes in the Commons
Every recorded vote — who voted what, and by what margin.
On the “who voted what” detail — the House of Commons publishes each member's name for every recorded (nominal) vote (Yea / Nay / paired). The by-member breakdown above (the "+" button on each row) comes directly from that official source (ourcommons.ca), not an estimate. The party shown next to each name is taken from the current House roster; people who have since left the House appear separately under "Former members".
How to read a vote
Recorded vote
Members vote one by one and each choice is entered in the public record. That is what lets us say exactly who voted what — no interpretation.
Passed is not law
A passed vote clears ONE stage. A bill must pass both chambers and then receive royal assent before it becomes law.
Paired is not absent
In the Commons, two members from opposing sides can agree not to vote: their voices cancel out. It is neither an absence nor an abstention.
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Hi! My name is
Martin Archambault
I'm 45, and dossiercanada.ca is your first step into democracy!
If we want people to understand politics, it has to be brought down to their level.
When I first tried to take an interest in it, on top of not knowing the jargon, bills came as two lines… and fifty PDFs. Most people would simply walk away.
So I had an idea: use artificial intelligence first to read through all of it, then to put it in plain words. That's how DossierCanada was born.
Alongside the AI recap, I've given people a lexicon that explains the basics of political jargon. Plain-language law exists — think of this as its equivalent for politics!
Parliament glossary
Parliamentary jargon, translated into everyday language.
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