Short title

        1. This Act may be cited as the Rehabilitation Act.

1978 c18 s1

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Definitions

        2. In this Act

             (a)  "appeal board" means the Social Services Appeal Board appointed under theDepartment of Social Services Act;

             (b)  "department" means the Department of Social Services;

             (c)  "designated group" means a group of persons designated by the minister under this Act to be in need of rehabilitation services, and includes an association of those persons;

             (d)  "director" means the Director of Rehabilitation appointed under section 3;

             (e)  "disabled person" means a person who because of physical or mental impairment is prevented from taking a proper place in the economic and social life of the province;

              (f)  "minister" means the Minister of Social Services;

             (g)  "occupation" includes a trade, calling, vocation or profession;

             (h)  "occupational training" includes academic, manual, pre-vocational, vocational, supplementary training and training for the purpose of increasing the capacity of disabled persons for self-care and self-support and for the purpose of developing broader and more remunerative skills and capacities;

              (i)  "private agency" means an agency established for or on behalf of, and to serve, a certain group of socially, physically or mentally handicapped or otherwise disadvantaged persons who have common aims, objectives, interests and causes;

              (j)  "prosthetic appliance" includes an artificial device necessary to support or take the place of a part of the body or to increase the efficiency of a sense organ;

             (k)  "rehabilitation" means the establishment or the restoration of a disabled person to a state of economic and social sufficiency;

              (l)  "rehabilitation services" means goods, allowances or services provided under the rehabilitation program established under this Act;

            (m)  "review committee" means a Regional Administrative Review Committee; and

             (n)  "workshop" means a place

                      (i)  where a manufacture or handiwork is carried on, and

                     (ii)  that is operated for the purpose of providing useful and remunerative employment and work training or work assessment under actual or simulated working conditions for vocationally handicapped persons.

1978 c18 s2; 1979 c49 Sch C; 1987 c18 s1; 1993 c46 s5

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Appointment of director

        3. (1) There may be appointed in the manner authorized by law an officer called the Director of Rehabilitation.

             (2)  The director may, with the consent of the deputy minister of the department, authorize an employee of the department to exercise and discharge the powers conferred or the duties imposed upon the director under this Act.

             (3)  The minister may designate persons to carry out, for and on behalf of the director, the duties of the director where the director is unavailable for those duties.

1978 c18 s3

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Duties of director

        4. The director shall

             (a)  make known the rehabilitation program, established under this Act, to disabled persons and to other interested persons;

             (b)  receive applications for rehabilitation services and exercise the powers and perform the duties in relation to rehabilitation services and in relation to those services provided under this Act that are conferred or imposed on the director by this Act and the regulations;

             (c)  carry out and administer the rehabilitation program established under this Act and foster, co-ordinate and improve the program of organizations or agencies providing rehabilitation programs or providing special services for otherwise disabled persons;

             (d)  enter into arrangements with persons and organizations that may be necessary for the provision of services under this Act;

             (e)  compile statistics and reports relating to the provision of rehabilitation services or the need for those services under this Act;

              (f)  determine the eligibility of an applicant to receive rehabilitation services and, where an applicant is eligible, determine the amount or nature of the services under this Act and the regulations and direct provision of those services accordingly; and

             (g)  perform other duties that the minister may direct.

1978 c18 s4

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Report of director

        5. The director shall, not later than May 30 in each year, submit to the minister a report of the administration of this Act for the preceding financial year, together with a statement showing the expenditure made under this Act for that year, and the minister shall lay the report and statement before the House of Assembly within 15 days after the minister receives them or, if the House of Assembly is not then in session within 15 days of the next session.

1978 c18 s5

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Powers of the minister

        6. With the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, the minister may

             (a)  declare a group, organization or association, whether incorporated or not, to be in need of rehabilitation services;

             (b)  make grants to a group, organization or association, whether incorporated or not, that has for its object the rehabilitation of disabled persons, groups of disabled persons or designated groups;

             (c)  purchase, lease or otherwise acquire real property that the minister considers necessary for the purpose of exercising his or her powers under this Act;

             (d)  sell, lease, exchange or otherwise deal with real property so acquired upon terms and conditions that the minister considers advisable;

             (e)  establish, construct or acquire, and maintain and operate a training facility for the rehabilitation of disabled persons or designated groups;

              (f)  plan, develop, operate and manage a project or enterprise for the rehabilitation of disabled persons or designated groups;

             (g)  establish a provincial registry for disabled persons;

             (h)  in co-operation with private agencies and organizations, provide for and encourage the voluntary co-ordination of activities and services in the field of rehabilitation;

              (i)  conduct specialist clinics for groups of disabled persons where their rehabilitation may be expedited by doing so; and

              (j)  provide for those other matters that the minister may consider advisable for the rehabilitation of disabled persons.

1978 c18 s6

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Persons eligible

        7. A disabled person is entitled to be provided with rehabilitation services where that person is living in the province and eligible, as determined by the regulations, for rehabilitation services.

1978 c18 s7; 1988 c39 s13

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Rehabilitation services

        8. (1) The minister may provide for the provision of those services that the minister considers necessary for the rehabilitation of a disabled person or designated group upon those terms and conditions that the minister considers appropriate and may provide or help that person or designated group by way of grant, loan or otherwise to obtain

             (a)  rehabilitation counselling, occupational diagnosis, guidance and advice, adjustment services, occupational training, transportation and maintenance;

             (b)  appliances designed to support or take the place of a part of the body or to increase the activity of a sensory organ;

             (c)  the payment of costs of assessment, training, prevocational training, work adjustment training and personal adjustment training, including books and training materials;

             (d)  the payment to disabled persons of maintenance allowances and travelling allowances, including travelling allowances for a disabled person's guide or escort, to the extent necessary to enable the disabled person to derive the full benefit of vocational rehabilitation services provided under this Act;

             (e)  occupational tools, books, material, equipment and other personal property considered necessary for rehabilitation purposes;

              (f)  a licence or permit authorizing the holder to engage in an occupation, where required by an Act and subject to compliance with the Act;

             (g)  the training of persons as counsellors and administrators to carry out the rehabilitation program;

             (h)  research relating to rehabilitation services and the payment of grants to persons or organizations for this purpose; and

              (i)  goods or services that the minister considers necessary for the better carrying out of the intent of this Act.

             (2)  The minister may help a disabled person or designated group upon those terms and conditions that the minister considers appropriate by way of grant, loan or otherwise to obtain medical or psychiatric examination, diagnosis and advice, medical, surgical or psychiatric treatment or related procedures that may be expected within a reasonable period of time to eliminate or favourably modify a chronic, cyclical or slowly-progressive impairment that makes a person disabled.

1978 c18 s8

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Review committees established

        9. (1) There are established 5 regional administrative review committees in the province.

             (2)  The minister shall appoint to each review committee 3 members from officers of the department, other than the director.

             (3)  The minister shall appoint to each review committee 2 alternate members from officers of the department, other than the director, to act as members of the review committee during the absence of a regular member appointed under subsection (2) at a hearing required to be held under this section.

             (4)  An alternate member appointed under subsection (3) is considered for purposes of this section to be a member of a review committee.

             (5)  The chairperson of each review committee shall be a regional director.

             (6)  Notwithstanding subsections (2) or (3), an officer of the department who originally made a decision or finding in respect of an applicant for rehabilitation allowances or services and who refused to grant, or who suspended, discontinued or reduced rehabilitation allowances or services, shall not be a member of a review committee.

             (7)  The minister shall appoint people who are officers, clerks or employees in the department to be secretaries of the review committees established under subsection (1).

             (8)  An officer, clerk or employee appointed under subsection (7) shall not be a member of a review committee.

             (9)  A secretary of a review committee shall keep a record of the proceedings of a review committee and a copy of each communication made under section 11.

1987 c18 s2

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Review by review committee

      10. (1) A person affected by, and who feels aggrieved by, a finding or decision of an officer of the department, in respect of the granting, refusal, suspension, discontinuance, reduction, resumption or amount of rehabilitation allowances or services may, subject to the regulations, request in writing, either personally or through another person acting on his or her behalf with his or her written consent, an administrative review by a review committee of the decision or finding at issue.

             (2)  A review committee shall, subject to the regulations, review as soon as practicable a decision or finding referred to in subsection (1) and make its own finding or decision.

             (3)  The finding or decision of a review committee shall be given effect under the regulations.

             (4)  In this section officer of the department does not include a regional director.

1987 c18 s2

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Finding or decision of review committee

      11. (1) Each review committee shall, subject to the regulations, communicate in writing, its finding or decision made under section 10 to the person who requested the review under that section, as soon as practicable after the finding or decision has been made.

             (2)  A communication made under subsection (1) shall contain

             (a)  the reasons for the finding or decision;

             (b)  a notice specifying the right of appeal to the appeal board;

             (c)  the time within which the right of appeal may be exercised;

             (d)  the appeal procedure; and

             (e)  the manner of conducting the appeal.

1987 c18 s2

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Appeal to appeal board

      12. A person affected or aggrieved by a finding or decision of the review committee or of an officer of the department may appeal from the finding or decision to the Social Services Appeal Board appointed under the Department of Social Services Act .

1993 c46 s5

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Rep. by 1993 c46 s5

      13. [Rep. by 1993 c46 s5]

1993 c46 s5

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Rep. by 1993 c46 s5

      14. [Rep. by 1993 c46 s5]

1993 c46 s5

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Regulations

      15. The Lieutenant-Governor in Council may make regulations

             (a)  determining a proper place for the purposes of paragraph 2(e);

             (b)  determining the capacity of disabled persons for self-care and self-support for the purposes of paragraph 2(h);

             (c)  determining broader and more remunerative skills and capacities for the purposes of paragraph 2(h);

             (d)  governing the amounts of allowances to be paid to disabled persons in training and the manner and time of payment;

             (e)  providing for the eligibility, apportionment and distribution of grants to workshops, organizations and private agencies and prescribing the terms and conditions upon which grants may be paid;

              (f)  prescribing the classes of disabled persons who are eligible for rehabilitation services, and fixing standards of eligibility;

             (g)  prescribing the circumstances under which rehabilitation services provided under section 8 may be withdrawn;

             (h)  respecting financial qualification of disabled persons for rehabilitation services;

              (i)  prescribing the forms for use under this Act and the regulations;

              (j)  prescribing the time within which an application for review by a review committee may be made;

             (k)  prescribing for the purpose of the review committees the procedure on an application for a review and on the conduct of a review;

              (l)  [Rep. by 1993 c46 s5]

            (m)  for giving effect to a finding or decision of a review committee;

             (n)  [Rep. by 1993 c46 s5]

             (o)  prescribing the time when and the manner in which findings or decisions of the review committee shall be communicated to the persons concerned;

             (p)  [Rep. by 1993 c46 s5]

             (q)  prescribing what decisions of officials of the department, to be specified in the regulations, shall be made in writing and communicated in writing to persons to be specified in the regulations and prescribing what information concerning the right to a review or appeal shall accompany those written decisions;

              (r)  respecting other matters relating to review committees that appear necessary or desirable to ensure that applications respecting rehabilitation allowances or services are fully and properly considered and dealt with;

             (s)  prescribing additional duties of the director;

              (t)  governing the manner in which information and records of a confidential nature obtained from an applicant are to be kept;

             (u)  prescribing additional matters that shall be included in the rehabilitation program established under this Act; and

             (v)  generally, to give effect to the purpose of this Act.

1978 c18 s10; 1987 c18 s3; 1993 c46 s5

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Power to enter into agreements

      16. Subject to the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, the minister may, on behalf of the government of the province, enter into an agreement or arrangement with the Government of Canada or the government of a province of Canada, or with an agency or a designated group for the purpose of providing for the rehabilitation of disabled persons or designated groups or both.

1978 c18 s11

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Offence and penalty

      17. A person who knowingly

             (a)  makes a false or misleading statement in an application or report under this Act or the regulations or makes an application or report that because of a non-disclosure of facts is false or misleading; or

             (b)  provides a person employed in the administration or enforcement of this Act or the regulations with a statement or information that is false in a material part,

is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both a fine and imprisonment.

1978 c18 s12

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Recovery of costs in certain cases

      18. The minister may recover from a recipient of goods or services provided under this Act, or from the estate of a deceased recipient, as a debt due to the Crown, the cost of goods or services obtained under this Act by fraud or misrepresentation.

1978 c18 s13

©Earl G. Tucker, Queen's Printer