On Friday, May 22, people with disabilities, their families, and their allies are showing up at the Alberta Legislature. Not because they want to. Because they feel like they have no other choice.
The rally starts at noon at 10800 97 Avenue NW in Edmonton. The demand is simple: cancel ADAP before it launches July 1.
What Is AISH and What's Replacing It?
For decades, AISH the Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped has been the program keeping roughly 79,000 Albertans with severe disabilities above water. It's not a generous program. At $1,940 a month, it covers rent, groceries, and not much else. But it's predictable, and for people who can't work, predictable matters.
If you want to understand exactly how AISH works and what it pays, we broke it down in our AISH payment guide for 2026. And if you're trying to figure out whether AISH or CPP Disability is the right fit for your situation, we covered that too in our AISH vs. CPP Disability breakdown.
On July 1, most of those 79,000 people get moved to something new: the Alberta Disability Assistance Program. ADAP. Nobody asked for it.
The $200 Cut
ADAP pays $1,740 a month. AISH pays $1,940. That's $200 less every month, forever, starting in 2028.
The government isn't cutting payments immediately. Current AISH recipients who move to ADAP will get a $200 transition benefit that holds their income steady at $1,940 until December 31, 2027. After that, the lower rate kicks in unless they go through a new medical reassessment and qualify to return to AISH. The government says it will cover the cost of one assessment per person, with no time limit on when they can use it.
Anyone who applies for disability support after July 1 doesn't get the transition benefit. They start at $1,740 from day one.
Some people stay on AISH automatically those who are 60 or older, in continuing care, have terminal conditions, or have a severe and profound developmental disability.
Everyone else moves to ADAP.
Ottawa Gave Them $200. Alberta Took It Back.
Last year, the federal government launched the Canada Disability Benefit up to $200 a month in new federal money specifically for Canadians with disabilities. For AISH recipients, it looked like the first real income increase in years.
Then Alberta clawed it back. Every dollar.
The province reduced AISH payments by exactly the amount recipients received from Ottawa. The net result: zero. People with disabilities got a federal raise and saw nothing.
No other province did this. Every other province let recipients keep the federal money. Alberta redirected it.
The government's response was that Ottawa was "finally starting to pay their fair share." Critics have a different word for it.
The Work Exemption Cuts
The government pitches ADAP as a program that rewards work. Under ADAP, single recipients can earn up to $700 a month before their benefits start getting clawed back and they can earn over $45,000 a year before losing their benefits entirely. The province says that's the highest threshold of any comparable program in Canada.
What they don't highlight: the current AISH employment exemption is $1,072 a month. For Albertans who are already working part-time while on AISH, the new system could leave them worse off, not better.
Want to run your own numbers? Use our AISH calculator to see what the changes mean for your specific situation.
Once the Panel Decides, That's It
Here's the part that worries advocates most.
Right now, if an AISH recipient disagrees with a decision about their eligibility, they can appeal it to an independent Citizens' Appeal Panel. It's not perfect, but it exists.
Under ADAP, if the new AISH Medical Review Panel decides someone doesn't qualify for AISH and puts them on ADAP instead that's final. No appeal. No second chance. The decision cannot be challenged, even if the person believes it's wrong.
For people whose entire financial survival depends on which program they're placed in, that's not a bureaucratic detail. That's everything.
What the Government Says
Minister Jason Nixon has framed ADAP as an expansion, not a cut arguing the new program will reach working Albertans with disabilities who never qualified for AISH under the old rules.
"What we have expanded here in Alberta is giving access to many people who would not have been eligible for AISH," Nixon said when Bill 12 passed in December 2025.
What the People Affected Say
"Let us be clear. The disability community did not request ADAP. We did not call for the dismantling of AISH." That's Edmonton disability advocate Zachary Weeks, speaking the night the bill passed.
Inclusion Alberta has been among the loudest voices pushing back. Beyond the monthly benefit cut, they point to something that tends to get buried in policy debates: the government also removed the legal requirement for annual cost-of-living increases. Benefits could now be frozen indefinitely, with no obligation to keep pace with inflation.
In Calgary where a basic standard of living now costs more than anywhere in Canada outside Vancouver and the territories they say a drop from $1,940 to $1,740 doesn't just pinch. It pushes people below the deep-poverty line.
Bill 12 passed December 9, 2025. ADAP launches July 1, 2026.
The rally is Friday, May 22 at noon. Legislature grounds, Edmonton.
Sources: Government of Alberta — Alberta Disability Assistance Program official page and fact sheet; Government of Alberta — Bill 12, Financial Statutes Amendment Act, December 9, 2025; Inclusion Alberta — ADAP facts and advocacy
