CNA Letter to Ministers Champagne and Michel to Allow Nurses to Certify the DTC form
Press Release
December 3, 2025
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue francois-philippe.champagne@parl.gc.ca
The Honourable Marjorie Michel, Minister of Health hcminister.ministresc@hc-sc.gc.ca marjorie.michel@parl.gc.ca
Dear Ministers Champagne and Michel,
On behalf of the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) and more than half a million regulated nurses across Canada, we are writing to reiterate our call for the federal government to authorize nurses (i.e., registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses, licensed practical nurses) to certify the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) form. This request was a central component of CNA’s Hill Day 2025 on November 25–26, when nursing leaders from across the country met with federal lawmakers to advance practical, cost-effective proposals that strengthen access to care and support for Canadians. This change remains an essential and cost-effective measure to improve access to the DTC for Canadians with disabilities.
As we highlighted in our 2025 pre-budget brief and in our letter dated November 5, 2024 to Ministers Freeland and Bibeau, challenges persist in the DTC application process. Canadians continue to experience delays, incomplete applications, and difficulty accessing practitioners able to complete the certification efficiently. These challenges disproportionately affect individuals in rural, remote, and underserved communities, including Indigenous communities, where nurses are often the primary or sole health-care providers.
Nurses routinely conduct the comprehensive functional assessments required for DTC eligibility. In many care settings, including primary care, home care, long-term care, community health, mental health, and northern and Indigenous communities, nurses have the most consistent, holistic understanding of a patient’s daily living limitations. However, despite their expertise, nurses remain unable to certify the DTC form, resulting in significant administrative bottlenecks and preventable delays.
Authorizing nurses to certify DTC applications would:
- Reduce processing times by alleviating the nurse practitioner and physician-only bottleneck (currently the only health professionals who can certify all categories of impairment on the form);
- Increase accuracy and completeness of applications by enabling the provider who knows the patient’s functional status best to complete certification;
- Improve access and equity, particularly for underserved and remote communities;
- Lower the administrative burden on physicians, who frequently sign forms completed by nursing staff; and
- Enhance uptake of the DTC, ensuring eligible Canadians receive an important tax credit that is currently underutilized.
This recommendation fully aligns with the Disability Advisory Committee’s call to expand the list of authorized certifying “medical practitioners.” It also supports your government’s commitments to accessibility, service modernization, efficiency, and improved outcomes for Canadians with disabilities.
Minister Champagne, your dual leadership of the Ministry of Finance and the Canada Revenue Agency creates an unprecedented opportunity to implement this practical, evidence-based change. Updating the DTC certification rules to include nurses would modernize an outdated policy, strengthen accessibility and equity, and deliver long-overdue relief to Canadians with disabilities, at minimal cost to the government.
We urge you to take action on this matter and would welcome the opportunity to discuss this proposal further at your convenience.
Sincerely,
Dr. Kimberly LeBlanc
President, Canadian Nurses Association
Dr. Valerie Grdisa
CEO, Canadian Nurses Association
CC. Dr. Leigh Chapman, Chief Nursing Officer of Canada, Health Canada
IHT4
