Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am here today to seek the Board of Internal Economy’s approval of the proposed House of Commons “Accessibility Plan 2023–2025”, which must be published no later than December 31, 2022, under the Accessible Canada Act the Accessible Canada Regulations.
I am also here to request permanent funding for the implementation of the plan and ensure compliance with the act, and to request temporary funding to complete the initiatives identified in the plan.
In terms of context, the goal of the act is to create a Canada without barriers by 2040, especially for persons with disabilities. This is to be achieved through the identification and removal of barriers and the prevention of new ones.
The plan should demonstrate the House's commitment and accountability to any person who deals with the organization. A feedback process should be set up to receive and respond to comments, and yearly progress reports will need to be prepared and published.
The act established Accessibility Standards Canada to develop national accessibility standards. Accessibility Standards Canada has established several committees that are developing standards to remove barriers in several different priority areas. A commissioner of accessibility was also appointed last spring and is responsible for the compliance and enforcement of the act and regulations, notably through the conduct of investigations and the issuance of orders.
In keeping with the principle of “Nothing without us”, which is central to all the work we do on accessibility, people with disabilities must contribute to decisions related to the preparation of accessibility plans. We have therefore consulted with MPs and their staff, administration staff, parliamentary partners, people with disabilities and groups representing them.
An anonymous survey was sent to the House of Commons community last spring and over 240 responses were received. We also held 14 small group workshops with people with disabilities to identify the barriers they face in their daily lives and what we should prioritize in the plan. We also had the same type of workshops and discussions with five advocacy groups that represent individuals with disabilities.
The plan itself contains over 60 initiatives to be implemented in the next three years, initiatives addressing barriers identified during consultation and covering the required areas described in the act, with a focus on culture change and training. The initiatives include new offerings of accessibility training for members, their staff and House employees on general awareness; accessibility training for managers and supervisors; training on accessible customer service for members' staff; communications awareness strategies and campaigns; key employment policies and process review; and new advice services to members on HR processes, office environments and web and non-web products.
We also have more than 20 initiatives to improve the built environment, from emergency procedures to washroom accessibility, with a commitment to ensuring that accessibility continues to be a priority in the rehabilitation of Centre Block.
As examples, the plan includes an assessment of captioning options for visitors to the galleries, research and testing of various assistive technologies, an assessment of the resources needed to provide sign language interpretation for some House business, various initiatives to promote the use of plain language, improved orientation and support for witnesses in committee, and the launch of a centralized, multidisciplinary contact service centre for members and their staff.
In terms of resourcing needs, to oversee the implementation of the plan and ensure compliance with the act and regulations, it is proposed that a permanent accessibility secretariat be established with an annual operational budget of $50,000 and staffed with two positions.
We are also asking for temporary funding for fiscal year 2023-24. It is proposed that four temporary full-time equivalents be approved to complete the list of initiatives identified in the first year of the plan and to begin implementing the initiatives to be completed in the second and third years.
This concludes my presentation for today.
I thank you for your time and attention and I am ready to answer your questions.