Mr. Speaker, I want to start by saying how much I respect the member who is sponsoring this motion, which we will support. I have enjoyed spending time with my colleague on numerous occasions, and I think he does excellent work, especially on the agriculture file. I thank him for moving this motion and for working so hard to promote visitability. I agree with him that all Canadians, regardless of age or physical ability, should be able to live and age at home.
However, I also encourage the sponsor of the motion to exert more pressure on ministers to introduce an accessibility bill soon. Many groups across the country have been waiting for that for a very long time. An accessibility bill could include visitability as part of a more comprehensive approach.
I listened to the debate that occurred after Motion No. 157 was moved, and I recall my colleague, the member sponsoring the bill, making the following comments on April 30:
Motion No. 157 is meant to introduce the concept of minimum accessibility measures designed to accommodate everyone, including our aging demographic, allowing individuals to stay in their homes for as long as they so desire, and to address the high population of persons with a disability in Canada....
I think it is therefore essential that visitability be one of the many elements of the planned accessibility legislation. The government has been holding consultations for the development of its accessibility legislation since 2016, and while I am aware that the party opposite wants to get this right, after eight months of consultation, 18 public meetings, one youth forum, and nine thematic round tables, not to mention an online survey and input from 90 organizations, I think it is time for the government to table a bill.
The public consultations are over, and the minister's report was released in May 2017. That is a little over a year ago. I am actually astonished that this government did not plan to make an announcement during National AccessAbility Week, which was from May 27 to June 2. I hope the government will not wait until the next National AccessAbility Week to launch its bill.
The Liberals have been in office for almost four years now. The government had announced that it would table its accessibility bill in February 2018. There are only a few days left before the summer break, and there is nothing about this bill on the schedule before adjournment. I also encourage my colleague to urge the government to invest in this area, because there was nothing in the last budget for the planned accessibility bill or for visitability initiatives.
I want to talk about accessibility because I believe that it is time to do more. Our population is aging, and we have known for a long time that the unemployment rate among persons with disabilities is far higher than that for the general population. According to Statistics Canada, the placement rate for people with disabilities was 49% in 2015, compared to 79% in the general population. Advocacy groups are hoping that the new accessibility legislation will offer practical solutions to the very real problems experienced on a daily basis.
James Hicks, the national coordinator of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, said that the consultations were more an airing of grievances than a forum for tabling ideas on how to bring about change. Now he hopes the new legislation will go beyond merely aspirational statements, which is what we would like to see, too.
Universal accessibility is a fundamental right that affects not only persons with disabilities, but also seniors and people with temporary mobility issues, such as someone using crutches because of a broken leg. We also need to think about parents with strollers, people with chronic pain, and so on. The concept of universal visitability applies to many different groups of people.
I would like to commend the City of Saint-Hyacinthe for all of the work it has done over the past 20 years, since 1998, in order to make our city more accessible for everyone. I worked on that file myself when I was a city councillor for the Saint-Sacrement district and was responsible for accessibility to municipal goods and services.
In 2011, the City of Saint-Hyacinthe, in co-operation with the Table de concertation des organismes œuvrant auprès des personnes handicapées, undertook an initiative to identify problems and implement the necessary solutions. I participated in that initiative as the head of that organization.
Since then, municipal departments have implemented hundreds of measures. They made street parking with timed meters free for anyone with a mobility impairment parking permit, they implemented the Voisins secours program to help residents during emergency evacuations, they installed automatic door openers on many municipal buildings, and they made parks more accessible for strollers, walkers, and wheelchairs.
I now look forward to contributing as a federal MP through legislation on accessibility and visitability.
My colleague will be pleased to learn that Saint-Hyacinthe has 18 municipal sites and 140 properties that are visitable. Thanks to our ongoing efforts, collaborative plans, and partnerships with many organizations, Saint-Hyacinthe and Acton Vale have made great strides in improving visitability and accessibility for seniors and people with reduced mobility or disabilities.
I also want to acknowledge the organizations in my riding that work hard every day on improving accessibility. I am thinking of, for example, the association of parents of children with disabilities in Richelieu-Val-Maska; the handicapped transportation service in Acton Vale; the Maskoutain paratransit users group, RMUTA; the umbrella group for paratransit services in the Saint-Hyacinthe and Acton Vale region; Parrainage civique, a citizen advocacy group in the Acton RCM and Maskoutains RCM; the St-Hyacinthe-Acton MS Society; the Richelieu-Yamaska disability associations groups, commonly referred to as GAPHRY; and Zone Loisir Montérégie. I am very proud of the work of all of these organizations.
I have the honour of representing an extraordinary organization, the citizen advocacy group in the Acton RCM and Maskoutains RCM, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary. Parrainage civique is a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the social participation of persons with intellectual or physical disabilities, or persons living with autism spectrum disorder, by pairing them up with volunteers and through integration and awareness activities.
I am very proud to have worked there. I want to thank the following people for their exceptional work: Chantal Lavallée, the executive director of Parrainage civique, and the members of the board of directors, namely Serge Cabana, Jacques Julien, Paul St-Germain, Sophie Martin, Irénée Chênevert, Éric Rivard, and Carole Martin. Thank you to Parrainage civique, and happy 35th anniversary.
I would like to thank my colleague once again for his motion, which we will be supporting, because all levels of government must promote accessibility and visitability.
In my speech, I spoke about the exceptional work of the cities of Saint-Hyacinthe and Acton Vale. In Quebec, the Office des personnes handicapées du Québec does an exceptional job of promoting universal accessibility. Every municipality is required by law to have a municipal councillor responsible for accessibility to goods and services. Every city must prepare an annual action plan for universal accessibility and provide a report to the Office des personnes handicapées du Québec. Municipal and provincial governments are on board, at least in Quebec.
It is therefore important that the federal government have an accessibility law to make sure that all organizations that we oversee ensure accessibility. Furthermore, we must ensure that our laws promote the visitability of every home because anyone could, some day, need greater accessibility in the home they live in. We should have this vision for all homes.
I sincerely hope that my colleague will be able to persuade his colleagues on the other side of the House and include this principle in the accessibility legislation that we are impatiently awaiting.