Human Resources committee  Mr. Martin, you went to the employment equity act at the provincial level. I had the honour—and it was a great honour—to work in that program for a while. Of course, we have the federal program. It's currently set with a threshold of 100 employees, so that excludes so many employ

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's good to see you, again as well. Members of the committee, I'm delighted to be here. Way back in 1981, the United Nations conducted the International Year of Disabled Persons. It did so under the forward-looking theme of full participation and equal

Human Resources committee  I've spoken about the need for leadership from the Government of Canada. Here, Treasury Board needs to make the federal public service a model employer, which it's not now. One of the aspects of this--and there are a lot more aspects--is that in the area of training, not only doe

Human Resources committee  Thank you for your question. On the procurement side, the Government of Canada should not purchase any equipment that isn't usable by everybody. Inaccessible computer equipment and inaccessible telephone equipment still gets purchased. The Government of Canada needs to use a con

Human Resources committee  Smaller businesses will probably need some support in terms of being able to cover the costs of technical equipment. There is, of course, a duty to accommodate already in place through human rights law, but to make that possible--and here I think the Government of Canada could he

Human Resources committee  I appreciate your understanding that a lot of programs are investment in people. Unfortunately, people who are in the programs are often the first to get cut, and we saw that recently. I was in a meeting recently where someone quoted Forbes Magazine. It said that the wealth of

Human Resources committee  The cuts are scary. In a democracy, there is a need for citizens' groups. For our community, the court challenges program has been an important part. It's one thing to have rights, but we have to be able to enforce those rights. When you think about it, persons with disabilitie

Human Resources committee  Thank you. We hear about the notion of trickle-down economics. I can only say to you, it trickles down maybe to some, but it ain't trickled down to us. Some of you worry about the coming recession. We all ought to be concerned about that, but we've never known anything but re

Human Resources committee  Thank you. Am I first?

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee. On behalf of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians—and I'm afraid I'm going to have to speak a little faster than the translators might want, because I've got a lot to cover—I appreciate t