An Act to amend the Canada Transportation Act (accessibility in transportation)

This bill is from the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session, which ended in March 2011.

Sponsor

Pat Martin  NDP

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of June 2, 2010
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill.

This enactment requires the Minister of Transport to direct the Canadian Transportation Agency to inquire into and report on the accessibility of all modes of transportation under federal authority in order to remove undue obstacles to the mobility of persons with disabilities.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Canada Transportation ActRoutine Proceedings

June 2nd, 2010 / 3:45 p.m.

NDP

Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-523, An Act to amend the Canada Transportation Act (accessibility in transportation).

Mr. Speaker, I cannot tell members how proud and honoured I am to introduce this bill.

I would like to begin by thanking my colleague, the member Western Arctic, who is the NDP transportation critic.

In introducing this bill, I also wish to recognize and pay tribute to Winnipeg High School student, Sam Unrau, who was the winner of the Winnipeg Centre “Create your Canada” contest. This contest invited Winnipeg High School students to submit their ideas for a private member's bill to make Canada a better place to live.

Sam's thoughtful proposal comes from his personal experience as a person with spina bifida, confined to a wheelchair, and those of his friends and colleagues with disabilities, so that people with all levels of physical ability can travel in Canada with more dignity.

The bill itself requires the Minister of Transport to direct the Canadian Transportation Agency to conduct an accessibility audit of all forms of transportation under federal jurisdiction in order to remove any undue obstacles to the mobility of persons with disabilities and to improve their ability to travel in this country.

This bill coincides with Manitoba's week for persons with disabilities access issues. It also, I note, coincides with the recent move of Canada to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. All of these things combine together to make this a very worthy initiative.

Congratulations to my student from Winnipeg, Sam Unrau.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)