Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I am pleased to be here today, and as the chair indicates, I am here with my colleague Laura Oleson. We are ready to answer questions on the operations and financial support allocated by the Enabling Accessibility Fund, but if I could, perhaps I'll just start by way of background.
People with disabilities in Canada are indeed a diverse group. Some people are born with disabilities; others develop them later in life. Disability can be permanent. It can be temporary. It can be episodic. Disability really is the result of a complex interaction of health conditions, personal factors, and environmental factors.
We know, from Statistics Canada's 2006 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey, that 4.4 million Canadians, or 14.3% of the population, have a disability, with most of them, in fact, reporting a physical disability. In 2001 only 3.6 million Canadians, or 12.4%, reported having a disability. So what we have is an upward trend, one that is not surprising, however, as rates of disabilities do increase with age. We are all aware of the aging population of our country.
Previous Speeches from the Throne and budget 2007 have committed the government to increasing accessibility in the economic and social participation of Canadians, including those who live with disabilities. Canada has further demonstrated this commitment by being one of the first countries to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on March 30, 2007. I would note, by way of information, that over the coming weeks the Government of Canada will be seeking the views of Canadians, particularly those of the disability community, in order to reach that decision on ratification of that signature.
Before I turn to the operations of the Enabling Accessibility Fund, I would just briefly mention a number of other initiatives of the Government of Canada that do support people with disabilities. We have the working income tax benefit, for example, which includes in it a disability supplement. We have the registered disability savings plan, which was, as well, announced in budget 2007.
More recently, as part of the Economic Action Plan, Budget 2009 enhanced the Working Income Tax Benefit, the WITB. Budget 2009 also provided for the Government of Canada to invest $20 million in each of two years to improve the accessibility of federal buildings and $75 million over two years for the construction of social housing for people with disabilities.
These investments are in addition to the more than $9 billion that the Government of Canada spends on disability-related programs and services each year, including: the Opportunities Fund, Labour Market Agreements for Persons with Disabilities with provincial governments, the Disability Tax Credit, and the Canada Pension Plan Disability benefit, to name a few.
HRSDC research and analysis reveals that Canadians with disabilities continue to encounter barriers that limit their community activities and prevent them from being employed. Inaccessible transportation and buildings, inadequate support and aids, and social and employer attitudes all create barriers to employment and interfere with social participation. Solutions can be as obvious as a ramp or an accessible elevator, but these solutions are often too costly for a small business or for a community-based organization.
In 2007, the Federal Budget announced $45 million over three years to help all Canadians, regardless of physical ability, participate fully in their communities. The Enabling Accessibility Fund, or EAF, was created to construct or renovate permanent structures and to support small projects that would make facilities fully accessible to all people of varying abilities across Canada. Approved projects were to have strong ties to and support from the communities they serve.
The EAF supports the Government of Canada's overarching goals of enhanced social inclusion, increased opportunities, and participation of Canadians. The objective of the EAF is to promote vibrant communities in which all can contribute and participate, regardless of physical ability, by making buildings, facilities, vehicles, information and communication more accessible for people with varying abilities.
With the Enabling Accessibility Fund, the Government of Canada decided to take a balanced approach that includes support for large-scale models of accessibility and for smaller-scale retrofitting projects in communities across the country to make incremental improvements in accessibility.
Therefore, budget 2007 proposed that projects under the EAF could include participatory ability centres that offer programs to individuals of varying physical abilities. In Canada, there are at present only a limited number of such existing ability centres. These multi-purpose centres range in approach from those that use a rehabilitation or medical model, which focuses on the health implications of disability or injury, at one end of the spectrum to a participation model that emphasizes the social and labour market integration needs of people at the other. Ability centres serve as focal points for a community, strengthening and supporting the integration and participation of individuals and families.
Consistent with the budget 2007 announcement and respectful of federal-provincial-territorial roles here, the government sought to support a couple of flagship projects that could showcase the participation model and that, hopefully, could be emulated over time in other communities across the country.
Under the EAF, as prescribed in the design of the program, these larger-scale capital projects will support enhanced social inclusion, increased opportunities--whether in communities or for employment--and participation of Canadians. In general, the objective of such participation-based centres is to enrich the quality of life of people with varying degrees of abilities by helping them to develop the skills required to achieve their objectives and the knowledge, confidence, and opportunity to live healthy and active lifestyles.
In addition to funding a few large capital projects, EAF provides funding for some small projects related to physical accessibility. These can include retrofitting existing buildings, information and communication accessibility projects, and vehicle modifications. The funding of small projects improves accessibility in many communities across Canada. These smaller projects include, for example, the installation of computers that are voice-interactive and wheelchair lifts in community-use vehicles.
As an example, St. Joseph's Parish in Charlos Cove, Nova Scotia, has a hall. It's a place where there are lots of activities. I'm told weekly dart tournaments are played, fundraisers are held, and the local community access program is located there to allow members access to the Internet. This hall is used by people in the community for many sorts of celebrations. It has accessible parking spots that are already in place, and there's a wheelchair ramp to get into the building. But the hall was without washrooms accessible to people with disabilities. They were too small for wheelchairs and were difficult to move around in for a person using a walker.
This is a project, then, for which St. Joseph's Parish made an application to the EAF in 2008 to renovate its hall by extending the building in order to widen the hallways to the washrooms and bring the washrooms up to date with modern building codes. And with a $35,000 grant, it was possible for the parish to do that through this program.
Specifically, with respect to the funding available and funding allocations, budget 2007 allocated $45 million over three years to this program. In the detailed design, we estimate that one to three ability centres and approximately 250 smaller projects could be funded.
I realize I have a buzzer there, so I'll move on quickly.
Given, though, that the program was limited to three years, a national delivery model was selected here so that it could be established and operating in the least amount of time possible.
Now, with respect to operations of this program, the first set of proposals were funded and announced in September 2008. A second call for proposals for small projects was recently concluded, and assessment of these applications is now under way.
As we did the first time through, we will be looking at the funding of all of these applications using a fair and transparent process of assessing based on merit--those that meet the terms and conditions of the program. They all have to indicate community support. They all have to demonstrate to us how they're actually going to improve accessibility.
We use external evaluators to assist us in the assessment of projects. If there are questions about this, I can go into greater detail about how we use them. We evaluate projects against criteria and program objectives, but also for value for money, feasibility, and cost. Each inquiry for organizations that are not successful in funding is reviewed by program officials, and further feedback is applied to applications.
I will conclude with some figures. There were over 729 proposals submitted for small projects in 2008. There were 87 proposals submitted for major projects. A total of 166 small projects were funded, coming to $5.8 million. Two major projects were funded for an additional $30 million. Over 150 Canadian communities have benefited from these projects. We would anticipate, with the funding to be approved in 2009, that there will be projects we'll be able to support in another 150 or more communities.
With that, I'm more than ready to answer the members' questions.
Thank you.
