As requested by your invitation, we're proposing several policy recommendations on how employability for people with developmental disabilities can be enhanced.
First, I'd like to talk about seed funding. Social enterprise is a popular concept in recent days for creating sustainable social services. Making seed funding available to start these enterprises and to purchase existing enterprises would both enhance the possibility of employment for people with developmental disabilities as well as create sustainable income for agencies that are supporting people with disabilities. One example we cited was the Tova Cafe in Winnipeg.
Second is task-focused work. Today's society is largely focused on having one job for one person, with the most qualified person being selected to do the work. We were thinking that we could re-envision work in such a way that an employer pays a salary for a set amount of work, but maybe there could be a number of different people with developmental disabilities with complementary skill sets who work together as a team. To achieve this, it's possible you'd need developmental service workers who could act as a bridge between employers and people with disabilities to put such an arrangement in place.
Third is targeted contracting. The one way the federal government in particular can directly participate in ensuring employability for people with disabilities is to designate a small percentage of government service contracts awarded to go to organizations that employ people with developmental disabilities. As we cited in our example of the National Archives and the OCAPDD program, the federal government has played a vital role this way.
The final point is adjustments to the Employment Equity Act. The current Employment Equity Act makes specifications for people with disabilities as a rather broad category, but in our opinion, the needs of the developmental disability group are not really homogenous with the needs of accommodation required for other types of disabilities. We would suggest the creation of a specific provision for people with developmental disabilities in the act, so that the percentage of public service workers with developmental disabilities is equal to the percentage in the working-age population.
We've included a few other suggestions in the brief that we've circulated to you, but at this moment I'd just like to invite you to take a look at that when you have a chance.
Thank you for inviting us to come and participate today. I hope we've shown you that people with developmental disabilities can have much to offer the workplace when given the opportunity.