Evidence of meeting #115 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was barriers.
A video is available from Parliament.
10:25 a.m.
NDP
Cheryl Hardcastle NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Three minutes.
Quickly, Donna, if you can hear me, when the question was asked about what's it like in the workplace environment, I think only my screen shows when you put your hand up. I want to give you a chance to talk about that a little bit.
If you can keep it short, then, I have one more minute.... I don't get a lot of time on this committee.
Thank you.
10:30 a.m.
Founder and Chair, Barrier-Free Canada
Thank you very much.
I am someone who is vision impaired. The attitudinal barriers, the artificial barriers, need to be worked on. This has to do with creating more awareness and more education.
When many employers take a look at someone like me, they don't look at what I bring to the table. They look at what I do not bring to the table. They look at me as someone who cannot contribute economically.
That is one of the barriers in the workplace. Thank you.
10:30 a.m.
NDP
Cheryl Hardcastle NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Thank you.
Ladies, going back to the Employment Equity Act and areas in which it is specific where Bill C-81 is vague, very quickly, do you see any low-hanging fruit that you can discuss with us?
10:30 a.m.
Regional Executive Vice-President, Prairies Region, Public Service Alliance of Canada
I'm not exactly sure—
10:30 a.m.
Regional Executive Vice-President, Prairies Region, Public Service Alliance of Canada
There are two things that I think we hear as a union representing federal public sector workers. Employers are not fulfilling their requirements under duty to accommodate. The number of grievances and complaints that we're required to do...and this is when we have legislation in place where employers have a responsibility and a duty to accommodate in the federal public service, and it's not happening.
If you look at the diversity task force report that Ms. Lamba referenced earlier, you see the other issue we have is staffing. I will tell you as a union representative that I have had members come to me who say they are in a staffing pool. They've identified as a person with a disability or an equity-seeking member. They were the last one left in the pool, and guess what, they closed the pool because there wasn't enough in there. This is the reality of what's happening to equity-seeking members in the federal public sector. This is the reality of what's happening with persons with disabilities because of the perception that it's going to cost thousands to accommodate someone when it could be as simple as providing software to enable them to do voice to text.
I want to say one quick thing. We were talking about representation on the board. Yes, we need representation from persons with disabilities. We need representation from people like Professor Prince who have that academic background. As bargaining agents in the federal public service, we spend a lot of time representing our members, and we have the expertise. I also believe that we should have a seat at that table just as we do under the Employment Equity Act, where the employer is not just required to consult with us, but to collaborate with us, which is a whole different level from consultation.
10:30 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thank you very much. I'm afraid that brings us to the end of this meeting.
We will need to suspend so that we can go in camera to conduct some committee business.
Before we do that, I would like to thank all of you here in person and also via video conference for joining us this morning and contributing to what I think is going to be a good piece of legislation. Hopefully we can make it better through this process.
Thank you very much, everybody.
We're going to suspend briefly.
[Proceedings continue in camera]
