Human Resources Committee on Oct. 22nd, 2018

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Thank you very much, everybody, for coming today.

Mr. Richmond, I'm from B.C. I love our airport. It's a fantastic airport, probably the best airport in Canada, but I'm biased.

It is quite impressive to see the amount of progress that's been made. When we look at what we want to accomplish, the question is whether we legislate it and regulate it, but some of the top organizations are already doing things.

I remember coming back from a trip overseas a couple of months ago, and I saw a whole bunch of your employees in wheelchairs going through their training. I asked what was going on. It was amazing to see that you're putting people through the process of learning what it's like to be in that wheelchair, what it's like for people who are paralyzed. What challenges are they facing?

What made you get to that point? Nobody came down with a hammer and said you had to do it.

[Craig Richmond]

I appreciate the kind words. It has just been in our DNA from the very beginning. That term has been used, the idea that our people should understand what it's like. In everything we do, we try to put ourselves in other people's shoes.

For example, when working with the Rick Hansen Foundation, we realized that once people with assistance dogs go through all the various steps to go to the United States, if their dog has to go to the washroom, what do they do? As a result, we put in a doggy washroom in the transborder area.

To me it's just customer service. Persons with disabilities are a big part of our customer base. We're just trying to look after them.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

I think this is fantastic. Those are some of the best practices we see across the country.

A lot has been mentioned about timelines today as well as in previous testimony. When will we get this done? We've chosen an approach of creating the framework that we could work within.

What are your thoughts on that? Do you think we need to be saying you have to have such-and-such done by this time? I know you mentioned the cost, that you might not be in a position to do things. What would you say to those timelines?

[Craig Richmond]

I would have to see the regulations. I'm sure we will have all kinds of time to talk to the CTA about it.

I know from my work in other areas with persons with disabilities that generally businesses want to do the right thing. I don't disagree that ultimately you have to have that hammer of the fines, but we should just make sure that what we're looking for in the first case is information and dialogue and that we're not jumping right to compliance and fines.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

You would like to see flexibility rather than a hard cap on the timeline, rather than a requirement for it to be done by 2020 or 2025 or whatever that might be?

[Craig Richmond]

Certainly, and again, as I said in my remarks, I'm not afraid of this legislation. We've been accessible for a long time. I think if there are any areas for us to improve, we will embrace them.

I think a lot of smaller entities out there could be faced with pretty stiff unfunded obligations, as the other MP, Ms. Finley, said. I worry about all those smaller airports inside B.C. that feed Vancouver.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Speaking of unfunded, I keep hearing “What's the cost going to be?”

With where you are already with your airport—and I know where you're at—does that bring you a competitive advantage? If so, where?

[Craig Richmond]

We certainly hope so. I think we're getting known around the world as a very accessible airport, regardless of your handicap and abilities. I think it does give us a competitive advantage. I think airlines know that we'll look after their passengers.

We don't look at it as a cost; we look at it as a cost of doing business.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Are you seeing an uptake on accessibility tourism through your airport?

[Craig Richmond]

I think we are. It can be a bit difficult to measure, but when I talk to various groups, they know, through their communities and Internet forums around the world, the places you want to avoid, and we're certainly not in that category. People feel comfortable transiting through our airport.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

I just want to keep sticking to this advantage, because while obviously there's always going to be a cost to things, we have to start thinking about the advantage to doing the right thing. We know, and you said it, that people are no longer confined to their homes, we hope. You had a plane that asked for 150 wheelchairs. .

[Craig Richmond]

Right.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

When we look at tourism throughout the country and the world, there are a lot of people who are now wanting, whether or not they're in a wheelchair, to be able to experience life. To have that advantage, I think, can help pay for it itself if we as a country have these standards that allow freedom of mobility. That's our competitive advantage for tourism as well. Would you agree?

[Craig Richmond]

I absolutely agree. I just worry about imposing a solution. For example, if we have to build a new transborder terminal and we're told, “Do this on the old terminal”, that's just going to be money that gets thrown away if in four years from now we have another part of the terminal that's opening up. A little flexibility would go a long way.

[Dan Ruimy, Liberal, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

That flexibility that you're referring to is needed. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you.

We have MP Diotte for six minutes, please.

[Kerry Diotte, Edmonton Griesbach, CPC]

This is for Mr. Desjardins-Siciliano.

You've talked about VIA striving to be or being a world leader in accessibility. You should be lauded for that. You said that you use standards from the Canadian council for disabilities to get there, and these standards were deemed acceptable to you.

Would you please comment on the provision in this bill for multiple more years of further consultation to determine standards?

[Yves Desjardins-Siciliano]

Thank you.

I was referring to the fact that at VIA we try to consult with clients before we make major changes to our business practices. Therefore, this client group was consulted in the design of the refit that we're doing on the old equipment to make it more accessible, as well as the design points for the new equipment that we're procuring for the corridor.

I must recognize the work of the Canadian Transportation Agency under the leadership of Mr. Streiner, who really are part of that process. They monitor and sometimes they mediate the process in terms of making sure we have all the right parties around the table. They provide an objective environment where we can have these consultations. It has evolved from that regulatory, if you will, environment to one of collaboration between a provider of a service and a customer base.

One point that's not to be lost here is that by 2030, over 25% of Canadians will be over 65. As I'm getting to that point myself, the reality is that mobility becomes a challenge, not just from a physical aspect but also with eyesight or hearing impairments and other impairments. Therefore, we have to address these issues, because our business depends on it. This is a huge customer segment that you can't just leave at home.

The fact that we're a public body and by definition are meant to provide services that private enterprises may be more hesitant to provide does not take away from the commercial opportunity of being a better provider for that audience and target.

The consultation process, I think, exists today within the realm of the CTA, or within the realm of the actual business providers.

[Kerry Diotte]

It's rather redundant, then.

You also talked about VIA Rail being door-to-door accessible, but we do know that not every train station is accessible. I can see one in Trenton, Ontario, that doesn't have an elevator or any ramps. I'm not certain this would be necessarily unique.

Will this legislation address issues such as this?

[Yves Desjardins-Siciliano]

In situations of an elevator not being available to board a wheelchair on a train, VIA provides ground transportation from the train station nearest the traveller to the train station equipped to lift the chair onto the train, at no cost to that person. That's the way it is handled today.

Whether this legislation will change that for an existing environment is to be seen. It is our objective to make all of our stations accessible, starting with the fact that the new trains will have on-board elevators, eliminating the need for an off-board elevator that somebody needs to bring to the train to lift a chair. The elevator will be in the train. When the door opens, the elevator will come out of the train, go down to the platform and raise the chair onto the train, eliminating the current constraints. That, by the way, is world leading.

[Kerry Diotte]

I have a quick question for Craig Richmond.

In your opening remarks you talked about building accessibility, not bureaucracy and more red tape. Obviously, more reporting is going to really bog everything down. I get your argument that we should be spending money instead on making smaller airports accessible, and so forth. Can you go into a bit more depth on that point?

[Craig Richmond]

I'm speaking for my colleagues from the small airports caucus of the Canadian Airports Council. Every time a regulatory burden falls on them, it's a lot harder. They don't have the kind of staff that we do at the top eight airports in Canada. If we're going to have reporting requirements, we should make them as reasonable and as templated as possible so that small airports aren't spending an inordinate amount of money and time reporting on what they're doing; rather, they are just doing it.

[Kerry Diotte]

Do you find that there's a lot of red tape and so forth already?

[Craig Richmond]

I live in a very bureaucratic environment. For example, my ground lease says that every five years I have to do a full report on how we're doing. It costs a lot of money. In fact, we hire two consultants to come in and do it for us, because we're too busy. Again, I'm not moaning too badly about that, but I worry about my colleagues at the smaller airports.

[Kerry Diotte]

Right. It's money better spent on actually doing accessibility.

How am I doing on time?