Evidence of meeting #117 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 standards.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
For sure, and somebody like Mark Wafer at Tim Hortons led the way by showing that it was an investment. He came back with higher productivity, lower absenteeism and all of those things.
Thank you.
Ms. Monti, do you have anything to say on investment versus cost?
Vice-President, Employee Relations, Royal Bank of Canada
We would absolutely agree that it's an investment. It's an investment in our people, our clients and the communities we support. It is good for the people and good for the communities, and it is good for business as well.
In terms of the actual cost, I would agree with Professor McColl. On average, it is surprisingly not as expensive as many people would think to accommodate people. That's because a lot of accommodation costs nothing in terms of hard costs. It's a schedule adjustment. It's putting somebody's workstation near a window rather than in the middle of the room. It can be a variety of things that are easily achieved without much cost.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
Can you touch on a couple of investments that Royal Bank has made across the country for people with disabilities?
Vice-President, Employee Relations, Royal Bank of Canada
First of all, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, there are the voice-guided ATMs that are in all of our branches.
Vice-President, Employee Relations, Royal Bank of Canada
They're right across the country in every branch.
Vice-President, Employee Relations, Royal Bank of Canada
All of our ATMs are voice-enabled.
We have at least one wheelchair-accessible ATM in each branch as well. Over the next three years, we plan to have all of our branch ATMs wheelchair accessible and audio-enabled.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
What would happen in the event that a branch simply couldn't adhere to that requirement for wheelchair-accessible ATMs?
Vice-President, Employee Relations, Royal Bank of Canada
We don't anticipate that being an issue. It's part of our plan going forward in terms of ongoing branch renovations and new branch construction.
Assistant General Counsel, Canadian Bankers Association
I think the only thing I'll add on behalf of the association and its 64 member banks is that there's a lot of competition for talent and for customers. I think we all know this. The banking industry is competing, and this is absolutely a 100% investment, an investment in employees. When you want to attract people, you want to have them stay. You want to promote them through the ranks. You want to accommodate them. It's an investment in our talent pool.
Also, customer service is at the core of what banks do. Why would we not want to accommodate to ensure that more customers can access products and services?
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
Have you come up against any resistance at all? What changes have you seen over the last five years?
Assistant General Counsel, Canadian Bankers Association
In the sense of resistance to the legislation itself?
Assistant General Counsel, Canadian Bankers Association
We haven't had any resistance to the legislation.
I think the language around accessibility—Ms. Monti referred to this in her opening remarks—is part of the broader discussion and conversation about diversity and inclusion. There isn't resistance to the intended outcomes.
There are always things we think about. As I indicated in my opening remarks, we're thinking about the balance between principles and description. We think about flexibility. Especially for our large cross-border members, we think about how other jurisdictions in the world evolve, particularly on information communication technology, let's say, and how we can create standards that do not compel the Canadian bank to be completely at odds with what RBC's U.K. subsidiary is required to do.
Those are the kinds of things we think about, but there there has been no resistance to the desired outcomes.
Liberal
NDP
Cheryl Hardcastle NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning. I'm hoping that we can get some more feedback from you with regard to how we can make Bill C-81 effective in using that disability lens. Other jurisdictions, other countries, have done this. This bill should be our first attempt at complying with the UN convention.
There are a lot of definitions out there. There are best practices being used, and it is evolving all the time.
A lot of the work that has been done focuses on seeing disability as one of the variables of the population, so that this act is ensuring more coverage, more access. We're just broadening that cookie cutter, if you will, in saying that this is a part of the population who we have to start fitting in.
One of my colleagues mentioned in his question a fact that was provided to us about the Public Service Alliance of Canada. They've done a lot of groundwork because of the Employment Equity Act. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with that in your roles right now, having to roll out the Employment Equity Act, but there's a lot of synergy. There is a lot of opportunity here for us to leverage that. I would like to hear you expand on that if you could.
My time is brief. With that preamble, I'll let you share your thoughts on how we can be leveraging existing legislation such as the Employment Equity Act.
Assistant General Counsel, Canadian Bankers Association
I'm happy to start.
There is obviously a certain element of duplication there on the employment front. From a first principles perspective, the accessibility Bill C-81 is much more foundational legislation that covers a lot more. The Employment Equity Act, as you know, focuses just on the employment side.
That said, I think a lot of what has been done by federal employers under the EEA can be leveraged—and I'll look to Ms. Monti to expand on that—to meet some of the requirements that we will see in the employment standards under Bill C-81.
Vice-President, Employee Relations, Royal Bank of Canada
To add to that a bit, inclusion is the real goal. Inclusion is one of our core values, and that's the goal we're working towards.
The Employment Equity Act processes and reporting procedures help us get to that goal. This accessibility legislation will help us as well. They're both channels, ways forward, that help us take that really holistic view of accessibility within RBC. It has multiple dimensions and takes that holistic view and helps us go forward with this work.
Prof. Mary Ann McColl
I think one of the strengths of this legislation is that it is structural in its approach rather than individualistic.
I referred before to the three objectives of policy, equity, access and support. Whereas the Employment Equity Act is about equity, about ensuring freedom from discrimination, this one is more about ensuring access and looking at the responsibilities of individuals and organizations toward people with disabilities. It's ensuring an equitable and inclusive environment rather than affording people with disabilities redress against discrimination.
It's a different way of approaching the same issue. Of course, the two ideas of equity and access are related, but I was delighted to see that this legislation was taking an access approach rather than simply adding another layer of anti-discrimination protections, which we're well furnished with in Canada.
NDP
Cheryl Hardcastle NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Okay.
What do you think of us having this new standards organization, especially as we've discussed here? What do you think of having that comprised with a majority, which sometimes could be one more than half? We were hearing testimony to the effect that 70% of the board should be people living with different abilities.
I would like to hear about your experience and how you gather your input, if you have some ideas for us about where you think that approach should go.
Assistant General Counsel, Canadian Bankers Association
We're aware that other witnesses have talked about specific numbers. I would say a couple of things. I think having this unique entity that has, just at the beginning, the requirement of 50% plus has been really great. We don't have a specific number in mind. The provision, as you know, also requires the CASDO board to reflect the diversity of Canada overall. I'm optimistic that once it's put into place and we see how the dynamic works between individuals on the board, it might evolve to a higher number.
I would say that it's a very positive development in the first instance to have the CASDO board, unlike other boards that have a role in this, such as CHRC, be informed by persons with disabilities.
