Evidence of meeting #123 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 discussion.
A video is available from Parliament.
Director General, Accessibility Secretariat, Department of Employment and Social Development
I believe that is correct, Mr. Chair.
The Vice-Chair Mr. John Barlow
Thank you very much, Ms. May.
Is there any further discussion on PV-5?
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
We'd like a recorded vote.
(Amendment negatived: nays 5; yeas 3 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
The Vice-Chair Mr. John Barlow
We now move to CPC-17. Is there any discussion?
Ms. Falk, would you like to present the amendment?
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
It reads:
That Bill C-81, in Clause 18, be amended by adding after line 25 on page 7 the following:
“(2) The Standards Organization must develop accessibility standards for every area referred to in paragraphs 5(a) to (g) no later than five years after the day on which this subsection comes into force.
(3) The Standards Organization must develop an action plan ranking in priority every area for which accessibility standards are required and provide the action plan to the Minister.
(4) The Standards Organization must update the action plan annually and provide the updated version to the Minister.
(5) The Standards Organization must review each accessibility standard every five years from the date on which it was established.”
Obviously we've been talking about timelines in this bill. We believe that it should include timelines by which CASDO must develop accessibility standards in employment, the built environment, information and communication technologies, the procurement of goods and services, the delivery of programs and services, and transportation five years after coming into force.
The Vice-Chair Mr. John Barlow
Thank you very much, Ms. Falk.
Is there any discussion on CPC-17?
I should also mention, Ms. Hardcastle, that if this is adopted, NDP-4.1 will not be moved, for consistency. I believe they are very similar.
Go ahead, Mr. Nuttall.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, through you to Mr. Van Raalte, are these requests in terms of standards likely to be achieved in any ways within the purview of what you're hoping to achieve when you're implementing the act?
Director General, Accessibility Secretariat, Department of Employment and Social Development
These are all within the purview of the proposed board of directors that would govern the standards development organization.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Mr. John Barlow
Yes, it's a recorded vote. Thank you very much for your request.
(Amendment negatived: nays 5; yeas 3)
We will now move to CPC-18.
Is there any discussion?
Go ahead, Ms. Falk.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
The amendment reads:
That Bill C-81, in Clause 18, be amended by adding after line 25 on page 7 the following:
“(2) In carrying out its mandate, the Standards Organization must exercise leadership at the national level by ensuring that any information, product or service it provides is without barriers and that any document it creates is in an accessible format and in plain language.
(3) The Standards Organization must not refuse any document that is in an accessible format or in plain language.”
Basically, as justification for this, I think this would just reiterate that CASDO must show leadership in terms of accessibility. Again, plain language and the ability of people with intellectual disabilities to access and understand should be part of the CASDO mandate.
Liberal
Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
Once again, we really believe that this should not be in legislation but is an area of policy, because it's ever-changing. Documents are changing and the types of readers are changing all the time.
If you lock things into legislation, it's a massive procedure to change it. We believe it belongs in policy.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I don't believe that this is actually giving definite ways that literature could be accessible. I think it's actually just stating that it will be accessible, however that may be, in plain language. We had heard from stakeholders that this was important because people with intellectual disabilities aren't able to access the majority of information. I think having this in there is just setting a starting point.
This isn't everything, right? This is literally just the starting point. The regulation can come in and be a little bit more definitive.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
I think it also applies to the regulations too, in the sense that when the regulations are put in place, they should be in easily understood language as well. It's actually the point that maybe I didn't do a great job of making earlier about the differing standards in different organizations. If I didn't understand it and maybe everyone in this room didn't understand it, then it's not necessarily in plain language, which is one of the things we're actually trying to tackle through this bill. It's very ironic.
Putting this into the legislation would, therefore, define it going into the wording of the actual regulations.
Liberal
Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
Again, just to respond to that, time and time again we heard that of all the pillars, the one that was missing was communications. That will be one of our amendments. We will be introducing a communication pillar, because we kept hearing that the pillar of communication was so critical. We will be introducing that through this long complicated process.
We have PDF documents that can't be read through machine learning. The technology is always changing. That's why, again, it's a policy thing, not a legislation thing.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
I hear you and I totally hear you, but this doesn't actually say anything about specific documents. It's actually setting a clear policy, which is what this act is doing. It's setting up a policy that the standards must reach a certain level—
November 7th, 2018 / 10:35 p.m.
Liberal
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
—just to even begin the writing of the actual standards.
