Evidence of meeting #141 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cmhc.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Jamil Jivani Conservative Durham, ON
The thing is that your government has called this “history-making” and a milestone for Black people in this country. I think it's fair for Black people to then look at it and say, “Is this what you intend to do to our communities?”
Do you intend to decriminalize the 30-day supply of drugs in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion? I pose this question to a minister and a member of the Liberal government's cabinet. Why is this such a difficult question to answer?
Liberal
Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON
Mr. Chair, I've known this now for a long time. It was very clear from our last interaction that the member does not understand what diversity, inclusion and equity actually means.
December 12th, 2024 / 12:05 p.m.
Conservative
Jamil Jivani Conservative Durham, ON
Thank you for articulating that. Maybe I can ask you some questions and learn something today about diversity and inclusion.
I have a statement here by a witness who appeared before the justice committee—Rachel Cook from the University of Alberta.
She said:
I think the EDI system has made the problem [of anti-Semitism] worse....
I think it can start at the top, but it also starts in institutions and in massively funding EDI programming, such that, quite literally, when I asked who decides who is in these EDI meetings—is it a percentage of population?—their response was, well, it's the groups that deserve equity and deserve inclusion.
Minister, I'd like to ask who deserves equity and inclusion, in your mind.
Liberal
Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON
My goal as Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities is to ensure we're creating equal opportunities for every single person in this country, regardless of their age, race, identity and abilities. It takes fundamental changes within our institutions to do that work. You have to be deliberate about making that change.
That's clearly something the Conservative Party does not understand. They can think back to their snitch lines. We all remember that time under the Harper government. They have—
Liberal
Conservative
Jamil Jivani Conservative Durham, ON
I'm going to get through this. You can keep trying to filibuster, if you like.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Good. We have to respect the interpreters' ability to properly translate the—
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
Jamil Jivani Conservative Durham, ON
Thank you.
When a university student in our country says that diversity, equity and inclusion is disadvantaging her community, your response is, “Well, I'm just going to keep making these blanket fluff statements.” She's asking quite clearly. You, as Minister of Diversity and Inclusion, are in a position to answer her question.
How do you decide who deserves equity and inclusion? Why are there Canadians who feel excluded by your DEI framework?
Liberal
Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON
It's clear the honourable member does not really understand. He does not understand that there are systems in place and that anti-Black racism and systemic racism are real things. They have root causes in our institutions. We have a responsibility.... Every single person should have a responsibility to ensure we do everything and be very deliberate about including people, ensuring they have an equal opportunity to fully participate in our economies and our country.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Liberal
Liberal
Tony Van Bynen Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have to admit that I'm somewhat disappointed in the tone of the dialogue going on here. It reminds me of a phrase my father shared with me: People who value themselves by their ability to diminish others will forever live in the darkness of their own shadows. I'm hoping we can take this conversation to a more productive tone.
I want to clarify. There's been a lot of discussion about the disability tax credit. Can you explain to the committee why the government chose to use this tool and talk about the ongoing work to improve its accessibility?
Liberal
Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON
It's always good to see you, Tony, and thanks for always bringing to us the important issues that I know Canadians and, particularly, persons with disabilities really deeply care about.
I can tell you that the disability tax credit.... I know that there's a lot of discussion around this within the disability community. I heard from the community around the use of the disability tax credit. I want to let the community know that we really try to see how we can, first and foremost, improve the disability tax credit to ensure that we remove all the barriers for persons with disabilities. One of the things that my colleague who is responsible for the DTC.... It's run through the CRA, which is the responsibility of my colleague Minister Bibeau. We actually have an advisory council, a stakeholder group including persons with disabilities in it, to ensure that they remove those barriers within and make it more simple to actually have access to it.
One of the other things that we wanted to make sure is that there's universality and consistency throughout the provinces and territories—all across Canada—to ensure that it doesn't matter where the persons with disabilities are actually living, but that they can get the same amount and same access to the Canada disability benefit that they would receive in any other province.
The other thing that we have done.... One of the biggest barriers is around removing the cost of accessing these forms. In the budget, we received additional dollars to ensure that we remove the cost that persons with disabilities may have to give to a medical professional to fill out that form.
At the same time, we have, in the budget, received funding for a navigator program to ensure that some of those really hard-to-reach community members, persons with disabilities, can get access and work with community members to get the disability tax credit. We know that for people with disabilities who can access the disability tax credit, it gives them an avenue to other benefits, not just the federal benefits but other provincial benefits, as well, in some provinces and territories.
It's really important that we do this work. We're really ensuring that we make it as barrier-free as possible to ensure that persons with disabilities can get this support.
I'll turn to Tina.
Is there anything I missed, Tina, that you want to add on the disability tax credit?
Senior Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Employment and Social Development
Thank you, Minister.
I think you covered everything that was really the justification.
The other point for us, which we considered in the context of how we could deliver the benefit as quickly and as efficiently as possible.... We heard from the community members that they were looking for the government to move expeditiously. The use of the disability tax credit enables us to do that. Some of the other suggestions that have come forward are administratively quite complex and would take significant time to really work our way through. It was really the speed, the efficiency and ensuring that we could get the benefit to those who are deserving of it as quickly as possible.
Liberal
Tony Van Bynen Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
In budget 2023, the government invested $10 million in the social development partnerships program, which helps address the unique needs and ongoing barriers faced by persons with disabilities by investing in capacity building and community-level work for Canada's disability organizations. I know that many of those organizations are struggling.
Can you speak to the impact of this program and why it's crucial for the federal government to support the not-for-profit and accessibility sector in this way?
Liberal
Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON
Absolutely.
We're so proud to work alongside some incredible organizations on the ground. I can tell you that I met with some people. Some of these organizations are one or two people really trying to make a difference in their communities. Fundamentally, systemically, they have faced so many barriers to access and to building the capacity for the organization to move forward and to really dive in and support their communities.
That's why this funding is so important. They use every penny possible to support some of the most vulnerable in their communities. It's really important that we work with them to ensure that they have the capacity, can function fully and are able to reach some of those hardest-to-reach individuals with disabilities, to ensure that we're providing them with that support that is so important.
Liberal
Tony Van Bynen Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Thank you.
A key part of realizing the Accessible Canada Act is the work of Accessibility Standards Canada. We know that developing and implementing standards for accessibility must be done hand in hand with the disability community in the true spirit of “nothing about us without us”.
Deputy Minister, can you outline how Accessibility Standards Canada works directly with the disability community in developing these accessibility standards?
Senior Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Employment and Social Development
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I think, as mentioned earlier, the work of Accessibility Standards Canada is very much done in consultation with persons with disabilities and, as part of the standard development process, Accessibility Standards Canada has set up technical committees. Those technical committees include experts as well as individuals with lived experience, and they're used very much to inform the content of each and every standard that has been published and/or is under development.