Again, I conduct the meeting. It is the member's time. If the member is not happy with an answer, the member can proceed to their next line. I'll continue with that process.

Mr. Fragiskatos, you have five minutes.

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Minister and officials, for being here.

Minister, a moment ago you wanted to provide an answer. I want to give you an opportunity to give an answer to Mrs. Falk's question.

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON

Thank you for that. I really appreciate it because I thought my coming here for two hours would give me the time to actually have a robust discussion when it comes to disability inclusion and things that I'm hoping everyone deeply cares about in this committee—not just to get clips, as we have seen, or for partisan games.

11:45 a.m.

Conservative

Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK

On a point of order, Chair, I take issue with a minister suggesting....

I care very deeply about those with disabilities.

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey

Mrs. Falk, that is not a point of order.

11:45 a.m.

Conservative

Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK

To suggest that I'm getting clips is ridiculous.

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey

That is not a point of order, and I would ask all members to follow the decorum of the committee.

I'll give a lot of latitude on all sides until the committee pushes me in a different direction.

Mr. Fragiskatos, you have the floor. To the rest of the members, please respect that.

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON

I'll start the time again here, Mr. Chair.

I was just wondering if we could have the answer to the question that you wanted to give. Bizarrely, after almost 10 years in politics here, I've never seen a situation where a committee witness—in this case, a minister—is trying to provide an answer and is not able to do so. Please give us the answer that you wanted to.

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON

Thanks for that.

Just to go back to the Accessible Canada Act, it really is around changing systems and having those systemic changes within our institutions. The act in itself asks all federally regulated entities to report and be accountable to the public around ensuring that they have accessibility plans. I will tell you that the compliance on that is incredibly impressive. If I'm not right, it's close to 99% for the Government of Canada. It's 100%, actually, for the Government of Canada.

We know that there's more work that needs to be done, but it really is around changing systems on the ground. For the first time ever, we have an office of the accessibility commissioner, which actually leads into this work and is responsible for compliance and for ensuring that we are working alongside all federal entities, and there are really strict fines—up to $250,000 per day, in fact—if federal entities are not compliant with their accessibility plans.

Just to give you details on the regulations that were talked about, I will turn to my deputy, who has been leading this work, if you allow me to.

11:45 a.m.

Senior Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Employment and Social Development

Kristina Namiesniowski

Thank you.

In the context of the work that's been done by Accessibility Standards Canada, I can confirm that they have actually finalized.... There are six standards and technical guides, two of which they developed. The one on employment was just released in December. The other, on the accessibility requirements for information and communications technologies, was published in May of this year.

They worked in collaboration with the Canadian Standards Association, and together they published “Accessible design for the built environment”, “Accessible design for self-service interactive devices including automated banking machines” and “Accessible dwellings”. They've also produced a technical guide on it entitled, “Accessible and Equitable Artificial Intelligence Systems”.

There are five draft standards that are out for public review, and there are 11 technical committees that have been established and are working on other standards. I think one of the important considerations around standards development is that it does take time. Just as the minister has underscored the importance of the principle of “nothing about us without us,” Accessibility Standards Canada works very closely with members of the community and technical experts to develop their standards.

11:50 a.m.

Liberal

Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON

Thank you very much.

Mrs. Gray raised a very important question with regard to those who are hearing impaired and medical devices to assist.

This comes from Health Canada. I think it's important, and perhaps I'll let committee members judge, but the December 31 request might not be necessary.

Yesterday—and I've confirmed that it was in fact yesterday—Health Canada issued two medical device licences to Apple Inc., authorizing the sale of their hearing aid feature and hearing test feature, which are both compatible with Apple's AirPods Pro 2. Once authorized by Health Canada, the decision to sell a medical device rests with the manufacturer—in this case, obviously, Apple. It's also worth noting that it will be up to provinces and territories to decide how these medical devices are accessed in their jurisdictions, including whether a prescription is required.

As I say, Chair, I think it's an important point. I thank Mrs. Gray for raising the point because I have family members, in fact, who are hearing impaired, and constituents, certainly, who are hearing impaired. I think we all do. I think that should clarify the matter.

11:50 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey

Minister, you have 15 seconds.

Do you want to comment?

11:50 a.m.

Liberal

Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON

I want to say thank you to my colleague for clarifying that.

Again, when it comes to building an accessible Canada, it's not just up to one person. It's up to all of us and all entities to do this work together.

Thank you.

11:50 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey

Thank you, Mr. Fragiskatos.

Ms. Chabot, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.