Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members.
Thank you again for giving me this opportunity to be before this committee. It's always a pleasure to be here with my colleagues, and of course my good friend, Minister Boissonnault.
I'm also very pleased, as my colleague mentioned, to be joined here by our incredible officials—Paul Thompson, Karen Robertson, and Kristina Namiesniowski.
I want to take this opportunity, first and foremost, to update you on the important items that we have delivered for Canadians this year. Before we begin, I think it's important to give the chair and committee members some context on diversity, inclusion and disability in Canada.
The newly released 2022 Canadian survey on disability finds that 27% of Canadians over the age of 15 self-identify as having a disability. That's eight million Canadians, who are limited in their day-to-day activities.
At the same time, across the country we have also seen an alarming rise in hate and division. This fall, local police agencies have reported a significant rise in hate crimes in cities and communities right across the country.
It is clear that the work we're doing right now is more important than ever. My goal as a minister is to create a more accessible and inclusive Canada, one where everyone, regardless of their ability or identity, is included.
When it comes to creating a more accessible Canada, our government has made a lot of progress. I want to take a moment to thank this committee for the work they've done and for getting some of these extremely important pieces forward.
When we first created the Accessible Canada Act, this led us to Canada's first-ever disability inclusion action plan, which truly is a road map to building a more inclusive and barrier-free Canada. We recently convened the disability inclusion business council to champion and advance inclusion in Canadian workplaces.
In 2022-23, we provided over $47 million in funding to 75 businesses through the opportunities fund. This funding is helping give persons with disabilities the skills and the tools they need to succeed in the labour force, while also creating more accessible businesses. Moreover, in order to build more accessible communities, this past year we provided $82 million in funding to over a thousand organizations through our enabling accessibility fund.
Of course, in June, with the support of this committee and all members in this Parliament, our government made history when we passed legislation to create the Canada disability benefit and got that to royal assent. Now we're building the benefit in the true spirit of “nothing without us”. This fall, Mr. Chair, we have been doing extensive consultations with the disability community. In fact, right now, fully accessible public online consultation portals are open, so that all Canadians, but in particular Canadians with disabilities, are able to give their feedback. Once implemented, it will be yet another historic step in our government's work to reduce poverty, as it will increase the financial security of working-age persons with disability. I look froward to updating this committee, the House, and all Canadians as we continue to push forward on this extremely important initiative.
Mr. Chair, I want to briefly talk about the work we're doing when it comes to creating a more diverse and inclusive Canada. I firmly believe that, as a country, our greatest strength is our diversity. I always say that in Canada diversity is a fact, but inclusion is a choice. It is a choice that our government has been very deliberately making from the very beginning.
Since 2015, our government has been working with community partners to combat racism and hatred in all its forms. As you know, in 2018, the Government of Canada officially recognized the UN decade for people of African descent, and we have been taking this recognition very seriously. To that end, we have launched the Black entrepreneurship program, the Black-led philanthropic endowment fund, and of course the supporting Black Canadian communities initiative.
Moreover, Mr. Chair, we launched Canada's first-ever anti-racism strategy to combat all forms of racism in Canada. To continue to build on the work of the strategy, we appointed Canada's first-ever anti-racism secretariat. Additionally, we are hard at work at developing Canada's first-ever action plan on combatting hate.
Also, the work that we are doing by hosting the national summits has led us to appoint two special envoys on combatting Islamophobia and combatting anti-Semitism in this country. As you know, Mr. Chair, their work has never been more important than it is right now.
Our diversity is what truly sets us apart from the rest of the world. It is at the core of who we are as Canadians, and I look forward to continuing to work with this committee and all Canadians to continue to build a more accessible and inclusive Canada for everyone.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
