Thank you.
Good morning. First of all I'd like to thank Marilyn Gladu for her wonderful introduction this morning. It's great seeing you.
I've worked in the disability field for 24 years, spending that time assisting people with a broad range of disabilities, some with varying degrees of disability. Currently I'm the manager of employment services at Community Living Sarnia-Lambton. I am also one of the founding members of the Ontario Disability Employment Network. Maybe many of you have heard of it; it's called ODEN, and I served as the board chair for six years.
Today, I have two key areas I'd like to talk about, first of all ensuring that women with more severe disabilities have access to the services they need to escape poverty, and second, redirecting federal tax dollars to boost support for activities that are known to be more effective. Although men who have a disability are overrepresented among Canadians who live in poverty, women who have a disability often face challenges related to gender inequality and child care needs.
Based on the participation and activity limitation survey, PALS, of 2006, people with disabilities make up 16.5% of the adult population 15 years of age and older in Canada. It's important to keep in mind that it's the largest minority group in Canada, or nearly 4.2 million people.
The overall poverty rate for Canadian adults was 10.5% in 2006, comprising 2.6 million people. The Conference Board of Canada recently found that Canada ranks 15th out of 17 countries in poverty among working-age people and gave Canada a D rating on that basis. For people with a disability the poverty rate was 14.4%, comprising nearly 600,000 people.
Some 55% of adults with disabilities are women and 45% are men, compared with 50.7% and 49.3%, respectively, for people without disabilities. Among people with disabilities living in poverty, 59% are women compared with 55.4% of people without disabilities living in poverty. It is also important to note that people with a severe to very severe level of disability are overrepresented among people in poverty.
Women who have a disability can work and have the capacity to make a significant contribution to the workforce. This is a fundamental fact that we must understand and accept. Another fact is that we in the non-disabled community, in both government and in the disability profession, have only just begun to scratch the surface in our understanding of how to recognize the capacity of the disabled and how to best exploit it.
No tool or instrument that we have today can effectively measure or assess capacity or help us determine the employability of people who have a disability. Whenever we set out to measure employability or capacity to work, we invariably set the bar too high and discriminate against those whom we deem to be too severely disabled to work.
You may be familiar with the Walgreens story. Walgreens is currently number 19 in the Fortune 50 and has become a beacon of success by ensuring that 20% of its employees openly identify as having a disability. Other corporations across the world are working to emulate the Walgreens' model for inclusion to increase corporate profits.
Of interest is a statement made recently by the retired executive vice-president Randy Lewis. Mr. Lewis recounted their early hires when they embarked on this journey of hiring people with disabilities. He talked about a young woman with severe autism and significant behavioural problems who was to be their first hire. Mr. Lewis was asked if he deliberately started by hiring someone with very significant challenges. Was that intentional? Mr. Lewis responded that they did because they thought if they could get that first difficult one right, the rest would be easy. What they learned, though, is that they didn’t go low enough, because the capacity of people with disabilities was far greater than they had ever imagined. This is a very profound statement.
Indeed, perhaps the most effective measure of employability is more properly gauged by each individual's motivation to work. Having said that, it is important that services and supports that each person needs be available, and in a way that makes sense regardless of the level of disability.
There has been a shift within Service Canada and its partners in Ontario to refocus programs to aid individuals who are more job ready or requiring light-touch services.
The federal government must ensure that its programs and services and those of its partners in the provinces and territories provide necessary services and supports to ensure that all Canadians, including women who have more severe disabilities and who are overrepresented among people in poverty, have access to services to ensure their successful attachment to the workforce to escape poverty.
The federal dollars that are invested by way of wage subsidies, or, as they are often termed now, “training incentives”, could be better spent. At a time when the federal government and provinces are struggling to spend the Canada job grant, I would suggest that a portion of these dollars be redirected to remove barriers for women who have severe to very severe disabilities. Labour market agreements for persons with disabilities and the federal opportunities fund for persons with disabilities should transition dollars away from wage subsidies and boost support for the wide range of activities that are known to be more effective, such as employment counselling; career planning; pre-employment preparation, including time-limited curriculum-based workshops; post-secondary education; skills training; self-employment assistance; technical aids; and other accommodation supports such as job coaching. Assistance in accessing job opportunities and support for transportation and child care needs are also critical.
Business people are experts at running their businesses. They do not have the expertise or the capacity within their operations to understand specialized technical aids, workplace modifications, and other accommodations that may be required across a broad range of disability types. Employers also need post-placement support, which has the greatest impact on job retention and career growth. Employers need to see the employment agency as a specialist or as a disability consultant. One employer once told me that he was an expert at making tire rims, not at understanding disability.
Workplaces evolve and jobs change. Often retraining and revisiting and revising accommodation are necessary. Wage subsidies or training incentives for people with disability could be better spent by providing businesses with the specialized support they require to include women who have disabilities.
In summary, we need to invest in women who have a disability and ensure that all Canadians, regardless of gender or severity of disability, can move out of poverty and become successful contributors to our economy.
Thanks so much.