Randy Lewis, who was the senior vice-president of Walgreens until a couple of years ago, has a son who is on the ASD spectrum and has autism. In this role within the corporation, Lewis tried to look for way to see how they could include people with disabilities. As the senior vice-president of logistics, he started with one distribution centre. As a result of including over 40% of people who had a disability, that distribution centre ended up being the most productive. It had 87% lower costs than any other distribution centre throughout the corporation. At that point, the CEO, the shareholders, and the board were on board. They then moved to a target of 10% of people with disabilities throughout the corporation. From that, they then moved to a target of 20%. Now Walgreens is the largest drug supplier in the world.
Now what's happening is that corporations from around the world—not just Canada, Japan, and Europe—are all going to Walgreens, which is very willing to share the model. They're now looking at including people with a disability as a return on investment.
I think what we need to do in our field, and I think in the federal government and provincial governments in Canada, is get that message out. Hiring people with a disability is about return on investment. There are so many stats and studies and information out there that prove that when you hire people with a disability, they take less sick time, the WSIB costs are lower, they stay in the job longer, and they are just better all-round employees. It's about moving away from that idea of charity and having to pay someone to on-board people with a disability. The fact is that you are going to see huge benefits from on-boarding people with a disability. We're already seeing this in Canada.