Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to add my comments to the debate on this motion. I would like to thank the member opposite for raising the issue. I know her very well and she is well known for her concern for the less fortunate. I want to assure her that my colleagues and I on this side of the House share her concerns, especially as in this case, her concerns for people with disabilities.
I know many of the comments I will make may have been covered by other members. I want to talk about the approach that the government has taken to deal with people with disabilities and to support Canadians. As an example of our approach, I will use the opportunities fund which has created partnerships with other stakeholders so that together we can support Canadians with disabilities who want to earn their own living.
Since 1997 this initiative has provided $30 million a year to help persons with disabilities gain access to the workplace. Some of these funds are directed to the aboriginal community through aboriginal human resource development agreements and the rest of the funds are distributed through the provinces and territories. This approach is working. Since its inception, over 14,000 Canadians have been assisted by the opportunities fund and the work continues.
The federal Minister of Human Resources Development and her officials in the Office for Disability Issues continue to work actively with their provincial and territorial counterparts, as well as voluntary and private sectors in Canada, to ensure that the concerns of people with disabilities, including the special concerns of workers who become disabled, are addressed and co-ordinated in a way that makes sense for all governments and for the workers and their employers. These partnerships are particularly important so that people with disabilities can participate fully in the workplace and have full and productive lives in society at large.
Another example of the government's co-operative approach is the DisabilityWebLinks site that was launched in 2001. This Internet resource is a joint federal-provincial-territorial project that provides a one stop point of access for information on government related programs and services for people with disabilities in every part of Canada. This project exemplifies and illustrates two key points.
First, the Government of Canada takes very seriously its responsibilities toward people with disabilities and we are already working on many fronts to meet those responsibilities.
Second, our approach is to work in partnership with provincial and territorial governments and other stakeholders within the community, including non-government organizations, employers as well as workers themselves, to improve the lives of people who are living with disabilities. This approach is working and we plan to continue it.
Unfortunately, the motion before us today is not consistent with this partnership approach. By calling on the federal government to unilaterally change the way we define pensionable earnings under the Canada pension plan, the motion goes against the spirit of co-operation that exists between various levels of governments on matters pertaining to workplace disabilities.
These are all potential outcomes of this motion and we wonder if the practical consequences have been examined closely. While we share the concerns of the member opposite for workers with disabilities, we do not see the motion as an appropriate way to proceed at this time.