Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to join the debate on Motion No. 430 regarding employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. This motion follows on from the work of the Panel on Labour Market Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, which was set up in July 2012.
In general terms, the panel’s mandate was to hold discussions with private sector stakeholders, employers and organizations on the representation and participation of people with disabilities in the Canadian labour market.
The report prepared at the conclusion of the panel’s work highlights the fact that there are too many Canadians living with disabilities who are unemployed, even though they have the ability and willingness to work. Even today, about 800,000 working-age Canadians who are living with disabilities have the willingness, the talent and the ability to participate in Canada’s labour market, but they do not always have the opportunity to do so.
The report entitled “Rethinking DisAbility in the Private Sector” describes a number of success stories, best practices and obstacles to accessing the job market for those with disabilities. The surprising thing is that unfortunately the panel did not have the authority to make recommendations to the government. It could only describe the situation and make suggestions for improvements.
The motion under consideration today asks the government to endorse the report of the Panel on Labour Market Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities and puts forward measures inspired by the report that aim at improving access to the labour market by Canadians living with disabilities.
This motion is a good initial step and I support the measures it contains. However, as a number of my colleagues in this House have mentioned, there remains a great deal of work to be done and the text of the motion does not go far enough in putting forward measures that will really increase access to the labour market by people with disabilities.
The panel’s report is not particularly ground-breaking. We have been aware for a number of years now of the conclusions it draws and the facts it presents. Through a succession of governments, a number of reports have raised the same problems and issues. However, not one of those governments, nor even today’s government, has taken adequate measures or shown any genuine leadership to resolve the situation or to ensure that people living with disabilities who have the ability and the willingness to work actually take part in the labour market.
Furthermore, Motion No. 430 does not cover some of the problems that are crucial for people with disabilities. It does not discuss the demands that groups representing people with disabilities have expressed for a number of years now. I am thinking primarily of health and disability benefits, access to housing, access to education and income security.
This afternoon I had an opportunity to discuss Motion No. 430 with a long-time friend, Maxime D. Pomerleau, who was with me in high school and CEGEP. We have known each other for many years. She is a journalist and a host on Canal M for a public affairs program about people with disabilities. Her program is called Accès libre. At the moment, she is also developing a web series called Batwheel, which deals with issues of universal accessibility for those living with disabilities.
Maxime has McCune-Albright syndrome and has used a wheelchair since she was young, so she really understands the problems facing people with disabilities, particularly problems with gaining access to the labour market. When she was young, she did not have access to summer jobs because there were not enough incentives for employers to hire people with disabilities.
She had a chance to look through the report and, like me, she found it objectionable that it focuses on big, well-established companies that already have programs to help people living with disabilities. Small and medium businesses do not have these kinds of programs, especially in rural areas. The report does not really even cover the situation outside of urban areas.
The report does not go into the problem of accessible transportation either. Nothing is being done to address these issues, and this is something that I deplore about the motion before us.