Mr. Speaker, it is truly a privilege to speak to the debate that has been part of this motion.
I want to thank both opposition parties for their support of this motion and especially those who spoke to the motion in terms of their support.
I am under no illusions with this motion, having lived and watched persons with disabilities from the time they were small children to the time they were adults. I am under no illusions of the multiplicity of challenges that they have in their lives and the multiplicity of services and support they need to live fulfilling lives.
This motion has been as prescriptive as possible to put forward five elements for progress. They are small steps forward, but is it not better to make those small steps forward and to get to the point some day where we are in a position where we are completely inclusive of individuals who suffer from all ranges of disabilities?
I must thank members of the organizations from across the country to whom I have spoken over the past year and who were a very significant part of putting together the elements of this motion, because it was their experience and their suggestions that said, “This will move the yardstick forward. If you present a motion with these elements, it calls very prescriptively on the government to do things”. To the credit of our government, in the past budget several of the elements we were working on were adopted even before the motion came to the floor of the House of Commons.
I also thank our Minister of Finance and the leadership of our government on this file, in taking it forward in a way that I, frankly, did not actually anticipate we would be able to move as quickly as we did.
We provide significant resources to provinces and territories and we have a window of opportunity on one of the elements mentioned in the motion, which is to have a new generation of labour market agreements for persons with disabilities. When we get that new generation, we will be able to direct to the actual individuals more concrete and measurable results for those who seek to work.
As has been mentioned over again in this debate, there are 800,000 individuals who are ready, willing and able to work in the country and our country is on a path of labour shortage, so this is an untapped pool of talent.
In our society, sometimes these people get overlooked, maybe because of their physical appearance, perhaps the way they walk, or the fact they cannot walk, or the fact they cannot speak clearly or their sight is an issue. Some people have episodic disabilities, as we have learned, who need programs and the assistance of our society, our government, as well as their employers in moving forward.
We are also picking up on the report for persons with disabilities, which has been mentioned over again and over again, to focus on private sector participation. I disagree with one premise that was said tonight and the fact that it did not address small, medium and large-sized business.
I have had my own small business for 25 years and had 20 employees. There are so many opportunities for employers to look beyond the wheelchair, to look beyond the eyesight, to look beyond the intellectual disability and say, “The business case is there to hire this individual, not only for their talent, but for the multitude of benefits that my company will receive”.
I will wrap up with one last comment. The verdict is in. Not only does employing people with disabilities unlock enormous opportunities for their social and economic inclusion, but we now know that doing the right thing makes good business sense.