Human Resources committee  I have a couple of things in an immediate response around the consultation. Make no mistake—a lot of work has happened over the past three years. We're very proud of the intentional effort around our consultations to be included, to have a national conversation, which, I would

Human Resources committee  Thank you. I apologize for the preamble. Make no mistake—to answer your first question—I think there will be absolute fundamental change in terms of how we interact and respect Canadians with disabilities, day one after this law is enacted. In terms of the money for the fines,

Human Resources committee  I think that's a very innovative and interesting idea.

Human Resources committee  I definitely want to see this law being the best it possibly can. I don't want to prejudge the outcomes or recommendations of the committee, but I am certainly open to hearing what you all have to say and what stakeholders have to say.

Human Resources committee  I think what you're referring to at the beginning of your question is what I've come to think of as the untapped economic potential of the 14% of Canadians who have disabilities. Savvy, innovative, progressive, thoughtful and clever businesses, like the ones you mentioned, have f

Human Resources committee  Bill C-81 is focused on removing barriers. The idea is that, if I can get into your building, I can shop there, I can work there and I can participate meaningfully in whatever is going on there. I can access services there. The idea is that we are going to remove the obstacles to

Human Resources committee  I sure could. I could spend the rest of the hour telling you what we heard. Fundamentally, it came down to the shift in the conversation that we—as Canadians with disabilities—would like to see, away from the medical model of “We need to take care of these poor people” to a more

Human Resources committee  I certainly am. I can tell you that the biggest compliment I've had since we tabled Bill C-81 was when a prominent member of the disability community looked me in the eye and said, “I see myself in this. I see the feedback I gave in this, and I really appreciate that. Thank you f

Human Resources committee  Thank you, and thanks for your work on this file. It's wonderful to be working with you again. One of the principles in the act—and as you all know, the principles are interpretive guidelines or how we are supposed to be looking at this law in the future—very clearly says that

Human Resources committee  Thank you. These are excellent questions. Again I can talk forever about this, so I'll keep it succinct, Mr. Chair. The point is that we need to establish in the standards the timelines you're talking about. We need to set clear timelines. There are existing standards that are

Human Resources committee  The framework established through this legislation will allow for a very technical standard to be developed. Imagine a scenario down the road where counter heights will be dictated through standard. You can imagine that putting that in law would be incredibly clunky, for lack of

Human Resources committee  Thank you. That's a really important question. We looked around the world when we were designing this model, and we saw that we needed to ensure that citizens with lived disability experience were involved in the decision-making and the creation of the standard. Incorporating

Human Resources committee  Welcome to my world.

Human Resources committee  I think that's a reality that we are intimately familiar with. We know that disability rates are estimated at around 14%. I would say it's a little higher, but let's go with 14%. Within 15 years, including Canadians who are elderly and with mobility impairments, that's anticipate

Human Resources committee  Whether you can't see, and if you're elderly and now you use a mobility aid, you, too, are going to be impacted by this law.