Human Resources committee  What the Conference Board has estimated is that by fully including Canadians with disabilities in the workplace, those who can work, and accommodating these individuals, there's an estimated 1.3% to 1.9% growth of GDP, which is $26 billion to $38 billion annually. It's very signi

Human Resources committee  I'll give you an example. There's a group in British Columbia called the Presidents Group, which is a group of CEOs from major companies. They have completely recognized the economic potential that we're talking about today. Vancity credit union can show you, and can tell you, ho

Human Resources committee  That's been an ongoing—

Human Resources committee  There are two aspects to the conversation around timeline. There's setting a date in this bill by which accessibility will be achieved. Then there's also setting timelines within the standards themselves. Some jurisdictions go for rolling timelines. They will establish the employ

Human Resources committee  It speaks very clearly to the idea I was just talking about. It's enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It's the notion that accessibility changes as a concept, so what is acceptable today will not be acceptable in 10 years. The standards will

Human Resources committee  Sorry, to clarify, do you mean the technical details of the standards themselves in the legislation?

Human Resources committee  It's for the same reason I articulated earlier, that we did not want to get into a situation where... Do you mean in the body of the law or as a prepared regulation to be adopted immediately?

Human Resources committee  I would suggest that the law actually lays out a very clear pathway to how we're going to get there, by setting up a standards organization: how that's going to be set up, what they're going to do to develop the standards, the priority areas that we heard through the consultation

Human Resources committee  Well, we absolutely know the cost of not doing anything, and I would suggest that you wouldn't be suggesting that there's a cost that's too high to be inclusive. What we know is that through the regulatory process, as a matter of course, everything will be costed out. I'm sorry,

Human Resources committee  So every time one of these standards goes through the regulatory process, which, I'll remind you, is very public and is a chance for people to provide input on the standards, there will be a clear understanding of the costs of the implementation of that standard.

Human Resources committee  Like your colleague—he and I have had great conversations about this—I absolutely believe that there are programs, particularly across the provinces and territories, that create disincentive to employment, because after a certain threshold, every dollar you make will be clawed ba

Human Resources committee  That was work done by The Conference Board of Canada. Maybe James can give more details about it, at some point.

Human Resources committee  It was really groundbreaking work.

Human Resources committee  We know that in some ways the federal jurisdiction is limited in terms of the businesses. Certainly the vast majority of small and medium-sized enterprises are within provincial jurisdiction. We know that provinces are watching this process very carefully. I've heard directly fro

Human Resources committee  Yes. It's a very exciting win, I would say, for the disability community. Certainly the international community has been calling for some time for Canada to establish a monitoring body for the UNCRPD. This law does that. This law sets the Canadian Human Rights Commission as the m