Human Resources committee  I'll just share an anecdote with you, if I may. It's a great question. Over the last year some really interesting articles and reports have come out about board diversity more generally. The thing that really strikes me about them is that when they talk about the under-represent

Human Resources committee  Just the fact that there is a recognition that people with disabilities need to be represented, particularly on bodies that are serving them, is a great start.

Human Resources committee  I'm not sure that I can answer that question. It's a really good question. I'm representing the public service as one of the entities that will be governed by the bill, so I'm not responsible for the policy decisions and what's being debated right now as the bill works its way th

Human Resources committee  Thank you so much for the question. I'll start off with a general comment, and then ask my colleague Carl to provide a bit more detail. Certainly there's no intention, as we're developing the strategy to bring in 5,000 new employees, to focus on any one group. The idea is to at

Human Resources committee  Thank you again for the question that you're raising. When you look at some of the data on where disability happens, we do see a prevalence among indigenous Canadians, for example. It's really important that our outreach efforts are taking into account regional distribution and

Human Resources committee  Thank you. As an organization that's going to be subject to the legislation, we're not waiting. We're moving forward now to start to implement some of the changes that we think will make things better for our employees with disabilities. Alex can maybe speak a little bit about

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. Before I took on this job, I was the deputy minister champion for public servants with disabilities. In fact, I was the first deputy minister with an actual disability to serve as the champion for public servants with disabilities. One of the things I

Human Resources committee  Thank you so much for the question. I think the goal in creating my job and in setting up my unit is to recognize that you need a small group of individuals who are actually going to help drive that change, but as the commissioner said, it can't be the responsibility of one grou

Human Resources committee  Thank you. That's an excellent question. I think the reason my job has been created is there's a recognition that the Government of Canada needs to show leadership. Certainly Bill C-81 has helped to galvanize and focus the attention. Would we have gotten there anyway? I think we

Human Resources committee  Why don't I start, and then my colleague will maybe speak a little more about the accessibility commissioner, since that relates more specifically to her? I can't really speak to the architecture that's in the legislation, because it is Minister Qualtrough and the Department of

Human Resources committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the invitation to appear before your committee to discuss Bill C-81, An Act to ensure a barrier-free Canada. I am delighted to be here with my colleagues to speak about this bill. The goal of of Bill C-81 is to vastly improve the quality o