Human Resources committee  I don't know enough about the exemptions and why they're there. Perhaps there are good reasons, I don't know, but I do know from Ontario's experience that being firm with organizations on having to comply is important. I'm not talking specifically about exemptions. I'm just talki

Human Resources committee  I can only speak for Ontario. Because of the standards being developed, five years or less, we felt we addressed that in the bill. That is how we addressed that in the bill. In fact, it was our colleagues in Great Britain, as well as in the United States, who recommended we do th

Human Resources committee  I would say no, it's not.

Human Resources committee  That was one of the factors that allowed the AODA in Ontario to be passed unanimously, because the official opposition, the Conservatives, were concerned about price. We showed them the research from jurisdictions that have much more accessibility, the United States being one. Th

Human Resources committee  That's a very good question, because we don't know. As I stated earlier, the unemployment rate is so high amongst people with disabilities that just the fact that they will be, with the employment standards in Ontario, for example, more employed and more employable, simply becaus

Human Resources committee  I'd like to say yes, but I've been in politics and we don't want that to be it. In other words, “You have this fund, now go away; this is enough.” Things happen in politics, as you all probably know better than I do now. I would say it's not a bad idea, but let's be careful that

Human Resources committee  I would just simply agree that compliance and enforcement have to be important aspects of the bill. I do know that tomorrow morning you'll be hearing from David Lepofsky, who was a major force in the AODA development. I saw some of his notes and I think his brief will guide you

Human Resources committee  I can talk about the AODA. The standards are reviewed and updated every few years. It's not just the customers who are coming in; it's also employees, as you mentioned. Through lack of education, some people may not know the real cost of accommodating an employee, but the average

Human Resources committee  I can speak from the post-secondary education point of view about having people with disabilities be the professors teaching these topics—teaching any topic, quite frankly, but particularly teaching these topics. That's what we are doing, and it's incredibly enlightening for the

Human Resources committee  The committees that were developing standards were told not to meet yet. It wasn't for very long. The freeze wasn't for very long.

Human Resources committee  It's been 15 years.

Human Resources committee  Well, it's 13 years.

Human Resources committee  There are quite a few standards. It does take a long time and there are a lot of people around the table. Yes, there is some frustration about how long it's taking, absolutely, but they are being developed.

Human Resources committee  When Premier Ford was first elected, basically there was a freeze on many things, and there was a freeze on the meetings for the standards development. These standards development committees had been meeting since the AODA became law in 2005. Now, however, they have unfrozen, so

Human Resources committee  I'm hopeful that the standards development will continue as planned and perhaps become even better, because Minister Cho is also the minister for seniors, and if we're lucky enough to get old, we'll all have a disability. I think putting this together with disabilities was a good