By Michelle McQuigge – The Canadian Press
TORONTO – The minister tasked with crafting laws to make Canada more accessible to people with disabilities says employment will be a key focus of her efforts.
Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, says removing accessibility barriers will be crucial to tackling long-standing high jobless rates among the country’s disabled population.
Qualtrough says most aspects of the anticipated Canadians with Disabilities Act will address employment issues in some way, citing examples such as targeted programs or improving building standards that might make future workplaces more accessible.
Data has long shown that Canadians with disabilities are greatly under-employed compared to their non-disabled counterparts, with multiple studies finding that only half of disabled Canadians have found work.
Qualtrough says details of the Canadians with Disabilities Act are still in the works, adding a series of 18 consultations across the country will play a key part in shaping the new laws.
She says she hopes to have the act before parliament by this time next year.
The prospective act, which disability rights advocates have been seeking for years, would govern areas that fall under federal jurisdiction. Major examples include financial services such as banks, telecommunications, and interprovincial transportation.
Only Ontario and Manitoba currently have provincial accessibility legislation on the books, though other provinces including Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland have all expressed interest in addressing accessibility strategies. Qualtrough said the federal act has to be written to work alongside existing provincial laws without encroaching on their areas of jurisdiction.
The sweeping legislation, which may tackle everything from building codes to customer service standards, all have potential to improve Canada’s stubbornly low unemployment figures for people with disabilities, she said.
“Everything impacts employment,” Qualtrough said in an interview. “If you don’t have a building environment that’s accessible, you can’t work there. If you don’t have the transportation that gets you there, you can’t work there. If you don’t have technology that’s accessible, you can’t work there. All roads lead back to employment in some way. So in that regard, absolutely employment will be impacted quite significantly by this law.”