Thank you for inviting me to be here today.

I'm pleased to be here.

It is hard to believe that we've already reached and gone past the five-year anniversary of the Accessible Canada Act's coming into effect. I am encouraged by the level of engagement and progress made to date in areas where action has been taken, but, like many in the disability community, I am frustrated by the slow pace of change overall.

We have momentum and we have intent, but more actions need to be taken and more quickly. We need clearly communicated commitments, timelines and accountabilities, and we need more regulations, unfortunately. There is still a long road ahead.

Over the past two years, I've met with hundreds of accessibility-focused organizations, federal government departments and agencies, private sector companies, provincial and municipal entities and individual citizens.

My first report to the minister, which was tabled in the House early this year, was developed in large part based on what I learned through these engagements. Ultimately, the aim of that report was to paint a picture of the current state of affairs, how far we’ve come and where we need to go.

The report highlighted four key areas where I know, if we focus our efforts, we can effect real and meaningful change. Specifically, those are mandatory training, the ongoing development of regulations, dedicated accessibility funding and the gathering, sharing and publishing of data. These are areas that provinces, communities and the private sector should also be encouraged to invest in, because an accessible Canada doesn’t stop with the federal government.

My report also considered the first slate of accessibility plans that were released over the last year and a half or so and offered examples of some of the promising accessibility initiatives undertaken by agencies and organizations inside and outside of government, including Via Rail, TD Bank, Service Canada and Ingenium. ISED and Bell, while they were not mentioned in the report, are also making some really good efforts.

I mention these examples not only to celebrate progress but to encourage others to do the same and to demonstrate what accessibility in action looks like. I have noted that, while there is a lot of willingness and good intentions, many still aren’t sure what accessibility really means and why it matters. As we've seen just today, confusion, timelines and other real issues sometimes come into play and come into conflict.

That lack of understanding is definitely one of our biggest challenges. Federal government departments and industry need clear directives and expectations set for them, and continuous follow-up communication at all levels of organizations is required.

The Accessible Canada Act is still very poorly understood by many both internal and external to government. There needs to be much more proactive communication. I'm going to continue to monitor all seven areas identified as priorities under the act, but in the absence of being able to do it all, in the months ahead, employment and transportation will be my primary areas of focus.

I'll focus on employment because many people with disabilities have identified it as a priority. Ultimately, it will make a difference in so many different areas. It has an impact on the quality of life of people with disabilities but also on the economy. The more people with disabilities are represented in our workforce, the faster change will come, because they will show positive examples of how and what needs to be done.

Transportation is the other area where I’ll be placing focus, as your committee also has, including air travel, which has been making a lot of headlines, but not exclusively air travel. The stories in air travel just illuminate the problems that exist across many other sectors.

My hope is that other sectors are going to take notice of the conversations happening around air travel and realize that they, too, need to be taking action. It’s clear that we’ve arrived at a real turning point. We’ve seen that, when the disability community speaks with one voice, there is action.

It's worth noting that most accessibility plans didn’t cover transportation; rather, organizations suggested that they didn’t do transport, so they didn’t need to discuss it. Let's face it: There's no benefit in increasing employment opportunities for people with disabilities if they can't get to work.

For all the progress, the culture still has a long way to go in rooting out ableist attitudes and perceptions of people with disabilities, their needs and the obligations of society to include them.

There is a lot of work to do, but I thank you for your attention to these issues, which are of crucial importance to Canada.

I look forward to your thoughts and your questions today.

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