Speaking Notes
for
the Honourable Diane Finley,
Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development,
to announce support for
private Member’s motion 430
by
Phil McColeman, Member of Parliament for Brant
Ottawa, Ontario
May 2, 2013
Check against delivery
Thank you for that introduction.
I am so pleased to be here today with the great team at Loblaws, and especially with Kathy Martin, the Senior Vice President, Human Resources.
Kathy is a real champion for people with disabilities, leading the national people programs, ensuring that Loblaw attracts and retains talented individuals at all levels of the organization.
Last year she also sat on the government-appointed Panel for Labour Market opportunities for Persons with Disabilities – which was led by Ken Freedman of Deloitte, who is unfortunately unable to be with us here today.
Thanks so much for your work—and thank you for hosting us!
I must say, it’s such a different experience to be here for an announcement as opposed to the ritual Saturday morning shopping.
You know, I remember talking with a young man who works at the grocery store in my riding recently. Now, he was very passionate about his work and loved his customers. But he told me that we grocery shoppers are apparently pretty creative when it comes to timely check-outs...
He said: “Diane, people are always trying to put one over on me! The best was one day when a lady came through the Express Line with 12 items. When I told her my lane was only for customers with ten items or less, she told me she was counting ‘bacon, lettuce and tomato’ as one.”
Now before I get everyone craving a BLT…we had better get back to the topic at hand.
It is my absolute pleasure to be sharing some time here today with a very special colleague—who I also call a friend—Mr. Phil McColeman.
Phil is the Member of Parliament for Brant, an ardent supporter of people with disabilities and a proponent of making Canada even stronger and more inclusive.
In fact, it’s his hard work that brings us together this morning…to do more to increase the participation of people with disabilities in our workforce.
Ladies and gentlemen, later today, we will begin the first hour of debate on a Private Members’ Motion that Phil has championed.
Motion 430, as it is formally known, calls on the Government to endorse the report of the Panel on Labour Market Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.
The mandate of the Panel was to identify private-sector successes, challenges and best practices in employing people with disabilities.
The Panel interviewed employers from businesses of all sizes and from a broad range of sectors across Canada.
Their report, which was released in January, is called Rethinking disAbility in the Private Sector. I urge you all to read it.
The reality is that this motion couldn’t come at a better time—and it’s why I’m standing here with my colleague to support him in his efforts.
Like all industrialized nations, Canada has faced some pretty serious challenges coming out of the recession.
Perhaps the most difficult problem is the skills shortage.
With the baby boomers starting to retire, we need to find innovative ways to strengthen our labour force.
And people with disabilities can help us do that.
There are almost 800 000 working-aged Canadians who are not working.
But folks, the reality is that their disability does not prevent them from doing so.
About 340 000 of these people have a college or university education.
They have abilities that are simply untapped goldmines of talent.
And that needs to change.
The work of the Panel is helping us to make that change, however. They have made the business case on hiring people with disabilities.
But it’s clear that more education is needed to dispel persistent myths that many employers still believe to be true.
The most prevalent myth is that people with disabilities simply can’t perform as well as people without disabilities.
In fact, a recent study[1]found that 90 percent of people with disabilities were rated as achieving average, or better than average, job performance.
By looking only at a person’s disability rather than at their many abilities, employers are losing out on hiring potentially valuable employees.
Motion 430 calls for additional initiatives that build on this support.
These include:
- a new focus on young people with disabilities through programs like the Youth Employment Strategy;
- improvements to existing Labour Market Agreements; and
- new approaches to ensure that our programs are adaptable to innovative strategies at the community level.
And I am pleased to say that Economic Action Plan 2013 answers some of these calls to action.
We are preparing for a new generation of Labour Market Agreements for Persons with Disabilities, to be negotiated in 2014.
These agreements will better meet the needs of Canadian employers and improve employment prospects for people with disabilities.
The federal Opportunities Fund for Persons with Disabilities helps people with disabilities prepare for jobs and stay employed.
Through EAP 2013, it will be revamped to provide more demand-driven solutions for people with disabilities.
In addition, we will extend the Enabling Accessibility Fund.
The Fund supports community-based projects, across Canada, that remove barriers and enable Canadians with disabilities to participate in society.
We will support the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) to fund research on the employment of people with disabilities.
Finally, as recommended by the Panel, we will provide a temporary investment to support the creation of an Employers Disability Forum.
This Forum will be managed by employers, for employers, to facilitate education, training and sharing of resources and best practices related to the employment of people with disabilities.
Our government is investing in training so that Canadians can get the skills that employers need.
And we are working to remove barriers to employment for people with disabilities.
But while the government is playing an important role…the government can’t, and shouldn’t, do everything.
The private sector must also do more.
We want to encourage Canadian businesses of all sizes to consider new sources of labour, including people with disabilities.
We believe the Panel’s report is getting a lot of people to open their minds and see the positive business case for hiring and employing more people with disabilities.
Ladies and gentlemen, we can’t have economic growth and prosperity without greater participation by people with disabilities in the job market.
We cannot afford to ignore a significant pool of talented people who are ready, willing and able to contribute.
But real leadership is required to make breakthroughs in this area, and I encourage all business leaders to read the Panel’s report and to discover what many successful Canadian businesses already know: hiring people with disabilities is great for business.
And so I’d like to congratulate Phil McColeman for his leadership in introducing this motion.
With that, I would like to turn the microphone over to my colleague, MP Phil McColeman.
Thank you.
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