Скачать или смотреть Question on including organizations & people living with disabilities in transportation regulations

Ms. Rachel Blaney (North Island—Powell River, NDP): Madam Speaker, I have to say that we get to hear this member speak a lot, and I guess we do our best to enjoy it.

My question about this piece of legislation is one that I think is incredibly important. I have a lot of constituents who represent organizations that work on behalf of the community of persons living with disabilities. They talk about the many challenges that they face in terms of travelling.

The Auditor General of Canada published a report in March of this year entitled “Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities”. It examined the accessibility of federally regulated transport services and found something based on 2.2 million persons with disabilities. I think it is really important we say those are the ones who were willing to take that risk. There are a lot of people who choose not to travel simply because they are not treated in a way that is encouraging and inclusive. Of those 2.2 million people who used transportation in 2019 and 2020, 63% faced significant barriers. That concerns me.

This bill would take some steps in a direction that I think is somewhat positive, like making sure that data is available to the public. I think that does lead to more accountability. It would require service providers with the federal transport system to establish a process for dealing with accessibility complaints. We saw, in the report from the Auditor General, that they actually felt clearly that the Canadian Transportation Agency had insufficient tools and enforcement staff to address all of these barriers.

Does the member agree with the NDP that we should see more inclusion of these organizations and people living with disabilities as we figure out these regulations moving forward?