Chapter 2

WORKING ACROSS STRUCTURES

1.  A Different Context but a Common Message

Since the beginning of the 37th Parliament, the Sub-Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities and the Sub-Committee on Children and Youth at Risk have pursued active schedules.  To a large degree, both Sub-Committees have picked up where we left off at the end of the previous Parliament.  In designing our work plans and selecting our witnesses, we have attempted to ensure that the momentum of our efforts is maintained.  Our combined message to the government and to the community is simple:  we are here to ensure that issues related to persons with disabilities and children will remain subjects of ongoing parliamentary scrutiny and comment, while respecting provincial and territorial areas of jurisdiction.  The Members of both Sub-Committees believe that this message, in and of itself, has a value in keeping these two horizontal issues on the public and government agendas.  It raises the awareness of Ministers and the public service generally that they will have to engage in a dialogue with us and answer our questions and in addition, it provides the community with an opportunity to put forward its views on past performance and the next steps.

While the re-establishment and activities of the Sub-Committees send this common message, the actual work conducted by the two Sub-Committees has been dictated by the context of the issues that confront each of them.  Given the policies and programs that are in place at the federal as well as the federal/provincial/territorial levels, issues related to children and youth have required different treatment than those for people with disabilities.  This means, for example, that the Sub-Committee on Children and Youth has pursued its work in looking at aspects of Early Childhood Development.  For its part, the Sub-Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities has undertaken a more global evaluation of government action in the areas of employment, supports and services and income support.  This section of the report, therefore, is a status report and does not attempt any comprehensive analysis.  Instead, it makes interim observations and recommendations based on our work to date.

2.  Sub-Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities

Since its first meeting on 4 April 2001, the Sub-Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities has held five roundtables that have brought together policy experts, representatives of the disability community and of government departments, notably Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC), to gain an overall appreciation of the place of disability issues in the federal agenda.  We have also looked specifically at issues related to the employment of persons with disabilities, the provision of disability-related supports and services (measures to meet the additional cost of disability), and the status of disability income programs.

Our basic conclusion differs little from that outlined in our previous report and the reports of our predecessors in previous parliaments:  while progress may be occurring, it is painfully slow and not without setbacks.  Like so many of our antecedents, we still believe that without the ongoing mandate of this Sub-Committee to work across federal departments and agencies, no real accountability for disability issues at the federal level would exist.

We will, therefore, in the near future conduct a thorough and comprehensive examination of the ways that the federal government can be held more directly accountable for its actions and activities in the area of disability so that the work of this Sub-Committee can be supported by information and appropriate internal accountability mechanisms.  In this regard, we will try to find ways to implement the Auditor General’s conclusion that horizontal issues like disability require a strong co-ordinating function, supported by senior management (in this case particularly in the lead department, Human Resources Development Canada) and with enough resources to ensure horizontal results.

Our first roundtable with representatives of national disability organizations brought together a full range of disability groups that provide both advocacy and services for people with disabilities.  Several questions that we discussed at that meeting require urgent consideration and action.  In particular, community capacity is eroding in part as a result of the “fallout” from administrative changes made in the administration of grants and contributions.  Many groups are on the verge of bankruptcy and others have seen the deterioration of their corporate memory and structure to the point where many years of valuable work in the area of disability (and the provision of services to people with disabilities) may be lost as a result of the “no risk” HRDC policy in administering grants and contributions.  Most of these organizations explained, in detail, the ways that they are accountable not just to government, but to their members.  They also told us that the money provided to the disability community particularly by the Opportunities Fund is eroding.

3.  The Sub-Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities recommends that the Department of Human Resources Development explore practices to change the funding cycle for organizations receiving grants and contributions so that disability organizations can plan their activities appropriately.  The Department should consider multi-year funding (as is already in place in the Canadian International Development Agency).  It should also consider the desirability of providing funds to cover the core operating costs of national disability organizations.

At our roundtable on the labour market and disabilities, government, disability representatives and policy analysts discussed the nature of the employment programs that are, or could be, available for people with disabilities.  It comes as no surprise that the discussion revealed a disjointed state of affairs:

• Promises in the Speech from the Throne with regard to an expanded program for assistive devices that have not moved forward;
• Federal funding that can assist people with disabilities get into the labour force but cannot assist those that are at risk of losing existing employment;
• A sense that many HRDC activities are duplicating or re-inventing the work that is being performed by disability service providers;
• Labour market activities that will be undertaken at the federal/provincial/territorial level will take several years before any action brings results in terms of either policies or programs;
• No firm assurance that the federal strategy on innovation and job skills will include persons with disabilities.

This Sub-Committee believes that horizontal management of the federal government’s employment policies and programs for persons with disabilities is seriously deficient in terms of the employment outcomes.  This appears to be the case within HRDC as well as across the various federal departments and agencies.  Our witnesses from the disability community emphasized that these policies and programs require effective partnerships throughout the federal public sector as well as with the provinces/territories, private sector employers and the disability service providers.