HUMA Committee Report

If you have any questions or comments regarding the accessibility of this publication, please contact us at accessible@parl.gc.ca.

Committee Report

PDF

LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendation 1

The Committee recommends that:

•

The Minister of Labour, in collaboration with the Minister of Human Resources Development Canada, develop workplace strategies that identify specific resources and targets to help all employers covered under the Employment Equity Act, especially federally regulated employers, to hire, accommodate and train persons with disabilities and Aboriginal people. These workplace strategies should be developed in partnership with employers covered under the Act, disability organizations, Aboriginal organizations and other interested community groups. In addition, workplace strategies must respect the constitutional jurisdiction of the provinces.

•

The government re-instate the Employment Equity Positive Measures Program and the Enabling Resource Centre, and fund these initiatives until such time that the government can verify that the capacity exists within individual departments and agencies to deliver this support. This verification should be provided in a report and presented to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.

Recommendation 2

The Committee recommends that the Minister of Labour develop a more focused and better-resourced employment equity research, promotion, education, and technical support strategy. As a basic premise, such a strategy should also aim to create, and to build on partnerships between business, labour, the community and designated groups. This strategy should entail the development of:

a communications strategy to increase public awareness of the benefits of employment equity and employers’ requirements under the Act;

ii.

an education strategy that brings together employers, designated groups, advocacy organizations, unions etc. to identify issues, solutions and best practices; and

iii.

a technical support strategy to develop better tools and data to assist employers to meet their employment equity obligations.

Recommendation 3

The Committee recommends that the Labour Branch of Human Resources Development Canada be the sole source of technical support for both public (including Separate Employers) and private sector employers.

Recommendation 4

The Committee recommends that:

•

The government ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to enhance human resource development among members of designated groups. New funding mechanisms and eligibility criteria should be incorporated in the next generation of Labour Market Development Agreements to ensure that members of designated groups have a greater opportunity to access Employment Benefits and Support Measures.

•

The government fast track discussions with provincial and territorial governments in order to implement a labour force development strategy for persons with disabilities at the earliest date possible.

•

HRDC report annually in its Departmental Performance Report on program expenditures for designated groups and the proportion of designated groups who are served under these programs.

•

Citizenship and Immigration Canada review its budget for Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada and the Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program to ensure that sufficient funding is available to serve the labour market transition needs of newly arrived immigrants, particularly in view of the recent upward trend in actual annual landings.

•

All the measures set out above respect the constitutional jurisdiction of the provinces.

Recommendation 5

The Committee recommends that:

•

The government vigorously pursue discussions with provincial and territorial governments and professional associations to develop a system for recognizing foreign credentials, while recognizing provincial jurisdiction in this matter. The importance of this issue needs to be better reflected in federal-provincial/territorial agreements relating to immigration and labour market development to ensure a barrier-free labour market.

•

Citizenship and Immigration Canada ensure that all visa officers inform applicants of the potential problem that may arise with respect to the recognition of an applicant’s formal education and/or technical training credentials. Visa officers should encourage all successful applicants to contact the relevant certification organizations in Canada prior to immigrating to this country.

Recommendation 6

The Committee recommends that:

•

The Library of Parliament be included in section 4 of the Employment Equity Act.

•

Employees (excluding Members’ and Senators’ staff) of the Senate and the House of Commons be included under the Employment Equity Act for the purposes of annual reporting and compliance audits.

•

The regulatory framework required to extend the Act to non-civilian employees in the Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service be adopted without further delay.

Recommendation 7

The Committee recommends that the Minister of Labour examine the Federal Contractors Program with a view to re-restructuring this program to ensure that the employment equity obligations of federal contractors are the same as the obligations of employers covered under section 4 of the Act.*

Recommendation 8

The Minister of Labour examine the feasibility of covering employers with fewer than 100 employees, federal contractors with contracts worth less than $200,000 and recipients of federal grants and contributions.

Recommendation 9

The Committee recommends that all employers, including individual federal departments and agencies (those set out in Parts I and II of Schedule I of the Public Service Employment Act) as well as Parliament and the Library of Parliament, file their employment equity reports with the Minister of Labour. The Minister of Labour should be responsible for tabling in Parliament a consolidation of these reports, including a comparison of the public and private sectors. For greater clarity, all reports filed with the Minister should contain information in accordance with the prescribed instructions.

Recommendation 10

The Committee recommends that all federal departments and agencies report on the same occupational basis as private sector employers. Following the review of the reporting requirements due on 1 January 2004 (see Recommendation 11), if the government modifies the basis on which occupational data are reported, the modified approach should apply equally to all employers.

Recommendation 11

The Committee recommends that the Labour Branch of Human Resources Development Canada, in consultation with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, conduct a study of reporting requirements under the Employment Equity Act. This study should involve all stakeholders, government departments and agencies (including separate employers), designated groups, unions and employee representatives, and federally regulated private sector employers. It should specifically address the reporting obligation under the Act as well as the feasibility of biennial statistical reports, and the possibility of biennial reports on qualitative measures. This report should be tabled with the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities no later than 1 January 2004.*

Recommendation 12

The Committee recommends that the Act be amended to clarify the term, “special measures” and articulate the requirement for these special measures in an employer’s employment equity plan.

Recommendation 13

The Committee recommends that the government amend the Employment Equity Act to replace the term “reasonable accommodation” with the term “duty to accommodate up to the point of undue hardship”, and that the Minister of Labour explore legislative measures to require employers to have an accommodation policy and to amend the Employment Equity Act accordingly.

Recommendation 14

The Committee recommends that the Employment Equity Regulations be amended to require employers to document their employment systems review and that the Canadian Human Rights Commission provide a clear set of standards to help employers conduct this review.

Recommendation 15

The Committee recommends that the Minister of Labour examine the Employment Equity Act to determine if it is necessary to clarify the magnitude of hiring and promotion goals required for the purposes of paragraph 10(1)(d) of the Act.*

Recommendation 16

The Committee recommends that, in consultation with employers, employees and employee representatives, the Minister of Labour examine ways to strengthen the requirement for employers to consult with employee representatives, including unions. This examination should include specifically looking at whether the existing statutory requirement for “consultation” and “collaboration” between employers and employees’ representatives required in Section 15(3) of the Act should be included as part of the functions of the Canadian Human Rights Commission in assessing an employer’s compliance.

Recommendation 17

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada amend section 3 “Interpretation” of the Employment Equity Act and all related regulations or guidelines pertaining to the definition of persons with disabilities.

A definition that received a considerable amount of support and that the Committee believes merits serious consideration is:

(a)

persons who have a long-term or recurring physical, mental, sensory, psychiatric or learning impairment, or

(b)

persons who consider themselves to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of a physical, mental, sensory, psychiatric or learning impairment, or

(c)

persons who believe that an employer or potential employer is likely to consider them to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of a physical, mental, sensory, psychiatric or learning impairment, or

(d)

persons whose functional limitations owing to a physical, mental, sensory, psychiatric or learning impairment have been accommodated in their current job or workplace.

For greater clarity, in responding to any questionnaire prepared by an employer for employment equity purposes, any person who indicates that one of (a), (b), (c) or (d) applies to him/her will be considered as a person with a disability.

Recommendation 18

The Committee recommends that the Labour Branch of Human Resources Development Canada, in conjunction with Statistics Canada, develop a means to separately identify individuals who are members of more than one designated group and to provide a comparative analysis of the disadvantages in employment that may result from belonging to more than one designated group.*

Recommendation 19

The Committee recommends that the Minister of Labour consult with employers, employee representatives, members of designated groups, the Canadian Human Rights Commission and other stakeholders to identify and put in place a set of qualitative societal and employment indicators that will assist in the measurement of the success of employers in achieving equity in the workplace.

Recommendation 20

The Committee recommends that the Minister of Labour establish a research program involving Human Resources Development Canada and Statistics Canada to conduct work into the development of alternative data sources and societal indicators that measure the progress in achieving employment equity. As a priority, this research program should address issues related to those that are members of more than one of the designated groups and sub-groups of existing designated groups.

Recommendation 21

The Committee recommends that:

•

As a priority, the Interdepartmental Working Group on Employment Equity Statistics study and find a way to ensure that the labour force availability statistics for persons with disabilities are equivalent to the labour force availability statistics for the other three designated groups.

•

That the 2006 census contain questions that will ensure that adequate availability data regarding persons with disabilities are collected for employment equity purposes or, if this is not possible, that a separate survey of persons with disabilities be conducted in 2006 and in conjunction with every census thereafter.

Recommendation 22

The Committee recommends that the labour force availability benchmarks applied to the federally regulated private sector be applied equally to all employers, including federal departments and agencies, covered under the Employment Equity Act.

Recommendation 23

The Committee recommends that the Canadian Human Rights Commission be provided with sufficient resources to conduct compliance audits and follow-up audits more quickly and to facilitate employers in fulfilling their obligations under the Act.*

Recommendation 24

The Committee recommends that the monetary penalty for not reporting or for false reporting be applied uniformly to all employers covered under the Act.

Recommendation 25

The Committee recommends that the government examine the merits of allowing the Canadian Human Rights Commission to make public executive summaries of each compliance report, summarizing the extent of compliance with the statutory requirements (including an employer’s employment equity plan) in a manner that is consistent with the Access to Information Act.*

Recommendation 26

The Committee recommends that the government allocate adequate resources to the Labour Branch of Human Resources Development Canada in order to ensure that the Branch fulfils its obligations under the Employment Equity Act.

Recommendation 27

The Committee recommends that:

•

The Minister of Labour should table an annual report to Parliament on the operations of the Federal Contractors Program similar to the annual report that is tabled for federally regulated employers.

•

The Labour Branch should prepare and submit to this Committee by April 1, 2003 an action plan outlining measures to ensure that the administration of the Federal Contractors Program conforms to the purpose and provisions of the Employment Equity Act.

Recommendation 28

The Committee recommends that:

•

As the public service employer, Treasury Board remain accountable for all policies programs and actions within federal departments and agencies with regard to the Employment Equity Act.

•

Where it has delegated authority under the Employment Equity Act to departments and agencies (such as the provision of positive measures for people with disabilities), Treasury Board should put in place effective measures to ensure that employment equity policies and programs are in place in the departments. Treasury Board should submit to this Committee an action plan by April 1, 2003 outlining the measures that have been put in place and the ways that these will be monitored.

Recommendation 29

The Committee recommends that the Department of Human Resources Development Canada’s Labour Branch, the Treasury Board Secretariat and the Canadian Human Rights Commission collaborate more closely to ensure that employment equity is delivered consistently across the public and private sectors and that HRDC’s Labour Branch assume primary responsibility for program administration, policy development, workforce analyses of designated groups, and the production of consolidated employment equity reports.

^*	The NDP supports including a provision that Federal Contractors be subject to compliance audits as part of a re-structured program.

^*	The NDP does not support a study to specifically address the reporting requirements under the Act and the feasibility of biennual statistical reports. We feel that such a study could potentially lead to a weakening of the Act and the current requirement for annual reporting.

The NDP does not support examining the Employment Equity Act to determine if it is necessary to clarify the magnitude of hiring and promoting goals required for the purposes of the Act. This has the potential to lead to an erosion of the current requirement that employment equity goals be established at a level no less than labour force availability.

^*	The NDP recommends that an analysis be conducted to determine if there are other groups of workers that are disadvantaged to the same extent as groups currently designated under the Act and whether these groups should be included under the Act.

^*	The NDP supports the Canadian Human Rights Commission’s proposal to develop a more expeditious process for establishing legal proceedings once a case has been referred to tribunal and to eliminate the requirement that directions be issued and cases referred to the tribunal only “as a last resort”.

The NDP supports the Canadian Human Rights Commission’s recommendation that the Act be amended to repeal the consequential amendment that prohibits a tribunal or court from issuing a full remedy when it believes a complaint related to patterns of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act is founded.