Barrier Free Manitoba

On July 10, 2017, The Manitoba Government publicly released and posted the Accessibility Advisory Council’s (the Council) report and recommendations for an Accessibility Standard for Employment under the landmark Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA).

We are pleased to post the Council's report (as sent to us) for your review:

• English (Word / PDF)
• English Large Print (PDF)

The Council's report is also posted on the government's Accessibility for Manitobans Act website.

The Council's report is dated March 31, 2017 and it is not clear why it has taken more than three months for it to be released. The Council prepared the report and the recommendations after considering public feedback given near the start of the year on its initial13-page discussion paper. This feedback included Barrier-Free Manitoba's detailed brief that we submitted in February.

Please click here to go to an earlier BFM update that includes links to the discussion paper and our brief.

While we have had very limited time to review it, we are very pleased with many aspects of the Council's report. Barrier-Free Manitoba's brief included a total of 19 recommendations for the stronger measures needed to make meaningful strides forward toward equitable employment for Manitobans with disabilities.

The Council's report supports 6 of these 19 recommendations and partially supports another 4. On the other hand, the Council's report declined to endorse 1 of BFM's recommendations, and chose to not to even comment on 8 others, including our call for an accessible education standard.

We are pleased to share a more detailed version of our preliminary findings (Word / PDF).

In short, the Council's recommendations are a vast improvement from what was presented in the initial discusison paper. But clear and compelling need remains for stronger measures in a number of critical areas.

As per the process laid out on the AMA, the Minister will now review the Council's report and recommendations and prepare and release a final proposal for the accessible employment standard. The release of the final proposed standard, expected in the coming months, will be followed by a 60+ day period for public comment and feedback. Thereafter, the Minister will finalize the standard and put it into force by making it law as a formal regulation.

Barrier-Free Manitoba plans to send a short brief to the Minister in the coming weeks to encourage him to include the stronger measures we have already called for in his final proposal. We will also submit another detailed brief to provide further comment and feedback when the Minister releases his final proposed standard.