About the CTA: TRAN – February 27, 2024
Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities (TRAN) – February 27, 2024: Meeting Details
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Evolution of CTA's accessibility mandate
- Agency's accessibility mandate dates from 1988.
- Accessibility mandate recognized as a human rights mandate by Supreme Court of Canada.
- Early 1990s, important regulations made by Agency regarding accessibility: Part VII (terms and conditions of carriage of persons) of the Air Transportation Regulations (ATR) and the Personnel Training for the Assistance of Persons with Disabilities (PTR).
- In addition, Agency leveraged voluntary codes of practice — developed in collaboration with industry and the disability community from the late 1990s to the early 2000s — as another means of addressing accessibility issues.
- Furthermore, over the years, Agency issued a number of important decisions with respect to accessibility (retrofit of VIA Rail cars (CCD Via), allergy buffer zones, and 1P1F).
- The ATPDR which came into force in phases between 2020 and 2022, consolidated existing regulations, codes of practice, and important Agency decisions, in a single regulation that applies to large transportation service providers.
- The ATPRR (reporting and planning regulations) came into effect in 2021. They require TSPs that operate in the federal transportation network to develop and publish an accessibility plan.
Accessibility at the CTA
CTA approach to external information and communications technology
Website
- A user-centric approach to web content development including consultations with subject matter experts and end users.
- We also test our website with persons with disabilities from across Canada.
- Website features:
- Compatible with all current browsers and assistive technology including screen readers, keyboard navigation and screen magnification
- Consistent page designs with headings and structure for screen reader navigation
- Built-in text-to-speech application (ReadSpeaker) on most webpages to read digital content aloud with high quality synthetic speech
- Alt text tags for non-text elements, accessible fonts, sizing and contrast
- Accessible PDFs included for corporate publications and guidance material
- Has more than 500 sign language videos (ASL/LSQ).
- Different formats such as large print, audio recording or Braille available upon request.
Passenger-focused website section
- Take charge of your travel section for persons with disabilities, organized by user needs.
- Includes information and resources to facilitate barrier-free travel and help persons with disabilities plan trips with confidence and take charge of their travel experience.
Air passenger protection (form, portal and communication)
- Clear links to the accessibility complaint form are included before and inside the air travel complaint form to ensure users can access help for both accessible and non-accessible travel-related issues in one location.
- Uses clear language and includes support information throughout to help all users, as well as FAQs.
- Form structure, buttons, checkboxes and navigation designed to meet accessibility standards.
- Tested by persons with disabilities.
Website Compliance
- The Agency always strives for greater levels of accessibility than those required by Web 3C - WCAG 2.0 AA. We are currently aiming towards compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA (Harmonised European Standard: EN 301 549).
- We are in the process of converting older web content to clear language and structure to improve accessibility, understanding and user experience for all and to comply with the Canada.ca Directive on the Management of Communications and the upcoming ISO standards.
Commitment to accessible communication
- Uses accessible templates for internal and external documents, presentations and emails. Including accessible-by-default built-in Microsoft word and email templates.
- On-going training of staff on the creation and use of accessible documents and the benefits for all users.
- Accessible business cards with larger font and Braille.
- Meetings and consultations are offered with best practices for accessibility:
- Simultaneous interpretation
- Human close captioning in Official Languages
- Sign language interpretation – American Sign Language and Langue des signes du Quebec
- Use of audio cues
- Accessible documentation
Award-winning
- The CTA received the 2022 DPI Digital Government Community Award for Excellence in Diversity, Accessibility, Equity and Inclusion for its accessible website and digital tools.
CTA's Internal Services
- In 2021, when fitting out its new building and premises at 60 Laval, the CTA made sure to meet the highest standards in terms of accessibility. In 2023, the new workplace was awarded a Gold Certification from the Rick Hansen Foundation.
- In December 2022, the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) published its first three‑year Accessibility Plan in accordance with the Accessible Canada Act and its regulations. It represents the CTA's commitment to identifying barriers and taking concrete measures to remove them.
- The CTA is committed to advancing and promoting accessibility and making it a priority in the delivery of our services as set out in the Accessible Canada Act, with 35 activities over 3 years.
- In December 2023, the first progress report provided an update of the progress made while also continuing dialogue with persons with disabilities for the purpose of learning more about their experience and needs when they interact with the CTA.
- Percentage of staff who self-ID as persons with disabilities was 7.2% as of September 30, 2023. This is in comparison to the workforce availability of 9.1%.
Budget
| in millions of dollars including EBP | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Permanent Funding* | 31.5 | 31.0 | 33.0 | 31.8 | 33.1 | 36.4 | 34.2 | 34.2 | 33.6 |
| Temporary Funding | |||||||||
| Budget 2018 | 2.4 | 1.7 | 1.2 | ||||||
| C-18 Accessible Canada | 0.4 | 0.8 | 1.1 | ||||||
| Budget 2019 Off-Cycle | 3.6 | ||||||||
| Budget 2020 | 7.6 | 9.4 | |||||||
| Budget 2022 | 10.5 | ||||||||
| Budget 2023 | 20.6 | 24.7 | 24.2 | ||||||
| Total Temporary Funding | 2.4 | 5.7 | 9.6 | 10.5 | 10.5 | 20.6 | 24.7 | 24.2 | 33.6 |
| Total Available Funds | 33.9 | 36.7 | 42.6 | 42.3 | 43.6 | 57.0 | 58.9 | 58.4 | 33.6 |
| FTEs | 258 | 286 | 319 | 313 | 315 | 387 | 443 | 413 | 368 |
| * Excludes $3.5M for Workplace 2.0 fit-up costs | |||||||||
Staff
The CTA has many staff who work on accessibility including our Centre of Expertise for Accessible Transportation and staff in Dispute Resolutions working in mediation and adjudication. Additionally we have many other across the organization who do not work full time on accessibility, but play a major role in delivering on these responsibilities. This includes legal services, communications, enforcement staff, and analysts.
| 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2026-27 | % increase vs. 2021-22 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accessibility FTEs | 3.96 | 3.4 | 4.73 | 5.85 | 5.85 | 47.60% |
| Existing - Experienced | 3.96 | 3.31 | 4.13 | 5.85 | 5.85 | |
| New - In training | 0 | 0.09 | 0.45 | 0 | 0 | |
| Accessibility budget1 | $319,408 | $274.98 | $450,105 | $546,827 | $546,827 | 71.20% |
| 1Budget estimates are based on the maximum salary for each Accessibility FTE as at June 30, 2023, not inclusive of O&M. | ||||||
Since the OAG issued their audit report, new funding has allowed the Agency to add 5 new employees to the enforcement team in 2023-24. While it will take some time to fully train the new employees to reach the level of experienced officers, once trained, our capacity to enforce regulations across all Agency mandates will increase, including with respect to the accessibility mandate. Specifically, we anticipate the enforcement team's capacity to enforce the accessibility regulations will increase by more than 47.6% vs. 2021-22.
Additional Funding
1. On March 14, 2023 the CTA received supplementary funding of $75.9 million over three years for air passenger protection. Approximately $25 million per year over reference level of $34 million per year.
2. What will the CTA do with the additional funds?
The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) has already been reviewing its current complaint resolution process to identify and make process improvements to ensure it makes the best use of the resources provided to it by the government.
The additional funds will allow the CTA to increase its dispute resolution capacity and resolve complaints more quickly. Additional employees will be hired and further improvements to its current complaint management system will be made by leveraging the use of technology to digitize and automate some of its activities. All these efforts will result in a higher number of complaints being processed on a yearly basis, as compared to previous years. Ultimately, the funds being provided will allow the CTA to better manage incoming complaints as well as tackle the existing backlog of air travel (APPR) complaints, which will result in a reduction of wait times for those filing air travel complaints with the CTA.
The additional funding also increased our compliance monitoring and enforcement capacity, and additional staff have been hired.
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