Introduction: TRAN – February 27, 2024

Good morning Chair and Committee Members,

Thank you for your invitation to discuss accessible transportation for persons with disabilities.

[If not introduced: With me is Tom Oommen, Director General, Analysis and Outreach.]

The Canadian Transportation Agency has three main responsibilities. We help ensure that the national transportation system runs efficiently and smoothly in the interests of all Canadians. We provide consumer protection for air passengers. And we protect the fundamental right of persons with disabilities to an accessible transportation network.

The Agency is an independent regulator and tribunal. Specifically, we are the economic regulator of the Canadian transportation system. As a regulator, we make and implement regulations. We also monitor compliance with and enforce legislation and regulations.

We are also an administrative tribunal. In that capacity, we resolve disputes between regulated industry stakeholders, users of the transportation system, and communities, either informally or formally through an adjudication process and other dispute resolution mechanisms.

Accessibility has always been and continues to be a priority for the Agency. Our approach to accessibility has always been holistic and included a variety of tools — from discussion to guidance to decisions to regulations to enforcement. This is in recognition of the fact that improving accessibility in transportation needs to be tackled on multiple fronts.

Our most important regulations on accessibility, the Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations, or ATPDR, developed out of previous Agency decisions, regulations and codes of practice, and came into force in phases between 2020 and 2022. The ATPDR apply to large transportations service providers. These large transportation providers include large airlines, airports and entities like Canada Border Services Agency and Canadian Air Transportation Security Authority, who provide services to the vast majority of passengers transported in the federal transportation system.

The ATPDR require, among other things, that federal transportation service providers:

• Provide assistance to persons with disabilities in boarding, locating their seat, and transferring between a mobility aid and a seat;
• Accept and safely transport mobility aids, provide temporary replacements and repairs, if required due to delays or damage;
• Ensure that employees who may be required to provide physical assistance receive training to carry out those functions, such as transferring a passenger between a wheelchair and a seat, handling mobility aids and using special equipment such as a lift.

The ATPDR also include a number of provisions that are considered world-leading, for example, allergy buffer zones and the "one person-one fare" requirement for domestic travel.

Indeed, while there is certainly room for improvement, as we have witnessed recently, the Canadian regulatory framework for accessible transportation represents a strong foundation for accessibility.

The Agency, like other regulators, use different tools to achieve compliance, including through the issuing of fines or "administrative monetary penalties".

The Agency, as an administrative tribunal, also hears complaints from passengers that believe that a transportation service provider hasn't respected its accessibility-related obligations. In many cases, the Agency is able to help resolve those complaints through an informal mediation process, while other complaints are adjudicated by the Governor-in-Council-appointed Members of the Agency who are like administrative judges.

As the Auditor General noted in her audit of the accessibility of transportation system, we have made a lot of progress, but there is still work to be done.

We are, of course, implementing the recommendations of the Auditor General for the accessibility of the Canadian transportation system.

Transportation, particularly air transportation, is international by nature.  So even as we strive to make Canada more accessible, we've looked beyond our borders to try to shape the accessibility of the international air transportation system.

For example, since 2019, in collaboration with the National Research Council and Transport Canada, we have led a number of international initiatives to conduct research and develop consensus on how the transportation of mobility aids could be improved.

And so it was gratifying to see that much of this work led by Canada was incorporated into the policy guidance of the International Air Transportation Association to its member airlines on the transportation of mobility aids published in 2023.

In all of our work, we strive to engage representatives of persons with disabilities and the industry to advance accessibility of the transportation system. The CTA's Accessibility Advisory Committee includes representatives of both persons with disabilities and industry, and provides a useful vehicle to receive advice and to share information.

Let me end by sharing with you that we have just obtained the Rick Hansen Foundation's gold certification for accessibility for our new building. This is another testimony of our commitment to accessibility.

Thank you. I would be pleased to answer questions.