Accessibility progress report for the Canadian Grain Commission

International Standard Serial Number: 2817-9153

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Alternate version
Accessibility Plan (PDF, 352 kb)
2023 Progress Report (PDF, 456 KB)

General

Introduction

The Canadian Grain Commission is the federal government organization that administers the provisions of the Canada Grain Act. The Canadian Grain Commission regulates grain handling in Canada and establishes and maintains science-based standards of quality for Canadian grain. Our research, programs and services help support Canada’s reputation as a consistent and reliable source of high-quality grain.

The Canadian Grain Commission is a small organization of approximately 450 employees covering a wide variety of occupational groups including technical, scientific, professional, and administrative roles. We have a presence in seven provinces with our head office in Winnipeg and regional offices in Montreal and Vancouver. Our employees work in more than 40 locations, including third party terminal elevators at waterfront sites, scientific laboratories and offices.

This progress report describes the work we have done in the past year to put into action our goals for accessibility in 8 priority areas as described in our first Accessibility Plan. Most barriers that were identified in our plan relate to the areas of culture, employment and the built environment, and we have primarily focused on these areas in 2023. This report also describes how we continued to consult with persons with disabilities to further advance accessibility in our organization. In the upcoming year, we will work to remove the barriers newly identified, and continue to implement practices and activities to complete work already in progress.

Contact information

We welcome your feedback on our Accessibility Plan and Progress Report. Send your comments and questions to our accessibility officer by:

You can also provide feedback on our Accessibility Plan, Progress Report, barriers you have experienced or any matter related to accessibility through our Accessibility Feedback Form. Details on our accessibility feedback process are available on our website.

Contact our accessibility officer to request a copy of our accessibility plan and a description of our feedback process in print, large print, Braille, audio format or an electronic format that is compatible with adaptive technology that is intended to assist persons with disabilities.

Consultations

The Accessible Canada Act defines disability as any physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment or functional limitation that hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society when barriers are encountered. Persons with disabilities were consulted in the preparation of this report. Consultations were primarily conducted through virtual meetings to accommodate employees located at various work locations.

Accessibility is a recurring topic on the agenda of the National Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. This employee committee comprised of members across a variety of occupational groups meets monthly to discuss diversity and inclusion issues that support the Canadian Grain Commission’s employment equity goals and objectives. The committee includes persons with disabilities.

A new accessibility working group was established in the past year to ensure the implementation of our Accessibility Plan and to continue to document barriers to accessibility. The internal consultative group meets quarterly and includes persons with disabilities, a union representative and our accessibility officer. As our consultations move forward, we will also seek advice and guidance from experts on accessibility and disability to help address or eliminate barriers.

In 2024/2025 we will launch an Employment Systems Review where employees across the organization will be further engaged to provide feedback on accessibility. An employment systems review is a comprehensive review of an organization’s policies and practices to identify systemic and attitudinal barriers to employment opportunities for designated group members.

2022/2023 Public Service Employee Survey

The 2022/2023 Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) ran from November 21, 2022, to February 5, 2023, and focused on the following areas:

  • workplace well-being
  • employee engagement
  • hybrid work
  • equity and inclusion

An analysis of the survey data shows that 10.6% of Canadian Grain Commission respondents disclosed that they had a disability. Their survey responses helped identify barriers and these have been incorporated under the appropriate headings in this report. In general, responses to questions from persons with disabilities in the 2022/2023 survey were more positive than in 2020. However, responses from persons with disabilities were typically less positive than those from persons without a disability at the Canadian Grain Commission. Accessibility or accommodation issues cause work related stress for 16% of persons with disabilities compared to 3% of those without a disability.

Feedback

Feedback received in 2023

  • An employee raised concerns to their manager regarding accessible washrooms at our headquarters location not meeting current accessibility standards. This concern was forwarded to the Facilities team and work has started on renovations.
  • Two accounts of employee concerns were raised regarding a lack of automatic door buttons and non-functioning door buttons in some areas of our headquarters location. An assessment of these areas was conducted and maps indicating problem door buttons was submitted to Facilities and Health and Safety personnel. In response, annual preventative maintenance has been implemented by our organization within our tenant spaces. For non-tenant spaces, our property management group has indicated that annual checks are now occurring.
  • One employee contacted the departmental Accessibility Officer to raise attention that the TTY phone number found on employee signature blocks and on several Canadian Grain Commission web pages is not assigned to an employee to answer and that land lines will be phased out. Efforts are underway to update information on our internal and external websites to reflect new accessible ways to contact the Canadian Grain Commission and to remove the phone number from employee signature blocks.

Feedback gaps

Further promotion and awareness of accessibility and the feedback mechanisms will continue to be a focus moving forward both internal and external to the Canadian Grain Commission. We will actively seek feedback from both internal and external partners. This will be important as there are aspects of our accessibility plan where no feedback has yet been received.

Priority areas from our Accessibility Plan

This section provides an overview of the goals and corresponding activities focused on during 2023, along with new barriers identified through feedback mechanisms, consultations, and the Public Service Employee Survey (PSES). Many of the new barriers identified will be addressed in the upcoming year and will form part of the progress report for 2024.

1. Culture

Goals

  • Communication strategy to raise awareness of accessibility.
  • Employees have the tools and training to make the Canadian Grain Commission a fully accessible employer and service provider.
  • A culture of inclusion for employees with disabilities exists across the organization.

Progress to date

  • Two organization-wide speaker events were held on issues related to accessibility.
  • Two messages promoting National AccessAbility Week events were distributed to employees.
  • The logo from the Office of Public Service Accessibility was adopted to clearly identify our accessibility initiatives.
  • An Outlook Calendar for commemorative dates and events related to equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility was created for employees.
  • A new Accessibility page was created for our internal website with information on resources and information regarding accessibility in the workplace, including accommodations.
  • An employment equity, diversity and inclusion newsletter was launched which gives employees regular updates on accessibility and accommodation initiatives.
  • Duty to accommodate training will be provided by an external service provider once the course becomes available in 2024.

New barriers identified in 2023

  • 2022/2023 PSES results showed a decrease in employees with a disability indicating that we implement activities and practices that support a diverse workforce.
  • 2022/2023 PSES results indicated that employees with a disability feel more emotionally drained than their non-disabled colleagues and are less likely to indicate that their mental health is excellent or very good.

2. Employment

Goals

  • A workforce that reflects the workforce availability of persons with disabilities in Canada.
  • Recruitment, retention, and promotion processes that allow persons with disabilities full access to employment opportunities.
  • Documentation of accommodation follow-up.

Progress to date

Considerable effort was placed in this area resulting in the following achievements:

  • Managers who are sub delegated in Staffing received mandatory training on the evaluation of biases and barriers in all facets of the assessment process and additional sessions are planned for the new year.
  • Tools have been developed and provided to assessment boards to assist members and hiring managers in the evaluation of biases and barriers in all steps of the assessment process.
  • A refresher on a manager’s obligations related to the duty to accommodate process was provided to the manager community.
  • Work has started on developing a diverse hiring board initiative to include persons of various equity-seeking groups, including persons with disabilities, in assessment processes. This is anticipated to launch in the new year.
  • An interdisciplinary duty to accommodate working group was established to work collaboratively through complex accommodations in an expedient manner.
  • A new Organizational Need and additional phrasing regarding accommodations is now included in job advertisements.
    • Organizational Need: The Canadian Grain Commission would like its workforce to be reflective of the population it serves. As a result, preference may be given to candidates who are members of an Employment Equity group: Aboriginal peoples, members of visible minorities, persons with disabilities and women. Therefore, we encourage candidates to indicate voluntarily on their application if they are a member of one of these groups.
  • Our organizational exit report has been updated to include questions on diversity and inclusion.
  • In the 2022/2023 PSES, 73% of respondents with a disability indicated that our department does a good job of supporting employee career development. In comparison, 61% of overall responses received from the Canadian Grain Commission indicated the same.
  • Our self-ID awareness campaign will coincide with the release of the modernized Treasury Board Secretariat form and application in 2024.
  • Roll-out of the Government of Canada Workplace Accessibility Passport is anticipated in 2024, and will coincide with the launch of the Treasury Board Secretariat’s online Passport application.
  • Duty to accommodate training will be made available to employees and managers and will be provided by an external service provider when the course becomes available in 2024.

New barriers identified in 2023

  • 2022/2023 PSES results indicate that 40% of employees with disabilities have opportunities for promotion within the organization given their skills, education and experience, 9% fewer than total respondents.
  • 2022/2023 PSES results indicate that 39% of employees with disabilities requested accommodations in the last two years and that 86% said accommodations measures were implemented, 14% fewer than non-disabled employees.
  • 2022/2023 PSES results indicate that 78% of employees with disabilities feel comfortable requesting workplace accommodation measures from their immediate supervisor, 8% fewer than non-disabled employees.

3. Built environment

Goals

  • Employees have barrier-free access to all Canadian Grain Commission leased or managed locations, including office and special purpose spaces.

Progress to date

  • Work has begun on replacing toilets in washrooms identified as accessible to ensure that they meet current accessibility standards.
  • A full audit of automatic door buttons was conducted at our headquarters building location. Batteries were changed and breakers inspected for non-operational buttons.
  • Updated building emergency and evacuation plans were provided to all employees and posted under the Health and Safety section of our internal website and training was also provided.

New barriers identified in 2023

  • Some doors do not have automatic buttons, some have card readers are placed on the opposite side of the door frame and some doors have handles that are difficult to turn.

4. Information and communication technologies (ICT)

Goals

  • All employees can access and use information and communications technology needed to perform work duties.
  • All requests for information and communication technology are addressed in a timely manner.

Progress to date

5. Communication, other than ICT

Goals

  • All communications and events use language that is informed, respectful and accessible to persons with disabilities.
  • All employees and clients can fully use information and services, engage in consultations and conversations, and attend and participate in events.

Progress to date

  • Instructions for turning on closed captioning are promoted for most organization-wide virtual events.
  • Information on hosting accessible meetings is available and has been promoted to all staff through our Accessibility Viva Engage community and our internal Accessibility web pages.
  • Information on how to provide feedback on accessibility has been posted on our external and internal websites.

New barriers identified in 2023

  • The accessibility of our standard document templates and formats for files, reports and presentations needs to be improved.

6. Procurement of goods, services and facilities

Goals

  • Goods and services bought by the Canadian Grain Commission are inclusive and accessible by default.

Progress to date

New barriers identified in 2023

  • Purchase timelines for assistive furniture or equipment in the federal public service often has delays.

7. Design and delivery of programs and services

Goals

  • All Canadian Grain Commission programs and services are designed and delivered in a way that is accessible to persons with disabilities.

Progress to date

  • Accessibility standards and methods are being utilized to develop and update programs and services available on our external website.

8. Transportation

Goals

  • All staff are aware of the accommodation policy, processes and options available for travel.
  • Job postings and letters of offer accurately reflect travel requirements and outline the available accommodations.

Progress to date

  • This was not a primary area of focus in 2023.

In the coming year we will continue to work collaboratively with persons with disabilities to further advance accessibility at the Canadian Grain Commission and will report on these efforts in December 2024.