The federal government will heed the calls of Canada’s disabled community and amend the country’s first piece of national accessibility legislation to include some of the changes they sought, the minister spearheading the effort said Thursday.
Accessibility Minister Carla Qualtrough said the government will be adopting all the amendments the Senate introduced to Bill C-81, also known as the Accessible Canada Act, when it comes back before the House next week.

Pleased to share that our government intends to accept all Senate amendments to Bill C-81, the #AccessibleCanada Act. This historic Bill reflects the work, commitment and contributions of the disability community and has been improved upon through each phase of the process. pic.twitter.com/tQKi4QLj9i ? Carla Qualtrough (@CQualtro) May 22, 2019

Earlier this month, the upper chamber’s committee on social affairs, science and technology amended the proposed act to include a handful of measures disability advocacy organizations across the country said were necessary to make the bill more effective.
Qualtrough conceded that the government had initially resisted some of their most pressing calls, such as the demand to include a timeline that would require the bill to be fully implemented by 2040.
But Qualtrough said the legislation, which was drafted after cross-country consultations with disabled individuals and advocacy groups, needed to reflect the will of the people it’s meant to serve.
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