In the fourth review of the AODA, Rich Donovan states that Ontario will not be fully accessible by 2025. In other words, the provincial government will not meet its own deadline under the AODA. Limited creation, implementation, and enforcement of AODA standards impacts the well-being and safety of Ontarians with disabilities. Therefore, Donovan recommends that the Ontario government should declare this lack of progress on accessibility a crisis. This crisis state should last six (6) months. During this time, the Ontario government should form a crisis committee to implement crucial accessibility improvements in the province. The Premier should act as the chair of this committee, and the Secretary of Cabinet should act as co-chair. Furthermore, Donovan outlines tactical recommendations the province should follow to fulfill its remaining responsibilities in the public sector. One of these tactical recommendations is making disability a core platform of Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG).
Making Disability a Core Platform of Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance
Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) is a way to assess a business’s:
- Impact on the environment
- Commitment to social change
- Values and goals
Investors use ESG to help them choose businesses to fund based on shared values and concerns.
Recommendations
The review recommends that disability should be one of the social commitments, or “core platforms”, of ESG. In other words, one of the concerns ESG should assess is a business’s commitment to accessibility. Therefore, the accessibility agency should identify large private-sector organizations to act as “first movers” who can begin this process. These first movers, working with the Ontario Financing Authority, should find or develop methods to assess a business’s accessibility. For instance, methods to assess a business’s accessibility include:
- Standards, such as the Global Reporting Initiative
- Definitions
Finally, senior leaders in the provincial government should announce the ESG’s new commitment to accessibility as a core platform.