Minutes of the Board of Directors’ Special Meeting - April 15, 2021

Attendees

Members of the Board of Directors (the Board)

  • Me Paul-Claude Bérubé, Chairperson
  • Mary Reid, Vice-Chairperson
  • William Adair, Director
  • Kory Earle, Director
  • Maureen Haan, Director
  • Penny Hartin, Director
  • Rabia Khedr, Director
  • Brad McCannell,
  • Dr. Joe McLaughlin, Director

Regrets: Laurie Ringaert, Director

Accessibility Standards Canada public officers

  • Philip Rizcallah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
  • Micah Walter, A/Manager, Governance and Reporting
  • Collinda Joseph, Manager, Standards Development Operations
  • Mathieu Gorley, A/Manager, Communications
  • Jasmine Desloges, Coordinator, Governance and Reporting
  • Anthony Jolicoeur, Coordinator, Governance and Reporting
  • Gavin Scharfe, Analyst, IM-IT, Administration

Minutes

Thursday, April 15, 2021

1. Welcoming remarks and roll call

The meeting opened with a roll call and words of welcome from the Chairperson.

20-1 Motion presented and seconded to open the meeting at 12:00 p.m.

Carried by all.

2. Board meeting agenda

Document 2A: Proposed agenda

The Chairperson presented the proposed agenda for approval.

20-2 Motion presented and seconded to approve the agenda as presented.

Carried by all.

3. Strategic Planning Committee: Vision, mission and values statements

Document 3A: Briefing note
Document 3B: Vision, mission and values statements

The Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, Maureen Haan, presented the revised plain language versions of the vision, mission and values statements of Accessibility Standards Canada for approval.

If approved by the Board, the new versions of these statements would replace the current statements on the organization’s mandate webpage. They would also be included in the 2020 to 2021 Annual Report and may be used in future reports, or future reports may include references and hyperlinks to them. It was agreed that the organization should maintain consistency of plain language in all documents shared with the public. The importance of maintaining concepts and their meaning during language translations was recognized. The revised vision, mission and values statements will be translated into French and returned to the Board for approval.

20-3 Motion presented and seconded that the Board approves the revised plain language versions of the vision, mission and values statements as modified and that these versions replace the current versions as the official statements for the organization. The proposed modification is to line 6 of the values which would be stated as: “We value lived experience of disability and research as equally important when making decisions.”

Carried by all.

4. External Relations Committee: Annual Report for 2020 to 2021

Document 4A: Briefing note
Document 4B: Annual Report 2020-2021

The Chair of the External Relations Committee, Penny Hartin, presented the final draft of the 2020 to 2021 Annual Report of Accessibility Standards Canada for approval. The outline and theme of the Annual Report were approved by Board members at the March 2 to 4, 2021 Board meeting.

Ms. Hartin noted that the new versions of the vision, mission and values statements will be included in the Annual Report. In addition, the financial data will be added in the report once the fiscal year is closed, and the data is finalized. The final version of the report will be submitted to the Minister in June for tabling in Parliament.

20-4 Motion presented and seconded that the Board approves Accessibility Standards Canada’s 2020 to 2021 Annual Report as presented.

Carried by all.

5. Performance Appraisal Committee: CEO appraisal

Document 5A: Compilation report

20-5 Motion presented and seconded to proceed to an in-camera session with Board members only.

Carried by all.

20-6 Motion presented and seconded to leave in-camera session.

Carried by all.

20-7 Motion presented and seconded that the Board approves the CEO performance appraisal and compilation report as presented.

Carried by all.

The next steps are:

  • The Chairperson and the Performance Appraisal Committee Chair will meet with the CEO to provide feedback on performance.
  • The compilation report will be submitted by the Chairperson to the Privy Council Office.
  • The Performance Appraisal and Strategic Planning Committees will work with the CEO to develop the 2021 to 2022 CEO objectives and submit this to the Board for approval.
  • The Performance Appraisal Committee was thanked for their work on developing a new appraisal template and leadership in the appraisal process.

6. Roles and responsibilities of Board and CEO

Document 7A: Roles and responsibilities
Document 7B: Annex B – Roles and responsibilities

20-8 Motion presented and seconded to proceed to an in-camera session with Board members and an invitation to the CEO to attend.

Carried by all.

20-9 Motion presented and seconded to end the in-camera session and to return to open meeting.

Carried by all.

The next step is:

  • The Roles and Responsibilities document will be submitted to the Board for approval.

7. Concluding remarks

None provided due to time restraints.

8. Motion to adjourn

20-10 Motion presented to adjourn the meeting at 4:30 p.m.

Carried by all.