Minutes of the Board of Directors’ Special Meeting – April 27, 2023
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
- Brad McCannell, Director
- Dr. Joe McLaughlin, Director
- Laurie Ringaert, Director
Accessibility Standards Canada public officers:
- Philip Rizcallah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
- Dino Zuppa, Chief Operating Officer (COO)
- Martine Bareil, Chief of Staff, CEO’s Office
- Louis-Philippe Daigle, Acting Director General/Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services
- Andrée Deslauriers, Director, Stakeholder Relations and Intergovernmental Affairs
- Guillaume Dufresne, Manager, Stakeholder Relations and Corporate Secretariat
- Micah Walter, Senior Policy Analyst, Stakeholder Relations and Corporate Secretariat
- Heather Scott, Policy Analyst, Stakeholder Relations and Corporate Secretariat
- Badra Benyamina, Junior Policy Analyst, Stakeholder Relations and Corporate Secretariat
Minutes
Thursday, April 27, 2023
1. Welcoming remarks and roll call
The meeting opened with a roll call and words of welcome from the Chairperson.
36-1 Motion presented and seconded to open the meeting at 2:03p.m. EST. Carried by all.
2. Land acknowledgement
P.-C. Bérubé presented a land acknowledgement as a small act of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples from where he was participating in Quebec.
3. Board meeting agenda
Document 3A: Proposed agenda
P.-C. Bérubé proposed to add the item 3.1 to agenda which is a Board motion to cancel the face-to-face Board meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in May 2023.
36-2 Motion presented and seconded to add item 3.1 to the proposed agenda. Carried by all.
Item 3.1 was added to the agenda.
36-3 Motion presented and seconded that the Board approves the proposed agenda of the Special meeting of the Board of Directors held on April 27, 2023, as modified. Carried by all.
3.1 Motion to cancel the face-to-face Board meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in May 2023
P.-C. Bérubé updated Directors about the staff recommendation to cancel the face-to-face Board meeting in Winnipeg due to the strike action by members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
36-4 Motion presented and seconded that the Board approves the cancelation of the face-to-face Board meeting of May 2023 in Winnipeg. Carried by all.
P.- C. Bérubé asked Directors to remain available at the dates of the May Board meeting as the Board will probably hold a virtual meeting at one or more of these dates.
P.-C. Bérubé reminded Directors to send in their vote for the recommendations from Internal Affairs Committee for the annual Board meeting Calendar for 2023-2024.
4. Accessibility Standards Canada Annual Report 2022 to 2023
Document 4A: Briefing Note
Document 4B: Annual Report 2022 to 2023
B. Adair introduced the item to Directors and invited staff to speak about the report.
L-P. Daigle provided a detailed background to the report and gave an overview of the content. He highlighted two points:
- The financial table will be finalized by mid-May and its information will be provided at the next Board meeting’s financial update.
- The design process will begin once the report has been approved by the Board.
B. Adair followed and opened the floor to discussion for Directors.
The general feeling was that it was a good report and Directors thanked staff for their work on it. The quality of the plain language reading level came up as a point of discussion. M. Bareil reminded the Board that the federal government uses Flesch-Kinkaid (Microsoft Office Word) as the tool to measure reading level.
There were other elements shared for consideration including:
- Section 2.1 Key accomplishments – Highlight the strategic plan, including the four strategic pillars, and move it into the Board section as it is a guiding document that will help keep the organization focussed on the overall goal of 2040.
- Section 2.2 Committee reports – Change “contribute” to “also contribute”. Clarify that the Internal Affairs Committee captured definitions and usage of key terms like intersectionality.
- Section 3.2 Funding Research – Add information or examples on the research that the organization is funding.
- Section 3.3 Supporting research and assessing the impact – Expand on preparatory work done to support standard development.
- General – Avoid using “us” and “them” as it introduces the concept of us versus them.
36-5 Motion presented and seconded to approve Accessibility Standards Canada Annual Report 2022 to 2023, with modifications. Carried by all.
Staff will share a copy of the report with the Board once finalized.
In Camera session:
36-6 Motion presented and seconded to go in-camera for the next item. Carried by all.
5. CEO’s Annual Performance Assessment – April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023
Document 5A: CEO’s Annual Performance Assessment
36-7 Motion presented and seconded to get out of the in-camera session. Carried by all.
36-8 Motion presented and seconded to approve the CEO’s Annual Performance Assessment from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023 with a modification at the top of page three as follows:
- “Help the Board understand the technical committee work better.”
Carried by all.
6. Concluding remarks
The Chairperson thanked the Board for an efficient and effective meeting.
7. Adjournment
36-9 Motion presented and seconded to adjourn the meeting at 3:55 p.m. Carried by all.