Minutes of the Board of Directors’ Special Meeting – April 8, 2022

1. Welcoming remarks and roll call

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

29-1 Motion presented and seconded to open the meeting at 12:00 p.m. EST.

Carried by all.

2. Land acknowledgement

Dr. Joe McLaughlin presented a land acknowledgement in honour of Indigenous peoples of the Surrey B.C. area, from where he was participating in the virtual meeting.

3. Board meeting agenda

Document 3A: Proposed agenda

A request from the CEO’s office resulted in an additional item being added to the draft agenda. The item is Research Areas for Grants and Contributions Program – 2023 to 2024 Funding Cycle (Item 5A).

29-2 Motion presented and seconded to approve the agenda of the Board of Directors’ special meeting held on April 8, 2022, as presented. This includes the additional item of 5A.

Carried by all.

4. CEO Evaluation for period of April 1, 2021 to 31 March, 2022

Documents: As sent by Maureen Haan to the Board confidentially.

Maureen Haan presented the summary report of the CEO evaluation for 2021 to 2022. All Board members responded to the survey providing input to the evaluation. Some comments were modified to ensure anonymity.

The report includes summary of findings, areas of focus for 2022-2023, a background, ratings and responses for each focus area and final comments.

Directors found the process straight forward. All directors took part in the evaluation survey.

29-3 Motion presented and seconded to approve the CEO Evaluation Report for period of April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022, as read.

Carried by all.

Dino Zuppa joined the meeting at 12:45 pm.

5. Research areas for Grants and contributions program – 2023 to 2024 funding cycle

Document 5A: Briefing note

Mr. Zuppa provided a brief overview of the purpose of the briefing note: to provide more background information, provide data / research and propose three research areas other than those mandated by the Act.

Two recommendations were presented

Recommendation 1: That the Board approve the research areas mandated by the Act to be included in each funding cycle, starting with the next call for Expressions of Interest. These areas are:

• employment
• the built environment
• information and communication technologies
• communication, other than information and communication technologies
• procurement of goods, services, and facilities
• design and delivery of programs and services
• transportation

Recommendation 2: That the Board approve three more areas (or suggest others):

• accessible employment for youth with disabilities transitioning from school to work (topic raised at the 2022 Youth Forum)
• inclusive and accessible service delivery (topic raised at the 2021 Annual Public Meeting)
• accessible communications through sign language (American Sign Language, Langue des signes québécoise, Indigenous Sign Languages) (topic raised at Board meetings in 2020 and 2021)

Directors provided suggestions for content in the Key Themes section of the Briefing Note. Directors suggested the research area of accessible elections. Directors suggested further developing the process of adding new research areas and conducting a needs assessment for research areas.

Mr. Zuppa was asked to update the list for 2023 to 2024 to reflect Board discussion.

29-4 Motion presented and seconded to approve the two recommendations outlined in document 5A for research areas for the Grants and Contributions Program – 2023 to 2024 funding cycle as presented on April 8, 2022.

Carried by all.

6. Concluding remarks

The Chairperson noted that a motion to go in-camera was not required. The meeting started with Board only. The first item was discussed by Board members only. The second item was discussed with the presence of a member of the CEO office. It did not require to be in-camera.

7. Adjournment

29-5 Motion presented to adjourn the meeting at 1:00 p.m. EST.

Carried by all.