Multi-Year Accessibility Plan Progress Report

Table of Contents

Message from the Chairperson

I am pleased to present the Military Police Complaints Commission’s (MPCC) first Accessibility Action Plan Progress Report. This report provides updates on the MPCC’s advancement in implementing improvements as identified in the Accessible Canada Act and ensuring that it remains barrier-free and a leader in accessibility.

As a small administrative tribunal, the MPCC has long held that requests for accommodation from people with disabilities must be accommodated. This applies to employees and the public it serves. It is a core tenet for fair and unfettered access to administrative justice and for access to a safe workplace.  Over the years, the MPCC has made changes to its physical workspace to accommodate people with disabilities, including transforming its office space into an accessible workspace and replacing push button door openers with a touchless system. It has remained flexible and open in how it receives complaints against the military police, and how it communicates with the people it serves.

The goals we have set for ourselves in our Multi-Year Accessibility Plan allow us to proactively monitor and make improvements in each of the priority areas identified in the Accessible Canada Act, namely employment, built environment, information and communication technologies, other communications, the procurement of goods and services and the design and delivery of programs and services.

While the MPCC currently surpasses the Government of Canada’s 2025 target of 7% of its employees identifying as persons with disabilities, with 14.3% of staff identifying as persons with disabilities, more remains to be done. In the coming years, we are committed to strengthening our internal processes, as we strive to become more inclusive and accessible to the benefit of those we serve. We remain steadfast in using an approach that is trauma-informed, incorporating GBA++ principles, and viewing our work through an equity, diversity and inclusion lens.

I look forward to working with our partners in the Government of Canada to ensure that the important goals of the Accessible Canada Act are met. We warmly welcome all feedback and comments on this progress report and the steps we have taken to increase accessibility for all.  

Me Tammy Tremblay, MSM, CD, LL.M

Chairperson

General

The Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada (MPCC) is a civilian, quasi-judicial oversight agency that operates at arm’s length from the Government of Canada. The MPCC derives its mandate from Part IV of Canada's National Defence Act (NDA). While it reports to Parliament through the Minister of National Defence, the MPCC is both administratively and legally independent from the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces.  The MPCC is formally part of the Core Public Administration under the Institution Schedule I.1 and of the HR Schedule IV of the Financial Administration Act (FAA).

The MPCC regularly monitors and evaluates feedback concerning accessibility and ensures that it is incorporated into its plans when possible. Please reference Annex A: Feedback process at the Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada for more information on our feedback process.

Accessibility Statement

The Military Police Complaints Commission strives to be an organization that exhibits fairness and impartiality, inspires trust, and contributes to a climate of confidence in military policing. The MPCC strives to be barrier-free, accessible and inclusive to all and is committed to providing accessible and inclusive services for all employees, clients, complainants, subjects and other stakeholders. MPCC will review and develop its programs, policies, directives and services with the intent to continually improve.

Progress

The Military Police Complaints’ Commission’s (MPCC) three-year Accessibility Report was prepared in consultation with a third-party consultation firm, and with the input of subject matter experts within the MPCC, external stakeholders and people with disabilities. The MPCC is a small agency with approximately 31 full-time employees and three part-time members. The implementation of its Accessibility Report is done in accordance with its resources and needs. As of March 2023, 14.3% of the MPCC’s employees identified as a person with a disability.

To attain the goals of the Accessible Canada Act, the MPCC began its progress on proactively identifying, removing, and preventing barriers in six (6) of the seven (7) priority areas:

• employment.
• the built environment (buildings and public spaces).
• information and communication technologies.
• communication, other than information and communication technologies.
• the procurement of goods, services and facilities.
• the design and delivery of programs and services; and
• transportation (airlines, as well as rail, road and marine transportation providers that cross provincial or international borders)¹

Consultations

The MPCC’s three-year plan was prepared with the help of an external consultant by first completing an environmental scan to ensure understanding of “central agencies” and other government departments’ accessibility initiatives, and to review existing related policies and procedures. The exercise helped identify existing practices and initiatives that could be adopted as best practices across the organization. Consultations were conducted in three parts:

1. Subject matter experts at the MPCC were consulted in facilitated focus groups with their knowledge of employment practices, procurement, facilities, digital resources, communications, and the design and delivery of good and services. Questions regarding accessibility barriers, current accommodation practices, and priorities for remediation were discussed and responses have been used to inform this plan.
2. External Stakeholders, including military family members, law firms and other stakeholders were invited to respond to a survey question about access to services, information and resources as well as accessibility barriers.
3. Accessible Canada Act Review Committee: The MPCC Accessibility Plan was also reviewed by the consultation firm’s standing Accessible Canada Act Review Committee. Consultation Group members are individuals with lived experience with disabilities, and knowledge of accessibility issues.

For the current Progress Report, the MPCC conducted an internal survey with staff, asking:

1. Do you feel that your accommodation needs at the MPCC are met, whether it be in the office or in support of your virtual work?
2. Do you feel like the MPCC is meeting its commitments as laid out in the Multi-Year Accessibility Plan?
3. What could the MPCC be doing differently to make the workplace (physical or virtual) more accessible for you and/or your colleagues, and for the public?
4. If you have an accessibility concern at the MPCC, do you know who to speak to?
5. Are you a person with a disability and do you feel like your needs are being accommodated?

Each of the questions allowed for comments, to maximise the information received from MPCC staff. In total, we received 23 anonymous responses (on a total of 31 FTE, and 3 part-time members).

What we heard

Feedback

Employees and members of the public are encouraged to share their feedback, anonymously or otherwise, about our Accessibility Action Plan, barriers experienced, or any matter related to accessibility. Individuals can consult the Accessibility Feedback Process (Annex A) for other ways to provide feedback and how we use the feedback we receive.

The MPCC received little feedback in 2023. There are three instances where the MPCC received requests for assistance due to a disability:

• A request to consider accessibility in one of the MPCC’s boardrooms, which the MPCC is currently implementing.
• A request from a member of the public to file a complaint with the MPCC by speaking to a Registry Officer via Skype, to accommodate a disability. The MPCC accommodated the request, and the member of the public was able to file a complaint with the support of the Registry Officer.
• A request from a complainant to speak to an MPCC employee of the same gender as them, given their particular situation. This request was accommodated.

Because of the small size of the MPCC, we are not able to provide statistics with regards to employee feedback to avoid identifying employees, in accordance with the Privacy Act. We note however that we received requests for ergonomic assessments, which we are all conducted, and their recommendations implemented.

GLOSSARY

Accessibility:

The degree to which a product, service, program, or environment is available to be used or accessed easily by persons with and without disabilities. Improving accessibility helps everyone participate fully and equally in society and realize their full potential.

Accommodation (adjustment):

Any change in the working environment that allows a person with functional limitations in their abilities to do their job. Changes can include:

• adjustments to the physical workspace
• adaptations to the equipment or tools
• flexible work hours or job-sharing
• relocation of the workspace within the greater workplace
• the ability to work from home
• reallocation or exchange of some non-essential tasks for others
• time off for medical appointments

Accommodations (adjustments) can be temporary, periodic, or long-term, depending on the employee’s situation or changes in the workplace.

Barrier

According to the Accessible Canada Act the definition “means anything—including anything physical, architectural, technological or attitudinal, anything that is based on information or communications or anything that is the result of a policy or a practice—that hinders the full and equal participation in society of persons with an impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment or a functional limitation.”

Disability

According to the Accessible Canada Act, the definition “means any impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment—or a functional limitation—whether permanent, temporary or episodic in nature, or evident or not, that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society.”

ICT (information and Communication Technology)

“An extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computers, as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage and audiovisual, that enable users to access, store, transmit, understand and manipulate information.”

Persons with disabilities

Persons who have a long-term or recurring physical, mental, sensory, psychiatric, or learning impairment and who a) consider themselves to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of that impairment, or b) believe that an employer or potential employer is likely to consider them to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of that impairment.

Persons with disabilities include persons whose functional limitations owing to their impairment have been accommodated in their current job or workplace.

Quasi-judicial

“means ‘court like’. It includes the actions of non-judicial bodies, such as administrative agencies, exercising their functions and powers in a judicial manner. In deciding whether an action or proceeding is ‘quasi-judicial’, a range of factors may be considered. These include whether a proceeding’s purpose is to make a determination or finding concerning a matter, the truth of which is of public concern.”

Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG)

The WCAG documents explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. Web “content” generally refers to the information in a web page or web application, including:

• natural information such as text, images, and sounds
• code or markup that defines structure, presentation, etc.”

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are part of a series of web accessibility guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for the Internet. They are a set of recommendations for making Web content more accessible, primarily for people with disabilities.

Annex A : Feedback process at the Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada

• If we received the information by mail, we will write back and send the communication by mail to the contributor of the feedback.
• If we received a telephone call, we will return the telephone call to the contributor of the feedback, to acknowledge the voicemail and we will gather the feedback in a conversation. We will ask the contributor of the feedback for an email address or a mailing address to confirm the information transmitted during the telephone conversation was understood and accurate.
• If we received an email to the Reception@mpcc-cppm.gc.ca, the email will be sent to the Senior Director, Corporate Services, as the contact person for the MPCC, and an email of acknowledgement will be sent.
• If we received feedback on our social media, we will respond on the same social media platform in a private message or if not possible, directly reply to the contributor from the message where the feedback was noted.
• If we received feedback anonymously, a receipt of acknowledgement will not be issued.

The MPCC will also review the feedback and assess how the MPCC can improve its accessibility from the feedback received, wherever possible.

Furthermore, all feedback will be retained in our record data management system and referenced in that year’s progress report. We do not identify individuals in our reports.

Annex B: MPCC’s accessibility action plan at a glance