The Accessible Canada Act (the Act) (PDF)
- first introduced this time last year in Bill C-81 - received
Royal Assent on June 21, 2019 and became law on July 11, 2019.
We briefly summarized the Act and its anticipated duties in our
January update. In this article, we provide
further details on the Act's enforcement mechanisms, which set
it apart from similar legislation adopted by provincial
governments, and insight into what federal sector employers can
expect going forward.
Purpose and Application
The purpose of the Act is to make Canada's
federal sector barrier-free by January 1, 2040. It will apply to
federally-regulated entities such as banks, telecommunications
companies, transportation companies, and the Government of Canada.
It will not apply to certain businesses in Yukon, the Northwest
Territories, or Nunavut.
