National Institue of Disability Managment and Research
Monday, March 5, 2007

National Institue of Disability Managment and Research

R. Cantelon: One of the five great goals of this government is to create more jobs than any other province in Canada. In this we are exceeding our own expectations. We are creating more employment opportunities than there are people to fill them. However, there is one segment of our society that is not enjoying an equal share of this prosperity.

Persons with disabilities are not reaching employment levels that their education, skills and ability should earn them. In fact, there are 300,000 people with disabilities in British Columbia: 34,000 have college diplomas; 30,000 have trade certificates; and 28,000 have university degrees. Yet only 44 percent of that total of 300,000 have jobs.

The total participation in the labour market is only at 2.2 percent, and the annual hiring rate is only 1 percent. The problem continues to grow as approximately 2,500 to 3,000 permanent disabilities occur to individuals every year in this province, and there are 65,000 compensable accidents annually. It's not that people who are disabled on the job do not wish to return to work. The real physical barriers that are the result of an accident or a naturally occurring disability throw up the initial barrier that, without a back-to-work strategy, can compound into an insurmountable mountain of physical and mental impediments.

The answer to this, Mr. Speaker, is a plan — a strategic plan that addresses both the physical and mental restrictions. Disability management is the discipline that teaches and provides disability managers with the training and tools to assist both the disabled and, just as important, the employers in a plan to get the person suffering the disability back to work, and back to work as soon as possible.

Time is of the essence in beginning this process of rehabilitation and reintroduction to the workplace. It is a consequence of both physical impairment and the mental consequences that if an employee is not reconnected with the work environment within a year, then in 90 percent of these instances re-employment never happens.

This is the challenge. Fortunately, there is an answer to this challenge. It is the National Institute of Disability Management and Research — known by its acronym, NIDMAR — created as a national business, labour, government and educational non-profit organization which would provide national and international leadership, innovation and program development in reducing the socioeconomic costs of disabilities to workers and employees in society. An initial $6.5 million core endowment was raised, which provided employees, workers, unions, compensation boards, and provincial and federal governments with sustainability in perpetuity as well as qualitative independence.

It was launched in 1994, and the society included an international advisory council with senior representatives from the United States, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. Today NIDMAR is co-chaired by senior business and labour leaders, including senior officials from Weyerhaeuser; Canfor; Abitibi-Consolidated, CPR; Communication, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada; the steelworkers union; Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union; the Canadian Labour Congress; the Yukon workers safety compensation board; and University of Northern British Columbia.

Today NIDMAR operates in three principal areas related to return of work and disability management: educational programming, professional education and program measurement.

NIDMAR offers programs on line with approximately 1,200 student models each year to participants from across Canada, the United States, Europe, South Africa and Korea. The total investment in curricular development between 1994 and 2007 has been approximately $3 million. Through collaborative process with all the major stakeholders across Canada and the funding of HRDC, NIDMAR developed professional occupational standards in return-to-work and disability management.

The immediate goal of NIDMAR is to create a pre-eminent international educational institute here in British Columbia designed to address a global challenge with major economic consequences of social costs and human tragedy. The new university will be a catalyst for innovative solutions to reduce the number of workplace accidents, diseases and associated economic costs, human suffering and significant social consequences. It will be a worldwide centre of excellence in education and international research in occupational health and safety, disability management, and rehabilitation.

Wolfgang Zimmermann, the executive director, sits on the Minister's Council on Employment for Persons with Disabilities. The Minister of Employment and Income Assistance has launched a new initiative, the 10 by 10 Challenge, to increase the employment level of persons with disabilities by 10 percent by 2010.

This is an ambitious and achievable goal. This is a worthy goal in and of itself for the benefits to those with disabilities. But in a broader context, all of B.C. will benefit not only because of the shortage of workers but, more importantly, in increasing the acceptance of persons with disabilities in the workplace among us.

I invite members of the chamber to support NIDMAR's aspirations.
© 2007 Government Caucus of British Columbia. All Rights Reserved.