Recommendation 15: The provincial and federal governments, as part of any commitment to federated Canadian identity systems, should have their technical systems and associated business practices audited by an independent party every three years, publicly table that audit and implement the auditors’ suggestions in a timely manner.

This report details the many IT systems in British Columbia that have received highly critical audits and in particular, have been found to have serious security flaws. Given the compounded jeopardy to security of a federated system, there is a need not only for audits of all parts of the system, but for implementation of auditor’s recommendations. The sweeping role envisioned for the national federated identity system, encompassing both the public and private sector, calls for rigorous attention to security issues.

Recommendation 1: The PCEPA is an unconstitutional set of laws that imposes more danger and more criminalization on sex workers and leaves them with fewer safe options. We recommend repealing all criminal laws that prohibit the purchase or sale of sexual services by adults and that limit adults selling sex from working with others in non-coercive situations. This includes the PCEPA and provisions such as Section 213(1)(a) and (b), which were not constitutionally challenged in Bedford.

Recommendation 2: The importance of a National Action Plan cannot be overstated in terms of establishing national standards and strengthening the systems that respond to gender-based violence. However, at the same time, a key element of success will be ongoing engagement, collaboration and knowledge sharing with regions and communities, to reflect the diversity of needs, challenges and efforts across the nation. To do this, it will be important to link with and build on the work and expertise of existing provincial not-for-profit organizations in engaging and supporting local communities and in developing provincial-level strategies.

Recommendation 9: The greatest commonality between sex workers in Canada is the stigma they face. Most sex workers live in fear that their work will be revealed to family and neighbours. This stigma perpetuates conditions that have allowed predators to murder, rape, and abuse sex workers with impunity, because police failed to investigate and prosecute these crimes. Education is also needed to dismantle negative stereotypes about sex workers, but law reform is essential. Changing the law would be a first step towards undoing the stigma and accepting sex work as an occupation and people who do sex work as full members of our communities.

Recommendation 6: The Government of Canada should collaborate with provinces and territories to build on its COVID-19 response and strengthen existing strategies, programs and policies. This would ensure a coordinated and robust social safety net in Canada by collectively providing income support that is at least at the level of Canada’s Official Poverty Line.

Recommendation 13: The federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments should consider notifying the technology sector that from this point forward (one year warning) they will, as a group, no longer purchase technology that is not assistive.

Recommendation 4: The federal government, in collaboration with the provinces, the post-secondary sector, and employers, should work toward increased funding and providing incentives for employers to develop and implement work-integrated learning opportunities for all students, including students with visual disabilities, which are available across the breadth of the canadian postsecondary education system.

Recommendation 4: The federal government—with leadership from the Privy Council Office—should work with the Sustainable Finance Action Council, securities and financial regulators, provincial and territorial governments, standards associations, and Indigenous organizations to accelerate the development and require the use of quantitative and comparable company- and product-level metrics, standards, and certifications that measure climate, environmental, social, and Indigenous performance.

Recommendation 2: The federal government should set legally binding emissions milestones only at the national level.

Legally binding milestones are particularly important at the national level given Canada’s commitments under international processes. As such, we provide additional advice specifically to the federal government.

We recommend that a federal climate accountability framework set binding milestones only at the national level. Legally binding sectoral or provincial and territorial milestones risk creating a rigid approach that raises the overall cost of reducing emissions. In the absence of a trading mechanism, binding subnational milestones would force GHG reductions in particular parts of the economy or regions when there are more cost effective or practical options to reduce emissions elsewhere. Moreover, binding subnational milestones would require governments to directly confront difficult decisions about regional burden-sharing (sectoral milestones would do the same, albeit indirectly) only to have these debates resurface when the details of policy mechanics were being discussed. Forcing these debates to occur at the early, milestone-setting stage is likely to be divisive. It risks making it even more challenging to move over time toward better policy coordination and convergence in federal and subnational policy ambition.

However, it is useful to provide public information on the contributions provinces, territories, and sectors are projected to make to the national budget or target to illustrate implications of pathways rather than to prescribe explicit reductions at these levels. Detailed projections strike a balance by providing public, transparent projections for sectors and regions that can guide policy while still remaining non-binding. They can increase transparency, helping to inform challenging conversations about the contributions of different sectors and regions.

In terms of process, we recommend that the federal government set the national milestone pathway in consultation with other governments, stakeholders, Indigenous Peoples, and a non-partisan expert advisory body. Allowing the federal government to make the final decision, but with requirements that it consult widely, ensures that regional and sectoral circumstances and diverse perspectives are considered without paralyzing the pathway process. Similarly, including reporting obligations that require the federal government to justify its decision in the event it rejects the expert body’s advice creates incentives to ensure milestones are rooted in evidence and science.

Recommendation 12: The federal government should seek the cooperation of the provinces and territories to consider the creation of a program that will provide incentives to the private sector for the purchase of accessible assistive technology to help offset the costs of hiring people with seeing disabilities.