CLBC welcomes Minister Sheila Malcolmson
The Honourable Sheila Malcolmson, Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, connects with self advocate leaders at CLBC Head Office.
CLBC welcomes the Honourable Sheila Malcolmson as the Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction and Minister responsible for CLBC.
Minister Malcolmson was appointed to the role in December, and previously served as the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. She is the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Nanaimo and was elected in a by-election in 2019, and re-elected in 2020.
In March, Minister Malcolmson met with self advocates, who joined in-person and virtually, at CLBC Head Office in Vancouver to hear their stories and discuss topics and issues that are important to them.
CLBC looks forward to working together with Minister Malcolmson to advance the priorities in CLBC’s new Strategic Plan and the Reimagining Community Inclusion work plan.
New members join CLBC board
CLBC is pleased to welcome J. Alain (Al) LeFebvre of Prince George and Stephen Lee of South Delta to its Board of Directors. Mr. LeFebvre began his term in November and Mr. Lee began his term in January.
“I am pleased to have Alain and Stephen join us,” said Board Chair Michael J. Prince. “They bring exceptional leadership skills that will help CLBC to deliver its mandate. They also each bring lived experience as parents of individuals who live with disabilities. This makes them uniquely qualified to contribute to our efforts.”
Alain LeFebvre lives in Prince George. He is a retired Office Managing Partner with KPMG where he was an audit partner with clients in the public sector including healthcare, municipalities, local government agencies, education, not-for profit entities, charities, foundations and government funded organizations.
He has served on boards for Prince George Association for Community Living (AiMHi) and the BC Association for Community Living (now Inclusion BC) and its foundation.
Stephen Lee lives in South Delta. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Musqueam Capital Corporation, a wholly owned entity of the Musqueam Indian Band. He is responsible for overseeing Musqueam’s extensive real estate and asset holdings. His experience spans 30 years in senior finance and leadership roles in various industries in private and public companies.
Creating CLBC’s accessibility plan
The Accessible BC Act became law in June 2021. The new law aims to remove all types of barriers to make B.C. more inclusive and accessible for everyone. Eventually, accessibility standards will be created for employment, service delivery, built environment, information and communications, transportation, health, education and procurement.
To meet the requirements of the new law, CLBC is creating an accessibility advisory committee, and is currently working on a public accessibility plan and feedback mechanism to be completed by September 1, 2023.
During the fall, CLBC completed an internal assessment and gathered input from people and families we serve and service providers through workshops and a public survey.
Thank you to everyone who shared their input. This has given us valuable information on barriers that people may face when: receiving information about CLBC; coming to CLBC offices and meetings; talking to CLBC staff; and applying for a job and working at CLBC.
CLBC took what we heard from people and what we discovered internally and put together CLBC’s Baseline Accessibility Report. You can learn more, and read the report on CommunityLivingBC.ca here. The public plan will be published
once it is completed.
Community inclusion plan supports people to thrive
The B.C. government and members of the community inclusion sector have released the Re-imagining Community Inclusion (RCI) Workplan to support people with developmental disabilities to be fully included and thrive in their communities.
The RCI initiative was first launched in May 2018 by the Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction in collaboration with community living partners from across the province, including CLBC.
This resulted in the 2019 report, Re-imagining Community Inclusion. The report provides a vision where “people with diverse abilities thrive fully and equally with everyone.”
The RCI workplan focuses on four key areas to help achieve that vision:
- Develop more flexible housing options
- Ensure people have more and better employment opportunities
- Work with partners to improve access to health and mental health services
- Ensure services to Indigenous people are Self Determined
You can learn more about the workplan, and the many different groups who helped to develop it, by visiting the CLBC website here.