Accessible Canada Act: Priority Areas, Deadlines, and Penalties

The Accessible Canada Act is federal legislation (S.C. 2019, c. 10) that requires federally regulated organizations to identify, remove, and prevent barriers for persons with disabilities, with the goal of a barrier-free Canada by January 1, 2040.¹ It puts the work of finding barriers on the organizations themselves rather than on the people who run into them, and it backs that duty with published plans, public feedback, progress reports, and financial penalties for organizations that fall short.

Who Has to Comply

The Act reaches only organizations under federal jurisdiction. Provincial and territorial governments, and businesses regulated at the provincial level, are outside its scope.²

On the private side, covered organizations include:

Banks and other federally chartered financial institutions
Airlines, interprovincial rail and bus operators, ferries, and shipping companies that cross provincial or international borders
Telecommunications providers, including phone and internet companies
Broadcasting organizations such as radio and television stations

A private-sector organization in one of these industries has to comply only if it employs 10 or more people. Businesses with 9 or fewer employees are exempt from the planning, feedback, and reporting requirements.³

On the public side, the Act covers the whole federal government: every department, agency, and Crown corporation, from Canada Post to VIA Rail to the Canada Revenue Agency.² Parliament and its associated entities are covered under a separate part of the Act.⁴

A boundary worth flagging: the Act does not touch provincially regulated employers, restaurants, retailers, or service providers. Those follow provincial accessibility legislation where it exists, such as Ontario’s Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. A federally regulated employer with staff in a province follows the federal Act, and provincial employment law can add obligations on top depending on the circumstances. The test is always which level of government regulates the organization, not where its offices sit.

The Seven Priority Areas

Covered organizations have to work on barriers in seven specific areas:¹

Employment (hiring, retention, promotion, workplace culture)
The built environment (physical spaces such as offices and terminals)
Information and communication technologies (websites, software, apps, hardware)
Communication other than ICT (formats like braille, large print, and sign language)
Procurement of goods, services, and facilities
Design and delivery of programs and services
Transportation

Section 2 defines a “barrier” broadly. It covers anything physical, architectural, technological, or attitudinal that hinders full participation, along with barriers rooted in communication, information, or policies and practices, whether or not the exclusion was intentional.⁵ An inaccessible job portal, a building entrance without a ramp, and a workplace culture that discourages accommodation requests all count.

What Compliance Actually Requires

Three ongoing obligations sit at the core of the Act: an accessibility plan, a feedback process, and progress reports.

The Accessibility Plan

Every covered organization must publish a plan describing how it will find and remove barriers across the seven priority areas. The plan has to be developed in consultation with persons with disabilities, not written internally and released.³ It must be posted on the organization’s website in an accessible format. Organizations without a website must supply a copy to anyone who asks, in whatever format is requested, including braille or audio.

Plans run on a three-year cycle. An updated plan is due every three years, and progress reports come out in the intervening years, documenting the barriers identified, the feedback received, and the concrete steps taken.³

The Feedback Process

Organizations must set up a formal way for the public and employees to report barriers and comment on the plan. The regulations require the organization to designate a person responsible for receiving feedback, accept it by mail, telephone, email, and any other channel it uses with the public, and allow anonymous submissions.⁶ Unless feedback is anonymous, the organization has to acknowledge it using the same method the person used.

If someone asks for the feedback-process description in an alternative format, the organization has to provide it within 15 days for most formats, or 45 days for braille or audio. Small businesses with fewer than 100 employees have 20 days for standard alternative formats.⁶

Deadlines

Obligations were phased in based on the size and type of the organization:

Federal departments, Crown corporations, and parliamentary entities: first plans due by December 31, 2022
Large private-sector employers (100+ employees): first plans due by June 1, 2023
Small private-sector employers (10–99 employees): first plans due by June 1, 2024

Updated plans follow on the three-year cycle from each original deadline. Large private-sector employers face their first plan update by June 1, 2026, and small employers by June 1, 2027. Progress reports fall on the first and second anniversary of each plan deadline. Organizations must notify the Accessibility Commissioner when they publish a plan or report.³

Penalties for Non-Compliance

The Accessibility Commissioner, who sits within the Canadian Human Rights Commission, enforces the Act.⁷ The Commissioner has broad inspection powers, including authority to enter premises physically or remotely, examine records, and copy documents.⁸

When a violation is found, the Commissioner can issue a warning, a financial penalty called an Administrative Monetary Penalty, or both. Section 77 sets out those consequences for any contravention of the planning, feedback, reporting, or inspection rules.⁹ The ceiling for any single violation is $250,000, and each day a violation continues counts as a separate violation.¹⁰

Regulations classify each violation as minor, serious, or very serious, with penalty ranges that vary based on whether the violator is an individual, a small business, or a larger regulated entity, and that escalate for repeat offences.¹¹

For small businesses (10–99 employees):

Minor, first violation: $500 to $5,000
Serious, first violation: $5,000 to $12,500
Very serious, first violation: $12,500 to $25,000
Very serious, fourth or subsequent violation: $75,000 to $125,000

For larger regulated entities (100+ employees):

Minor, first violation: $1,000 to $10,000
Serious, first violation: $10,000 to $25,000
Very serious, first violation: $25,000 to $50,000
Very serious, fourth or subsequent violation: $150,000 to $250,000

The daily-violation rule is where the numbers get large. An organization that leaves a very serious obligation unmet for 30 days is not facing one penalty. It is facing 30 separate violations, each carrying its own fine.

How to File a Complaint

If you experience an accessibility barrier with a federally regulated organization, where you file depends on the sector.

The Accessibility Commissioner handles complaints about whether an organization met its obligations for accessibility plans, feedback processes, and progress reports. You must file within 12 months of discovering the failure, and there is no fee. You can file by email, mail, phone, or TTY, and you can file on behalf of someone else with their consent.¹²
The Canadian Transportation Agency handles accessibility complaints about federally regulated transportation, including airlines, interprovincial rail, and cross-border ferries. Its process starts by forwarding the complaint to the provider with a 30-day response deadline, and the agency can award compensation for pain and suffering if it finds an undue barrier existed.¹³
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission handles complaints about broadcasters and telecom providers.
The Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board handles complaints from most federal public servants and parliamentary employees.²

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal hears appeals of some Commissioner decisions.

1
Justice Laws Website. Accessible Canada Act – Purpose
2
Canadian Human Rights Commission. About the Accessible Canada Act
3
Government of Canada. Summary of the Accessible Canada Regulations
4
Justice Laws Website. Accessible Canada Act
5
Justice Laws Website. Accessible Canada Act – Section 2
6
Justice Laws Website. Accessible Canada Regulations – SOR/2021-241
7
Canadian Human Rights Commission. Promoting Compliance with the Accessible Canada Act
8
Justice Laws Website. Accessible Canada Act – Section 73
9
Justice Laws Website. Accessible Canada Act – Section 77
10
Justice Laws Website. Accessible Canada Act – Administrative Monetary Penalties
11
Justice Laws Website. Accessible Canada Regulations – SOR/2021-241
12
Canadian Human Rights Commission. File a Complaint with the Accessibility Commissioner
13
Canadian Transportation Agency. Accessibility Complaints About Transportation Services