Evaluation of the Enabling Accessibility Fund Summary - Period covered: 2009 to 2015

Program description:

The objective is to support community based projects across Canada that improve accessibility, remove barriers, and enable Canadians with disabilities to participate in and contribute to their community and the labour market.
The ultimate outcome of the program is for people with disabilities to have opportunities to participate in and contribute to community life.
Through grants and contributions, the program contributes to the capital costs of construction and renovation projects.
The Program receives $15 million in annual program funding.

The evaluation findings suggest that there is demand for the program as the number of applications for funding received exceeds the supply of available funds.
Demand management improved considerably following the introduction of the leveraging requirement.
- It required applicants to contribute a minimum of 35% of a project’s overall costs.
- The leveraging requirement reduced the number of applications by almost 50% (from 2,200 to 1,150).
It also allowed the program to have a greater effect with approximately the same amount of funding. The total investments in projects increased to $114M, up from $40M.
Overall, accessibility increased in Canadian society.
- The program is funding about 90% more projects (from 467 to 893); and
- The average project size increased by almost 48% (from $86K to $127K) now that there is a 35% leveraging requirement.

There were two recommendations:

Improve the representation of small private sector enterprises in the Workplace Stream; and
Improve the data collection strategy.