Accessibility – Prince Rupert

About DP World Canada

DP World is a leading provider of smart logistics solutions, enabling the flow of trade across the globe. Wherever we operate, we integrate sustainability and responsible corporate citizenship, striving for a positive contribution to the economies and communities where we live and work. We do this by building and growing long-lasting relationships – with governments, shippers, traders, and other stakeholders along the global supply chain.

DP World Canada’s head office is in Burnaby, BC, and we operate terminals in Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Surrey, Nanaimo, and Saint John. We are Canada’s largest container terminal operator. This Plan focuses on our Prince Rupert entity. Please use the following link below to view Accessibility Plans for our Vancouver, Fraser Surrey, and Shared Services entities.

LINK: https://www.dpworldcanada.com/accessibility/

Accessibility Plans for Logistics, Nanaimo, BC and Saint John, New Brunswick entities will be made available in 2024.

The Prince Rupert terminal offers the fastest connection from Asia to North American markets. Strategically situated on the great circle route from Asia, Prince Rupert is also North America’s deepest natural harbour. As such, the Prince Rupert Container Terminal can comfortably handle the world’s largest container vessels in a highly efficient manner. We also offer 18,000 ft. of on-dock rail for fast, efficient handling.

Requirements

As a federally regulated company in the transportation sector, DP World Canada is governed by the Accessible Canada Act (ACA).

The ACA is a federal law enacted by the Canadian government in 2019 to promote and ensure equal access and inclusion for persons with disabilities. Its purpose is to remove existing barriers and to prevent new barriers in employment; the built environment; information and communication technologies (ICT); communication other than information and communication technologies; the procurement of goods, services and facilities; the design and delivery of programs and services; and transportation. The ACA applies to all federally regulated entities, including companies, organizations, and government agencies.

Per the ACA, all federally regulated entities must:

• Prepare and publish an initial Accessibility Plan
• Establish an accessibility feedback process
• Report annually on the progress towards the plan and address any feedback received

Our Accessibility Plan must be reviewed in its entirety and published every three years.

Overall, the Accessible Canada Act represents a significant step towards creating a more inclusive and accessible society for all Canadians, including those with disabilities. By complying with these requirements, DP World Canada seeks to provide equal access and opportunities to all members of society.

Executive Summary

DP World Canada believes that everyone should be treated fairly and equally at work, and we have been working hard to create an environment where everyone has the same opportunities. We recognize that accessibility must become an area of focus as we look to expand our efforts in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The table below demonstrates our efforts to ensure accessibility for everyone.

Table 1.

Executive Summary: DP World’s Accessibility Plan 2023-2026.

Accessibility Statement

DP World Canada is committed to recognizing and tackling obstacles and limitations that hinder the complete engagement of people with disabilities by executing our Accessibility Plan.

We will continue to seek input from the general public, our workforce, and experts in relevant fields, including people with disabilities to ensure that we do not introduce new barriers in future business practices.

Accessibility Committee

Accessibility Committee will be established as a sub-committee within a broader Diversity & Inclusion Committee. Our current Accessibility Plan project group includes:

Kim Macey

Director, People & Sustainability

Lauren Nickerson

Director of Health, Safety, Security, and Environment

Liz Collins

Manager, Human Resources

Feedback

DP World Canada is committed to providing an open and transparent feedback process. For more information, to provide feedback, or to request alternative formats of this Plan, please contact DP World Canada through one of the following methods:

Email:

Direct mail: Suite 1500, Metrotower II, 4720 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC V5H 4N2

Telephone: 604-252-2473

Attention: Lauren Nickerson, Director of Health, Safety, Security, and Environment

Alternative Formats

DP World Canada’s Accessibility Plan is available in the following formats:

• Print
• Large Print
• Electronic
• Audio

A Braille copy of DP World’s Accessibility Plan may be requested by email at or by phone at 604-252-2473.

Area 1: Employment

Our Accessibility Goal

DP World Canada is dedicated to fostering a workplace culture that fully embraces and actively promotes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) for people with disabilities throughout all aspects of our employment policies and practices.

Current Level of Accessibility

DP World Canada has put a focus on DEI and made significant progress towards creating a more welcoming environment for a diversity of minority groups. This includes people with disabilities.

As of recent, we have incorporated DEI training for our leaders, but have not yet included specific training on accessibility. We also maintain policies related to our duty to accommodate and anti-discrimination, which explicitly account for people with disabilities as a protected group.

Actions

Commitment 1: To create a barrier-free and inclusive recruitment strategy that is accessible for all job applicants by:

• Writing and publishing a Diversity Statement to be included in all job ads by June 2024.
• Providing a formal process, including a feedback mechanism, at each stage of interviewing for candidates to request accommodations by June 2024.
• Investigating options for expanding candidate outreach to include job boards dedicated to supporting people with disabilities starting in 2024.

Commitment 2: Provide DP World Canada employees with a safe and barrier-free work environment:

• Incorporating our accommodation process into the onboarding process to allow new employees the opportunity to request accommodation starting in 2023.

Commitment 3: Develop a more inclusive culture that promotes inclusivity and accessibility to highlight DP World Canada’s Seven Priorities of Responsible Business Practices, especially Safety, Wellbeing, Ethics, Community Engagement, and People Development by:

• Establishing accessibility and unconscious bias training as part of our DEI training for leaders and hiring managers starting in 2024.

Commitment 4: Plan an employee communication campaign starting in 2023 to inform employees of new accessibility policies and services available to them. Communications will include awareness of disability definitions and common barriers to accessibility.

Area 2: Built Environment – Prince Rupert

Our Accessibility Goal
DP World Canada wants to make sure that both employees and customers can access our facilities easily and safely. Our long-term goal is to improve accessibility by upgrading our facilities. In the short-term, we need to understand what changes are possible and how they will impact the roles of different people who use the facilities.

Current Level of Accessibility
DP World Canada’s facilities are only accessed by employees with occasional customer usage when permitted.

DP World Canada has bona fide occupational requirements in place for many of our roles and has additional requirements made for roles that require special safety measures.

Actions

Commitment 1: To develop a priority plan and budgets for the assessment and incorporation of accessible design into the future development of DP World Canada’s built environment by:

• Creating a list of possible accessible upgrades by June 2026.
• Establishing a budget for future accessible upgrades, if required, by June 2026.

Commitment 2: Ensure employees and customers can move freely about the facilities without obstruction by:

• Establishing a housekeeping standard that limits ground-level obstructions, such as boxes from pathways throughout the facilities.

Area 3: Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Our Accessibility Goal

DP World Canada wants to make sure that all employees and customers, including those with disabilities, have access to Information and Communication Technology and tools that allow them to engage fully with DP World Canada without any barriers getting in the way of communication.

Current Level of Accessibility

Many of the ICT systems and tools used by DP World Canada are determined at a global scale by our parent company. However, we recognize that we have not yet made accessibility a priority in our local ICT initiatives.

DP World Canada employees have access to assistive technologies such as specialized keyboards, mice, and monitors upon request.

Actions

Commitment 1: Understand and make available existing accessibility features available through our 3rd-party ICT providers by:

• Developing a questionnaire and assessment to identify accessibility features in 3rd-party accessibility tools by June 2024.
• Establishing a priority list of 3rd-party ICT tools to assess accessibility features by June 2025.
• Starting the roll-out of accessibility features for our top priority 3rd-party ICT tools to employees starting in 2026.

Commitment 2: Begin establishing a plan and timeline for ensuring that our public and customer-facing website meets accessibility standards by:

• Establishing budgetary requirements for working with our 3rd-party web development team to begin planning by June 2024.
• Working with our 3rd-party web development team to establish a timeline and request budget for future upgrades to ensure our public-facing website meets AA-level Web Content Accessibility 2.2 standards by June 2026.

Area 4: Communication, other than ICT

Our Accessibility Goal

DP World Canada is committed to removing communication barriers both internally and externally by incorporating accessible design into our communication strategies.

Current Level of Accessibility
Accessibility in communication has not yet been prioritized at DP World Canada. We do, however, prioritize the use of plain language with the objective of being brief and to the point.

Actions

Commitment 1: Identify any barriers that are preventing inclusive communication norms at DP World Canada and address opportunities to improve how information is communicated by:

• Working with subject matter experts around communicating with people with disabilities to establish a best-practices guide for the development and dissemination of key communications to ensure accessibility (e.g., plain language, formatting, alt-text for images, etc.) by June 2025.
• Providing training opportunities to all employees responsible for communication, including Marketing, HR, and Communications, on using accessible communication standards, best practices, and plain language starting in 2025.

Area 5: Procurement of Goods, Services, and Facilities

Our Accessibility Goal

DP World Canada believes that creating a barrier-free Canada extends beyond the work we do internally. We know that our procurement process is an opportunity to make sure we and our vendors are committed to accessibility. DP World is committed to understanding how accessibility can become part of our standard procurement process.

Current Level of Accessibility

DP World Canada has not previously included accessibility in the procurement policy and criteria. However, we are currently working on a reassessment of our procurement policies to incorporate new elements. Accessibility will be a key consideration in this assessment.

Actions

Commitment 1: Evaluate how DP World Canada will promote accessibility and accessible design in the relationship we have with our external vendors by:

• Assessing the feasibility and ability of DP World Canada to incorporate accessibility standards and design practices into our procurement policy by June 2025.
• Providing all employees in procurement with training on any changes to our procurement policy that incorporate accessibility starting in 2026.

Area 6: Design and Delivery of Programs and Services

Our Accessibility Goal

From the point of sale to interacting with ship captains, DP World Canada aims to identify the accessibility needs at each point of contact with our customers and their employees throughout the delivery of our current programs and services.

Current Level of Accessibility

DP World Canada offers a variety of programs and services, including shipping container services, stevedoring, and shipping logistics. Customers can request services and provide feedback by phone, email, online form, and through other virtual services such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

While accessibility has not been explicitly part of the design and delivery of our services, our customer-facing employees are provided with training and mentorship to ensure clear and respectful communication is being practiced.

Actions

Commitment 1: Provide a barrier-free, accessible experience for our customers by:

• Incorporating an accommodation request process into our customer orientation and customer visitation process by June 2024.
• Identifying employee groups that interact with customers regularly and assessing the need for accessibility training by June 2026.

Area 7: Transportation

The Accessible Canada Act identifies transportation as the seventh priority area of accessibility. While we acknowledge our involvement in the transportation industry, it should be noted that DP World Canada is not responsible for the transportation of members of the public. We have included transportation as a priority area as per the requirements of the Act, however, by definition, it falls outside the purview of DP World Canada.

Summary

The concept of “Nothing without Us” supports the notion that persons with disabilities must be involved in the ideation of DP World Canada’s plan to support us in identifying opportunities to progress accessibility in our policies and procedures and the built environment. We consulted with the British Columbia Centre for Ability (BC CFA) in the development of our Accessibility Plan.

Consultation Process

We provided the BC CFA with a draft of our Plan as a Word document for their review. We followed this with a live session on May 3, 2023, to discuss the impact and significance of our goals towards creating an accessible workplace and experience for our employees, customers, and the public.

The session was hosted virtually via Zoom and the consultation team from BC CFA was asked in advance about any accommodation that would be needed for the session.

During the session, participants had the option to turn on closed captioning. Each priority area of the Plan was discussed and accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation for everyone to see.

Results

During the session, we reviewed each of DP World Canada’s Accessibility Commitments and gathered feedback from the BC CFA. Overall, the BC CFA found the Plan to be clear and logical and that it shows a commitment to making a positive impact on the community through accessibility measures.

Most of the Commitments and corresponding action plans provide a coherent and logical progression. However, the BC CFA identified a couple of key areas where further elaboration on the actions was needed to provide a clear and meaningful commitment. This was incorporated throughout the Plan by:

• Integrating our feedback process throughout the Plan as part of individual Commitments to ensure a culture of continuous improvement. 
• Making explicit our commitment to continue working with people with disabilities to ensure that the actions we are taking are moving in the right direction.
• Tying DP World Canada’s core values and business practices more directly into the Plan.

Future Consultations

Future versions of DP World Canada’s Accessibility Plan will place greater emphasis on conducting a more comprehensive consultation process to fully align with the concept of “Nothing Without Us”. Our goal is to engage broader mechanisms for consultation of organizations, employees, and customers through testimonials and storytelling, feedback surveys, and facilitated consultative sessions. We recognize that the more robust our consultation phase is in future republications of our plan, the more likely it is that barriers will be identified and meaningful progress on accessibility, and DEI, will be achieved.

CONCLUSION

DP World Canada’s Accessibility Plan aims to demonstrate our strong dedication to identifying, removing, and preventing barriers to accessibility in all seven (7) priority areas described in the Accessible Canada Act. We know that the first publication of this Plan is the first step towards creating a more equitable workplace and that there will be more we need to do. By setting targets and holding ourselves accountable, we will create a workplace that provides equal opportunities for all.

We recognize that promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at DP World Canada will have far-reaching benefits for our employees, union members, and our business as a whole. We will dedicate resources to making meaningful progress on our Accessibility Plan commitments to contribute to a more accessible Canada.

We acknowledge that advancing accessibility is just one aspect of our DEI journey, we are determined to create a workplace that is safe, accessible, and equitable for all marginalized groups, including but not limited to, Indigenous people, racialized individuals, members of the 2SLBGTQ+ community, and women.