Mandi Crespo
Hi everyone. My name is Mandi Crespo and I'm the leader of the BDO Canada Accessibility Consulting practice. Welcome to the BDO Accessibility Spotlight. The BDO Accessibility Spotlight is an opportunity for us to showcase some of the great work happening across Canada in the space of accessibility for persons with disabilities. Today we have two fantastic guests with us from the Trans Mountain pipeline, Christine Mack-Granger and Tina Johnson-Adams.
Christine is a senior leader in HR whose career has focused on culture, employee experience and strategic business partnerships. She is also an executive coach and an active volunteer in her community. At Trans Mountain, she is the director of HR programs and the inclusion, diversity, equity and Accessibility portfolio. Tina is a human services professional who is passionate about advocacy and social justice, and looks at how to apply these concepts in the variety of spaces she gets to work.
She is the current Senior advisor on inclusion, diversity, equity and Accessibility at Trans Mountain, where she explores how to advance inclusive workplace strategies for the organization. Christine and Tina, we are thrilled to have you here today. Thank you for joining us. I wanted to have an opportunity to talk to you and for you to share all of the things that have been happening at Trans Mountain.
I know 2024 has been a huge year for you. What have been some of the highlights in the past year?
Christine Mack-Granger
Thank you for having us, Mandi. I'm going to say that it's just been an incredible opportunity to be involved in the organization as our, you know, Line 2 pipeline project has transitioned from project to in-service and being able to be part of an organization, witnessing the pride within the organization and also the value that this has brought to our customers, but also our country.
Mandi Crespo
Yeah, that's it's huge, isn't it? I mean, I know it's been a long time coming, and there was a lot of, work to get you to this point, so many people involved. So that has to feel incredible to get there.
Christine Mack-Granger
It's pretty exciting here.
Mandi Crespo
Yeah. And, and I wanted to ask you more about the work that you're doing in what you're calling “IDEA”, your inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility. I know that was one of the changes that you made this year. So, we've been working with you at BDO for about two years now on removing barriers for persons with disabilities, and I've been impressed with them.
So many of the changes, including that shift from from, like equity, diversity and inclusion to including accessibility in that, what do you feel like have been the biggest wins for accessibility at Trans Mountain?
Christine Mack-Granger
I think first of all, that exact, item that you mentioned. So we transitioned what we used to call our inclusion and diversity portfolio to include accessibility. So we have rebranded it as inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility. And what it does for us is it really creates the importance of accessibility within our inclusion and diversity portfolio, in our initiatives.
And the second thing that's been a big win is when we first started to consider how the Accessible Canada Act, how we would implement that within our organization. We didn't really understand the broad definition of accessibility. And we, you know, we started with a very narrow definition, more so around physical space. And so as we work with yourselves and we also got to learn a lot around it, around accessibility.
We realized the breadth of it. And so with that, we were able to engage a number of other people within the organization who are working with us on the implementation of the Accessible Canada Act and also who became real organizational champions with us for this initiative.
Mandi Crespo
Yeah, and it's been so fun to see that too, to see the group kind of come together and for you to be able to draw on so many people that, some started out with not a whole lot of knowledge about accessibility and to see them grow over time and get more passionate about it. That's been really cool for me to witness.
Christine Mack-Granger
And I would see myself in that in that cohort as well, about not really understanding much about it and really, really understanding, with the work that we've been able to do over the past two years, all of the facets accessibility touches.
Mandi Crespo
Yeah, and I will mention too, this summer, you had some incredible co-op students, and they got brought into the team and did some great work as well, which was really neat to see.
Tina Johnson-Adams
Yeah. Yeah. Just to jump in and echo a bit. What Christine was sharing. It's been a really cool year of learning not only, what accessibility looks like for us, you know, with the Accessible Canada Act. But, as Christine was mentioning, just the number of people in different areas within the organization outside of HR who really took up the charge to see how, you know, we could implement these and so, you know, really being able to collaborate with leaders in this space has been really cool. And thinking outside the box of what accessibility can look like for us everywhere, from procurement, to communications to IT to even, “How does that work within our culture as well?” It’s been a lot of learning. But it's really cool to see, when things start to get implemented and start working and paying off. Pretty cool.
Christine Mack-Granger
Yeah.
Mandi Crespo
Yeah. That's amazing. And I have to say too, I know, Tina, we presented not too long ago, opened up a session for all of Trans Mountain to talk about accessibility and all the work that's been done and some of the points that you shared with everyone at Trans Mountain about things that are happening in accessibility, really, made me very proud and I'm sure make you very proud too.
And I think about like we talked about, Microsoft Office and, and or Microsoft 365 and turning on accessibility features to make sure that people could check documents for accessibility. And I know you've talked about, like, adding Braille to signage. Yeah. I wonder if there were other things that you can think of that have happened in the past year or two that you were really proud of?
Tina Johnson-Adams
Yeah, I see a lot of work happening. I'm going to come back to actually our HR group because, I guess I have the closest proximity to that and get to see what's happening there. There's been so many great conversations around how do we make the process, whether it's through hiring, through onboarding, and the employee experience while they're here throughout the lifecycle, how do we embed accessibility from the very beginning stages?
All the way until now. And so I've been really encouraged by, by some of the conversation and some little pieces like you were mentioning, you know, with Microsoft Office and Braille. You know, some of these really, I say small, but they don't feel small. I think they're actually quite significant, but they're just pieces that we could implement right away without you know, taking years to develop.
And, and so I think that's really kind of kept some of the, you know, momentum going, when people can see some of these actionable pieces get put into place while we're also dreaming about bigger things that we want to do as well.
Mandi Crespo
Yeah, and I think that that's such an important distinction is like, how can you make those steps, those little steps all along the way while also planning to make these bigger changes? Because not everything with accessibility has to be big and expensive and take a long time. Some things you can just do. They're pretty simple and or relatively easy to implement.
And while there's others that you just have to put a lot of thought or time or resources into to make things happen. So I love that approach of thinking about how you can do both and plan for both. I know you've had so much happening at Trans Mountain where you had the new pipeline.
I know the number of employees was huge. You've had all kinds of fluctuations. Lots happening. I was wondering from both of you, how did you approach removing barriers for persons with disabilities during such a busy time at the organization?
Christine Mack-Granger
Great question. One of our things that we need to do this year across all of our work, is: what's consumable by the organization during a big year to minimize distraction for the significant operational, you know, uptake in our second pipeline. And so I would say a few things around that. Number one, as mentioned, we have kind of pillar leads for each of the areas of accessibility.
And they've helped us plan what's possible within the organization, within their organizations and their areas of focus. I think one thing that really helped us was, you know, we started this past year, we've really dug into a current state. And, that has helped us understand, like, where are we starting from? And then what are the opportunities to say what's next?
And you just you both just talked about that, like, what are the bite size pieces on the way to our bigger vision? And that's allowed us to really decide what is consumable and possible. And there's things just like Microsoft 365 where it just shows up for people and there's not a big bang or need to do something with it.
So it can just happen in the background. I see the third thing for us is thinking about how does this work connect to the broader system and the other work we already have underway. So an example within our team is, you know, we are really looking at our data from the Employee Equity Act and thinking about how do we reduce barriers for some of those key designated groups.
And for us, persons with disabilities is one of those key groups. So how do we implement and integrate this work into work we're already thinking about? So it doesn't feel like a net new add to the work we're doing.
Mandi Crespo
Yeah. And you know, again, I think that's such a smart approach too, it not only ties what you're doing together, but it all feeds up into those bigger ideas of what you want to be as a company, where you want to get to and what you want your culture to be like.
And, just coming from the outside and getting to watch for a few years of what you're doing, it's just so, so fun to watch the intention that you put in behind creating a culture where where people feel included or having good experiences as employees or as customers or, people who are working with or are impacted by the work that Trans Mountain is doing.
So yeah, I think that all that accessibility work is tying in and you're being very intentional about that. It's so cool to watch.
Tina Johnson-Adams
I just want to add to that too, because I, you know, I've been in this role for a year. And then there was work that was happening before I started here. But what I can say in the last year, and I think, before I even arrived is there's a lot of work put into having a shared understanding of accessibility and what does that mean?
I remember having initial conversations, and diving into, you know, let's talk about accessibility and people pausing me to say, like, what does that mean? And what do you mean when you say that? And so I think it was good to take a step back, and to make sure that we were, in fact, talking about the same thing and that we did actually, in fact, have a shared goal of, you know, having a barrier free workplace.
And, you know, what are barriers and what does that look like? So, yeah, I think putting in that work and slowing down a bit to make sure we were talking the same language, that was the super key. And to help people, you know, not feel overwhelmed in coming along with us in the work too.
Mandi Crespo
Thank you for that. And I'd say that's my next question for you, is about what advice you would give to other organizations. And I think that's a really great piece of advice too, for organizations is to make sure you're all on that same page and you have a shared understanding of just, you know, the foundational pieces of accessibility or disability or accommodations or barriers or all of those words.
And what that means in this context of being compliant with legislation or just doing the work of becoming more accessible for people with disabilities. What other advice would you have for organizations who are just starting to think about accessibility?
Tina Johnson-Adams
Yeah, another thought I have is around, just take a step forward. I, as someone who likes to have a lot of information before I dive in as, Christine, my boss can attest to some of that, sometimes it just means taking a step forward. And figuring out what it's going to look like, for departments and for your organization as you go.
And having all the information, you know, in the beginning just might not be realistic in this space, especially as accessibility itself, as a field is really evolving as well. So, I think a lot of learning can happen in the space when you start to take steps forward. I would argue it may not be perfect off the bat, but, you can you can try, you can implement some things, get feedback, listen, come back to it, see if it's working. And if it's not working how it's supposed to, how can you adjust things? So, I think, maybe getting rid of the fear of just jumping in, starting somewhere doesn't have to be revolutionary. Can be small pieces to start. And to keep that momentum going.
Christine Mack-Granger
Yeah.
Mandi Crespo
Thank you for that. Yeah. Christine, do you have anything to add?
Christine Mack-Granger
I would say a few things. Number one, to kind of build on what Tina was saying is, you know, learn enough to be dangerous in terms of how this does impact your organization. And because that way you'll know who to engage. And, you know, you can really find champions around the organization to help you implement.
And I think there is a lot of energy to sometimes jump in to just put something in place. But we really took the time to understand. I remember Mandi, one of our early meetings, and we were talking about accessibility, and I said, what does it mean? Like in a holistic way? And, you know, we quickly learned based on some great information that BDO had for us and through reading, and that helped us then put those kind of ways to step forward in place by understanding what it means, because it's much broader than what our initial perspective was.
I'd say coupled with that is it doesn't have to all be owned by HR. And I would offer it probably can't be, or actually it can't be because as we talked about so many other people are key to making it become a reality or organization. IT, Communications, Supply chain. So many facilities, so many other people we have as part of our project team, which we feel really, grateful for, and they're helping us figure it out together as an organization.
So find those champions who you also can work with and who can help you implement. I’s say the last thing for me, what's been really powerful is storytelling. So where are those key milestones throughout the year where you can have speakers, or even within your organization come in, and storytelling around accessibility and disability, what it means for them personally, because that makes it real and normalizes it for those folks in the organization.
Mandi Crespo
Yeah, those are all such great points. And, yeah, I'm gonna always have that in the back of my head now, of the, “learn enough to be dangerous”. I love that. So I think that's a great line, another great line from Christine. You always have great lines. Yeah. Well, thank you both for being here today.
And I know I've just appreciated working with both of you so much. And I learned so much from you and I appreciate all the passion and the dedication and the iteration, the learning and growing and continuously evolving in this space. And I just appreciate getting to be a part of that, as a consultant working with Trans Mountain.
So thank you for that. And thank you for being here with us today. We'll leave it at that. And, we'll be here again another time for another BDO Accessibility Spotlight. Thank you so much.
Christine Mack-Granger
Thank you.
Tina Johnson-Adams
Thanks for having us, Mandi.