Vancouver couple to be inducted jointly into Order of Canada
Posted May 6, 2015 4:19 pm.
Last Updated May 7, 2015 7:25 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A couple from Vancouver is about to make history, by receiving a rare joint Order of Canada induction this Friday.
Al Etmanski and Vickie Cammack are being recognized for a lifetime of advocating for the disabled, including their founding of PLAN, the Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network.
Cammack says they came up with the idea while raising their own disabled child.
“PLAN was created to answer a question that families of disabilities have which is, ‘What’s going to happen to my relative when I’m not there,'” she explains. “This was the first generation of people with disabilities who are outliving their families, so the question was really prescient.”
The couple also created the Registered Disability Savings Plan, billed as a first-of-its-kind program in the world.
“Fifteen per cent, probably a little bit more, of Canadians with disabilities have already taken out a Registered Disability Savings Plan,” explains Etmanski. “So, you know, we have a long way to go, but collectively deposits are over $2 billion.”
Besides the Order of Canada, Etmanski is also the recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal, both for his work for people with disabilities.
