MANITOULIN—In a landmark 2005 piece of legislation, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act was passed by the province with the purpose of ensuring people with disabilities have access to the same public amenities as all other society members in the province. The Act set two decades for municipalities to get their act together on the file, but some small rural communities continue to struggle to meet the Act’s requirements.
The official purpose of the Act, as set out in the preamble of the legislation, is “Recognizing the history of discrimination against persons with disabilities in Ontario, the purpose of this Act is to benefit all Ontarians by, (a) developing, implementing and enforcing accessibility standards in order to achieve accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities with respect to goods, services, facilities, accommodation, employment, buildings, structures and premises on or before January 1, 2025; and (b) providing for the involvement of persons with disabilities, of the Government of Ontario and of representatives of industries and of various sectors of the economy in the development of the accessibility standards.”
Municipalities are expected to meet benchmarks set in the realm of transportation, the design of public spaces, customer service, information and communications and employment. The most visible of these requirements lies in the accessibility of public spaces.
The Expositor canvassed Island municipalities in order to find out how close they are to meeting the 2025 deadline and it turns out most are doing quite well—although a couple still have some challenges.
The Island’s largest municipality, the Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands, reports that things are pretty much in hand. “We are in pretty good shape,” said CAO Dave Williamson. “We have been working on this every year and upgrading to meet the requirements of the Act.”
Central Manitoulin also reports being in reasonably good shape, but there are still some issues to resolve—especially the Mindemoya Community Centre, which remains a challenge, according to CAO Denise Deforge. “We are working on coming up with a plan to tackle the work that remains to be done,” she said.
Tehkummah is also in good shape. “We are pretty much there,” said Clerk/Administrator Barbara Grigg. “We have been doing stuff all along, so we are pretty much there as far as accessibility with our town buildings.”
“I would say we are pretty much a 5.6 out of six; I would say very close when it comes to the buildings,” said Gore Bay Town Manager Harry Schlange. Mr. Schlange rated compliance with the rest of the Act’s provisions as a 5.4 out of six. He said he is confident going forward that the town will meet the 2025 benchmark.
Assiginack also reports being in fairly good shape when it comes to meeting the Act’s 2025 deadline.
When it comes to the success of the rest of the Act, however, the view at 10,000 feet is not rosy, according to disability advocates across the province. According to a December report from Rich Donovan, the fourth in a lineup of provincially appointed reviewers checking on the implementation of the Act, there are only 20 to 25 staff hired by the province to oversee compliance of over 40,000 organizations. Mr. Donavan reports that because of the shortage of staff, there has been “minimal, if any” onsite audits. Despite the immense size of the potential fines—some $100,000 per day of non-compliance by a large organization—there has never been a fine levied.
Apparently, the province depends on self-certification, sort of honour system—especially when it comes to small businesses.
Mr. Donavan has recommended in his report that the province shift accessibility regulation to the federal government in order to tap into greater resources and established mechanisms, but the federal legislation only applies to federally regulated entities.
The province responds that 98.8 percent of verification audits were resolved without the need for escalation. Since 2017, only 45 orders to resolve non-compliant issues were levied—barely five fines were levied between 2015 and 2017.
The ministry points out that there are a host of options available to resolve non-compliance issues in addition to monetary fines. There is always the option of appealing individually to the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, they note.
Advocates for the disabled point out that the whole point of the legislation was to ensure that individuals did not need to go through courts and tribunals—pointing out that most people do not have the time, energy or legal support to launch such action.
