Letter to the ODA Committee to
The Honourable Helen Johns,
Minister of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation

May 23, 2000

The Honourable Helen Johns
Minister of Citizenship,
Culture and Recreation
400 University Avenue, 6th Floor
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 2R9

Dear Minister,

I have just received a copy of a letter that you sent to PUSH Northwest, dated May 11, 2000, about your consultation on the Ontarians with Disabilities Act. I was surprised to see the ODA Committee listed as one of the groups that you say that you are continuing to meet with as part of the consultation that you are conducting in preparation for your undefined "action plan".

As you know, our only meeting with you was nine months ago, on September 28, 1999. At that time it was understood that the meeting was not part of any consultation process since you said at that time that you had not yet started your consultations on what to include in the Ontarians with Disabilities Act.

Since that meeting, we have put considerable effort into trying to get concrete information from you and the Premier about your consultations and what will be included in this "action plan". To date, we have been unsuccessful in obtaining this information. The response to our latest unsuccessful attempt to meet with the Premier was provided by his director of tours and public events.

In terms of consulting with the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee, I wrote to you on April 24, 2000 to ask for a meeting with you., as suggested by the Premier. After receiving no response I
contacted your office to ask your staff to arrange a meeting before I left on vacation on May 24, 2000. You were unavailable through that period. In order to avoid further delay, could you please ask your
staff to provide Marg Thomas with possible dates for a meeting in early July when I return.

In the meantime could we ask that you not make statements which suggest that you have met with the ODA Committee as part of your consultation process.

As well, in order to allow the members of the ODA Committee to fully participate in the consultation that you have undertaken, could you please send a copy of the terms of reference and time frame for the consultation to Ms. Marg Thomas at the above address. Arrangements will be made to have this distributed to the ODA Committee membership in my absence. We also urge you to make that information public so that all who are interested can know about it.

Yours sincerely,

David Lepofsky, CM,
Chair, Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee

cc: Name: Fax No:
Hon. Mike Harris 325-7578
Norman Sterling 326-2913
Dalton McGuinty 325-9895
Dwight Duncan 325-2201
Steve Peters 325-7262
Howard Hampton 325-8222
David Christopherson 325-7111
Marilyn Churley 325-7111

 

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