October 7, 1997
Hon. Marilyn Mushinski
Minister of Citizenship, Culture & Recreation
77 Bloor Street West, 6th Floor
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 2R9

Dear Ms Mushinski:

Re: Ontarians with Disabilities Act

I am writing to confirm that representatives of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee will be meeting with you next on Monday, October 27, 1997. At our last meeting with you, held on August 20th  1997, we presented to you and your staff our views on how to make the public consultation process on the Ontarians with Disabilities Act as open, accessible, and effective as possible. Since then we have awaited your response on this subject and have awaited the government's announcement of its plans for a public consultation on the development of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act. We are very concerned that there has still been no public announcement of a starting date and detailed plans for the consultation. Nor has the government circulated a discussion paper. We had hoped that this would be done by the beginning of October in order to give people around the province time to prepare. Since you committed that the target date for the introduction of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act into the Ontaro legislature is mid to late fall of  998, time is very much of the essence. The government has taken over a year just to put together its plans on the consultation process. The government only has that much time left to do all the work necessary to actually develop the legislation itself.

We hope that before our next meeting your staff will be in a position to notify us of the details of the public consultation process adopted by the government including the timetable to be followed in carrying out this process. This will give us an adequate opportunity to prepare for our meeting with you.

We look forward to hearing from your staff with further details about the process and to meeting with you later this month to discuss the next steps towards the introduction and passage of a strong and effective Ontarians with Disabilities Act.

Yours sincerely,

David Lepofsky
Co-Chair

cc Hon. Mike Harris
Dalton McGuinty
Dominic Agostino
Gilles Morin
Howard Hampton
Frances Lankin
Marion Boyd