ODA Committee Update
dated Oct. 3, 2003
Posted Oct. 30, 2003

ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT COMMITTEE UPDATE ODA Committee Writes Premier-Designate McGuinty To Congratulate Him On His Victory And To Offer Our Help October 3, 2003 SUMMARY On October 3, 2003, the ODA Committee wrote Premier-Designate McGuinty. See this letter below. We congratulate him on his election victory. We thank him for his past support of a strong ODA. We offer to help him keep his election commitment to pass a strong ODA in his first year in office. Send us your feedback at: oda@odacommittee.net ***** ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT COMMITTEE c/o Marg Thomas 1929 Bayview Avenue, Toronto ON M4G 3E8 Tel: (Voice direct) 416-480-7686 Fax: 416-480-7014 Voice mail: 416-480-7012 email: oda@odacommittee.net TTY: c/o Susan Main 416 964-0023 ex. 343 Web site: www.odacommittee.net October 3, 2003 Premier-Designate Dalton McGuinty Room 381, Legislative Building Queen's Park Toronto, Ontario M7A 1A4 Dear Premier-Designate McGuinty, Re: Ontarians with Disabilities Act On behalf of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee, I want to congratulate you and the Liberal party on its sweeping victory in yesterday's election. We look forward with enthusiasm to working together with you and your new Government, on implementing your commitment to enact a strong, effective, mandatory and enforceable Ontarians with Disabilities Act within your first year in office. We very much appreciated your Party's commitment and your own personal commitment to this issue over your years in opposition. You have repeatedly demonstrated this commitment while in opposition, through your campaigning in this and the 1999 elections on a platform to enact a strong ODA, through your relentlessly and tenaciously pressing the Harris/Eves Government on this issue over the past years, through your Party's unanimous support for the October 29, 1998 legislative resolution, introduced by Liberal MPP Dwight Duncan (which enshrined the 11 principles for the ODA to be strong and effective), through Liberal MPP Steve Peters' 2000 province-wide ODA public consultation tour, through the Liberal Party's excellent report on the need for a strong Ontarians with Disabilities Act that resulted from Mr. Peters' public consultation tour, and through Liberal MPP Ernie Parsons' proposing a series of amendments to the Conservatives' weak ODA in 2001 - amendments which the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee put forward and which the Conservative Government regrettably voted down. We also appreciated your Party's working together in a cooperative, non-partisan way in the Legislature with the NDP over the past several years on the ODA issue, in light of the NDP's similar support for a strong, effective ODA. Over the past eight years, many, many Ontarians with disabilities felt an enormous sense of frustration as the last Government delayed and delayed on this issue, and then came forward two years ago with a weak, unenforceable law. You and many members of your caucus expressed similar sentiments of frustration on the floor of the Legislature, in interviews with the media, at All-Candidates' Debates, and in private meetings with people with disabilities. Now that you have won a strong mandate to implement your election platform, a new era has begun. We want to offer our assistance to help you with your extraordinary opportunity to implement your election ODA Commitments. We open this new chapter in our campaign for a barrier-free Ontario with optimism, energy and enthusiasm. We look forward in the coming days as you take on the daunting task of forming your Government to rolling up our sleeves and providing whatever assistance we can to help you craft an ODA which will make Ontario become a proud world-leader in providing people with disabilities with the chance to fully participate in employment, the enjoyment of goods services and facilities, and all the other great things that Ontario has to offer. As you and your caucus members have pointed out so often, every Ontarian either now has a disability or will likely get one later in life. Your election platform in this area can improve the lives of everyone in this province. working together, we can make this a reality. Again, please accept our heartfelt congratulations. Sincerely, David Lepofsky, C.M. Chair Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee cc: The Hon. Ernie Eves 325-7578 Dwight Duncan 325-2201 Steve Peters 325-7262 Ernie Parsons 325-4757 Howard Hampton 325-8222 Nadia Temple, Director, Accessibility Directorate Relevant Links Ontario Legislature's Second Resolution (adopting the 11 principles) on the Ontarians with Disabilities Act dd Oct 29, 1998 Ontario Liberal Party Unveils 2003 Election Pledge to Enact Strong Effective ODA dd April 8, 2003 Ontario Liberal Party released its official Report on the Ontarians with Disabilities Act on Nov 23, 2000 at a news conference at Queen's Park. This Report is the result of the 15-city consultation tour which Liberal Member of the Legislature Steve Peters conducted in March of 2000. Liberal Party Tables Package Of Proposed Amendments To Strengthen Bill 125 With Standing Committee On Finance And Economic Affairs dd Dec. 10/01

 

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