ODA Committee Update
October 29, 2002

ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT COMMITTEE UPDATE An Important Anniversary on the Road to a Barrier-Free Ontario October 29, 2002 SUMMARY October 29, 2002 is an important anniversary in our ongoing campaign for a barrier-free Ontario for all persons with disabilities. Four years ago, on October 29, 1998, we won an important victory along the long and winding road to our ultimate goal. After months of lobbying and advocacy across Ontario, we succeeded in convincing the Ontario Legislature to pass a unanimous resolution on the ODA on that important day back in 1998. It called on the Ontario Government to pass an ODA which complies with the now-famous 11 principles which the ODA Committee put forward to ensure that the ODA is strong and effective. This critically-important resolution is set out again below as a reminder. All ODA Committee members, by joining our coalition, subscribe to these 11 principles. In addition to the extraordinary effort mounted by ODA supporters to get this resolution passed four years ago, ODA supporters have done an excellent job in convincing many municipal and regional councils across Ontario to pass similar resolutions. We remain indebted to Liberal MPP Dwight Duncan for sponsoring this resolution back in 1998 and for spearheading its passage through the Legislature. While we remember this important milestone on the road to a barrier-free province, we are also reminded by this anniversary that we still have much work ahead. The Ontarians with Disabilities Act 2001, passed last December, only fulfils one of these 11 principles. We have called on the Ontario Government to pass regulations under the ODA 2001 which will fulfil all of our 11 principles. The Government has not yet started consulting on regulations to be passed under the ODA 2001. The Government-appointed Accessibility Advisory Council has not yet answered our recent letter. In it we offer our help and ask about their plans for consulting the public on regulations. On this long journey towards a barrier-free Ontario, we benefit from celebrating our victories, like ours of October 29, 1998. We also look forward with energy and commitment to make those 11 principles a reality in Ontario. As always, send us your feedback at: oda@odacommittee.net ***** ODA RESOLUTION UNANIMOUSLY PASSED BY THE ONTARIO LEGISLATURE OCTOBER 29, 1998 In the opinion of this House, since persons with disabilities in Ontario face systemic barriers in access to employment, services, goods, facilities and accommodation; and since, all Ontarians will benefit from the removal of these barriers, thereby enabling these persons to enjoy equal opportunity and full participation in the life of the province; and since Premier Harris promised in writing during the last election in the letter from Michael D. Harris to the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee dated May 24, 1995 to: a) enact an Ontarians with Disabilities Act within its current term of office; and b) work together with members of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee, amongst others, in the development of such legislation. and since this House unanimously passed a resolution on May 16, 1996 calling on the Ontario Government to keep this promise, Therefore this House resolves that the Ontarians with Disabilities Act should embody the following principles: 1. The purpose of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act should be to effectively ensure to persons with disabilities in Ontario the equal opportunity to fully and meaningfully participate in all aspects of life in Ontario based on their individual merit, by removing existing barriers confronting them and by preventing the creation of new barriers. It should seek to achieve a barrier-free Ontario for persons with disabilities within as short a time as is reasonably possible, with implementation to begin immediately upon proclamation. 2. The Ontarians with Disabilities Act's requirements should supersede all other legislation, regulations or policies which either conflict with it, or which provide lesser protections and entitlements to persons with disabilities; 3. The Ontarians with Disabilities Act should require government entities, public premises, companies and organizations to be made fully accessible to all persons with disabilities through the removal of existing barriers and the prevention of the creation of new barriers, within strict time frames to be prescribed in the legislation or regulations; 4. The Ontarians with Disabilities Act should require the providers of goods, services and facilities to the public to ensure that their goods, services and facilities are fully usable by persons with disabilities, and that they are designed to reasonably accommodate the needs of persons with disabilities. Included among services, goods and facilities, among other things, are all aspects of education including primary, secondary and post-secondary education, as well as providers of transportation and communication facilities (to the extent that Ontario can regulate these) and public sector providers of information to the public e.g. governments. Providers of these goods, services and facilities should be required to devise and implement detailed plans to remove existing barriers within legislated timetables; 5. The Ontarians with Disabilities Act should require public and private sector employers to take proactive steps to achieve barrier-free workplaces within prescribed time limits. Among other things, employers should be required to identify existing barriers which impede persons with disabilities, and then to devise and implement plans for the removal of these barriers, and for the prevention of new barriers in the workplace; 6. The Ontarians with Disabilities Act should provide for a prompt and effective process for enforcement. It should not simply incorporate the existing procedures for filing discrimination complaints with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, as these are too slow and cumbersome, and yield inadequate remedies; 7. As part of its enforcement process, the Ontarians with Disabilities Act should provide for a process of regulation-making to define with clarity the steps required for compliance with the Ontarians with Disabilities Act. It should be open for such regulations to be made on an industry-by-industry basis, or sector-by-sector basis. This should include a requirement that input be obtained from affected groups such as persons with disabilities before such regulations are enacted. It should also provide persons with disabilities with the opportunity to apply to have regulations made in specific sectors of the economy; 8. The Ontarians with Disabilities Act should also mandate the Government of Ontario to provide education and other information resources to companies, individuals and groups who seek to comply with the requirements of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act; 9. The Ontarians with Disabilities Act should also require the Government of Ontario to take affirmative steps to promote the development and distribution in Ontario of new adaptive technologies and services for persons with disabilities; 10. The Ontarians with Disabilities Act should require the provincial and municipal governments to make it a strict condition of funding any program, or of purchasing any services, goods or facilities, that they be designed to be fully accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities. Any grant or contract which does not so provide is void and unenforceable by the grant-recipient or contractor with the government in question; 11. The Ontarians with Disabilities Act must be more than mere window dressing. It should contribute meaningfully to the improvement of the position of persons with disabilities in Ontario. It must have real force and effect.

 

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Last updated November 9, 2002 8:32 pm