Sudbury doesn't have an accessibility advisory committee. Here's why some residents hope to change that
Residents asking the city to replace Accessibility Advisory Panel with a committee
A Sudbury resident living with a physical disability says the city needs to create a municipal accessibility advisory committee whose work is open and transparent.
Nadine Law, the regional client services co-ordinator for Spinal Cord Injury Ontario, said she fell and broke her back in 2019. She then discovered she developed an autoimmune disease that affected her mobility. Due to another fall last year, Law has been forced to use a walker, or what she calls her "hot wheels," full time.
But it wasn't her mobility issues that inspired her to speak on the lack of accessibility in Greater Sudbury. She said her son and former partner both have physical disabilities, which led her to join Greater Sudbury's Accessibility Advisory Panel in 2018.
She said it was a chance to share her concerns with city staff. One of those was the lack of barrier-free washroom facilities at city hall in 2018.
"Issues that I've brought up years past, there is no record of it, and for example, my addressing the issue with not having a universal washroom in 2018," said Law.
Now, Law is pushing for the city to consider replacing the Accessibility Advisory Panel with a municipal accessibility advisory committee.
"By having a committee, we've got the minutes, we've got this published, there's that transparency. This is what we need."
At the May 28 council meeting, Eric Labelle, city solicitor and clerk at the City Of Greater Sudbury, was asked about the city's choice to not have a committee. He pointed to Ontario's Municipal Act. It defines a committee as a group composed of 50 per cent of members of council or board members with the city. He said this contradicts the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act that requires the formation of an accessibility advisory committee composed of a majority of members being persons with disabilities. Thus, the city decided to create an accessibility panel instead of a committee.
Honestly, it looks like opacity and ableism on our city's part.- Nadine Law
In response to the city, Law said staff have shown a persistent failure to prioritize accessibility for its aging and disabled population. She said they've managed to avoid transparency and accountability to taxpayers.
According to the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, a committee is required by law to provide and publish regular progress reports. This will ensure concerns are written down and made public to increase transparency and accountability for the city, Law explains.
She points to accessibility advisory committees in North Bay, Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie. For all three of these cities, the committee membership is made up of a majority of community volunteers living with a disability and two council members or city staff.
Diane Morrell, the accessibility co-ordinator in Sault Ste. Marie, said the committee has helped address barriers for people with disabilities.
"I would say it's a very collaborative approach. Every city is supposed to be consulting with the community and an accessibility advisory committee," she explained. "The advice that the committee provides to council weighs fairly heavily with them."
Greater Sudbury Coun. Natalie Labbée first approached the issue at the May 28 council meeting.
"When you look on the website for the province that we're not listed as a committee. We are such a big city and such a presence in northern Ontario. Maybe we could relook at that, just if it's a naming thing, I just would like us to be more official."
Labbée said she doesn't understand why there's so much resistance from city staff.
"There's been mistakes made where it's cost the city a lot of money. I would think that putting this in place and formalizing it would be an important step to prevent that from happening again."
Labbée said she'll keep working with residents to push for a change in the name.
"I really feel that if people are coming to us expressing that they are concerned about it being a panel and not a committee, then for us as able bodied people thinking, I know it's semantics, who cares if it's called a committee or panel? If it's important to those people, then we have a responsibility to listen."
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