Help
Ontario clean up its disability act
Minister seeking input from public
by Helen Henderson,
Toronto Star
February 7, 2004
If you were a provincial lawmaker, what would you do to make Ontario a truly accessible province, one in which people with disabilities can get the education and experience they need to contribute their talents to an enhanced quality of life for all?
What would you do to tear down the barriers that ostracize anyone who moves, communicates or processes information in a unique way?
What are your top three suggestions to make the Ontarians with Disabilities Act (ODA), brought in by the former Conservative government, more meaningful?
These are not trick questions. The people in power at Queen's Park these days say they really want to know.
Specifically, Citizenship Minister Marie Bountrogianni, who is responsible for disability issues, and her parliamentary assistant, Dr. Kuldip Kular, who initiated a series of round-table discussions on the subject last month.
Bountrogianni has a lot on her plate in addition to immigration and disability issues. As children's minister, she is responsible for working with the federal government to improve child care. She has promised by March to come up with a solid plan to help kids with autism and other special needs. She has put forward a plan to bring all young offenders under the aegis of Children's Services "so we can have more flexibility for prevention programs."
Still, in the space
of a few months she has started a dialogue with disability advocates her
Conservative predecessors took years even to acknowledge as necessary.
In January, the round-table sessions with chosen representatives of the
disability community paved the way. This month and next, in hearings throughout
the province, Bountrogianni and Kular want to hear from ordinary people
like you and me.
By fall, Bountrogianni says she aims to introduce new legislation.
The Ontarians With
Disabilities Act, hastily introduced in the dying premiership of Mike
Harris, has long been criticized as little more than ill-conceived lip
service.
Unlike its U.S. predecessor, hailed as breakthrough legislation, it does
not cover private-sector companies and contains no mandatory changes,
no deadlines for accomplishing anything and no means of enforcement.
During the public forums, Bountrogianni is soliciting suggestions from everyone about how to make the legislation stronger.
There's no limit to the number of suggestions or comments you can submit but to simplify the process, the ministry suggests boiling things down to your top three suggestions for making the ODA more meaningful.
"These can be changes to the ODA itself or suggestions for things that be done without changing the law," it says.
So get going. The whole point is to include everybody.
There's no reason to hold back.
Write:
Helen Henderson, Life Section,
Toronto Star, One Yonge St.,
Toronto, Ont. M5E 1E6.
Please include your
telephone number.
E-mail: hhenderson@thestar.ca
SOURCE: Toronto Star
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