JOINT PEEL-CALEDON

ACCESSIBILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE (AAC)

1. CALL TO ORDER

Jeff Payne, Committee Clerk, presided.

2. ELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIR

a. Election of the Accessibility Advisory Committee Chair

RECOMMENDATION AAC-1-2008:

That William Goursky be appointed as Chair of the Joint Peel-Caledon Accessibility Advisory Committee (AAC) for the period January 29, 2008 to December 31, 2008 or until a successor is appointed by Regional Council.

b. Election of the Accessibility Advisory Committee Vice-Chair

RECOMMENDATION AAC-2-2008:

That Naz Husain be appointed as Vice-Chair of the Joint Peel-Caledon Accessibility Advisory Committee (AAC) for the period January 29, 2008 to December 31, 2008 or until a successor is appointed by Regional Council.

William Goursky, Chair, presided.

3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

RECOMMENDATION AAC-3-2008:

That the minutes of the November 27, 2007 Joint Peel-Caledon Accessibility Advisory Committee meeting be approved.

4. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

 

RECOMMENDATION AAC-4-2008:

That an item be added under Other Business as Item 10a regarding the establishment of a Universal Design Subcommittee;

And further, that the agenda for the January 29, 2008 Joint Peel-Caledon Accessibility Advisory Committee meeting be approved, as amended.

Items Related to Presentations - Items 6a and 6b were dealt with.

6. PRESENTATIONS

a. Larry Ducharme, General Manager, London Transit and Kelly Paleczny, Director, Finance and Administration, London Transit, Providing an Overview of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and a Summary of the Key Requirements of the Draft Transportation Standard

Received

Larry Ducharme, General Manager, London Transit provided a broad level overview and status update with regard to accessibility standards as required under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). He indicated that all Standard Development Committee work is currently on hold, pending the implementation of structural changes to committee membership resulting from new Provincial government direction. The changes will result in a delay for all standards committees and may, in some cases, make it necessary for the standards development process to begin again.

Larry Ducharme stated that the transit industry is committed to implementing fully accessible public transit services by 2025. He noted that new standards need to be sustainable for an industry that delivered over 730 million trips in 2007.

Larry Ducharme noted that accessible public transit services can be delivered through the introduction of a Family of Services model. This model is developed to address public transit requirements for persons with disabilities and is based on providing users with various accessible service options such as shuttles; door-to-door specialized services; community buses; medical shuttles; accessible fixed route conventional transit services; travel training programs and trip planning. He explained that the current standard holds the municipality or region responsible for compliance and not the service provider. He noted that there are various challenges faced by municipalities under the new standards including fare parity; hours of service; expanded eligibility criteria; enhanced eligibility process; and reduced booking window, amongst others. Larry Ducharme indicated that the cost associated with the compliance of the draft standard is estimated to be $500 million over an 18 year period, with a subsequent ongoing annual cost of $16 million.

Larry Ducharme provided a brief review of the public consultation process which included meetings with stakeholders and the public. He noted that the transit industry and AMO viewed the standard, on balance, as agreeable. However, he indicated that some municipalities will be faced with challenges given their geographical area, population size, fiscal capacity and other demographic and economic factors. Larry Ducharme stated that any changes will need to be in harmony with other existing legislation and must be assessed in order to determine any significant economical and social impact. He also identified some issues that the Region of Peel may need to consider which include: visitor service, service reservation bookings, service hours, service area, and fares (all of which should be consistent with conventional services).

Councillor Hames inquired into how cross boundary trips would be dealt with since Brampton Transit not only travels to Mississauga and vice-versa, but also to York Region. Kelly Paleczny, Director, Finance and Administration, London Transit responded that this would need to be coordinated according to trip destinations and that Brampton would need to match services with the services provided in York Region.

Councillor Hames stated that TransHelp currently provides door-to-door service and inquired if this service would still be available given that conventional transit providers do not provide door-to-door service. Larry Ducharme indicated that there will always be a need for specialized services. He stated that the “Family of Services” model allows for the coordination of services. He noted that perhaps this door-to-door pick up could be altered to include pick up and drop off at an accessible conventional transit bus stop.

Councillor Hames commented that this legislation will make it difficult for smaller municipalities to move forward due to the associated costs and consequently some municipalities may opt not to provide a public transit service. Larry Ducharme indicated this to be a valid point and noted that some municipalities are hesitant or are withdrawing as a result.

Naz Husain inquired as to the composition of persons with disabilities that were members of the Transportation Standards Committee. Kelly Paleczny indicated that originally 7 of the 28 members represented people with disabilities. Larry Ducharme clarified that some of these members represented other sectors as well. He added that under the new legislation, 50 per cent of the voting members had to strictly represent the disabled community or be an advocate for the disabled community, however, this was not yet definitive.

G. Barnes arrived at 1:39 p.m.

b. Kristina Liivoja, Coordinator, Peel Children's Water Festival, Environment, Transportation and Planning Services, Region of Peel, Providing an Overview of the 2008 Peel Children’s Water Festival Activities

Received

Kristina Liivoja, Coordinator, Peel Children's Water Festival, Environment, Transportation and Planning Services, Region of Peel, provided an overview of the Peel Children’s Water Festival, currently in its 13th year. The event occurs annually in the month of May, and has over the years been host to over 70,000 students. She advised that the theme for the 2008 festival will be “Source Water Protection”, which is to be held at the Heart Lake Conservation Area from May 22 to May 28, with May 24 being “Family Fun Day”. Kristina Liivoja explained that the festival is composed of four sub-committees: Operations, Volunteer, Family Fun Day, and Activities. She indicated that she was seeking site review input from the Joint Peel-Caledon Accessibility Advisory Committee and any suggestions to improve accessibility would be appreciated. Kristina Liivoja also advised that this year staff are considering including all-terrain wheelchairs on the site and are seeking input and feedback in this regard from the Region of Peel Health and Safety associate. Kristina Liivoja stated that staff intends to make disability sensitivity training more readily available to the schools via the development of a video and requested participation from committee members in this regard.

William Goursky thanked Kristina Liivoja for her presentation and suggested using students with disabilities to provide help as instructors for festival events, where possible. William Goursky informed that he is currently reviewing the activities planned for the 2008 festival.

Meenu Sikand inquired about the total number of activity scripts that are currently utilized at the festival. Kristina Liivoja advised that there are more than 50 scripts which were used at the festival. Meenu Sikand suggested that additional interested members could be used to review the activities and scripts to improve access for different types of disabilities. Naz Husain offered her assistance to review the activity scripts from a sensory accessibility perspective. Committee members interested in volunteering for Family Day were asked to send their names to Meenu Sikand.

Glenn Barnes referred to the use of all-terrain wheelchairs and addressed the concerns raised about liability issues by suggesting that it might be more feasible to deal with liability issues if all-terrain wheelchairs were made available for purchase by the Region of Peel and were part of the equipment pool. Kristina Liivoja thanked the Joint Peel-Caledon Accessibility Advisory Committee for the excellent points raised during the meeting and undertook to discuss the information with her committee members.

5. COMMUNICATION ITEMS

a. AODA Alliance, e-mail dated January 8, 2008, Providing an Accessibility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act Alliance Update and Attaching Correspondence from Al Cormier, Chair, Transportation Standards Development Committee and a Response from the Honourable Madeleine Meilleur, Minister of Community and Social Services

Received

Glenn Barnes provided a background of events and an update regarding the current status of the issue regarding the Transportation Standard Committee composition. He indicated that contrary to what the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Alliance was stating, the Transportation Standards Committee was not opposed to the new direction set by the Province, which ensures that disability representatives constitute 50 per cent of the Standards Development Committee. Glenn noted that the current chair of the Transportation Standards Committee was in favour of the 50/50 representation of people with disabilities request going forward for other committees. However, for the Transportation Standards Committee to implement this request at this point in time, given the time and work already dedicated would mean that the committee would essentially need to re-initiate the process. The request by the Transportation Standards Committee was eventually turned down by the Province and new members will need to be added to the membership.

b. Toronto Star, Article dated January 11, 2008, titled “Disabled Win in Airline Ruling”

Received

c. Toronto Star, Article dated January 20, 2008, titled “How to Make Housing Affordable”

Received

Councillor S. Hames departed at 2:26 p.m.

d. United Nations, Enable, Fact sheet on Persons with Disabilities

Received

 

6. PRESENTATIONS

a. Larry Ducharme, General Manager, London Transit and Kelly Paleczny, Director, Finance and Administration, London Transit, Providing an Overview of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and a Summary of the Key Requirements of the Draft Transportation Standard

This item was dealt with earlier in the meeting

b. Kristina Liivoja, Coordinator, Peel Children's Water Festival, Environment, Transportation and Planning Services, Region of Peel, Providing an Overview of the 2008 Peel Children’s Water Festival Activities

This item was dealt with earlier in the meeting

7. REPORTS - Nil

8. REPORT FROM THE ACCESSIBILITY PLANNING COORDINATORS

a. Colleen Grant, Town Prosecutor and Solicitor, Town of Caledon (December 2007)

Deferred to the February 26, 2008 AAC meeting

b. Colleen Grant, Town Prosecutor and Solicitor, Town of Caledon (January 2008)

Deferred to the February 26, 2008 AAC meeting

c. Meenu Sikand, Accessibility Planning Specialist, Region of Peel

Received

9. REPORT OF THE ACCESSIBILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE CHAIR AND MEMBERS

a. William Goursky, Member, Joint Peel Caledon Accessibility Advisory Committee (AAC), Providing an Update on City of Brampton Provincial Offences Court Data Regarding Disabled Parking Infractions

Deferred to the February 26, 2008 AAC meeting

b. Glenn Barnes, Member, Joint Peel Caledon Accessibility Advisory Committee (AAC), Providing an Update Regarding the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Alliance Position on Proposed Accessibility Transportation Standards

Received

This item was dealt with earlier in the meeting under Communication Items – Item 5a

 

10. OTHER BUSINESS

a. Report of the Universal Design Sub-Committee meeting held on January 28, 2008

Received

William Goursky spoke to the establishment of a “Universal Design Subcommittee” which will use the John Street (Chapel View) Region of Peel public housing project as a template to establish the criteria and requirements for universal design standards and accessibility. Once these standards have been established they will be applied to future projects. The following Joint Peel-Caledon Accessibility Advisory Committee members agreed to participate on the Universal Design Sub-Committee: William Goursky, Naz Husain and Maureen Tymkow.

Maureen Tymkow noted that the Town of Caledon has passed a resolution to form their own Accessibility Advisory Committee. Both Glenn Barnes and William Goursky expressed their support and offered the assistance of the Joint Peel-Caledon Accessibility Advisory Committee.

11. NEXT MEETING

Tuesday, February 26, 2008
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Council Chamber, 5th floor
Regional Administrative Headquarters
10 Peel Centre Drive
Brampton, Ontario

12. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 2:35 p.m.