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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGRAAC-2010-08-26 Grand River Accessibility Advisory Committee (GRAAC) Thursday August 26, 2010 Kitchener City Hall, Conestoga Room PRESENT: Sharon Ward-Zeller (Co-Chair), Taposhi Batabyal (Co-Chair),Anthony Cashin, Sharon Giles, Gordon Cummer, Kurt Schneider, Amy Ross, Gail Brunsdon, Myron Steinman, Councillor Kelly Galloway, Vanessa Lopak, Darryl Denny, Pam Albrecht, Linda Pretty (Recorder) REGRETS (MEMBERS): Mike Begin, Ken Parker REGRETS (OTHERS): Councillor Jane Mitchell, Val Hummel, Rik Louwagie, Johanna Ellis ABSENT WITHOUT REGRETS: N/A 1.0 WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS Taposhi welcomed everyone to the August meeting. 2.0 APPROVAL OF JULY MINUTES AND REVIEW OF AUGUST AGENDA ? A motion was made by Sharon Ward Zeller, seconded by Anthony Cashin that the agenda for the August meeting be approved. All were in favour; the motion was carried. ? A motion was made by Anthony Cashin, seconded by Sharon Ward-Zeller that the minutes of the July meeting be approved. All were in favour; the motion was carried. 3.0 CO-CHAIR REPORT 3.1 Conflict of Interest/Rules of Order ? A “Conflict of Interest” policy is in effect. Please do not participate in a discussion if you have a conflict. ? Rules of Order are very important to be fair and respectful to all members. ? A reminder that meetings are being recorded. 3.2 GRAAC Self-Evaluation The GRAAC Annual Self-Evaluation has been redesigned and will be available shortly. Members are requested to fill it out and email back as soon as possible. 3.3 Extra Meeting Dates ? A large number of agenda items are projected for the fall, so an extra meeting needs to be scheduled. ? October 28 was suggested; however, there were a number of member conflicts. ? Staff will explore ASL Interpreting availability and room availability for either OR November 4 November 18. Date will be confirmed as soon as possible. 1 August 2010 - GRAAC Minutes Grand River Accessibility Advisory Committee (GRAAC) Thursday August 26, 2010 4.0 NEW BUSINESS 4.1 Preparation for Waterloo Region Police Service (WRPS) Implementation of AODA Customer Service Standard – Vanessa ? A member of the WRPS will attend a future GRAAC meeting. ? In order to help prepare for the meeting, wherein we will present our concerns to him/her, Vanessa facilitated a brainstorming exercise to gather information. ? The question for discussion was: - What are key features of an accessible police service? Councillor Kelly Galloway entered the meeting. Members were asked to break into groups of two, brainstorm ideas in response to the question and choose two points to share with the group. Among the ideas that emerged were the following: - Communications and body language: Understanding the needs of persons with disabilities, such as not handcuffing a deaf person’s hands behind the back unless essential for safety reasons; the provision of sign language interpretation. - Being able to communicate via TTY, Textnet or BlackBerry is especially important, since the deaf community have no way of contacting the Waterloo Regional police otherwise. - Greater knowledge of disability. - Sensitivity and awareness of whom they are serving, especially important with regard to mental health and persons in crisis. - Accessibility training. - How properly to assist persons with disabilities in emergency situations. - Respect and inclusion for all persons, regardless of ability. ? ? Vanessa reviewed the responses and grouped items that were similar. ? Please see attached document – Summary of Brainstorm on Accessible Police Services August 2010. 2 August 2010 - GRAAC Minutes Grand River Accessibility Advisory Committee (GRAAC) Thursday August 26, 2010 5. Revised GRAAC Sub-Committee Terms of Reference – Pam ? With the help of a PowerPoint presentation, Pam reviewed notes on why the Terms of Reference needed to be revised and asked the committee to approve the revisions at the meeting. Questions and Answers, Discussion: ? Accepting the Sub-Committee Terms of Reference implies GRAAC accepts that the meeting format trial period is over and it is endorsing the committee of the whole structure. ? Subcommittees meet as part of GRAAC, and GRAAC members form the subcommittee, which sits separately as the Transportation and Built Environment subcommittee. While it is true that membership and time of meeting are the same as GRAAC as a whole, there is distinct leadership for sub-committee content. In addition, do not want to lose sight of former structure - both transportation and built environment were identified as important to GRAAC. Separate sub- committee terms of reference helps to define that importance. ? Initially, there was a great deal of work to do on each of these topics,; however, the workload has decreased and it is possible to incorporate the content into the regular GRAAC meetings. ? GRAAC retains the ability to strike additional sub-committees or working groups if required ? One of the most important reasons to move to the new structure was that it was often difficult to get an ASL Interpreter for the various separate meetings and it was also difficult for all members to attend so many meetings. This compromised the cross-disability representation required by the terms of reference. This new structure is therefore more inclusive than the old one. Subcommittees can choose to meet separately if required, but will once again include all GRAAC members. An additional meeting will in fact be booked this fall. ? There were comments with regard to how some members feel the current structure is working. ? Gord suggested that if additional meeting time is needed, we could consider holding morning and afternoon meetings on the same day. ? Amy noted that new structure is working well; however, it does mean that each meeting is very full and there seems to be less opportunity for discussion and conversation on each topic. ? Paula noted that she feels that there is not always sufficient time to view site plans and fears that something may be missed ? Taposhi noted that given the discussion, it seemed that more time was needed to clarify members’ questions and comments.. ? Given the time constraints this would not be possible at the August meeting. ? As such, approval of the Sub-Committee Terms of Reference was deferred to a future meeting. Grand River Accessibility Advisory Committee (GRAAC) Thursday August 26, 2010 3 August 2010 - GRAAC Minutes 6. Councillors’ Reports – Kelly Galloway ? Council met once over the summer. ? Currently reviewing the City’s system of trails. ? Construction will soon begin on the model suite and sales centre for condominium project in the Downtown Centre Block. ? Accessibility improvements are happening through stimulus funding. These projects must be complete by March 2011, and are on schedule. ? Gord noted that he had sent an email to Councillor Galloway regarding the danger of combining pedestrian pathways with bicycle lanes. Councillor Galloway advised that the matter is still in discussion and Council will keep those points in mind. 7. Federal Changes to Information Gathering – Update to Members - Taposhi ? The Participation and Activity Limitation (PAL) Survey collects demographic information in regards to people with disabilities across Canada. ? The PAL Survey was sent to every citizen who identified as a person with a disability when filling out the formerly mandatory long form of the Census. ? In addition to cutting the long form of the Census, the Federal Government is also cutting the PAL Survey ? This is of great cause for concern, as this is the primary source of data for organizations that develop and implement of programs and services for people with disabilities. ? Municipalities rely heavily on this data in their own planning, therefore this issue should be considered by GRAAC. ? Gord suggested that GRAAC formally raise the issue with the Councils of each participating municipality. ? Kurt asked if the Government has noted how they plan to collect this information in the future in the absence of the PAL Survey. (A) The federal government believes sufficient information can be gleaned from disability tax credit and social assistance rolls. Taposhi noted there are many limitations to this, for instance, some people may not file tax returns. ? In the case of the City of Kitchener, Councillor Galloway noted that GRAAC could write a letter to Council in which they raise their concerns. A motion could be put forward for Council to pass on these concerns to the government. If passed, Council could advise other municipalities on the motion as well. ? Saul suggested that GRAAC’s letter also address the move to make the long form of the Census voluntary. ACTION: A motion was made by Gordon Cummer, seconded by Sharon Ward- Zeller that the Co-chairs draft and send a letter to municipal councils requesting them to support GRAAC’s concerns with cutting the PAL survey , and to forward these concerns to the federal government. All were in favour; carried. Grand River Accessibility Advisory Committee (GRAAC) Thursday August 26, 2010 4 August 2010 - GRAAC Minutes 8. Province’s Response to the Charles Beer Report - Vanessa ? Charles Beer’s report on his review of the AODA was discussed at the June GRAAC meeting. ? The Ministry of Community and Social Services has now responded to the recommendations made by Charles Beer ? The Ministry plans to maintain the current form of leadership for the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario, despite the Beer report’s call for a deputy minister. ? The Ministry is exploring the possibility of implementing an Arms Length Accessibility Advisory Board, and will issue a report in 2011. ? Plans are underway to harmonize the Information and Communication Standard, the Employment Standard and the Transportation Standard into one integrated standard, as recommended. ? The Customer Service Regulation will be integrated into this harmonized standard in the future. ? Portions of the Accessible Built Environment Standard will be incorporated into the Ontario Building Code. The remainder will be brought forward as a Regulation. ? The ODA will remain in effect until all AODA standards have been implemented. At that point, the Ministry will repeal the ODA. The Beer report had noted that disability groups expressed concern that some points in the ODA could be lost as a result.. ? No further standards are being created. ACTION: Vanessa will send the link to the Charles Beer report to all members. 9. Preparation for ADO Discussion – Taposhi and Sharon WZ ? GRAAC has received a request from the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario (ADO) to spend some time in discussion with GRAAC members. ? Alfred Spencer, Director of Compliance and Enforcement, and Ellen Waxman, Assistant Deputy Minister will attend GRAAC’s September meeting. ? Their time with GRAAC will be part of a day-long visit to Waterloo Region to see first-hand some of the strides that have been made in accessibility in the Region. ? They would like input from GRAAC members on what has worked well in regard to AODA implementation and what could be improved. ? The group discussed reactions to the Ministry’s response to the Beer Report, and made note of issues and questions they would like to raise with the ADO representatives. Repeal of the ODA should be done with great caution. While there is some o overlap between the ODA and the AODA, there are important aspects of the ODA that are not captured in the AODA, e.g. the requirement to consider accessibility when tendering for infrastructure projects and acquiring municipal goods and services. Some concerns regarding harmonizing the Accessible Built Environment o Standard with the Ontario Building Code – updates to OBC do not happen very frequently 5 August 2010 - GRAAC Minutes While Assistant Deputy Ministers are effective at getting work done (they o are generally civil servants who have risen through the ranks), they are less accountable to the public than Deputy Ministers. Grand River Accessibility Advisory Committee (GRAAC) Thursday August 26, 2010 Ontario should be encouraged to be leaders in Canada in regard to o accessibility legislation, Consistent language is important. o Could the MAACs have input into appointments to the Secretariat? o Has the Ministry committed to doing enough public education? o What plans does the Ministry have to support MAACs? o How will the Ministry ensure that regulations/legislation will withstand o changes in government? ACTION: Vanessa will send summary via email. 9.0 ADJOURNMENT Amy moved to adjourn the meeting at 3:55 p.m. The next GRAAC meeting will be held on Thursday September 23 at Kitchener City Hall in the Conestoga Room on the main floor from 1:30-4:00 p.m. 6 August 2010 - GRAAC Minutes