Ford Government is Still Dithering Over What to Do to Protect People with Disabilities in an Emergency

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update

United for a Barrier-Free Ontario for All People with Disabilities

Website: www.aodaalliance.org

Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com

Twitter: @aodaalliance

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aodaalliance

 

Ford Government is Still Dithering Over What to Do to Protect People with Disabilities in an Emergency

 

October 30, 2021

 

SUMMARY

 

The Ford Government has not effectively responded to the final report of Rich Donovan’s Independent Review of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act concerning the pressing need for new and effective protocols for safeguarding people with disabilities during an emergency. CBC News covered this on TV, on radio and on the web on October 28, 2024. The online report is set out below.

 

The Ford Government has already had 512 days to take effective action on this, but a CBC Freedom of Information application reveals internal government documents showing that the Government is still thinking about what to do. In the meantime, people with disabilities are left to remain unfairly vulnerable.

 

The October 28, 2024 CBC news report summarizes the Ford Government’s response to CBC inquiries on this issue. CBC reported that the Government sent a written response to its inquiries. Among other things, CBC reported:

 

“The statement also said the ministry is creating a new volunteer group of people with disabilities to provide their direct experience and feedback on accessibility issues.”

 

The Government has made the same claim in response to any number of media inquiries about different accessibility issues where Ontario has fallen far behind. The Ford Government does not need 512 days to create some new consultation body of people with disabilities.

 

The Ontario Government also does not need to organize and consult yet another group of people with disabilities. Time and again, it does not implement the advice it has already received. The AODA Alliance, a nonpartisan grassroots community coalition, and the Government-appointed Accessibility Standards Advisory Council have given the Government ample advice. It has received but not implemented detailed reports from the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee, the Post-Secondary Education Standards Development Committee, the Health Care Standards Development Committee, the Transportation Standards Development Committee, the Employment Standards Development Committee, and the Information and Communication Standards Development Committee.

 

In the December 18, 2023, AODA Alliance news release, we responded to the final report of the 4th AODA Independent Review conducted by Rich Donovan who was appointed by the Ford Government. We agreed with some of his recommendations. We did not agree with his recommendation that the Government should seek advice on accessibility issues from a new group of people with disabilities. It is sad that one of the few things the Ford Government says it is working on regarding accessibility is the implementation of that unhelpful recommendation.

 

We commend the CBC and any news organizations that use the Freedom of Information Act to try to unearth information about what the Government is or is not doing to make Ontario accessible to people with disabilities.

 

How You Can Help

 

  • Contact CBC and news outlets in your own community. Tell them about the need for proper safety procedures for people with disabilities in the case of an emergency like a high-rise fire.

 

 

MORE DETAILS

CBC News October 28, 2024

 

Originally posted at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/emergency-evacuation-plan-disabilites-crisis-ontario-1.7360781

No plan for immediate evacuation of Ontarians with disabilities in emergency a year after flagged as ‘crisis’ |

 

No plan for immediate evacuation of Ontarians with disabilities in emergency a year after flagged as ‘crisis’

 

Records show province considering evacuation chairs, designated elevators

 

Nicole Brockbank, Angelina King · CBC News

 

Oda Al-anizi wants the government to develop clear emergency protocols for people with disabilities that are communicated to the public so that there isn’t any ambiguity in an emergency. (Nicole Brockbank/CBC)

 

The first time the fire alarm went off in Oda Al-anizi’s high-rise apartment in Toronto, he called security but found that no one knew what to do to help him leave the building in his wheelchair.

 

“I just waited for the alarm to stop,” Al-anizi said.

 

“I felt like my life had less value. Does it mean that my life is expendable? Does it mean that an evacuation for me is less important than everybody else?”

 

Al-anizi has used a wheelchair since he sustained a complete spinal cord injury in a car accident involving a drunk driver when he was 11.

 

The next time the alarm sounded, Al-anizi said he waited 40 minutes trying to reach building security before firefighters helped him evacuate with an evacuation chair — which can smoothly descend a stairway. The experiences inspired one of Al-anizi’s disability-related comics that he shares on his Instagram.

 

“Many people messaged me,” he said. “I realized how universal that experience is, as well as the lack of emergency evacuation for people with disabilities.”

 

Al-anizi was inspired to make this comic highlighting a lack of emergency evacuation plans for people with disabilities after he had issues evacuating his apartment building when the fire alarm went off.

 

The most recent review of the Ontario government’s progress on implementing the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) considered the current state of emergency procedures for people with disabilities an immediate safety threat.

 

Rich Donovan, a government-appointed reviewer, issued a “crisis recommendation” to the province in June 2023 to implement clear protocols for all government buildings that include “the immediate, safe evacuation of all individuals within the building” regardless of disability when there is a need to evacuate.

 

To do that, he urged the province to establish a crisis committee chaired by the premier within a month of tabling his report and to publish the updated government evacuation plans publicly within six months of creating the committee.

 

Still no new evacuation protocols

But almost a year and a half after receiving Donovan’s recommendations, and 10 months after the province tabled his report, no new emergency plan has been published.

 

Instead, internal government records CBC Toronto obtained through a freedom of information request show that as recently as this May, the province was still exploring the feasibility of implementing two options to reduce the wait time for evacuating people with disabilities in provincial buildings.

 

CBC Toronto asked Ontario’s Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility about the current status of those efforts.

 

In a statement, a spokesperson for Minister Raymond Cho didn’t address specific evacuation options but said the ministry has reviewed all existing processes.

 

“[The ministry] is now working to actively update and improve building evacuation for all provincial government-owned buildings to ensure the safe evacuation of people with disabilities,” said Wallace Pidgeon, director of communications for Cho.

 

The most recent review of the Ontario government’s progress implementing the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act called the state of emergency procedures for persons with disabilities a ‘crisis.’ Nearly a year and a half later, the province still hasn’t implemented new protocols and advocates say it’s another example of the province failing to prioritize accessibility.

 

The statement also said the ministry is creating a new volunteer group of people with disabilities to provide their direct experience and feedback on accessibility issues.

 

For Al-anizi, and other disability advocates CBC Toronto spoke with, the delay implementing new protocols is indicative of how they say the government generally treats people with disabilities.

 

“It’s further proof of what an abysmal job they are doing with accessibility,” said David Lepofsky, chair of the AODA Alliance, a consumer advocacy group monitoring the legislation’s implementation.

 

Enacted in 2005, the AODA was intended to make Ontario accessible by 2025. But Donovan’s review found that it was a “near certainty” the province wouldn’t meet that deadline for the 2.9 million people with disabilities in Ontario.

 

When it comes to implementing that legislation, Pidgeon’s statement said the province “has taken a whole of government approach to addressing accessibility and how AODA compliance is being implemented across the board that focuses on customer service and design of public spaces.”

 

Province considering evacuation chairs, designated elevator

The current approach to emergency evacuations for people with disabilities in multi-storey buildings in the province is generally to wait for firefighter assistance, according to the internal records government obtained by CBC Toronto.

 

A slide deck from this May titled “Improving Emergency Response Protocols for OPS Buildings for People with Disabilities” said the ministry was working with the Office of Fire Marshal and other government agencies to “map out options to improve current emergency evacuation procedures in the short and long term.”

 

Any short-term solutions outlined in the record appeared to be redacted under a freedom of information disclosure exemption for advice to the government.

 

The Ontario government is considering buying evacuation chairs for every floor of the buildings it owns. During an emergency, evacuation chairs can help evacuate people with a mobility-related disability down stairways. (Koji Sasahara/The Associated Press)

 

The options floated as a “long-term approach” in the slide deck were buying evacuation chairs for each floor of all government-owned buildings and researching whether a dedicated elevator could be used to evacuate people with disabilities.

 

Reviewing liability, cost of options

Considerations for adopting those options included reviewing liability implications, the cost of purchasing the chairs for each floor of nearly 200 government-owned buildings running from $732,000 to $2.9 million and changes that would be needed to building fire safety plans, according to the record.

 

In its statement, the ministry didn’t acknowledge its evaluation of those options and didn’t answer questions about what short-term solutions it was implementing or considering.

 

In his own experience, Al-anizi was impressed with the evacuation chair.

 

“It should be a part of the arsenal, a tool in the arsenal,” he said. “But not every disability is the same, so it’s not going to work for everybody.”

 

Kate Welsh, a disability inclusion educator, is in favour of using a designated elevator to evacuate people with disabilities in an emergency if that can be done safely. (Nicole Brockbank/CBC)

 

Keeping a designated elevator running to evacuate people with disabilities would be ideal if it could be done safely, said Kate Welsh, a disability inclusion educator who uses a walker and a wheelchair.

 

“[That way] people have autonomy, you don’t need to necessarily have their chair carried and have them carried — it’s a lot more dignity,” they said.

 

Above all, Welsh, Al-anizi, Lepofsky and Anthony Frisina, a spokesperson for the Ontario Disability Coalition, said the province needs to consult with the disability community and accessibility experts to establish these new emergency protocols.

 

“There needs to be an intervention through the disability community to have our say not only from a standpoint that we’re listened to, but we’re heard,” said Frisina.

 

Wherever the government lands with these protocols, Al-anizi said the plan needs to be clear and communicated to the public.

 

“In an emergency, you can’t afford ambiguity.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

Nicole Brockbank

Reporter, CBC Toronto

Nicole Brockbank is a reporter for CBC Toronto’s Enterprise Unit. Fuelled by coffee, she digs up, researches and writes original investigative and feature stories. nicole.brockbank@cbc.ca