AODA Alliance
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 Requests Your Feedback on Whether it Should Let Cities Do Another Five Years of Pilot Projects Permitting Electric Scooters that Endanger People with Disabilities – But Will They Listen!
September 10, 2024
SUMMARY
Five years ago, the Ford Government decided over our strong objection to let any Ontario city choose to run a pilot project for up to five years, allowing people to ride electric scooters (e-scooters) in public. If a city does not pass a bylaw permitting this, then it is illegal to ride e-scooters in public.
In 2019, we vigorously opposed the Ford Government’s allowing e-scooters. They are a silent menace that endangers vulnerable seniors, people with disabilities and others. Sadly, the Ford Government did not listen.
Some municipalities in Ontario have allowed e-scooters under this so-called “pilot project.” Those cities have proven that all our fears about e-scooters were well-founded. Several municipal Accessibility Advisory Committees have come out against allowing e-scooters because they endanger vulnerable seniors, people with disabilities, and others.
The Ontario regulation that permitted all of this expires after five years. The Ford Government is proposing to extend it again. It has invited public feedback by September 27, 2024. We encourage people and community organizations to tell the Ford Government not to allow e-scooters. Five years of pilot projects have proven that they pose the dangers we feared. Five years of pilot projects have also proven that no city has found a way to effectively prevent these dangers.
Below we set out the text of an August 28, 2024 email that the Ford Government sent to some community organizations announcing this consultation.
The Ford Government certainly knows that the AODA Alliance has a strong interest in this issue! It is frankly outrageous that the Ford Government never sent this announcement to the AODA Alliance. We have been extremely visible in the media and at several municipalities, playing a leading role working with other disability organizations to oppose e-scooters. We are confident that the Government sent this announcement to the corporate lobbyists for the e-scooter rental companies. This is a glaring breach of Doug Ford’s promise to us during the 2018 Ontario election. When campaigning for office, Doug Ford pledged in his May 15, 2018 letter to the AODA Alliance:
“Your issues are close to the hearts of our Ontario PC Caucus and Candidates, which is why they will play an outstanding role in shaping policy for the Ontario PC Party to assist Ontarians in need.”
Five years ago, the Ford Government tried to slip a public consultation on e-scooters by the public. On the Wednesday before Labour Day in 2019, the Government announced a public consultation on its first e-scooter pilot project with a closing date two days later on the Friday before Labour Day. It was the AODA Alliance that made this cynical move public in its August 29, 2019 AODA Alliance Update. We brought this to the media’s attention. That led the Ford Government to back down and extend the public consultation.
To give your feedback to the Ford Government, they don’t provide an email address to write. Instead you have to go to the Government’s web page that announces this consultation, and find the link to email them your feedback. It would be much easier if they just provided an email address in the request for feedback.
The AODA Alliance is now preparing a brief to the Ford Government on this issue. We will make it public, as we always do. Stay tuned.
You can learn all about our efforts to protect vulnerable seniors, people with disabilities and others from the silent menace of e-scooters by visiting the AODA Alliance website’s e-scooters page.
MORE DETAILS
Text of Ford Government’s August 28, 2024 Email Announcing its Public Consultation on Extending its Pilot Project with Electric Scooters
Note: The Ford Government never sent this announcement to the AODA Alliance.
The Ministry of Transportation is seeking feedback on a proposal to extend the Electric Kick-Scooter Pilot Program (O. Reg. 389/19: Pilot Project – Electric Kick-Scooters)
for an additional five (5) years, until November 27, 2029.
We invite you to review the proposal and submit any feedback you may have to the e-mail address provided in the Regulatory Registry posting. The comment
period is open from August 28, 2024, to September 27, 2024. Please visit:
Electric Kick-Scooters (ontariocanada.com)
to view the Regulatory Registry posting.
If you have any questions or require further information, please feel free to contact
Marie.Longtin@ontario.ca.
Your insights are invaluable to us as we work to enhance mobility in transportation across Ontario.
Thank you for your continued partnership and feedback.
Safety Program Development Branch
Transportation Safety Division
Ministry of Transportation