Ontario New Democratic Party Responds to the Request for the Accessible Ontario Pledge – Ontarians Await Responses from the Tories and Liberals

ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE

NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Ontario New Democratic Party Responds to the Request for the Accessible Ontario Pledge – Ontarians Await Responses from the Tories and Liberals

 

January 31, 2025 Toronto: Ontario’s New Democratic Party (“NDP”) has responded to the AODA Alliance’s call for all Ontario political parties to make the 10-point Accessible Ontario Pledge to lead Ontario to become accessible to 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities, as soon as possible, after successive governments failed to meet the legislated January 1, 2025 deadline to make this province accessible. The Ontario NDP’s detailed commitments, received on January 30, 2025, are set out below. The specifics of the AODA Alliance’s requested Accessible Ontario Pledge, were made public at a widely-viewed January 6, 2025 Queen’s park news conference, both of which are available for viewing online.

 

“The Green Party made the Accessible Ontario Pledge on January 6, 2025, and now that we’ve heard from the NDP as well, we await word from Doug Ford’s Tories and Bonnie Crombie’s Liberals,” said David Lepofsky, Chair of the non-partisan grassroots AODA Alliance, that that advocates to tear down barriers facing people with disabilities in jobs, education, health care, transit and all other aspects of Ontario life. “We aim to get all parties to make the Accessible Ontario Pledge, and don’t support or oppose any party and candidate.”

 

Non-partisan efforts on accessibility issues have been raised in every provincial election for the past 30 years, since 2005 by the AODA Alliance, and before that, by its predecessor, the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee. These efforts led to the enactment of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (“AODA”) in 2005, and efforts to strengthen its implementation since then. The AODA required the Ontario Government to lead the province to become disability-accessible by the start of this year. Many media outlets have reported on the fact that the Government missed that legislated deadline.

 

“The AODA Alliance has called on news outlets, commentators and pundits to include disability issues in their election coverage,” said Lepofsky. “Voters have a right to know where the parties stand on issues that affect everyone, the 2.9 million of us who now have a disability and the rest of the public, who are all bound to get disabilities as they age.”

 

Contact: AODA Alliance Chair, David Lepofsky

Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com

Twitter: @aodaalliance

For background, check out:

 

Ontario NDP’s January 30, 2025 Commitment to the AODA Alliance

 

Marit Stiles and the Ontario NDP support the Accessible Ontario Pledge.

 

Marit Stiles absolutely commits to meet regularly with the AODA Alliance and other accessibility advocates and experts.

 

An Ontario NDP government would prioritize AODA implementation as soon as possible now that the legislated deadline has passed. We have repeatedly raised the lack of commitment to implement the AODA by the Ford government, as well as previous Liberal governments.

 

An Ontario NDP government would establish an all-of-government coordinated approach to accessibility issues in the province, with a Minister for Accessibility Issues leading the effort. We would commit to a comprehensive plan to achieve the AODAs goals.

 

Marit Stiles and Ontario NDP have long supported the provisions of the AODA and have committed to not amend the Act in any way.

 

We commit to strengthening accessibility standards across services and areas impacting disabled Ontarians.

 

An NDP government is committed to a Built Environment Accessibility Standard under the AODA, and to ensure that the Ontario Building Code effectively addresses accessibility needs. Marit Stiles and the Ontario NDP will also create a Health Care Accessibility Standard, and an Education Accessibility Standard, drawing on the work of the Standards Development Committees in these areas.

 

We are committed as well, to setting a Residential Housing Accessibility Standard, and this is consistent with what we’ll implement with our Homes Ontario plan.

 

An NDP government will appoint Standards Development Committees by year two and will ensure that the standards developed are the result of robust public consultation.

 

We will empower and equip inspectors and investigators across government with a mandate to enforce the AODA.

 

We will publish the results of enforcement and compliance actions publicly.

 

An Ontario NDP government will work with professional regulatory bodies and post-secondary institutions to make mandatory training in accessibility design, consistent with the AODA. And we will ensure that public dollars are not used in the creation or perpetuation of accessibility barriers in public spaces.

 

Marit Stiles and the Ontario NDP are committed to universal design in public and purpose-built housing as part of our ambitious Homes Ontario plan.

Our commitment is to bolster government resources to ensure that there is AODA compliance within and outside of government.

 

As Premier, Marit Stiles will happily direct her Cabinet and senior officials to implement the government’s accessibility obligations and commitments. The Ontario NDP has long called for Mandate Letters to be made public.

 

An Ontario NDP government commits to ensuring that there is a senior staff accessibility lead in every Ministry.

 

We are committed to undertake a review of relevant legislation for any accessibility barriers, as well as direct the Ministry of the Attorney General to ensure all planned legislation and regulation include no disability barriers.

 

We remain committed to accessible elections and are prepared to mandate that all barriers to voting for Ontarians be removed.

 

Marit Stiles and the Ontario NDP have been clear in our commitment to reform the broken tribunals system, and this includes the flawed Ontario Human Rights Tribunal process. We have no illusions that the current tribunal system, including the Human Rights complaints system, is working in the best interests of Ontarians facing accessibility barriers or discrimination on the basis of disability.