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
Watch AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky on TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” Any Time on YouTube – and – Ford Government Rams Bill 17, Its Controversial Housing Bill, Through the Legislature Without Amending It to Prevent Harm to Ontarians with Disabilities
June 4, 2025
SUMMARY
On YouTube, Watch “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” Addressing Disability Issues
At any time, you can watch AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky’s final interview on TVO’s flagship public affairs program “The Agenda with Steve Paikin.” The YouTube link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WtocN99aI8 It runs for about 21 minutes.
Steve Paikin has announced that he is leaving the show at the end of June after 19 years. We are very sad about this news and wish him the best in his next endeavours. At the end of this interview, AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky presents him with a very fitting thank you!
This is the 23rd time in 26 years that TVO programs associated with Steve Paikin have included interviews on our accessibility advocacy. Check out the brand new AODA Alliance video series that includes all of these interviews in chronological order.
2. Premier Ford Rams His Controversial Housing Legislation Through the Legislature, Preventing Us From Having a Chance to Ask for Amendments
Yesterday, the Ford Government rammed Bill 17, the controversial housing bill, through the Ontario legislature. Below you can read the paragraphs of the NDP disability critic Lise Vaugeois’s speech on Third Reading, where she raised our concerns. The NDP and Liberals were granted only 9 minutes each to speak to the bill, far less than is normally available for debates. There were no public hearings, despite our asking for a chance to appear and speak to the bill.
The bill guts the power of municipalities to enact bylaws regarding the construction of buildings. That includes bylaws on accessibility for people with disabilities. This is very harmful for people with disabilities.
How You Can Help
- Send the link to yesterday’s interview on The Agenda with Steve Paikin to as many people as possible. Post it on social media. It helps us alert the public to some of our leading current accessibility issues. Again, that link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WtocN99aI8
A total of 154 days have passed since Ontario failed to meet the January 1, 2025 deadline for becoming accessible to people with disabilities set by the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. We’re still waiting to see the Ford Government’s plan of action.
MORE DETAILS
Ontario Hansard June 3, 2025 Third Reading Debates On Bill 17
MPP Lise Vaugeois: Here we are again, using time allocation to eliminate public hearings on a government bill because what, we are running out of time? I think the public would be shocked to know that the Conservatives limited legislative time to seven weeks between last summer and the election in February, then called for another six-and-a-half-week break and limited this current session to a mere six weeks, with bill after bill pushed through with public feedback completely eliminated—supposedly because there’s no time left for full public debate.
Bill 17 is a case in point. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance told the Minister of Housing in a letter last Wednesday that Bill 17 is harmful to Ontarians with disabilities, people who are plagued by Ontario’s desperate shortage of housing that is both affordable and accessible.
David Lepofsky, chair of the non-partisan grassroots AODA Alliance, a group that campaigns to tear down disability barriers in society, states very clearly: “Bill 17 makes things worse, not better, for us. It’s a crushing irony that the Ford government voted to skip public consultation during current National Accessibility Week.”
The AODA Alliance asked for an urgent meeting with the Minister of Housing to address how the bills harms people with disabilities and to propose an amendment during the expected public hearings. Unfortunately, no one responded to their letter, so let me be clear: This bill threatens the constitutional rights of Ontarians with disabilities.
Now, nobody should be surprised. This is coming from a government that has ignored the recommendations of its own hand-picked adviser commissioned to review the disabilities act, a government that failed to meet the Legislature’s 2025 deadline to make Ontario fully accessible to people with disabilities and a government that has stolen billions of dollars from workers who became disabled as the result of being injured or made ill on the job.
As the bill stands, it reduces the power of municipalities to set accessibility requirements for building construction, including housing, and overrules any municipal bylaw that has higher accessibility standards than the weak and inadequate Ontario building code. Instead of reducing municipal power to fill the huge gap that the province has left, as they do in this bill, the government needs to strengthen the Ontario building code’s accessibility provisions and spearhead the creation of substantially more homes and apartments that are accessible.
A simple amendment could make a very big difference. For example, notwithstanding section 4 of schedule 1, nothing in this statute reduces or limits the power of any municipality to have bylaws that promote the accessibility of buildings to people with disabilities. In other words, where a higher standard exists, that should be allowed to be there.
People with disabilities are not red tape. They matter. We matter. I believe that had public consultations been available, members of all parties might well have supported the amendment asked for by the AODA Alliance. We are foolish indeed if we think that it won’t ever be one of us who is faced with the daunting task of finding an affordable, accessible place to live. Every one of us is only one step away from being disabled. This matters. The government needs to do better.