The City of Langford is moving forward with joining a regional accessibility advisory committee in response to newly enforced provincial requirements despite concerns raised by an existing intermunicipal accessibility advisory committee.
At its regular meeting Sept. 5, council unanimously endorsed a staff recommendation to join the Capital West Accessibility Advisory Committee in order to comply with the requirements set out by the Accessible BC Act.
The newly formed advisory committee also includes the District of Highlands and Town of View Royal, with the City of Colwood and District of Sooke set to consider a similar staff recommendation at their Sept. 11 council meetings, according to a Langford staff report.
After consultation with BC Accessibility Hub and the province’s Accessibility Directorate, staff recommended the new committee be initially made up of participating municipalities’ corporate officers under an interim terms of reference, with the aim of finalizing the terms of reference this fall, and eventually diversifying the committee membership to include members of the public with lived experience of disabilities.
READ MORE: Researcher critical of West Shore accessibility committee process
Staff noted to council that both of those steps would likely take considerable time to complete as they would likely involve retaining consultants and require separate approval by the councils of all participating municipalities.
Despite council’s full support for the move, Marnie Essery, chair of the Intermunicipal Advisory Committee on Disability Issues told council during a public presentation period ahead of the vote there were several serious concerns about the approach Langford ultimately chose to take.
The major point of concern for Essery was the lack of consultation of people with disabilities in the process, which led to the staff recommendation, and the lack of participation from those same community members in the newly formed committee.
“We’re supposed to be driving the bus of accessible legislation, but instead we are just chasing the bus, hoping to get on for a ride. This is not the essence of the provincial legislation,” said Essery. “It’s difficult to have faith that people with disabilities will be included in the future in the accessibility committee when we have been excluded in every step thus far.”
Essery also sought to clarify what she described as inaccurate information that had been collected by various municipalities’ staff in preparing their respective recommendations their municipalities join the CWAAC. this included that IACDI – which has served the West Shore municipalities for more than 30 years – did not meet the requirements for accessibility committees under the provincial legislation.
During their deliberations on the motion, council said they had heard IACDI’s concerns and agreed they were valid, but ultimately felt they did not justify shooting down the staff recommendation.
“I do hear a lot of the concerns raised by the public … that this process is one that would cut out people with lived experience or people supporting people with disabilities,” said Coun. Colby Harder in moving the recommendation. “I do not believe that is the intent of the report, which is why I support his motion … it is not my intent that we are cutting you out of this process, we are setting a path forward to create a fulsome accessibility plan so we can address things structurally.”
As part of the newly endorsed accessibility committee participation, the city has established accessibility@langford.ca as a point for all members of the community to provide their feedback on accessibility concerns and suggestions in the city.
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