Ontario is nowhere near ready to welcome visitors with disabilities to the province for next year’s Pan Am Games, a prominent advocate says.
David Lepofsky, a spokesperson for Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, said Queen’s Park is missing a unique opportunity to use the games as a catalyst to improve accessibility in restaurants, hotels and transit, among other things.
“We’re just not ready,” Lepofsky told the Star Tuesday.
It will cost taxpayers at least $2.5 billion to host the Games, which will host 7,666 athletes competing in 51 sports at venues in 16 municipalities, including Toronto, Hamilton, Milton, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, Caledon, St. Catharines and Welland.
Lepofsky told the Star the Liberals’ 2005 commitment to make Ontario fully accessible by 2025 is woefully behind schedule and urges the province not to miss this unique opportunity promote accessibility beyond the gates of the various venues.
“The government has an obligation under the Disabilities Act to lead this province to become fully accessible by 2015. We are behind schedule and we have to uses every opportunity we can to get. One huge opportunity is the Pan Am and Parapan Games,” he said.
“It is not enough to say that ‘we’re going to have accessible buildings for the athletes to live in,’ ” he said.
Lepofsky said the province is expecting 250,000 visitors for the Games and they will all need a place to stay, a place to eat and will need to get around by transit or taxi.
“Toronto wants to be a world class city and part of that is a city which can accommodate conferences, and individual tourists which includes people with disabilities,” he said.
Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister Michael Coteau said the government is working the tourism industry on an Accessibility Tourism Directory that will list the most accessible hotels, restaurants and other venues “to stay, eat and relax.”
Coteau said it is important the visitors “have a stay that meet a certain comfort zone” and added “there is no question that you have to leverage everything you’re doing in government to make sure it becomes a more accessible friendly province.”
Lepofsky said the government should be encouraging businesses in the tourism sector to make the changes they need and if that doesn’t happen, he says, Queen’s Park should see to it that employees and volunteers for the Pan Am Games not frequent their businesses.
“The government should be making clear that they will not use any hotel, they will not use any restaurants, they will not use any venue for formal events or even informal events . . . unless they are accessible,” he said.
Lepofsky said games organizers and provincial government officials are always talking about the legacy the games will leave and says what better legacy than improving accessibility.
“They talk about cultural legacy and athletics legacy but we say what about the legacy of accessibility. If you don’t organize it in advance it won’t happen,” he said. “We have been on their tail for over a year now saying ‘it’s time already.’ ”
Said NDP critic MPP Cindy Forster: “We believe that all Ontarians and visitors to the Games should be able to attend events, travel to and from those events and enjoy the nearby restaurants and hotels.”
Source: thestar.com
