A qathet Regional District (qRD) director has recommended the regional district look at accessibility within its domain.
At the December 9 committee of the whole meeting, Electoral Area C director Clay Brander introduced a two-part motion to try and improve accessibility pertaining to regional district assets.
Brander said lack of accessibility with some qRD assets and infrastructure has been brought to the regional board on a number of occasions during the past year.
“I believe it is a desire of the board and the qRD staff to make improvements where possible,” said Brander. “With my motion I am asking staff to take a close look at the infrastructure and the assets we have and create a list of improvements that can be made to increase accessibility so we can consider a few of them each year during budget deliberations, with the idea to gradually make the community more inclusive.
“Larger projects may require grant funding, but I also believe there are probably inexpensive things that can be done. The first thing is to identify what those needs are.”
Electoral Area D director and committee chair Sandy McCormick said she is hoping the initiative will flesh out an accessibility standard.
Brander said it is his hope that this type of matter can be identified.
City director George Doubt said he likes the idea of a report on how to make regional assets accessible.
“I don’t think the report itself would necessarily come at a huge cost,” said Doubt. “It’s a multi-part resolution that we have before us and part of it is to create and maintain an inventory of suggested improvements. It could be an expensive thing to do. We have no idea of what the costs might be, either initially, or ongoing. I’d like to see a report from staff on how they might go about doing these things.
“I’m concerned about making a commitment that instructs staff to create an inventory that could cost quite a few dollars without thinking about how much it will cost and where the money is going to come from. One of the initial things that is going to have to happen is a definition of what we mean by accessible.”
Pros and cons
Electoral Area A director and boards chair Patrick Brabazon said he doubts the regional district will get an acceptable definition of accessibility.
“There will always be an exception,” said Brabazon. “There will always be discussion and arguments, so I would not want us to get bogged down on what is accessible. You’ll know what’s accessible when you look at it. It might be accessible to me, but it might not be accessible to the person beside me.
“With regard to director Doubt’s concern, I think the report could and presumably would include all of the pros and cons of maintaining an inventory. We’ll get the report before we go any further.”
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he shared similar concerns to Doubt’s. He said the first part of the motion is requesting a report and it appears the second part is to provide direction to staff.
“I would like to see the report first,” said Gisborne. “The issue has been brought up of what is accessible. I’m sure that would be covered in the report and might be reflective of provincial legislation. I think that would need the board’s direction to direct staff as to what would be considered accessible, and then we can direct staff to create and maintain an inventory, but that portion of the resolution can come after we get the staff report.”
The committee carried the first part of Brander’s motion to recommend the board request a report from staff identifying what and how qRD assets can be addressed for accessibility.
Motion amendment
Regarding the second half of Brander’s motion, Doubt suggested an amendment that read: that the board consider directing staff to create and maintain an inventory of suggested improvements and present them annually to budget deliberations for the purpose of including a few projects in annual work plans, ultimately striving for accessibility within qRD.
Brander’s motion was that staff create and maintain an inventory of suggested improvements and present them annually to budget deliberations for the purpose of including a few projects in annual work plans, ultimately striving for accessibility within qRD.
Doubt said the amended motion gives staff the opportunity to consider the costs, impact and ability of staff to create the inventory. He then asked what staff would do if the amended motion passed.
Chief administrative officer Al Radke said a report would come back with a list of items, which could include buildings, walkways and other readily identifiable features. He said the list would be used to show directors what could be looked at.
“I don’t know if we would be putting dollars and cents to them, but we would at least be identifying and keeping a running list of those things identified by either us, or maybe the public would be assisting us in that,” added Radke.
The amendment motion carried, as did the main motion, as amended.
