Powell River Council discusses accessibility committee formation

City of Powell River Council will consider forming a joint accessibility and inclusion advisory committee, as mandated by the provincial government.

At the April 4 committee of the whole meeting, Jessica Lefort, deputy corporate officer, said last year the provincial government required certain organizations to establish an accessibility committee and an accessibility plan in accordance with new legislation under the Accessible British Columbia Act. She said in the legislation, there are prescribed organizations, such as local governments and public libraries.

“Although each local government has a requirement, the province did state that efforts can be made to minimize the workload, where possible, so that included utilizing an existing plan or policy,” said Lefort. “We currently don’t have one. It also included partnering with other organizations.

“Instead of having three separate committees doing the same thing in the same area, we are partnering with qathet Regional District (qRD) and Powell River Public Library to form a joint committee. We would share administrative duties and costs associated with running the committee. We’re working together for the same goal.”

Lefort said the deadline to meet the requirement is September of this year. She said the participants are on track to having the committee established and to start moving forward with a plan, assuming there are applicants.

The membership is required to be made up of at least half of people with disabilities and/or people representing disability-serving organizations. Membership should also reflect BC’s diversity and include Indigenous representation. Elected official membership is not required.

Lefort said the committee will come together, and there will be draft terms of reference, and then the members and support staff of the three organizations will work together to form the plan.

“The scope of the plan is how the organization will identify, remove and prevent barriers to people in, or interacting with those partner organizations,” said Lefort. “At this time, the scope is focussing on those organizations’ facilities.”

Lefort said the legislation stipulates a feedback mechanism so there is a requirement for the public to provide input.

“What we decided makes the most sense is for each partner organization to have their own feedback mechanism and staff members will bring back to the committee any feedback they have received,” said Lefort.

She added that there is no enforcement in place yet but will likely be implemented by regulation over time.

“Because accessibility has been an element of council’s strategic priorities and strategic plan, we would like to get council’s endorsement to move forward with the committee,” said Lefort.

Councillor George Doubt said it makes sense for the city, the library and regional district to cooperate on this legislatively required committee, so that efforts are not being duplicated. The city has included $20,000 in the budget to account for costs related to administering the committee and Doubt said it appeared to be an affordable thing to him.

Doubt said it appears there will be at least one staff member from each organization, and up to six other members of the committee who are voting members. The pool of people to draw from is quite specific, he added. He said he’d like to hear how the city would choose its representatives.

Lefort said there will be an application process.

“Our primary focus is to follow the prescribed membership and then go from there,” said Lefort.

Doubt said he is hoping for a diverse group of applicants.

The committee gave unanimous consent to send the matter to city council for approval.