Accessibility Advisory Committee
Accessibility Advisory Committee Open Houses a Success!
The Accessibility Advisory Committee held two Open Houses on Sept. 19 and 20 in 2011. They included a presentation from Tessa Soderberg, Chair of the Accessibility Advisory Committee, on what the committee has been doing and how people can join the committee. She also talked about how people with disabilities can get involved in identifying barriers to accessibility and improving accessibility in Thunder Bay.
Attendees were also able to take part in a presentation by Christine Karcza, a consultant and advocate for people with disabilities from Toronto. Christine spoke about how people with disabilities can get involved in making Thunder Bay more accessible.
Both events included American Sign Language Interpretation and Remote Real-Time Captioning to make them accessible to Deaf people and people with hearing loss. They were also located at accessible venues, and accessible formats of handouts were provided.
The Open Houses had 42 people in attendance. They left enthused about accessibility and energized to continue to support the City of Thunder Bay in building on its accomplishments in accessibility.
The Accessibility Advisory Committee
The Accessibility Advisory Committee is a sub-committee of City Council’s Committee of the Whole. It is required under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). The Committee is responsible for advising City Council on the development and implementation of the Annual Municipal Accessibility Plan and advising Council on issues relating to citizens with a disability. Stakeholder representation includes:
- 1 culturally Deaf person (2 reps but one vote)
- 1 person who is hard of hearing and deafened
- 1 person who has a mental health-related disability
- 1 person who has a mobility-related disability
- 1 person with a developmental disability (and possibly 1-2 support people)
- 1 person with a visual impairment, including those who are blind
- 1 person with a brain injury
- 1 older adult with a disability
- 1 City Councillor
- 1 citizen at large
- 1 Service Agency Representative
Pictured at Left: City of Thunder Bay 2011 Accessibility Advisory Committee Members
Front Row (L-R): Maurice Rubenik, Christine Auger, Rob Wheeler Back Row (L-R): Randy Sponchia, Stephen Holloway (City Admin. Rep), John Duncanson, Tessa Soderberg, Karen Higginson, Joe Peotto (Committee Coordinator) Missing: Councillor Rebecca Johnson, Darren Lillington, Sharon Bryenton, Amy Vaillant
New Builds, REnovations, and Site plan controls
The Accessibility Advisory Committee provides guidance on all new builds and renovations of municipal facilities. In these functions they are bound by the Ontario Building Code, but also reference the London Design Standards, 2007. City Council supports the use of the London Design Standards as a best practice in accessible design. Once the Built Environment Standard of the AODA, 2005 is law, then compliance will follow.
Under the ODA, 2001 and the AODA, 2005 the City’s Accessibility Advisory Committee is required to review all Site Plan Controls that come through the City’s Development Services Department. Here is a list of what the committee can give feedback on for these plans, as covered in the Planning Act:
Extracted from Section 41 of the Planning Act, 1990:
Provide to the satisfaction of and at no expense to the municipality any or all of the following:
1. Subject to the provisions of subsections (8) and (9), widenings of highways that abut on the land.
2. Subject to the Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act, facilities to provide access to and from the land such as access ramps and curbings and traffic direction signs.
3. Off-street vehicular loading and parking facilities, either covered or uncovered, access driveways, including driveways for emergency vehicles, and the surfacing of such areas and driveways.
4. Walkways and walkway ramps, including the surfacing thereof, and all other means of pedestrian access.
4.1 Facilities designed to have regard for accessibility for persons with disabilities.
5. Facilities for the lighting, including floodlighting, of the land or of any buildings or structures thereon.
6. Walls, fences, hedges, trees, shrubs or other groundcover or facilities for the landscaping of the land, or the protection of adjoining lands.
7. Vaults, central storage and collection areas and other facilities and enclosures for the storage of garbage and other waste material.
8. Easements conveyed to the municipality for the construction, maintenance or improvement of watercourses, ditches, land drainage works, sanitary sewage facilities and other public utilities of the municipality or local board thereof on the land.
9. Grading or alteration in elevation or contour of the land and provision for the disposal of storm, surface and waste water from the land and from any buildings or structures thereon;
(b) maintain to the satisfaction of the municipality and at the sole risk and expense of the owner any or all of the facilities or works mentioned in paragraphs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of clause (a), including the removal of snow from access ramps and driveways, parking and loading areas and walkways;
(d) subject to subsection (9.1), convey part of the land to the municipality to the satisfaction of and at no expense to the municipality for a public transit right of way. R.S.O. 1990, c. P.13, s. 41 (7); 1996, c. 4, s. 24 (1, 2); 2006, c. 23, s. 16 (6, 7).
Accessibility Advisory Committee Minutes
| January 20, 2011 |  Adobe PDF, 6 pages, 24 KB |
| February 17, 2011 | Adobe PDF, 7 pages, 24 KB |
| March 31, 2011 | Adobe PDF, 8 pages, 36 KB |
| April 28, 2011 | Adobe PDF, 7 pages, 26 KB |
| May 19, 2011 | Adobe PDF, 6 pages, 26 KB |
| June 30, 2011 | Adobe PDF, 7 pages, 94 KB |
| July 28, 2011 | Adobe PDF, 9 pages, 112 KB Word, 9 pages, 87 KB |
| August 25, 2011 | Adobe PDF, 7 pages, 98 KB Word, 7 pages, 84 KB |
| September 29, 2011 | Adobe PDF, 7 pages, 100 KB Word, 7 pages, 88 KB |
| October 20, 2011 | Adobe PDF 7 pages, 104 KB Word, 7 pages, 96 KB |
The next 2012 committee meetings will be on on Jan. 19th, Feb. 16th, Mar. 22nd, from 1:30 - 3:30 pm at the Thunder Bay 55 Plus Centre at 700 River St.. These meetings are open to the public.
Notice of Next Accessibility Advisory Committee Meeting
Notice of Next AAC Meeting on January 19th, 2012
If you are interested in becoming a member of the Accessibility Advisory Committee, please contact Dana Heinrich at 625-2419 or email at dheinrich@thunderbay.ca.
