Accessibility Advisory Committee

The Accessibility Advisory Committee is an advisory committee to City Council. 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 Multi-Year Municipal Accessibility Plan and advising Council on issues relating to citizens with a disability. Learn more about accessibility in the City of Thunder Bay.

For more information please contact the City of Thunder Bay's Municipal Accessibility Specialist Scott Garner at 807-625-2240 or by email scott.garner@thunderbay.ca  

2021 Accessibility Advisory Committee Virtual Open House Videos

Creating Awareness for Mobility Device Users

Mental Health, Talk About It

Brief Introduction to Gender and Sexual Diversity

The Ontario Human Rights Code and Accessibility

Meeting minutes

Join the committee

Invitations are extended to citizens of Thunder Bay to submit their applications to be considered for the Committee. Learn more about joining a City Committee or Board.

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).