Flin Flon city council voted in favour of a new accessibility plan during its March 6 regular meeting.
The plan, mandated by the Manitoba government, sets out four action items for the city to ensure the services it provides are accessible. These actions include ensuring all staff are trained to meet people where they are in terms of communication and assistance, and upgrades to city facilities including wheelchair accessible washrooms at the Flin Flon Community Hall. Additionally, through the plan the city has committed to installing automatic doors in major city facilities used by the public between 2018 and 2020, and the city will create an accessibility consultative committee by the end of 2018. Expected outcomes from the committee include assisting the city in fully and effectively identifying and improving accessibility for residents and visitors.
The plan outlines ways in which the city is succeeding in making its services accessible. These achievements include ground level accessibility at city hall, the Flin Flon Airport, the Whitney Forum and the aqua centre.
Barriers are also identified in the plan, and include a lack of automatic doors in several city facilities, a lack of elevator to the uppermost floor of the community hall, and written municipal information being difficult to access for those with visual impairments.
Coun. Karen MacKinnon said that she favours better accessibility for all Canadians, but pointed out that the Manitoba government has mandated municipalities implementing accessibility plans without providing funding.
“All of these changes have a dollar value to them,” said MacKinnon.
Mayor Cal Huntley noted that while council committed to the accessibility plan, it has not committed any funding.
“One of the bones of contention is you keep changing the rules but you’re not providing the funding,” said Huntley.
At least two of the actions outlined in the plan – the implementation of automatic doors and upgrades to washrooms at the community hall – will require some form of funding.
