Disability rights activist challenges province to craft strong Accessibility Act [video]

A disability rights activist has issued a challenge to the New Brunswick government, after the province published its “blueprint” for a long-awaited Accessibility Act.

Shelley Petit, chair of the NB Coalition of Persons with Disabilities, says the provincial government of Premier Blaine Higgs has a credibility problem when it comes to issues affecting people with disabilities, such as housing and poverty. She doubts the legislation will result in tangible improvements.

“This is a challenge: Premier Higgs, Minister Dunn, prove me wrong,” she said. “Please make this the best accessibility plan in Canada.”

Watch the interview with Shelley Petit, chair of the NB Coalition of Persons with Disabilities:

On December 7, Minister Arlene Dunn tabled the 25-page report (PDF), described as a “framework for accessibility legislation,” in the Legislative Assembly.

Dunn oversees the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour (PETL), which would be responsible for implementing the legislation and its governance structure.

The province is accepting comments from the public on the plan until January 31, followed by two days of committee hearings. The government plans to introduce its legislation in the spring.

What’s in the ‘blueprint’?

The purpose of the legislation is to achieve “greater accessibility by 2040, particularly by the identification, removal and prevention of barriers, with emphasis on universal design.”

All departments and certain other government entities — namely NB Housing, Service NB, Opportunities NB, and the Regional Development Corporation — would have to develop an accessibility plan within 18 months of the law coming into force.

The province would also have the ability “to prescribe which other public-sector entities” would also be required to put an accessibility plan in place through regulations.

Examples include local governments, libraries, universities, school districts, regional health authorities and Crown corporations.

The report suggests that the legislation would eventually apply to the private sector “through collaboration” but it doesn’t elaborate or provide a timeline on this point.

The plan involves creating an advisory body made up mostly of persons with disabilities.

An “accessibility secretariat” would also manage a host of tasks, such as developing standards and serving as the “central government mechanism” for advancing the concerns of persons with disabilities.

The report indicates the legislation would have teeth, with provisions allowing for monetary penalties in cases of non-compliance. Those funds, in turn, would go towards accessibility initiatives.

Social model of disability

Petit, an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, says the framework has some good points but doesn’t go far enough.

She noted that an earlier report from a legislative committee on accessibility stressed the need to avoid a “medical model of disability,” which views disabilities as individual flaws.

In contrast, a “social model of disability” aims to improve accommodations for disabilities by changing mental attitudes and physical structures.

The new framework doesn’t mention those concepts, and Petit said she’s concerned the change in language reflects a step backwards.

“I’m scared they’re going to try and go back to a medical model of disability,” she said.

“A medical model doesn’t work, especially not in a province where you can’t get a doctor.”

As for the representation of people with disabilities in the decision-making process, Petit said everything depends on who gets appointed.

“They tend to appoint ‘yes men’ and ‘yes women’…. ‘yes people’ that have had a privileged life,” she said.

Long-awaited legislation

Opposition leaders have criticized the government for not introducing the legislation sooner.

In 2020, the Premier’s Council on Disabilities published a report (PDF) with 43 recommendations, following a series of public meetings and other outreach efforts.

It stated that a provincial Accessibility Act should be in place by the end of 2021.

After the province missed that deadline, a new all-party committee on accessibility recommended that the government “have draft accessibility legislation prepared by the end of May 2023.”

In an interview with the NB Media Co-op, Green Party Leader David Coon described the government’s progress on the legislation as “glacial.”

In the Legislative Assembly on November 23, Liberal Leader Susan Holt raised concerns about missed deadlines and asked for an update on other recommendations from the 2020 report.

Kathy Bockus, the Minister responsible for Seniors — and also chair of the committee on accessibility — said she was “not familiar” with all of those items, and defended the pace of progress.

“If we have taken a little bit longer to do this, it’s just because we’re being more thorough,” Bockus said.

But the government’s approach to accessibility doesn’t sit well with Petit, who suggested that it delayed the framework report for political reasons.

“Do they not believe in accessibility? That’s what I think.”

High disability rates in New Brunswick

Twenty-seven per cent of Canadians ages 15 years and older – about eight million people – had at least one disability by 2022, according to Statistics Canada.

That figure has grown rapidly, doubling over 10 years, due to an aging population and disabilities related to mental health.

New Brunswick has the second-highest disability rate in the country, at 35.3 per cent, second only to Nova Scotia at 37.9 per cent.

The disability rate in New Brunswick has grown faster than any other province or territory, spiking by 8.6 per cent over five years.

Roughly half of all people with disabilities ages 15 and over in the province have “severe” or “very severe” disabilities, according to figures cited in the 2020 Premier’s Council on Disabilities report.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).