Town of Fort Frances staff will be looking into accessibility for individuals facing mobility barriers and looking to find possibilities for bridging the gaps after Town Council voted Monday night unanimously in favour of a deputation made by a resident at the Sept. 28 meeting of council.
Nicole LePine, a stroke survivor and community advocate who organized and delivered the presentation, said that due to a lack of concern for equity in accessibility, she struggles with mobility on Fort Frances public infrastructure, accessing buildings and attending any public events in town.
“I struggle with a list of things on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “Whether it’s transportation, access into buildings, door width, bathrooms, snow removal or holes in the sidewalk. Most buildings on Scott Street either have a step or a non-automatic door. Just to give you an idea of my day, I tend to stay either at my office or home. I am so thankful to my parents who do most errands for me, or asking coworkers to simply go to a store because it’s probably riskier for me to go.”
The September deputation, titled “Access for Everyone,” explained the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) 2005 and its requirements for every Ontario organization with at least one employee.
According to the AODA, new or redeveloped public spaces must be accessible to all. In 2023, the town established a five-year accessibility plan aimed at identifying, removing and preventing barriers across the community in compliance with the AODA.
LePine, who suffered a stroke in 2016 at the age of 18, said she has had a wheelchair break in the past due to rough surfaces she has to traverse and has flipped going into a business after the reconstruction of the sidewalk lowered the level significantly and caused a ramp to be too steep.
“I just don’t feel like an equal citizen,” she said. “I have completely stopped going to town events because I know accessibility has never been a priority.
“It’s exhausting to have to pre-plan every event I want to go to. I always have to wonder about bathroom situations, what the layout is and finding someone to attend the event with who won’t feel like I’m being a burden.”
As she told The Times and said in her presentation, LePine believes the town’s next move is to highlight the grants available to ensure accessibility needs are met and to partner with organizations that specialize in AODA standards.
Town CAO Marcel Michaels said administration will explore these possibilities as it prepares a report to council outlining ways to improve accessibility.
“Administration is now tasked with looking at ways to effectively address accessibility opportunities that we can do better,” Michaels said.
“It’s an opportunity for us to look at our internal mechanisms, things that really control accessibility and how we can improve them. We’ve done some stuff for sure, but this is a reminder that sometimes we have to address these things from a policy standpoint. The policy is going to drive budget, and budget is going to drive actual changes.”
Michaels noted that administrative staff cannot yet act further than providing a report to council. Once council receives the report, it can then decide where these changes will be on their list of priorities, give staff the next directives and then action can occur to the extent council decides.
If town council chooses to move ahead with grant applications, it will be able to apply for the Enhancing Access to Spaces for Everyone (EASE) Grant and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation’s (NOHFC) Community Enhancement Program.
The EASE Grant offers up to $60,000 in funding for small capital projects that focus on making outdoor spaces, buildings and housing more accessible for everyone.
NOHFC’s Community Enhancement Program covers up to 50 per cent of a maximum of $2 million per eligible project. Last August, the Township of Emo was funded $198,000 from this program to make the Emo-La Vallee Community Hall washrooms accessible for all.
For areas with aging populations, these changes stand to benefit quality of life for mobility issues of all kinds; someone doesn’t necessarily have to have been in an accident, suffered a stroke or be born with a disability to have different mobility needs.
To learn more about the mobility and accessibility barriers, as well as the different ways a municipality can help eliminate them, LePine’s presentation delivered to the Fort Frances Town Council is available here: https://bit.ly/4j99Zlj.
