All buildings were to be accessible to people with disabilities by 2025

Ontario is “very far from the mark,” says activist David Lepofsky of Ontario’s 2005 law requiring all buildings in the province to be accessible to people with disabilities by January 1, 2025.

Successive governments have been warned that Ontario would not meet the goal set in the 2005 law, adds Mr. Lepofsky, who is blind and president of the organization Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance.

At the current rate, we will never reach the target set for 2025.

For Torontonian Beau Hayward, who uses a wheelchair, one of the biggest obstacles currently is the accessibility of Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) subway stations.

During the winter, if I have to exceed my destination by several stations [faute d’ascenseur ou lorsqu’il est en panne]it becomes very difficult to push myself in a wheelchair in the snowhe tells CBC.

Mr. Hayward uses a motorized third wheel on the front of his chair to make it easier to move around.

A law that is not applied?

The CTT says 57 of its 70 metro stations are accessible and that work is underway to install elevators at its other stations.

Raymond Cho, Minister of Seniors Services and Accessibility, who is 88 years old and suffers from hearing problems, says he understands the difficulties people with disabilities face.

At the end of last year, however, he assured that, project by projectOntario was on track to meet its target of full accessibility.

His ministry indicates that the province has adopted a modern regulatory process to achieve this, by focusing on collaboration.

Expert Rich Donovan, who produced a report in 2023 on the 2005 law, concluded that the government was not doing enough to enforce the regulations, saying it was a crisis.

[Le gouvernement] no matter how much you create standards, if companies don’t adopt them and put them into practice, it’s uselesshe said recently in an interview with CBC.

With information from CBC News