Passing grade on accessibility not good enough

Editorial, Winnipeg Free Press, January 18, 2023
Sometimes, a passing grade is considered a satisfactory result, the product of sufficient preparation and effort to allow for an outcome that qualifies as success even though it may have flirted with failure along the way. In other words, just enough to be good enough. When it comes to the midterm report card issued to the provincial government by Barrier-Free Manitoba (BFM) for the implementation and enforcement of its accessibility-standards legislation, a barely passing grade should be regarded as a cause for concern and immediate remedial action rather than reason for anything resembling celebration or self-congratulation. BFM is a non-profit cross-disability initiative formed in 2008 to lobby the province to enact strong and effective legislation that requires the removal of existing barriers and prevents the creation of new ones. Its mock report card offers an assessment of the current Progressive Conservative government’s success (or failure) in bringing into force the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA), which was passed into law in December 2013 by the province’s previous NDP government, promising significant accessibility progress by 2023. With the 10-year implementation timeline ticking toward its end, BFM’s most recent assessment gives the government an overall D grade for fully setting in motion the legislation aimed at affording Manitobans with disabilities the opportunity to fully participate in all the province has to offer.