Officials say funding a barrier to accessibility in Cape Breton Regional Municipality

Funding is one of the main barriers to accessibility in Cape Breton Regional Municipality and it's creating an uphill battle for the municipality to meet the Nova Scotia government's goal of having all municipalities fully accessible by 2030, officials say.

Last week, CBRM adopted a plan to reach that goal.

Coun. Cyril MacDonald, who chaired the municipality's now-expired accessibility committee, said the plan is a good first step, but figuring out what can be done will start in earnest next spring during planning talks for the new fiscal year that starts in May.

"I think there are some things that we've already started doing and can be achieved relatively quickly, but unfortunately if we're talking about big dollars, it probably has to wait until budget," he told Mainstreet Cape Breton.

"It all comes down to money and who's got the dollars to make this happen and inevitably we'll lean on our provincial colleagues to get some funds to upgrade some of our facilities perhaps, upgrade some of our public spaces perhaps."

Some accessibility improvements are being made as projects get underway, MacDonald said.

For example, CBRM is currently rebuilding Charlotte Street in downtown Sydney. The work includes sidewalks with no curbs.

The new plan lists a number of successes in infrastructure and services, but also lists a number of barriers.

Among other things, the plan calls for improvements in streets and sidewalks, as well as better information and communications.

For example, CBRM now broadcasts council meetings live online and posts the video later to its YouTube channel, with links to agenda items to make it easier to find a topic during a long meeting.

But the consultant who helped put the new plan in place says still more needs to be done.

Tova Sherman, CEO of the non-profit ReachAbility Association in Halifax, told council last week that to achieve true accessibility, the municipality should include closed captions.

MacDonald said it's going to take a concerted effort to reach the province's 2030 goal.

"I'm optimistic and I'm ambitious and I think that we can do it," MacDonald said. "We'll just certainly need council support when it comes to budgetary items. We'll also need community support and community advocacy to make this happen."

MacDonald said term limits for members of the former accessibility committee have been reached and the municipality will likely have to restart the committee to begin planning the next steps in implementing the new plan.

Louise Gillis, who is past president with the Canadian Council of the Blind and was a member of the committee, said accessibility services such as transit and Handi-Trans are improving, but there are still a lot of deficiencies.

"We are not a rich municipality by any means, so it is going to take some time to get them completed, but we need to get working on them," she said.

"It's just something that really needs to be worked upon and really pushed forward to get those types of things done, so that we can all be included and nobody's left behind."

Officials say new funding agreement needed

Until last week, CBRM was one of nine municipalities that had not filed an accessibility plan with the province.

Earlier this year, the province created a new Sustainable Services Growth Fund to help municipalities with the cost of housing, seniors and long-term care, accessibility and active transportation, however CBRM was unable to take advantage of the fund because of the way it was set up.

Lately, CBRM has been embroiled in a fight over a future funding agreement with the province and Gillis said that needs to be resolved in CBRM's favour.

Coun. Darren Bruckschwaiger said the same thing at last week's council meeting, following Sherman's presentation on the new plan.

"We all know our challenges here," he said. "It's so bad and it's so embarrassing for me to sit here with these basic services that we're not able to fulfil for our residents."

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