Here's what Charlottetown's 1st accessible playground will look like
Josh Lewis | CBC News | Posted: August 23, 2018 9:00 PM | Last Updated: August 23, 2018
Canadian Tire building $1M playground through Jumpstart program
A new playground in Victoria Park that will be accessible to children with disabilities is expected to open in the fall.
The playground is being built through Canadian Tire's Jumpstart program and costs about $1 million.
Jumpstart has committed to building one of these playgrounds in every province and territory in Canada over the next five years.
"There's nothing else like this in the city," said Charlottetown Mayor Clifford Lee. "It now gives us a major facility for people with disabilities, be they learning disabilities, physical disabilities.
"They can come together and be a kid and enjoy the playground that we have."
'State-of-the-art playground'
The city's programming in recent years has focused on eliminating barriers for accessibility, Lee said.
Mary Ann Gallagher, Jumpstart regional manager for P.E.I., said the playground will have double-wide ramps and multiple entry and exit points. All the swings and other equipment will be accessible.
"They're built specifically with children with different abilities in mind."
She called it a "big, beautiful, state-of-the-art playground."
'An easy choice'
The plan to open the playground sometime this fall will depend on the weather — the rubberized flooring requires seven to 10 days of good weather to install, Lee said.
"Victoria Park is obviously the most attractive and most-used facility in the city. This is where most people tend to come in the summertime with our boardwalk facilities, our walking paths, the swimming pools and everything else," the mayor said.
"We wanted to put it where you would get the most use. This was obviously an easy choice."