Pubdate: Sat, 28 Mar 2015 Source: Standard, The (St. Catharines, CN ON) Copyright: 2015 St. Catharines Standard Contact: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/letters Website: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/676 Author: Linda Crabtree Page: C6 GOVERNMENT'S GOOD INTENTIONS OFTEN LACK TEETH Birthdays still excite me. Even though I'm heading for 73, I look forward to the day when I can say I've survived yet another year with this frustrating neuromuscular disease I've coped with all my life. Someone once suggested people with disabilities were a "special interest group." As you get older, you often join that group. It's called life. We are all, if we're lucky, part of that group of people often disabled and growing older. And don't think we seniors don't notice what is going on out there. We are the ones who read newspapers, watch the news on TV and listen to local talk radio. We also volunteer to make things better. And I'm one of the ones who talk about things I don't like. Here are a few: What happened to all the marijuana-growing companies that were supposed to be springing up everywhere to boost the economy and help people who need relief from pain and other debilitating illnesses? Out of 1,200 applications, Health Canada has licensed 23 across the entire country - 15 for production and eight for cultivation only. What happened to the long-term care law that was supposed to provide better care for the 78,000-plus residents in nursing homes in Ontario? Inspections have been made, but not one home has been fined for non-compliance. Try living in one of those homes for a month or two and you'll soon figure out there isn't enough of anything, including sprinkler systems. If there's a fire and you're living on the second floor in a wheelchair, chances are you're a goner. And we feed our convicted criminals better. And there's the Ontario e-Health program to get all the medical facilities online so my GP will know what my respirologist has prescribed and the hospital can, at a glance, see what my conditions are and what I'm taking for them. After the billion-dollar fiasco in 2009, what is being done to correct it? I hope it is being restructured. Its website says it is, but my GP is still hauling huge files around. What happened to the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, a.k.a. AODA? Our province is supposed to be accessible to people with disabilities by 2025. We're six years into it and a cool 60% of the businesses with 20 or more employees haven't bought into the law. Most likely don't even know or care it exists. Ontario's 1.8 million people with disabilities shop, and we need jobs. We need an accessible environment. The government is planning to cut back on AODA enforcement. But there's one bright light here: After lobbying for two years, the AODA Alliance chaired by David Lepofsky had the government set up a toll-free hotline to report any disability law violations. Stick with it until you reach the office of the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario, located at the Economic Development Ministry. Phone 1-866-5152025; TTY for those who are deaf: 1-800-268-7095. There's no guarantee anything will be done, but we have to speak up or we'll get what we deserve. And here's one close to home. Not only were some local street corners with directional buttons controlling street lights not cleared of snow, but now that the snow is receding shopping carts are dumped at intersections where I live, like a corral for blue ponies. The last time I looked at the corner of Louth and Benfield near the plaza on Fourth Ave., there were seven. How are we expected to get to the button through a craze of metal carts, push the button and then back up in time to cross the road? We can't. And Walmart, please send someone out to round up carts on a daily basis. They are a very real barrier to people using wheelchairs, scooters and those who are visually impaired, plus people pushing baby strollers. Being an eternal optimist, I'm looking forward to medical marijuana being readily available at a reasonable price; safe, healthier long-term care homes; medical records online and accessible schools, streets, shops and homes. I am warmed by the thought that things have improved during the past 73 years. But we still have a long way to go. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt