Being disabled should not mean being disqualified from having access to every aspect of life. - Actress Emma Thompson
This is a column that I should not have to write - but I do because people with disabilities in this province are being doubly abused by the B.C. provincial government.
First, HandyDART drivers who provide critical transportation for people with disabilities have been on strike since Oct. 26 because their new employer, American firm MVT Canadian Bus, demanded they give up their existing pension plan and make other major concessions.
That means those who depend on HandyDART have been confined to home or to use expensive taxis on their limited budgets - and while negotiations are scheduled for Thursday, no end is in sight.
Second, the B.C. Liberal government quietly passed legislation allowing it to fire people with disabilities and family members from the board of directors of Community Living B.C., the provincial body that administers programs for those with developmental disabilities.
In both cases, the province has completely abdicated its responsibilities to the disabled community, by inaction in one and regressive action in the other.
TransLink is the government-owned and controlled body responsible for HandyDART and it created the current mess by contracting out the service to the for-profit MVT without protecting the interests of drivers, who are long term employees with deep connections to their clients.
Now MVT is trying to take away the Municipal Pension Plan that almost all drivers either already had or were scheduled to join in April 2010 and replace it with a risky RRSP scheme.
The obvious solution is simple - stop contracting out critical transportation services for people with disabilities and make it part of the regular TransLink structure that already includes buses, SkyTrain, SeaBus, roads and bridges.
The province and TransLink should do that immediately and get service back for people who do not deserve to lose HandyDART simply so a multinational corporation can increase its profit share on the backs of drivers.
The other issue is equally troubling. The government suddenly amended sections of the Community Living Authority Act - without consultation or notice to individuals with development disabilities and their families - removing their guaranteed seats on the board that administers services.
The B.C. Association for Community Living, the non-profit group who represents them, is literally outraged.
"To say that it's not important to have people with disabilities or family members making decisions that affect their lives is to attack the core principles of community living," says BCACL president Rory Summers.
Picking on the disabled - another low for the B.C. Liberals.
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News, views and attitude Bill Tieleman
The obvious solution is simple - stop contracting out critical transporta- tion services for people with disabilities and make it part of the regular TransLink...
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