The city of Terrace will only host events at venues with wheelchair access from now on.
At last night’s city council meeting, councillor Carol Leclerc raised the issue after members of the Measuring Up Terrace committee couldn’t attend the Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards due to a lack of wheelchair access at the Best Western Hotel where the event was held.
“It would be a really clear message to the public, to businesses in the community, if the city adopted a policy that said we will support functions for the city at accessible places only,” Leclerc said to council, noting the city would be taking a leadership role in the community.
Councillors all voted in favour of the policy, but not before councillor Bruce Bidgood pointed out that not all city venues are wheelchair accessible.
“We have to examine ourselves a little more carefully and it’s only been a very short period of time that this council chamber has been accessible,” he said. “I can point out many many city owned buildings that are not accessible.”
“I don’t think it’s good enough to advocate that other buildings in the community should be wheelchair accessible when we are not accessible ourselves.
In the end, council also decided to have city staffers look into ways the city can provide incentives to make existing buildings more wheelchair friendly.
