To the Editor,
Re: Disability rates lead to reduced standard of living, Letters, July 19.
This letter is quite true.
Prior to the special transportation allowance being changed, there was stakeholder meetings; I was a participant.
My submission was called ‘Myth and Reality.’ It deals with the problems of those on disability in the rural areas. This includes upkeep of residences and related facilities and because of the lack of transit in rural areas, the need for covering vehicle cost, for fuel, insurance, repairs and replacement. When the special transportation allowance was replaced by the current program, it in no way met the demand of those of us on disability.
The fact is, there have been no improvements to the provincial persons with disability program in nine years. This is a farce. B.C. is behind the other provinces and territories. We need concentrated action not unlike Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement that ended Jim Crow in the Southern U.S.A. 50 years ago, and we need it now.
The fact is that if the provisions of Myth and Reality and the report it was included in are ever acted on, we will be way ahead of the other provinces and territories or at least on equal footing.
J.A. FerreroNanaimo
