Peter Lomath takes fight to get township to provide AODA-complaint documents to province News Aug 10, 2018 by Ian Adams Wasaga Sun
Peter Lomath said he is taking his request for Clearview Township to provide municipal documents in a format that meets accessibility requirements directly to the province.
Its the latest chapter in a saga between Peter Lomath and the municipality that includes a decision by council to apply the townships unreasonable customer service policy.
Since April 2017, Lomath has been limited in his inquiries of staff, included being permitted to only ask one question a month of the chief administrative officer and the question can be no more than 20 words.
His most recent request in the spring was for the municipality to provide current bylaws and policies used by the township into formats that are compliant with the Accessibility for Ontario with Disabilities Act (AODA). Municipal staff have stated that could include documents going back to the formation of the four municipalities that were amalgamated into Clearview Township.
The AODA received assent in 2005, and in Lomaths opinion, the municipality has done nothing to put any documents produced by the municipality into an accessible format.
Lomath said the two pieces of software used by the municipality to generate documents have the ability to check if a document is accessible when it comes to font, size and colour.
His initial request was spurred by a review of the townships comprehensive zoning bylaw that turned up numerous errors.
I couldnt figure out how anyone could be expected to read it, he said. If the bylaws for the non-disabled are in that state, we have a real problem, a huge problem.
In a report to council on June 25, staff stated fulfilling Lomaths request could necessitate hiring someone to carry out the task.
Lomath said thats nonsense.
This is not millions of dollars that you have to spend, he said. But theyre using it as an excuse to bloat the bloody staff the staff is out of control.
Lomath said he was concerned municipal staff werent representing his request to council appropriately when it was initially presented to them. The issue was deferred from the June 25 meeting to July 16, when council decided it couldnt facilitate the request as it had been submitted, directing staff to convert documents into an accessible format and provide them to Lomath as time and resources permitted.
Lomath has since withdrawn his request, and taken the issue to the Raymond Cho, the provincial minister responsible for seniors and accessibility.
In a motion approved at its July 30 meeting, council directed staff to carry on identifying commonly-used public documents and converting them into AODA-compliant documents as time permits. Those documents would then be made available on the municipal website.
Mayor Chris Vanderkruys said he couldnt speak directly to Lomaths issues, citing privacy. However, he said, council expects staff to bring a fulsome report to us, because we dont see all the documentation in that retrospect, staff best represented what they had in front of them, and if there were holes, Im sure they will review that and ensure we did understand fully all of the request.
Continuing the work, regardless of Lomath withdrawing his request, is a good practice.”
I think anything we produce today is certainly AODA-compliant and I think if we take a crack at (earlier documents) a little bit (at a time) and get up-to-date, Vanderkruys said.
He added he was unsure some documents such as the schematics for sewer and water projects could be made compliant, because they are huge, but everything that can (be made compliant), we should whittle away at and get it done.
As to the constraints placed against Lomath and his interactions with the municipality, Vanderkruys could only speak in general terms.
It falls within the policy. Theres always a review of it, and its on an individual basis depending on whats happening with the file, he said.
He said it is a council decision to apply the policy to an individual, and that discussion takes place behind closed doors.
Lomath said he only asked for bylaws in current use, and did not expect to receive copies of documents that might date back to the formation of the original municipalities.
Lomath freely admits to being a burr in the side of municipal officials, and frequently uses the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to obtain information from the township.
I could care less if they give me these documents. The reason I asked for them is not because I needed them, he said. However, (a neighbour) who is blind, is reliant on me to get the information he needs and put it into a form he can use. That was the reason for attempting this.
He called the townships restraints on his interactions with staff childish.
Its like dealing with a bunch of two-year-olds, he said.
by Ian Adams
Ian Adams is a reporter at The Sun, covering Wasaga Beach and Clearview. Email: iadams@simcoe.com Facebook
Original at
https://www.simcoe.com/news-story/8799372–childish-creemore-man-describes-efforts-to-get-clearview-to-produce-accessible-documents/