In the fourth review of the AODA, Rich Donovan states that Ontario will not be fully accessible by 2025. In other words, the provincial government will not meet its own deadline under the AODA. Limited creation, implementation, and enforcement of AODA standards impacts the well-being and safety of Ontarians with disabilities. Therefore, Donovan recommends that the Ontario government should declare this lack of progress on accessibility a crisis. This crisis state should last six (6) months. During this time, the Ontario government should form a crisis committee to implement crucial accessibility improvements in the province. The Premier should act as the chair of this committee, and the Secretary of Cabinet should act as co-chair. Furthermore, Donovan outlines tactical recommendations the province should follow to fulfill its remaining responsibilities in the public sector. One of these tactical recommendations is the implementation of more measures to enforce the AODA.
More Measures to Enforce the AODA
The review notes that all previous reviews of the AODA have recommended improved enforcement of the Act. However, Donovan states that the province lacks the knowledge and resources to implement and enforce needed accessibility regulations for every organization in Ontario.
Recommendations
Therefore, the review recommends that the accessibility agency should have more resources for accessibility audits and AODA inspections. These audits and inspections should happen as often as other provincial or federal enforcement measures, such as Ontario Securities regulations or enforcement of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Moreover, official auditors and inspectors should have the power to prosecute organizations that do not obey the AODA. Likewise, these officials should have the power to publish the names of non-compliant organizations.
In addition, the agency should also have support for its efforts to publicize examples of organizations that remove accessibility barriers. Finally, the fourth review repeats a recommendation in the third review of the AODA for a complaint system to centralize the removal of accessibility barriers.