VAUGEOIS: We can and must do better than this for Ontarians with disabilities.

QUEEN’S PARK – On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, NDP Shadow Minister for Seniors & Accessibility/WSIB & Injured Workers, MPP Lise Vaugeois (Thunder Bay – Superior North), rose in the Legislature to make the following statement:

“We heard from the Ontario Ombudsman this week that adults with developmental disabilities are being medically or physically restrained in hospitals, and even jails, because there are no community homes or supports available to them. This was already known in 2016, yet nothing has changed.

“Between the government’s failure to control the cost of housing and impossibly low levels of financial support, living with a disability can be incredibly precarious and exhausting. The failure to ensure a fully accessible Ontario by the 2025 legislated deadline under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act is a critical failure. Even worse are the political decisions that keep people living lives of endless struggle and precarity when, with no hope of housing or a survivable income, tragically, people are applying for MAID. This should be unimaginable in a province as rich as Ontario.

“There are nearly two million Ontarians with a disability who contribute so much to our communities. People with disabilities are our friends, our neighbours, our family members, ourselves. Ontarians deserve so much more than this. We can and must do better.”