Barrier Free Manitoba

We received a very initial response from Greg Selinger on February 5 and asked for clarification. We are pleased to post his official response that was received on the afternoon of February 9.

His response is also available for download (Word / PDF).

(Reformatted from the original) 

Malinda Roberts
President
Abilities Manitoba

Janet Forbes
Steering Committee Member
Barrier-Free Manitoba

Thank you for your letter of January 7, 2015. As I mentioned in my reply of February 5, 2015, it is my intention as Premier to continue implementing the Accessibility for Manitobans Act, an Act I was very pleased to support as Premier in 2013 when it was enacted. I will ensure that the requirements under the Act for an Annual Plan, for public entity targets, for the development of regulations and for the development of terms of reference for every proposed accessibility standard, will be met in a timely fashion. In the process, I commit to consult with all parties affected by our accessibility initiatives and to make transparent what we intend to implement. I will ensure that the Accessibility Advisory Council has the necessary resources to undertake its work properly and that provision will be made for organizations and individuals to participate in consultative processes.

I also support in principle the Five Priorities developed by Abilities Manitoba under their Action plan. As Premier, I was pleased to be able to introduce the Wage Enhancement Fund last year, designed to improve the wages of service workers. I commit to further increases in the Fund as the budget permits so that we can make steady progress towards paying service workers a living wage. I also commit to improving training and standards of care.

As promised in my response to The View from Here, I have asked the Premier’s Advisory Council on Education, Poverty and Citizenship to examine the possibility of introducing a pension-like basic income for people with severe and prolonged disabilities. I also asked the Council to review government-wide benchmarks for employment equity for civil servants, and to explore how infrastructure initiatives might help increase employment for those with disabilities.

My commitment to build more social housing should also be of great benefit to people with disabilities.

I am also committed to fulfilling our obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Thank you for your untiring support for those with disabilities. I look forward to working closely with you in future.

Greg Selinger