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Ensuring Effective Implementation

Barrier-Free Manitoba began the next and final stage of work - ensuring the timely and effective implementation of The Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA) - following the passage of the Act. Click here for details on developments related to this phase of work to date.

This work will focus on the critical first five years of the implementation of AMA - through to the end of 2018.

This time frame is important because:

  • 2018 represents the half-way point between the date the AMA came into force (December 5, 2013) and the 2023 date set by the act for achieving significant progress towards full accessibility.
  • All five of the first accessibility standards (customer service, employment, information and communication, transportation and the built environment) should have been developed and brought into force by 2018.
  • 2018 extends two years beyond the upcoming Spring 2016 provincial election and the possible change in the political leadership responsible for implementing the AMA.
  • Providing for strong, independent community capacity through to 2018 will ensure meaningfully participation in the first comprehensive review of the effectiveness of the Act due to start by December 2017.

As part of this phase of work, Barrier-Free Manitoba has called on government to implement the AMA based on the following nine principles:

To be effective, the implementation of The Accessibility for Manitobans Act must:

1. Cover all disabilities.

2. Reflect a principled approach to accessibility that respects human rights enshrined in provincial, national and international law.

3. Provide for the development and enactment of mandatory and date-specific standards in all major areas related to accessibility that:

  • Apply to the governmental, private and not-for-profit sectors.
  • Provide for the prevention and systemic removal of barriers at the earliest possible date.

4. Establish, operate and report on proactive and comprehensive monitoring and enforcement of these standards.

5. Incorporate and sustain ongoing leadership roles for the disability community, as well as meaningful and timely opportunities for consultations with all persons affected by disabilities.

6. Be transparent and open as the law allows, including the public availability of clear, accurate, complete, relevant and timely information on both process and outcomes.

7. Provide for public accountability of progress and results.

8. Provide for the completion and publication of an inclusive and independent review of the legislation and its implementation within four years of the passage of the legislation and then every five years thereafter.

9. Not diminish other legal and human rights protections.