Accessibility upgrades coming for legislature

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This article was published 26/04/2016 (3462 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s legislative chamber is being reconfigured for the first time in decades to make it more accessible.

In the next few weeks, six desks in the chamber’s outer row — three on each of the government and Opposition sides — will be altered to accommodate wheelchairs. Once the spring session ends, the entire room will be renovated to allow someone in a wheelchair to roam throughout the ornate room and even gain access to the speaker’s throne.

“This is a historical change that we’re making,” House speaker Daryl Reid said Tuesday.

Efforts to increase accessibility in the near century-old Legislative Building have been underway for some time. In recent years, an outdoor ramp was installed in front of the venerable structure. Inside, the building’s elevators were modernized.

Inside the chamber itself, a new ramp and a lift to accommodate heavy motorized wheelchairs were installed in the visitors’ gallery. But the area where MLAs take their seats has been virtually untouched since the 1920s.

Reid — who did not seek re-election April 19 but remains the speaker until a successor is chosen as the first item of business in the new session — said he expects the preliminary renovations will be completed by May 13. They’re designed to accommodate newly elected Assiniboia MLA Steven Fletcher.

Fletcher became the first quadriplegic to serve in the House of Commons as well as the federal cabinet. He was a member of Parliament for more than a decade until his defeat at the hands of Liberal Doug Eyolfson last fall. A few months later, he was recruited by Brian Pallister’s Conservatives to run provincially.

Reid said it is essential that Fletcher and anyone else with mobility issues be properly accommodated.

“We don’t want to embarrass a member coming into the assembly. They’re going to be treated the same as everybody else,” he said.

Pallister has yet to announce when the legislative session will begin. It is expected to get underway as early as mid-May and could run into July.

As soon as MLAs clear out for the summer, the renovations will begin in earnest.

Two lifts will be installed inside the chamber to allow for accessibility to the entire room. Floor heights will also be adjusted throughout the multi-levelled interior. The goal is to allow someone with mobility issues to gain access easily to any seat in the chamber or to consult with legislative assembly staff.

Reid said he did not have a cost estimate for the project, in part, because the price of the lifts is unknown.

He noted that Kevin Murphy, speaker of the Nova Scotia legislative assembly, is a quadriplegic (as a result of a hockey injury in the mid-1980s). The Manitoba speaker said he’s travelled to Halifax and witnessed the accommodations that were made there.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca