Airport penalized four times for breaking disability training rules

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This article was published 08/06/2023 (823 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Airports Authority has been penalized and fined multiple times over the past eight years by the Canadian Transportation Agency for not ensuring all its employees and contractors are trained to help passengers with disabilities.

While some Canadian airports have been rebuked a single time for violating the Personnel Training for the Assistance of Persons with Disabilities Regulations, Winnipeg is the only one which has breached it four times since 2015.

The regulations were created to ensure airport employees and contractors are trained within 60 days of being hired and to ensure they are given refresher training periodically.

Because of the violations, the agency first penalized the WAA with a formal warning in 2015, a $5,000 fine in 2017, and a $3,000 fine in 2021. In February, the WAA forfeited $6,000 it had posted as security 13 months earlier, in case it didn’t fix the problems during the agreed upon timeframe.

Disability advocates expressed shock the city’s international airport not only violates regulations intended to help people with disabilities travel, but has continued to do it for years.

“It really surprises me,” David Kron, executive director of the Cerebral Palsy Association of Manitoba, said Wednesday.

“I have given them real kudos for reaching out to the (disability) community and working with them. It really surprises me they are in violation of these training regulations.”

Dana Erickson, chief executive officer of Manitoba Possible (formerly the Society for Manitobans with Disabilities), said he wasn’t aware of the breaches.

“I’m honestly quite surprised,” said Erickson — especially because his organization worked with the airport on its passenger rehearsal program, which helps to better support people with disabilities.

“We created a training program for their staff, but we just never got a response back from them after that,” said Erickson, a member on its accessibility committee in 2019 and 2020.

“We created a training program for their staff, but we just never got a response back from them after that.”

“I think there was a change in personnel and a key person left, but they were very proactive in getting accessibility improvements in. It’s too bad.”

The federal agency was not able to provide the Free Press with comment by deadline Wednesday.

According to the regulations, the training is for employees and contractors who interact with the public at the airport.

It includes knowing the proper methods to transfer a person from a wheelchair to a plane seat, how they can avoid being injured while lifting such a person, how to guide a passenger who has a visual impairment, how to handle mobility aids and training on mechanical lifts and ramps.

Michel Rosset, WAA manager of communications, said it is working on fixing the problems.

“As part of Winnipeg Airports Authority’s commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all travellers, visitors and employees, we’ve prioritized identifying, removing and preventing barriers to equal access at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport,” Rosset said.

“Following one of their regular accessibility audits, conducted in 2020, the Canadian Transportation Agency notified us of a finding related to a third-party service provider at the airport, which we immediately addressed with the company. Corrective action taken to rectify the CTA’s finding is ongoing.”

The third-party service provider was connected to security-related services, he added.

The airport recently unveiled its new three-year accessibility plan, Rosset said.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca