Members Statements in the Ontario Legislature
ODA Legislation

April 27, 1999

Excerpt from Wayne Lessard (NDP MPP from Windsor-Riverside)
April 27, 1999 Evening Sitting

Wayne Lessard, NDP MPP, Windsor-Riverside:   ... One of the things that really struck me in the throne speech was the mention of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act committee, and that act generally. I guess if there was one positive element of that mention, that was the fact that it got mentioned at all. When I speak to people in my community like Dean Labute, who is the chair of the Windsor-Essex Ontarians with Disabilities Act committee, he expresses to me his complete disappointment that this government, when they had an opportunity to introduce legislation that had some real teeth, some real protection for the most vulnerable in our community, an opportunity to provide benefit for those persons with disabilities, protection for those persons, completely abandoned that responsibility, and when they had the chance in the throne speech to say that they were going to introduce a meaningful Ontarians with Disabilities Act, they abandoned that responsibility and instead said only that they were going to consult further. But at least they recognized that the legislation they had introduced last November, Bill 83, was fundamentally flawed. It wasn't going to provide the protection that persons with disabilities were looking for, it wasn't going to assist the most vulnerable in our community, and it wasn't going to provide them with the opportunities they were looking for in transportation, in education and in health care. The government had an opportunity to say clearly that they were going to introduce legislation, but they didn't do that. ...

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