[ City Hall St. Catharines, Ontario ]

Brian McMullan, Mayor of St. Catharines : St. Catharines is a population of about 133,000 people, part of the Niagara Region, here in Southern Ontario. Most of our central services are here at City Hall, from my office to the CAOs to the clerks department and the council chambers and tax payment, finance, billing.

It is a fairly old building, one that we’re very proud of, a heritage building in that sense.

We have a wonderful group — the mayor’s accessibility committee — along with our staff, some suggestions were made and some improvements that we could make to make the building that I said was an older building, much more accessible and much more user-friendly for people of all abilities.

From new washroom facilities with wider doors and accessible toilets and sinks, to the hallways, the doors accessing council chambers being made wider, to things like hearing assistive devices in the council chambers so people can hear the debate and the activities when people are making presentations that are going on there, to better lighting, improved lighting, improved signage within City Hall, audible tone in the elevator, things like a Stryker chair has been added in case we had an emergency that people with mobility issues would be able to exit the building.

Even the counters that are not only more accessible, more practical for those that may be mobility impaired or in a wheelchair or in a scooter, but also puts them at eye level with the people that they’re dealing with, and a much more friendly, welcoming environment.

Shelley Stewart, Co-Chairperson, Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Accessibility : You walk into City Hall and you feel included, no matter who you are, no matter what accommodations you need. It’s a friendly place to be.

And I was lucky enough to be involved in all of the accessible customer service training for St. Catharines, the City, Mayor, Council, all staff, part-time, full-time, volunteer, commissions, committees — we covered everybody. And the openness and willingness to have this training was apparent.

Accessible customer service is really just good customer service. And everybody’s still happy to help, and I think that that is one of the biggest things to customer service and to just making everybody feel welcome.

So it’s really, for me, it just makes coming into City Hall wonderful.

It’s sometimes the little things that we don’t often think of that can make a difference particularly for somebody trying to access city services.

I think the city, particularly City Hall, we should be setting an example for all levels of government and for all businesses, and I think the fact that we’re doing that resonates throughout the community.

It’s not so much the dollars, but the payback, sort of the non-monetary terms — in terms of serving your community, in terms of people feeling good about coming to City Hall, when they interact with their city government. It’s hard to measure that, but I know it’s invaluable, and I think it’s an investment that’s well worth making.

We’re very proud of the progress we’ve made to date, and that it’s ongoing, and I think that we’re very conscious of that with our staff and our committee, that we’re not going to stop, we’re going to keep moving forward in a positive way.