Revised Draft Minutes to the Twelfth Meeting of the
Accessible Transportation Standards Development Committee (T-SDC)
Canadian Standards Association


5060 Spectrum Way
Mississauga, ON
April 30 & May 1, 2007

Members Present

• Al Cormier, Cor Al Services (Chair)
• Georges Ansell, Ministry of Northern Development and Mines
• Valmay Barkey, Ontario Community Support Association
• Spiros Bastas, Royal Taxi
• Jo-Ann Bentley, Canadian Hearing Society
• James Bisson Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario/City of Mississauga
• Earl Black, Independent Living Resource Centre
• Mark Brose, Transportation, Action Now
• Silvan Bruno, GO Transit
• Katrina Carrera Association des municipalités Francophones de l’Ontario
• David Carroll Ontario Motor Coach Association and Ontario School Bus Association
• Peter Chin, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
• Alex Grant, HAGI Community Services for Independence (Represented by Dave Stephens)
• Blyth Helman, Ottawa Carleton District School Board
• Glenn Johnston, Toronto Transit Commission
• Kim Lambert, Ministry of Transportation
• Lesley Anne MacDonald,  Canadian National Institute for the Blind
• Alex Milojevic, Association of Municipalities of Ontario, City of Brampton
• Susan Enid, Mintz The Kidney Foundation of Canada
• Tim Nolan, Council of Ontario Universities
• Kelly Paleczny, Ontario Community Transportation Association
• Lloyd Pollock, Dignity Transportation Incorporated
• Danielle Svec, Bloorview Kids Rehab
• Vanissa Szeto, Ministry of Education
• Tanya Wanio, Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing

Members Absent

• Tony Carnovale, Community Living Ontario
• Sharon Hambleton, Ontario Federation of Labour

Support Unit

• Kevin Boehmer, Canadian Standards Association
• Mike Dodd, Canadian Standards Association
• Michael Sullivan, Accessibility Directorate of Ontario
• Nelly Tion, Accessibility Directorate of Ontario
• Scot Weeres, Accessibility Directorate of Ontario

Consultants

• David Dilks, Lura Consulting

M12.1 Call to Order

A. Cormier (Chair) called the 12th meeting of the Accessible Transportation Standards Development Committee (T-SDC) meeting to order at 9:30 a.m. on April 30, 2007.

M12.2  Housekeeping and Facility Safety

M. Dodd advised members of facility safety procedures and other housekeeping matters.

M12.3 Meeting Objectives

The Chair detailed objectives of the 12th meeting, including:

• Complete the disposition of comments on Draft 6 Revision 2 (Draft 6R2) of the Accessible Transportation standard;
• Administer a recorded vote to submit the initial proposed standard for public review; and
• Discuss the Chair’s transmittal letter to the Minister.

M12.4 Administrative Matters

M12.4.1 Approval of the Meeting 11 Draft Agenda
The Chair tabled the draft Meeting 12 agenda as previously circulated.  The draft Meeting 12 agenda was approved as tabled.

M12.4.2 Approval of the Meeting 11 Draft Minutes

The Chair tabled revised draft minutes of Meeting 11 as previously circulated.  The revised draft Meeting 11 minutes were approved as circulated.

M12.4.3 Membership Review

The Chair noted there were no changes to the T-SDC membership since the Meeting 11.

The Chair noted that Lura Consulting had been retained to facilitate the Process Review (A12.5) and Dispositioning of Comments on Draft 6R2 of the Accessible Transportation Standard (A12.6).  The Chair introduced D. Dilks from Lura Consulting as the Meeting 12 facilitator.

M12.4.4 Editorial Task Force – Report

M. Dodd reported that the Editorial Task Force met on March 22, 2007 to review T-SDC Meeting 11 decisions in preparing Draft 6R2 of the Accessible Transportation standard.

M12.5 Process Review

D. Dilks asked members if they had comments or suggestions for improvement on the process employed from Meeting 11 to Meeting 12.  No comments or suggestions were offered.

M12.6 Dispositioning of Comments on Draft 6R2 of the Accessible Transportation Standard

M11.6.1 Process to Disposition Comments

D. Dilks presented a suggested plan for completing the review of comments on Draft 6R2 of the Accessible Transportation standard. He suggested that the T-SDC might consider addressing comments in the following order:

1. Clause 1 (comments 1 to 2);
2. Clause 2 (comments 3 to 9);
3. Clause 3 (comment 10);
4. Clause 4 (comments 11 to 14);
5. Clause 5 (comments 15 to 63);
6. Clause 7 (on-demand fare issue);
7. Clause 8 (comment 85);
8. Clause 9 (comment 86); and
9. Clause 6 (comments 64 to 84; M. Brose submission).

S. Minz asked that the committee re-consider comment 143 from the compilation of Draft 5 comments regarding prioritizing trips based on the health and safety of passengers.  The committee agreed to consider this suggestion during Clause 6 discussions.

D. DIlks reminded the T-SDC of the process used to disposition comments at previous meetings; specifically that the committee strive to agree on the intent of clauses leaving wordsmithing and editing to sub-groups of the committee.  D. Dilks encouraged members to try to find resolution to outstanding issues such that the committee might vote to submit the initial proposed standard to public review on Day 2 of Meeting 12.  The T-SDC agreed to use the approach to dispositioning comments as proposed by D. Dilks.

During Meeting 12, some members advocated to suspend the dispositioning of comments in favour of holding an immediate recorded vote testing committee consensus to submit the draft standard to the Minister for public review.  Other members argued to maintain the agreed to process of dispositioning each comment prior to holding a vote.  After significant discussion, the T-SDC agreed to return to the dispositioning of all comments on Draft 6R2 of the Accessible Transportation standard.

M12.6.2 Dispositioning of Draft 6R2 Comments

The T-SDC spent most of Meeting 12 dispositioning comments on Draft 6R2 of the Accessible Transportation standard.  The following summarizes key outcomes from the disposition of comments.

	Clause	Status
1.0	Scope	The committee considered all Clause 1 comments in making editorial changes to the scope.
2.0	Definitions	The committee considered all Clause 2 comments; revising definitions of community service transportation vehicles and adding definitions for disability, lower tier, multiple tier, portable bridge plate and single tier. Comments 8 and 9 were referred to the Definitions Task Force
3.0	Long-term Objectives	The committee considered all Clause 3 comments and made no substantive changes to the long-term objective.
4.0	Training Requirements	The committee considered all Clause 4 comments and revised training requirements to add greater clarity.
5.0	Conveyance Requirements	The committee considered all Clause 5 comments; clarifying existing conveyance requirements and revising implementation schedules Comments 32 and 33 were referred to the Editorial Task Force.
6.0	Accessible Public Transit Services	The committee considered all Clause 6 comments; clarifying existing accessible public transit services requirements and revising implementation schedules.
7.0	On-demand Services	The committee considered Clause 7 level of availability, fare and registration number requirements; revising the registration number clause and implementation schedules.
8.0	Booked Services	The committee considered all Clause 8 booked service comments; making minor revisions for clarity and revising implementation schedules.
9.0	School Transportation Services	The committee considered all Clause 9 school transportation services comments in making an editorial change.
10.0	Other Transportation Services	The committee considered all Clause 10 requirements in revising implementation schedules for other transportation services.

M12.7 Recorded Vote

The Chair reaffirmed that the purpose of the recorded vote was to confirm committee consensus to submit the initial proposed standard to the Minister for public review.  The following motion was presented and accepted (moved by G. Johnston, seconded by L. Pollock):
Motion: To forward the revised Accessible Transportation Standard as the Draft Initial Proposed Standard to the Minister for public review.

A recorded vote was taken on the motion and was carried unanimously.  Annex A includes actual votes.

M12.8 Discussion of the Chair’s Transmittal Letter to the Minister

The Chair noted that he would be preparing a transmittal letter to the Minister to accompany the initial proposed standard and would share a draft of the letter with members for comment.  The Chair presented a compilation of issues for potential inclusion in the transmittal letter and invited comment.  Potential issues/suggestions included:

• Attach T-SDC guiding principles;
• The initial proposed standard has been designed as a baseline or minimum standard; users should be encouraged to exceed its requirements;
• Ontario’s public and private passenger transportation carriers have made significant progress in delivering accessible services;
• Improving accessibility depends on funding for both private and public carriers;
• Standards provisions that are applicable across sectors should be developed by “overarching” standards committees with cross-sectoral scopes;
• Where possible, technical requirements and implementation schedules for various accessibility standards should be harmonized over time;
• Interpretative guidelines and implementation tools should be developed and disseminated;
• Options to improve inter- jurisdictional travel for persons with disabilities should be explored;
• Many intra-provincial trips use vehicles or other modes of transportation outside of the scope of the T-SDC;
• The increasing size and weight of mobility aids is a concern.  Purchasers of mobility aids need to be informed of size and weight restrictions that might limit use on passenger transportation conveyances; and
• The Province should explore the development of a standard system to formally recognize persons with a disability that require a personal care attendant such that the waiving of attendant fares can be consistently implemented.

A12.9 Development of the Workplan
The T-SDC agreed with the following work plan:

Activity	Responsibility	Date (2007)
a) Distribute a draft Chair’s transmittal letter to T-SDC members for comment.	Chair	May 14
b) As required, consult the Definitions Task Force in preparing the initial proposed standard for public review.	CSA	May 23
c) Organize an Editorial Task Force Meeting to review the initial proposed standard for public review.	CSA	May 23
d) Forward the initial proposed standard and transmittal letter to the Minister.	Chair	May 31

M12.10 Next Meetings

The committee will convene its next meeting following public review to consider comments and feedback received on the initial proposed accessible transportation standard.

M12.11 New Business

S. Weeres distributed a report summarizing findings from an independent evaluation of the SDC process.

Participants suggested that the costing consultant be re-engaged to analyze costing implications of the initial proposed standard such that this information would be available during public review.  S. Weeres, noting that this would complete the contract of the costing consultant, agreed to proceed with the analysis.

M12.12 Process Review

No comments or suggestions were offered.

M12.13 Adjournment

The chair adjourned the 12th meeting of the Accessible Transportation Standards Development Committee at 4:15 pm on May 1, 2007.

Annex A: Voting Results

Motion: To forward the revised Accessible Transportation Standard as the Draft Initial Proposed Standard to the Minister for public review.

Member Present	Proxies Held	Vote
Georges Ansell	-	Affirmative
Valmay Barkey	Earl Black	Affirmative
Spiros Bastas	-	Affirmative
James Bisson	-	Affirmative
Mark Brose	Jo-Ann Bentley Lesley Anne MacDonald Susan Enid Mintz Tim Nolan	Affirmative
Silvan Bruno	-	Affirmative
Katrina Carrera	-	Affirmative
David Carroll	-	Affirmative
Peter Chin	-	Affirmative
Alex Grant	-	Affirmative
Blyth Helman	-	Affirmative
Glenn Johnson	-	Affirmative
Kim Lambert	-	Affirmative
Alex Milojevic	-	Affirmative
Kelly Paleczny	-	Affirmative
Lloyd Pollock	-	Affirmative
Danielle Svec	-	Affirmative
Vanissa Szeto	-	Affirmative
Tanya Wanio	-	Affirmative
Total Votes Cast=24 Total Approval Votes = 24 Total Voting Membership = 26

 

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