Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.
Disability advocates are warning that plans to make the metro more accessible could be delayed or rejected altogether because they feel caught in the middle of a funding battle between Quebec and STM.
For decades, Marie Turcotte has been working to make public transportation in Montreal fully accessible.
The best way to do this is by elevators.
It was part of the STM’s announcement in 2017 that the entire underground would be accessible to all by 2038.
But as of today, even half of Montreal’s 68 metro stations do not have elevators and now work on future stations may be halted.
Turcotte says that if STM doesn’t have enough funding to continue its programs, services will begin to disappear. And she fears it will set back plans to install more elevators.
The STM told CTV News it still needs $570 million to complete its accessibility goals and has not received approval from the county.
But a spokesman for Quebec’s transportation minister, Genevieve Gilbeau, said Saturday that her office has not turned down any funding for accessibility and that all applications are still under analysis.
“The only thing I can take from this is that we’re caught in a political battle and we’re paying the price at the end of the day,” said Steve LaFerriere, executive director of RAPLIQ, a countywide disability rights organization.
The organization sued the municipality for the lack of access to public transportation. LaFerriere says elevators, while expensive, are a game changer.
“Elevators are equal to freedom for people with disabilities such as wheelchairs, ambulators or walking sticks for the blind,” he said.
Not only people with disabilities use them.
Turcotte, meanwhile, has garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures in support of additional accessibility funding from Ottawa and Quebec and she won’t go down without a fight
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
source link https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/accessibility-advocates-fear-possible-delay-in-adding-more-elevators-in-montreal-s-metro-stations-1.6937469
