Councillor experiences Accessible nightmare

“I try to use my platform because it gets attention”

Waterloo Regional Councillor Chantal Huinink had a unique opportunity to highlight the gaps in Ontario’s Accessible Taxi programs in April. Her travel nightmares between Toronto and Mississauga to attend a conference hit the mainstream media when she publicly complained about the lack of service.

 Huinink, who uses a motorized wheelchair and has visual impairment, waited almost three hours for a taxi ride in Mississauga; the city later announced it would investigate the failure.

“I try to use my transportation problems when they occur as a chance to advocate for everyone who needs these services,” Huinink told Taxi News.

“I try to use my platform as an elected politician because it gets attention when the story leads with ‘Waterloo Regional Councillor can’t get Accessible transportation’…. The same things happen to unelected people who need Accessible transportation, all the time. But you don’t hear about them.”

Huinink travelled to Etobicoke and Mississauga from April 13 to 15 to attend two different conferences. In Toronto, she requested help from City staff in booking a Taxi; unbeknownst to her, an MLS staff had called directly to a licensed broker to get guarantees a WAV would be available when Huinink needed one.

Because no one did this for her in Mississauga, she was left to the vagaries of Ontario’s patchwork system of Accessible services as any non-elected user dependent on the system would experience them. Her experience was nightmarish, involving multiple phone calls; three hour waits; Taxi companies attempting to surcharge her $20 per trip; and one company lying to say her Taxi had arrived but left when she did not appear.

“I was sitting at the door, waiting,” she told Taxi News. “No Taxi came. They just made that up.”

Huinink sits on the Accessible Committee in Waterloo Region, which she says is doing a pretty good job on ensuring Wheelchair Accessible Taxis are available. Waterloo’s system involves vehicle subsidies and driver incentives. She is dismayed that Toronto has not taken steps to address its own Accessible Taxi program.

“I’m a really strong advocate for equitable transit. I think transit is the answer to economic development. I think transit is the answer to social mobility. I think transit is the answer to affordability and to climate sustainable growth. I believe in transit.

“The thing that I also believe in is that Accessible transit needs to be just as timely and just as reliable as transit that’s not accessible, and it’s not.”

The province’s Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act is not consistently applied and contains no compelling punishment for municipalities which fail to comply, Huinink points out.

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Taxi News will provide further coverage of the interview with Councillor Huinink in the days ahead.