LOGAN'S PONY CLUB
FOR CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY Contact Logan
LETTER FROM THE MINISTER OF CULTURE
Dear Logan:
The government is committed to promoting equal opportunity for people with disabilities through a new Ontarians with Disabilities Act and other measures.
Over the past three years, the government has taken important steps to improve access for people with disabilities. It has taken people with disabilities off the welfare system and created the Ontario Disability Support Program to provide income and employment supports. It has committed over $1 billion a year to school boards specifically for special education. It has improved the standards in the Ontario Building Code to make buildings more accessible to people with disabilities.
The 1998 Ontario Budget proposed further steps: a new Workplace Accessibility Tax Incentive to help businesses accommodate people with disabilities; and an expansion to the Retail Sales Tax Rebate for personal use vehicles purchased to transport people with physical disabilities, to include additional family members and non-family care-providers.
Although progress has been made in improving access, Ontarians with disabilities continue to face obstacles to participation. As a result, Ontario loses skills, creativity and energy. Allowing people with disabilities to contribute their potential to the social and economic life of the province benefits all of us.
Some barriers can be prevented from ever happening. Others can be removed quickly and at little cost. Still others will take more time.
Essential to preventing and removing barriers are partnerships: Ontarians with disabilities, communities, business, labor, service providers and governments working together to develop creative approaches.
Together we can make a difference. I look forward to receiving your ideas on the questions included in this paper. Thank you for participating in the consultation.
Sincerely,
Isabel Bassett
Minister of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation