I wrote this in an email response on September 18th:
"I conservatively estimate tens of billions of dollars in damages if class-action litigation is initiated by the hundreds of thousands of Canadians with mobility disabilities and the millions of Canadians who face various limitations in their activities of daily living due to building code policy that negatively impacts their health and safety in their homes, as well as denies them their human rights in most housing. Building code policy has ignored Section 15 Equality Rights in housing for persons with disabilities since 1985, which are enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Building code policy has also been ignoring disability rights found in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Canada ratified in 2010. And the greatest liability to building code policy is that they've often chosen to ignore or refute domestic and global evidence-based research brought forward in many Code Change Requests during code development and updates. Whether we consider access, use or egress failures in housing, building code policy is directly responsible for health and safety impacts to individuals in their homes (which include preventable injuries and premature deaths). As well, ineffective statistical data on disability that primarily relies on self-reporting and invalid & unreliable methods of data collection are compounding the crisis that persons with activity limitations and disabilities face in housing. The above examples of negligence in building code policy would most certainly make it liable to remedy in our court system resulting in no less than tens of billions of dollars in damages if class-action litigation is initiated. Given that Ontario has roughly one-third of our nation's population, such an impact to our provincial economy would be far more significant than implementing the simple and low-cost features of VisitAbility to all new housing rather than only offering it in 15% of units in Group C Major Occupancy buildings [OBC 3.8.2.1 (5) to (8)]. Doing so would ensure human rights and improve the health, safety and sustainability of housing for a growing proportion of Canadians who desperately need adequate housing options that meet their current and future needs. The existing and growing accessible housing crisis can no longer be ignored by our governments, including the government of Ontario."
