PHSS President and CEO, Brian Dunne recently penned a powerful editorial for the London Free Press, pointing out the urgent need for change in the CIty of London’s paratransit systems. The full article is below, along with a link to the original post, which appeared in January 20, 2024 edition of the paper.
For years, leaders in the City of London have known that the specialized transit services they provide to Londoners with disabilities are blatantly inadequate. But what has changed?
As CEO of PHSS, I lead a team of professional support staff, who care for Londoners with developmental disabilities and medically complex conditions. The people we support are your neighbours. Like you and I, they live their lives each day in London neighbourhoods, attending appointments, shopping for groceries and pursing their goals. Unlike you and I, however, these Londoners rely on what the City describes as a “… door-to-door service, designed to meet the needs of the citizens of London who have a disability”. Among users, this service is known as paratransit, and it is absolutely none of those things.
In our community, the PHSS Foundation fundraises to help us procure our own fleet of accessible vans, because the people we support cannot rely on paratransit for dependable and timely transportation when they need to leave their homes. At this same time last year, I spoke to the media about the unacceptably poor paratransit services being provided by the City. I spoke about the barrier the service presents to the independence of the over 300 Londoners we support, as well as countless others. ‘Enough is enough,” read the headline – but what has changed?
Certainly nothing changed for Tom Mahoney, a member of our community living on Southdale Road. Just two weeks later, in late January of 2023, Mr. Mahoney was crossing winter roads in his wheelchair attempting to access the ‘door to door’ transit services provided by the City of London, when he was struck by a car at the intersection of Southdale Rd. E. and Verulam Street. The driver fled the scene. It was only another in a long string of bumps and near misses Mr. Mahoney has suffered while attempting to exercise his right to accessible transit. The media dutifully covered Mr. Mahoney’s story, but what has changed?
In June of 2023, still other Londoners were in the media calling out service levels so poor that they violated the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), which – in theory – can result in fines of up to $100,000. The London Transit Commission (LTC) and its contracted provider Voyago begged for time to implement their 2023 work plan. That work was no more impressive to elected officials than it was to system users. In July, the City Council’s Civic Works Committee rejected the LTC’s annual report, in which LTC leaders gave themselves good grades. Has any of this resulted in improved services? No, it has not. In October of 2023, that same Committee passed a motion asking the LTC to review its self-grading practices. Deputy Mayor Lewis went on record as to the “serious problems” with paratransit in our City. But what has changed?
Today, Voyago has fewer paratransit vehicles on the road than it did prior to the pandemic, and many of its newer vehicles are – in many respects – not equal to those that they are replacing. Everywhere, the performance of this invaluable public service is trending in the wrong direction, as it has been for years. And what has changed? The answer, of course, is nothing. Nothing has changed.
The most tragic trends are in the lives of the Londoners who are suffering as a result of this broken system; one led by executives who seem oblivious to a plain and obvious truth – that their biggest quality indicator is making life more accessible for Londoners with disabilities. Londoners who depend on them for the most basic of needs. Londoners who – in some cases – are having their very lives put at risk attempting to access this ‘door-to-door’ service that has supposedly been designed around them.
As the City of London moves towards its budget planning for the 2024/25 fiscal year, now is the time to ensure that City leaders hear and truly understand the urgency of the situation and take appropriate action on the “serious problem” that they have already acknowledged exists.
Here is hoping that we get moving on this issue soon, before we all wake up to a headline that none of us will be able to live with.
Brian Dunne is the CEO of PHSS, a community care organization supporting hundreds of individuals with medical and complex needs in the City of London.
Link to London Free Press Story: https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/dunne-everyone-knows-paratransit-is-bad-yet-nothing-changes
For more editorials from our CEO, please visit the PHSS newsroom.
