Organizations calling on Quebec to invest in adapted transport

Labour shortage affects adapted transit customers A labour shortage prompted a public transportation company from blocking care givers on adapted transit.

A Quebec group of 139 organizations working in the community sector, with a clientele with various disabilities, in poverty or in the environment, as well as transporters and employer representatives, are urging the government to take action on the issue of adapted transport.

The Regroupement des aveugles et amblyopes du Québec (RAAQ) and the Regroupement des organismes de personnes handicapées de la région de la Capitale-Nationale (ROP-03) produced an opinion paper on Friday as part of the pre-budget consultations.

This opinion details the impacts of the lack of adapted transport on vulnerable clientele, who often depend on this service to go about their business and escape isolation.

"Without statistics, the crisis is not addressed in the way it should be," said RAAQ president Rene Binet. "It is as if it is not real in the minds of decision-makers. The number and diversity of the signatories to our opinion, clearly demonstrate the extent of what everyone is seeing on the ground. And unfortunately, things are not going to get any better."

The only recommendation that emanates from the opinion concerns the creation of an intersectoral working group, which would be made up of organizations and ministries concerned by this issue.

"The issue is simple to understand. People admitted to paratransit have the need and the right to travel. Their situation will not improve by meeting with each of the actors involved individually. The government must bring the stakeholders together in order to find structural solutions. This is how Quebec will emerge from this crisis," says ROP 03 president Jean-Michel Bernier.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Feb. 17, 2023.