Prof says campus accessibility remains ‘deplorable’, pitches campaign to change that by 200th anniversary
A Mount Allison professor is calling out a lack of progress in terms of physical accessibility on university campuses, and pitching a target for his own campus to fix the problem by the time it hits its 200th anniversary in 2039.
Dr. Mario Levesque teaches politics at Mount Allison, and also does research on disability issues. About 10 years ago he started Mount A’s first course focussed on disability, and a year and a half ago he got trained as an accessibility auditor through the Rick Hansen Foundation. He says that Mount Allison has a lot of work to do making the campus physically accessible.
Levesque points to his own building on campus, the Avard Dixon, which has an accessible washroom on the fourth floor, but no elevator. “Four storeys, so that makes it challenging,” he says. And this past fall, Levesque got some first hand experience with that challenge.
“I was on crutches for the bulk of last fall, and my office is on the third floor, and no elevator,” says Levesque. Though the university offered to find him a space to work elsewhere, Levesque says he needed access to his office and everything in it. That meant climbing the stair several times a day with his crutches, which Levesque says is a safety and liability issue. Some days if he wasn’t up for the climb, the professor moved up and down the stairs in a seated position.… Continue
Higgs and Houston argument is ‘hot air’ says prof, as federal funding deadline approaches for Chignecto Isthmus
Federal infrastructure minister Dominic LeBlanc has responded to a threat from premiers Blaine Higgs and Tim Houston, who have said they will take the federal government to court over its refusal to fund 100% of the Chignecto Isthmus protection project.
In a letter on July 4, Higgs asserted that the Constitution Act of 1867 outlines the responsibility of the federal government to “maintain and secure transportation links between provinces.” Previously, Higgs compared the Isthmus project to the Confederation Bridge, which was funded by the federal government in the 1990’s.
A spokesperson for LeBlanc says the constitutional argument is “inaccurate”, and a political science professor from Mount Allison agrees.
Here’s the full statement from LeBlanc’s spokesperson, Jean-Sébastien Comeau:
… Continue“Our position is and has always been clear – the protection of the Chignecto Isthmus is a shared responsibility between the Government of Canada, the Government of New Brunswick and the Government of Nova Scotia. It is inaccurate to pretend that the Government of Canada has a constitutional responsibility to maintain the provincially-owned highway that runs through the Isthmus, or to compare this situation to an article of Confederation negotiated by some other Province at the time they joined Canada. It is unfortunate that Premier Higgs is threatening a legal battle which would be a waste of time and public funds. Such a move does nothing to protect communities and critical supply lines along the Isthmus.
Last chance to weigh in on the new riding of Tantramar
This week is the last chance for provincial voters to weigh in on changes to electoral boundaries that will see the Memramcook-Tantramar riding split up, creating a new Tantramar riding which will be the smallest in the province.
The commission charged with reviewing New Brunswick’s electoral boundaries is hosting eight online sessions between Wednesday and Saturday this week. A session on Thursday evening from 6pm to 8pm will focus on southeastern ridings, including the new proposed Tantramar district. There are also two sessions open to province-wide input. (Scroll down for session dates and times.)
At first glance, voters in Tantramar might not have too much to complain about, as their votes will carry more weight in electing an MLA in the next provincial election, according to Mount Allison politics professor Mario Levesque.
The proposed Tantramar riding would have 9058 electors, while neighbouring Shediac-Beaubassin-Cap-Pelé would have 13,317 electors, the highest number in the province, and 4,259 more potential voters than Tantramar. “From a democratic perspective, you can question that,” says Levesque. And the discrepancy in elector population will likely get worse over time, he says, as other areas of the southeast are expected to grow faster than Tantramar.… Continue
Commission to consider future of Memramcook-Tantramar and other provincial ridings seeking input
The commission that will decide New Brunswick’s next election ridings has announced a round of public consultations over the next month, but they won’t be targeted at communities where changed boundaries are likely to be proposed.
The Electoral boundaries commission will tour through 12 locations in the province, chosen to provide “the widest access possible to as many citizens who may wish to make a presentation to the commission,” according to an emailed statement from commission staff.
Mount Allison politics professor Mario Levesque says the level of consultation is not enough.
“They need to at least double the sessions they have across the province to get better input,” says Levesque. He says he understands the inclination to save time and costs in having less thorough coverage, “but this is something I think that’s significant enough, more would be better overall.”
The closest consultation happening for residents of Memramcook-Tantramar is in Moncton at the Delta Beausejour on September 1, from 6pm to 9pm. There are also two virtual sessions that require pre-registration, happening September 1 and 12.
The last time a commission looked at provincial riding boundaries was in 2012-2013, when the riding of Memramcook-Tantramar was created. And this riding could be up for another change before the next election in 2024.… Continue
Decisions on Entity 40 council will be made tonight. We asked some political scientists, what’s at stake?
The word ‘undemocratic’ has come up a number of times in describing the province’s forced amalgamation of Sackville, Dorchester and three surrounding districts. There’s the fact that despite official protest by both the elected councils of Dorchester and Sackville, the plan is being forced through by the province. There’s also the fact that the province has retained complete control on all decisions about the new Entity 40, and has refused to conduct any public engagement on key decisions, or even open up its advisory committee meetings to the public.
The first of the big decisions to be made by provincially-appointed consultant Chad Peters is up for discussion tonight, at a closed meeting of an advisory committee made up of Shawn Mesheau and Andrew Black from the town of Sackville, Debbie Wiggins-Colwell and Robert Corkerton from the village of Dorchester, Mary Ellen Trueman from the Point de Bute Local Service District (LSD), and Matt Beal from the Dorchester LSD. (There are as yet not representatives from the Sackville LSD on the committee.)
The committee will be asked to come to a consensus on how the new Entity 40 council will operate, and if they can’t, Peters will make the call. The decision will be need to be made by either Wednesday or Friday, depending on who you ask, but it will be made this week.
The lightning-fast decision process will determine how many seats there will be on a new Entity 40 council, and how those seats will be filled, either by election at-large, or election by ward, or some combination.… Continue