ACAT Meeting - December 15, 2011

Agenda is not available for this meeting.
Please check the meeting minutes for meeting details.

Agenda is not available for this meeting.
Please check the meeting minutes for meeting details.

Agenda is not available for this meeting.
Please check the meeting minutes for meeting details.

Agenda is not available for this meeting.
Please check the meeting minutes for meeting details.

Sam Savona, Chair, called the meeting to order at 1:00 pm and attendance was taken.

Sam thanked the Committee for the opportunity to serve as Chair for the year. He was very grateful for the experience.

Sam presented a card and gift to Freda Stanois from the General Secretary’s office, who has retired, as consideration and acknowledgement of all the work she has done for the TTC and ACAT.

Nil.

On motion of Mazin Aribi and seconded by Dorothy Creaser, ACAT reviewed and approved the agenda with some minor amendments.

Bill Frost provided the Committee with the names of the ACAT members that are leaving and the names of the new members.

Members leaving include Heather Green, Craig Nicol, Sam Savona, Susan Davidson, Robert Muzzy, and Elaine Prescod.

New members include Dr. Bill Castor, Debbie Gillespie, Penny Lamy, Angela Marley, and Lynn McCormick.  The Pool members include Marian McDonell and Roman Polochansky.

Action: The list of the new members and their contact information will be sent out to the Committee members. 

On motion of Carol Anne Monet and seconded by Dorothy Creaser, ACAT reviewed and approved the minutes with amendments.

No business arose out of the Minutes and Outstanding Items. No changes were made to the Outstanding Items list.

Nil.

Wheel-Trans Operations Subcommittee (WTOS)

WTOS has not had a meeting since the last update; however, Dorothy Creaser, Chair, did address the Committee.

The WTOS is one of the most exciting Subcommittees within ACAT and has an important function to play in effecting developments for Wheel-Trans.  Dorothy however noted that this Subcommittee missed half a year in its role. WTOS was not able to be as timely and effective in its role as meetings were not called by management for about 6 months.  There are items referred to us by Service Planning, but we had no opportunity to deal with them.

Service Planning Subcommittee (SPS)

The SPS last met on November 30, 2011 and again in December, 2011. Anna Noviss, Chair, provided an update.

The notes for October 5, 2011 were approved and the notes for October 11, 2011 were distributed electronically for approval. 

Regarding the Public Forum update for 2011, the SPS is waiting for comments from other Subcommittees. This information was not received prior to the meeting. In prior years, the report was concluded in the same year. Since the assessments and documentation from ACAT Subcommittees will not be concluded by the end of the year, the SPS has asked that staff and Subcommittee Chair, Anna Noviss, prepare notes based largely on excerpts from the Subcommittee meetings which can be provided to the 2012 ACAT SPS members to help them become familiar with the discussions and advice in 2011.

Marianne Minaker, TTC Training Staff, updated the SPS on the Train-The-Trainer program.  The update included the course outline, travellers’ handbook, PowerPoint presentation, and participants’ handbook. The SPS was asked to review the electronic materials sent out and offer any feedback by December 16, 2011 to both Glenn Johnston and Marianne Minaker.

The outstanding items list forwarded not finalized from 2011 are as follows: 2011 Public Forum report, input to the Train-The-Trainer initiative, and the matter of the Station Managers which was referred to the SPS by ACAT. The ongoing priorities which will be drawn to the attention of the 2012 SPS will include efforts to improve service integration, participation in the training of TTC front-line staff, and advice and assistance to the TTC on the annual public forums.

Anna also wanted to extend her thanks to everyone on the SPS this year for all their hard work and for her opportunity to serve as Chair.

Design Review Subcommittee (DRS)

Craig Nicol, Chair, provided an update. Since the November ACAT meeting, the DRS had two meetings – one at the end of November and another in the first week of December. The items discussed were as follows.

LRV Streetcar - DRS discussed with Kevin Seto matters raised during the public and the ACAT viewing of the prototype streetcar at Hillcrest. Further, DRS raised the issue of the need for a full examination of operating procedures relating to boarding and deboarding in mixed traffic. 

Eglinton Crosstown Line and Stations - Presentation of the Bathurst Station was received with DRS providing feedback on accessibility considerations to Design staff. This station and other Eglinton Crosstown information is available on the project website at www.thecrosstown.ca.

Vehicle Decals - Carla Basso from TTC Marketing provided details on the state of priority and courtesy seating decals. DRS reviewed TTC vehicles and gave feedback to Carla on classes of decals to be used on various types of TTC vehicles.

Outstanding Items List - DRS reviewed items to be included in an outstanding items list for the use of incoming DRS members and staff in carrying on DRS work next year.

Craig thanked everyone who served on the DRS and for his opportunity to act as Chair. 

ACTION: Mazin Aribi requested a copy of the final report on the public and accessibility issues report when Kevin Seto makes it available to the DRS. 

Communications Subcommittee (CS)

Heather Green provided a quick update on the last CS meeting. That meeting which was held on December 8, 2011 was mostly focused on editing and reviewing the New Customers’ Handbook. There were no other critical actions undertaken.

Valdo Tammark provided an update on the Commission Meeting that was held on December 14, 2011.

The new members of ACAT were approved at the meeting and the departing members were thanked for their participation. The new Terms of Reference were also approved. As such, the Committee will now be called the Advisory Committee on Accessible Transit. 

There was a fair amount of discussion on budget and dialysis issues. It was decided that Wheel Trans will continue to provide transportation to existing ambulatory dialysis patients for the next 6 months and will not take on any new ambulatory dialysis patients. Wheel-Trans has indicated that it wants to sit down with the Ministry to discuss this issue further. The 6-month window is the time being given to resolve this issue. If nothing is resolved after 6 months, the ambulatory users will no longer be provided service from Wheel-Trans. Effort is being made to resolve this issue and to find a solution. Wheel-Trans may continue in this role but the money will have to come from other sources.  There is some concern that the Councillors perhaps do not fully grasp the severity of this situation. Clarity was provided that dialysis patients have not received a special subsidy for the Wheel-Trans service different from any of the other Wheel-Trans customers.

As a side note, it is expected that in the near future, 4 to 5 Commissioners will come from the public instead of from City Councillors.  There will be 11 Commissioners in total. 

Nil.

No other ACAT business was raised.

Brayan Bratanov however requested that a year-end picture of the group be taken for posterity.  All members agreed and Janet O’Sullivan took the picture.

There will be two ACAT meetings in January. The first meeting will be held on January 12, 2012 to call for nominations for the ACAT Executive. The General meeting will be held two weeks later on January 26, 2012.

On motion by Dorothy Creaser and seconded by Brayan Bratanov the meeting was adjourned at 1:37 pm.

Sara-Jane Brocklehurst
Recording Secretary