Liberals inching toward draft legislation for N.L. Disability Advocate

The Liberals say they’re preparing to draft legislation that would create a disability advocate’s office in the province.

On Friday, Minister of Families and Affordability and Minister Responsible for the Status of Persons with Disabilities Bernard Davis announced progress on consultations with members of the disability community to help inform the establishment of a disability advocate.

“Conversations with the community over the past number of [weeks] covered how the role, mandate and structure of an Office of the Disability Advocate could be tailored to uniquely suit the needs of persons with disabilities in Newfoundland and Labrador,” a news release from the department says.

The announcement comes a decade after disability advocates began lobbying the Liberals for an arm’s length advocate who could serve as a government watchdog with similar roles and powers as Newfoundland and Labrador’s Senior’s Advocate and Child and Youth Advocate. It also comes five years after then-Premier Andrew Furey tasked a former minister to “work toward” establishing the office, four months after the legislature unanimously supported a private member’s resolution to create the office, and weeks before voters’ appetite for a fourth consecutive Liberal government will be tested in a provincial election.

As The Independent previously reported, Statistics Canada data from 2022 revealed nearly one-third of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians live with a disability. In May, Coalition of Persons with Disabilities NL Executive Director Nancy Reid said her organization had been calling on the government to create the office for at least 10 years. “It feels like we’re being disregarded,” she said.

Reid, who served on the Provincial Advisory Council for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities for six years, told The Independent the advisory council raised the need for an advocate with the Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development “over and over again.”

A 2023 report for the House of Assembly, Justice Robert Fowler recommended the government “reconceive” the Senior’s Advocate’s mandate to include people with disabilities. The idea was rejected by Senior’s Advocate Susan Walsh, and by the Coalition of Persons with Disabilities.

Further meetings are being scheduled with organizations and other stakeholders, the Department of Families and Affordability said in Friday’s release. “Following consultations with the disability community, the Department of Families and Affordability will review the feedback and begin the process of drafting legislation for the creation of a Newfoundland and Labrador disability advocate,” it said.

The department is inviting individuals and groups interested in providing written submissions on the matter to email their feedback to disabilitypolicy@gov.nl.ca.

“Our government has committed to establishing a Newfoundland and Labrador disability advocate and these consultations are a crucial piece of that process,” Davis said Friday. “The disability community has asked us to take the time to make sure this process is done right. We are having refreshing and insightful conversations, and I am thankful for everyone who has taken the time to meet with us on this important topic.”

In May, PC MHA Helen Conway Ottenheimer put forth the private member’s resolution while members of the disability community watched from the public gallery. She said having a disability advocate is a human rights issue. “It’s about ensuring equitable rights. It’s about looking at the barriers that we know that persons living with a disability face in our communities in Newfoundland and Labrador [which] prevent them from meaningfully participating in our society,” she said.

PC leader Tony Wakeham noted that the resolution was being presented on the second-last day of the spring sitting, and likely the legislature’s second-last day before the provincial election. “The time for talking has passed. The time for action is now,” he said, adding his MHAs were willing to extend the spring sitting to ensure the advocate’s office was created. “I can tell you from where I stand, and all of my caucus members stand, right now—and I will say this commitment now loud and clear for all of Newfoundland and Labrador to hear—when we form the next government after the next election, this will be done immediately.”

In May NDP leader Jim Dinn supported Conway Ottenheimer’s resolution and noted the NDP had included the creation of a disability advocate’s office in the party’s 2021 election platform. He also said it will be in the NDP’s 2025 platform. “[P]eople with disabilities, and their families and the organizations that support people and their families, should have an advocate and let that office do the work of holding government, whoever that is, to account and making sure that they’re doing right by those families and by the people of our province,” Dinn said.