Accessibility in New Brunswick - Haley Flaro, Executive Director, Ability New Brunswick

Haley Flaro has been with Ability New Brunswick for 19 years and joins us to discuss the importance of community accessibility and the services her organization provides for persons with mobility disabilities of all ages across the province.

Transcript

SSNB Podcast - Ability NB - Haley Flaro-20250131_133505-Meeting Recording
January 31, 2025, 5:34PM
39m 36s
My name is Pearlie Brewer and I will be your host.
Today's podcast guest is Haley Flero, executive director at ability New Brunswick.
Welcome Haley.

Haley Flaro   0:26
Thank you, pearly.
Nice to see you.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   0:29
Last fall, there were a number of articles written about customers with disabilities experiences while traveling with Air Canada.
Those stories may be wonder if we're really made any progress in this area.
So today, we've invited Haley to talk to us about the challenges of people with disabilities face here in New Brunswick in 2025.
So let's start with you, Haley.
Perhaps you could tell our listeners a little bit about your role with abilities New Brunswick.

Haley Flaro   0:59
Thank you, Perley.
I'm celebrating.
I think it's this month, my 19th year anniversary with ability New Brunswick.
We work with people with a mobility disability.
Our youngest service participant, that's what we call our clients, how we refer to our clients is a little 2 year old with cerebral palsy learning to walk using a rollator and our most senior is 106, a senior that wants to stay living in her own home as safely as she can as long as possible.
And so she accesses our seniors navigator services.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   1:32
So that's a little bit about your clientele.
No, you know, I I said that it kind of makes me wonder whenever these stories about if we are making progress.
But you know, I think in all fairness, maybe we need to start off by let's talk about the pros, the positive and the and the progress we have made, the good things.
What are the good things that you see when you look around New Brunswick that we can start with by discussing?

Haley Flaro   1:57
Well, I I do have a unique lens because I my mother lived a long life with a mobility condition.
So since a young age, I've always seen the world a little different.
I notice when a curb cut is not cut in a way that has an accessible path or if a power door opener isn't working.
But you talked about the positives, certainly I just turned 50 in the last year, certainly since my childhood, I've seen a lot of improvements with respect to a Community accessibility.
There have been a lot of improvements.
We see more accessible playgrounds that are safer and obviously more inclusive to children.
I see a lot of changes to public spaces to make them more accessible.
Our human rights, excuse me.
Are human rights legislation has advanced significantly, acknowledging you know that disability and ability and access and inclusion are human rights.
We've certainly also seen the development of rehabilitation programs for, for workers, for those experiencing disability workers, like I mentioned, injured workers that have helped people, you know, reclaim, adjust to their disability, look at assistive technology, make significant gains in their health.
So we've seen rehabilitation programs really expand throughout the country to help people do things such as return to work, live independent lives, readjust, adjust to their life with a a new condition or a new disability.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   3:31
So looking at the negative, what are you seeing that concerned you A and maybe does make make you wonder if we are making the necessary progress or where we could move and faster, what are some of the things for example when you're out around town, you live here in Fredericton and what do you what kind of things do you see that you say you know, hey, we should be doing better than this?

Haley Flaro   3:54
Well, it's a timely podcast because my my phone and my email is burning up this month, though, we're a provincial organization, so we hear from people throughout the province.
We have had a relatively mild winter, not very much snow, but the last two weeks have been really difficult and you know a lack of accessibility due to inadequate snow removal is a huge issue for our population.
It creates unsafe sidewalks, you know, lack of snow clearance.
It creates unsafe crosswalks.
It can eliminate the ability to access a bus, stop safely, or get on a bus, and so those are some of the things that we're hearing from our service participants regularly.
It's quite isolating.
Not only is it unsafe, we have stories every week of individuals helping, you know, push people using a mobility device out of a snowbank.
It creates safety issues, but it also really leads to isolation when you can't get safely around your community.
So snow removal and winter times, I carry a shovel in my my vehicle because I've stopped to help people clear out a bus stop or clear out a curb cut because it's just the right thing to do because of those barriers.
So that's certainly community accessibility, including snow removal.
Is is something that's a hot topic this week, but there's still so much inaccessibility in our communities.
Weekly we get stories of, you know, children who are stuck on the sidelines at a playground because they can't get up the hill or the playgrounds full of gravel.
Or there's no accessible features and we're still leaving children behind, you know, in schools, in playgrounds, etcetera.
So those are some of the things.
There's a long laundry list that that continue to be barriers that we need to try and overcome.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   5:46
So for workplaces in New Brunswick who want to be more accessible and friendly to to persons with various disabilities, what sort of thing should they have in place for both customers and staff?
So if if a company were to call you up and say, hey, look, and can you come into my place of work and say in a typical office building or even in an industrial site, the people where people are allowed access, what to advice, would you give them the things that they should be looking at?

Haley Flaro   6:00
No.
We're very fortunate that for three years now we've had a formal accessibility review service where individuals, including myself, are trained and Canadian Standards Association certified to conduct accessibility reviews.
And so we have a pretty substantial tool that we can go in and we do go in.
We this this year, we've alone we've reviewed 150 word places in New Brunswick to provide them a confidential report on the quick hits, the quick changes they can make from more accessible, inclusive workplace and some of the longer term things they may need to look at as part of renovation reconstruction redesign, some of the biggest things we see are things like pathways.
So are there clear unobstructive pathways throughout your business?
We often get stories.
It's not even individuals with the mobility disability where people trip on cords, they trip over boxes, you know, they they are able to safely navigate through the cubicles, which causes, you know, various injuries.
So that's one of the things that businesses can do is do a walk wheel through to see, you know, do we have adequate clear pathways throughout our place of business if there are business that offers Services, a lowered service counter.
So individuals in a seated position or, you know, maybe a senior that uses a cane that can't stand for long periods, that needs to sit down for service and collect some energy.
Can you use?
Those are our key things that could be changed ramping, you know, thresholds that don't exceed 1/2 an inch to get into a building.
Those are really important basics to look that there's a smooth, clear pathway.
Good design is no longer disability specific anymore.
It's good for everyone.
Think of parents using strollers.
You know, a ramp is easier to get into a building.
You need an elevator to go up to the 4th floor.
If you have two kids or one child in a stroller, it's good for you know, for seniors, those with me conditions, those that use mobility devices, it's just good for for everyone.
And so those are some of the things that businesses can look at in terms of good, safe design.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   8:25
You mentioned seniors.
Uh, you know, for those that study numbers and and and the where the seniors population is growing and so on, of course, right now we're in that period where we're getting more and more seniors everyday.
What advice would you give to businesses, especially as it relates to seniors, they that they may not have realized that?
Hey, here's a big market that we deal with, but we really maybe haven't thought about it.

Haley Flaro   8:51
Accessibility is smart investment in smart Phinesse New Brunswick has the second highest rated disability in Canada at 35% of our New Brunswick population.
We saw the highest increase in disability rate in Canada from 2017 to 2022 that that's a lot of voters, that's a lot of population seniors, you know, 46% of seniors in New Brunswick have some type of disability.
And I'm often, you know, people often guess that it's likely memory, disabilities, cognitive disabilities.
It's actually mobility.
And so if you're opening a business, if you're delivering services, if you're trying to hire people including older adults and you don't have an accessible space, you're losing money and you're you're putting up barriers that could actually result in more business for your organization.
So it's a significant market.
I was just recently looking at a study where it's estimated that you know, consumers with a disability in Canada are gonna have buying power in the next five years of over $300 billion in Canada.
That's a significant market for for businesses.
So I think we need to start shifting our view of, you know barrier free looking at accessibility as a cost and looking at it as an investment.
On that note, the Rick Hanson Institute has done a significant study within architecture firm in BC that shows that good universal design is actually not more costly than traditional design.
I always say if you can't find a planner, an architect, a contractor that can do good, universal design for the same cost as traditional design like it, if they can't do it, the one you found, look for a new one because there's so much modern design that you know doesn't scream disability.
It's it's done well to ensure people can age and place access services and capitalize on that untapped market.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   10:51
Why are the numbers up?
You mentioned a big increase and especially when you look at New Brunswick, why why the increase or so many people with disabilities?

Haley Flaro   11:03
It's a great question.
I'm asked it all the time and some people think I might just give a political answer, but you know we there.
There's several reasons many people guess that it's because we have the oldest population in Canada and with age does come disability.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   11:18
The.

Haley Flaro   11:18
But that's not the only reason we have the highest multiple sclerosis rates in in New Brunswick, in Canada or the rates in New Brunswick have the highest.
In Canada, we saw an uptick in mental health diagnosis and mental health disability rates.
In New Brunswick, we have high rates of neural diversity and neurological conditions among children in New Brunswick, so there's not one factor and we continue to see new and emerging conditions, things like this, mystery illness in New Brunswick, which is, you know, coming through our doors post COVID impacting mobility is a condition that if you had asked me 10 years ago that I needed to brace myself for and make sure we could deliver services to that population, I I wouldn't have believed you.
So there's there's changing times changing conditions, but we do have some significant high rates of of disability in New Brunswick and mobility is one of the top three most common disability types, next only to pain disabilities and flexibility.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   12:17
From a hiring perspective, uh people, disabilities have always had extreme challenges and and getting employed and getting good employment.
Do you see that?
Is that change in any or where we have that way?

Haley Flaro   12:32
New Brunswick actually recently from 2017 to 2022, experienced them positive impact in that area where we're seeing more individuals with a disability transitioning to the labour market.
COVID-19, the pandemic was actually for all the terrible stories, actually had some good stories in it because because of the changing nature of work, often remote work and an openness to accommodation, you know, employers started to realize that accommodation isn't just about disability.
Think of the mums that needed and as that needed to change their schedules to be able to go and work different hours or pick up a child at daycare or needed to work flexible hours or needed to work from home.
It actually opened up hiring so people no longer saw accommodation as disability.
I have a support plan at my office.
I need a large screen.
I hit 50 and I'm using glasses.
I don't come in for 8:30.
I come in for 9 and work to five because I don't like the bridge traffic.
That's a support plan.
So what we saw during the pandemic, a lot of our persons with a disability, we work that with that couldn't get physically into workplaces, capitalized on the remote work opportunities.
And so we actually saw an increase in people accessing the labour market.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   13:47
That's kind of interesting because really we've heard so much negativity around COVID and and what came out of COVID, so many challenges, negative challenges are companies are having so kind of interesting to hear that as as a positive that's come out of cover.

Haley Flaro   14:02
It is and I think those were two biggest learnings that are organization that changed the way people think about accommodations we to get workers, keep workers to keep your business and organization going to the pandemic.
We gotta be creative.
And so people had unique support plans.
And again, this remote workforce, if you had an inaccessible workplace and had it set up that people could work remotely, it gave more hiring opportunities.
I had one service participant that we work with that said his employer didn't know for three years that he used a wheelchair because he'd ever could tell.
He did all of his training, all of his work was a credible employee, didn't know for three years because of the remote work site.
And we saw his upper body and you know, in all those online meetings.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   14:48
Yeah.
And that's interesting because I know before COVID, I would suggest that the majority of employers in New Brunswick, you know, they they had people have to work place.
And if you'd asked at that time, can I work from home?
The answer pretty much was always no, and certainly Cova did open up that possibility that people really can do their jobs in many, many cases from anywhere.

Haley Flaro   15:13
I agree people had to make tough decisions.
We were really fortunate at ability, New Brunswick, the large amount, we're provincial organization and we have about 26 staff and we have a head office in the building of your organization.
But the majority of our our team has worked remotely for years.
And so when the pandemic happened and people were being sent home, we had a decision to make.
Do we lay off our staff say we can't deliver service, you know, not deliver on the contracts that we have to deliver service?
I'm behalf of government or do we get creative and find ways to do it?
The remote work issue wasn't an issue, but we had to look at things such as getting personal protective equipment.
We put lawn chairs in our chunks so we can meet with pet families in the door yard on the on the front porch to make sure everyone was protected.
So you know the things like the pandemic did teach New Brunswick's creativity and showed the value and the possibility and how remote work can be be safe and engaging.
And Phil Labour market voids.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   16:19
Now you mentioned earlier that you get calls.
Of course, this time of the year with winter.
Other times of the year, what kind of calls would you get from people?
What kind of concerns would they have?

Haley Flaro   16:31
Lack of accessible parking is a really big one.
I'll.
I'll pick on Saint John today because they know this well.
They just had a consultation this week.
You know the Uptown, for example, doesn't have one accessible parking spot that meets code or regulation.
And what that means is they are some spots identified, but if you have an accessible van and need to deploy a ramp on the side or in the back to be able to safely get out of your vehicle and access a business, you're not able to safely do that.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   16:46
Oh.

Haley Flaro   16:59
We've seen people injured having to deploy these into traffic.
I having vehicles parked alongside them so they're not able to get back into their vehicles.
It poses a safety issue as well as an access issue, so I get we get that call.
I don't mean to just pick on Saint John.
It we get it around the province, that lack of accessible parking is a major issue and it prevents people from going to medical appointments, going out, leisure, going to recreation, going out with their friends and taking jobs.
So parking is an issue.
Accessible transportation.
There's great programs throughout the province like driver programs, but a lot of those most of those programs don't have accessible vehicles.
So if you can't transfer it, if your wheelchair, I need a wheel in vehicle, you are missing medical appointments in a rural community.
You can't go to post secondary education and and so you know it's it's a really accessible transportation is a major challenge in the province.
We're really proud to be partnering right now with Doctor Trevor Hanson at the University of New Brunswick and the Engineering Department on an accessible transportation study.
So we can shine, ramp up some policy changes and improve services in the province.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   18:10
So if you had three wishes, three things you could change in our society, especially here in New Brunswick, to help those with various types of disabilities, what would it be?
What?
What would you like to see happen?

Haley Flaro   18:22
I really would like to see us truly eradicate this, you know, ablist approach to thing where things like community design and what I mean by that is, you know, many people that design programs and systems have never spoken to, lived or experienced disability.
And as a result, things with a disability lens so like a playground or a parking space or a square.
Often accessibility isn't considered at the forefront, and we we need to stop that.
I was talking to a city official this week in one of the cities and they said, you know, the fact that we have priority neighborhoods for snow clearance is discriminatory.
I said I agree because the priority neighborhoods tend to be the most affluent neighborhoods, so it means people living on low incomes, people with disability or one of our one of the two populations next only to single mothers that are the most in extreme poverty in New Brunswick.
It means their neighborhoods are not, you know, are not cleared as quickly.
It means those that live in low income neighborhoods and it means that they're not getting to work like they should, or being able to drop their kid off at their daycare or get to the bus.
So we need to start designing systems and services to recognize that we have to consider the needs of of people such as people with a disability, people on low incomes.
If we're truly going to be in close inclusive, there's still, you know, many of us.
We live a life of privilege.
I say I'm a woman of faith.
I say it to my husband every night.
How privileged we are to have a home to be able to afford groceries.
As tough as it is right now, that neither of us have a disability because at that gives us great privilege.
And but if I'm designing something, I want to ensure that I have all the voices at the table to consider the populations that that I might not automatically think of when designing something.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   20:19
Yeah.
What's interesting?
Yeah, here in Fredericton.
The exhibition grounds a lot of discussion around, you know, what were they going to do and what were they gonna build around the exhibition grounds?
A space, air and and I thought at the time that you really weren't hearing much conversation around possibly building, say, a seniors oriented community or just general community that would be a whole lot more accessible to various peoples with various kinds of disabilities.
And it's really something we don't have in Fredericton.
Everything sort of mixed in together and it's it's haphazard.

Haley Flaro   20:58
It is, you know, recently there was major bidding for a sporting event to happen in Moncton won the bid and the reason why I community like Fredericton couldn't win that bid is we lack accessible hotel spaces.
We lack accessible restaurants.
We lack accessible sport and recreation facilities.
We don't have a Paralympic sliced swimming pool in the city.
You know all of those things are not only is their lack of access for our citizens, but there's really we're losing out on major investment and economic tourism, an unaccessible tourism.
I think that lens is so critical.
One of the things with the exhibition Centre I was so happy for a few years there that they actually, you know, were using it using the the rink facility as as a curling rink and it actually gave Fredericton.
It's only accessible curling rink and we had so many people coming out to curl and then that partnership ended and now there's no accessible curling rink in the city.
People have to drive to Saint John or Saint Andrews to be able to, or do accessible curling, and I think the junction has some access.
Fredericton Junction has some access to, but if you don't have accessible transportation, how you going to get out there?
We we really need to look at good design and know that you know good design isn't more expensive, it just designs the same amount of space in a different way.
So it's available to as many people as possible.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   22:22
In a community like Fredericton that puts a lot of thought and and has a lot of discussion around the environment and that's good.
Don't don't take anything away from that.
Why aren't we doing more around the planning for the disabilities?

Haley Flaro   22:36
Sometimes it's just design afterthought.
You know my my little comment that I make and I make it a little too often, I think I accept the upset, the architect sometimes.
But you know, if an architect or contractor says, you know, it'll be too costly or yeah, you know, to develop something in an accessible way, I always say look for a new one and it's it's true.
There is so much if you look throughout this country, there is so much great design to to be able to integrate accessible features.
I'm always told.
Well, Haley, we have accessible trails in the city.
Have you ever seen the slope to get on the train bridge or to get up around picaroons?
It's impossible, as someone with a mobility device, it's so difficult to be able to wheel up there.
So we did a good job with the level accessible trails, but not the slopes on them.
You know it's those type of things that get that get lost.
So it's it's generally not user friendly to people with mobility devices in the city.
We need to get better at thinking outside the box and looking at really good design from the onset.
Retrofitting buildings and trails is so expensive, and as you know, in the economic situation, we're in a New Brunswick.
We can't afford to be having, you know, designing a building and then needing to retrofitted in a few years.
All of a sudden, because we realize, wow, it's not fully accessible.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   23:55
Yeah, I live up at Bishop Drive here in the city, in an area with a lot of condominiums and and apartment units, and they build a a beautiful new playground for our community.
But it's at the top of a hill and there's no vehicle access allowed to it.

Haley Flaro   24:10
Yeah.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   24:13
So for anyone with any kind of disabilities, you have to walk up a steep hill to get to the playground and.

Haley Flaro   24:21
We see that a lot with playgrounds, and sometimes it's good intentions.
I was invited to a ribbon cutting in a northern small community that had a playground with all kinds accessible features, and I showed up and it was large rock.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   24:26
Yeah.

Haley Flaro   24:33
You couldn't.
You couldn't wheel across it.
You couldn't push the stroller and it just they didn't think about it.
They didn't think about the surface.
Now it's actually cheaper than the than the gravel to put in crusher dust, and so they had to then get the gravel hauled out and pay to put in gressier dust.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   24:46
So.

Haley Flaro   24:50
But it it really just is the lack of thinking with a lens about good designs.
So that's one of the things we're talking all the time to developers and the home and school committees, developing playgrounds, and we're involved in the design of some of the new schools because and new sport facilities because we want to see them designed well from the onset.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   25:11
I would think there must be checklist around that topic of such and you would wonder why.

Haley Flaro   25:17
There's a lot of checklists and standards, and our organization can, you know, I'm certified to actually review plans.
So we're many in our organization to look at plans before the design starts to be able to give input.
We often pick up on things that are just a design architect, CAD designer error that wasn't considered like I just looked at one last week where someone was putting in a parking area and all the accessible parking spots were going to be on an incline.
Well, code is flat level surface and there's a parking garage in Fredericton that the contractor.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   25:45
You know.

Haley Flaro   25:51
They change the design at the last minute and all of them spots are on a slope and we actually have had individuals park there take their wheelchair Walker out and it wheels out into traffic.
You know it.
It's a safety issue, so there's still a lot of design flaws that people just wouldn't think about, they said.
Oh, it meets the width and length and the vertical signage is up, but if it's on an unlevel slope, very dangerous.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   26:16
Yeah, I often comment when I go to the, there's a medical clinic here in Fredericton on Regent Street and a whole parking lot.
And that's a big parking lot is is built on a side hill.

Haley Flaro   26:25
On a hill.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   26:28
Yes, they do have some handicapped parking spaces at the bottom, but I'm sure when you stop and think about the people that are going there are going there for medical reasons and and probably a whole lot more people really need accessible barking that will end up near the top of the hill during a winter day when it's icy and trying to get to the bottom.

Haley Flaro   26:50
Agree.
And I hear stories all the time.
If people that try to go to appointments because they can't find safe, level accessible parking, they can't make their appointment and you know it.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   26:58
Yeah.

Haley Flaro   27:01
That's just gutting to me.
You know, we need to be able to ensure people can get to medical appointments, rehabilitation jobs and education.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   27:10
So what are the three biggest challenges that you would say that you're going to see in the next five years in your area?

Haley Flaro   27:18
Well, I'm actually really excited.
I'm.
I'm really honored that I was appointed to chair the Accessibility Advisory Board for the new accessibility legislation.
The board is just starting its work to prioritize.
There's 8 pillars, 8 regulatory standards that that that New Brunswick ers want.
One of them is a regulatory standard about housing accessible housing.
One is about built environment, including outdoor spaces like trails will be the only province in Canada to have a regulatory standard on sport and recreation.
So no more leaving kids behind on those playgrounds or in sport.
You know that.
So I'm really excited for the next 5 years to be able to champion that board and and lead us through those regulatory standards.
I'm really hoping that we'll see a greater focus on better design inclusive design, inclusive housing.
You know there's way too many much aging housing stock in this province.
If I keep telling developers, please stop building those split level entry homes.
If someone has a stroke tomorrow and needs a home, I see it through our door every week where all of a sudden you need a lift elevator and an accessible bathroom, and that's $70,000 combined.
Who has that kind of disposable income?
You might get some tax relief.
You basically have to be living in poverty to access provincial programs, and people are taking out second mortgages, lines of credit, you know, expanding their mortgages, we need to develop better housing stock.
That's visitable has zero level entry on main floors.
They can have second floors but have an accessible bathroom, possibly a den area on a main floor that can be turned into a bathroom.
I see way too many people with a disability and seniors trying to sell their homes and they can't find accessible places to live.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   29:07
So so as we wrap up the Podcast you've you've mentioned a number of times throughout this Podcast that you're able to go out to workplaces.
Do an assessment for them.
Do you want to provide folks with contact information on how they could arrange it?
So if someone is listening today, whether they're in a business operation where they're in a retail operation, whether they're planner, how can they contact you to have you come out and spend some time with them and help them in the design and?

Haley Flaro   29:23
The.
Yeah.
With love to and again we're not there to to draw attention in a negative way to people.
It's a confidential review report, is very much based on regulations and best practice standards and they can look at our website, www.abilityandb.ca, go to the accessible NB button.
There's frequently asked questions to learn more about our service, or people can call 1-866-462-9555 at two call and get her a time to get an accessibility review.
Right now, they're free.
We may have to charge in the future once our our our prototype and our pilot ends, but we've been overwhelmed.
Small business, large business now government departments under this accessibility legislation have to submit accessibility plan shortly and they need reviews.
The private sector is going to have to submit accessibility plans in the next few years as well.
So now's the time to get the review.
So you can see what the quick hits are the quick wins and what you're going to need to look at longer term.
We also have a lot of funding resources that are under accessed by New Brunswick that we can link small business and nonprofit to.
So it is worth the call.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   30:50
So what would some of those be?

Haley Flaro   30:53
The the funding sources, yeah.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   30:53
Where where?
Now the funding service.

Haley Flaro   30:55
So the Regional Development Corporation in New Brunswick has a a pot of funding to help with infrastructure, mainly for nonprofits, community centres, things like that.
The federal Enabling Accessibility Fund does calls for proposals every year, sometimes for small businesses with less than 50 employees, nonprofit organizations.
I know that there's several churches that we've helped apply to that funding and have been successful because their community hubs, they deliver, you know, first aid courses and their son facilities, they have seniors programs, children's programs.
So those are some of the four.
They're specific sport and recreation funding sources as well that we can link people to, but I believe it's close to 100 different possible funding sources depending on the size of the business, the nature of the business that we have in our data system right now.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   31:47
Well, that's great.
Well, look, Haley.
Thank you very much for joining us on today's podcast.
Keep up all the good work you're doing.
I follow you on LinkedIn and I see the various committees that you're on and the various activities that you're involved with and it it is certainly making a difference.
Would we like sometimes for things to go faster?
Yes, but sometimes it's one step at a time and things are continually improving and keep up the good work.

Haley Flaro   32:13
Very kind I I feel a little negative sometime because you know the the the calls and the questions that come through our door it it's a very difficult time economically for people and there's a lot of road blocks but there is so many successes of this team that I that I get to stand beside every day.
The number of people they're helping overcome robots to accessibility to financial barriers to housing barriers.
If so, motivating and helping them get jobs or go to post secondary education, so it's that success story feed that's up on my computer now or the staff chime in every day with the successes.
You're right, one step at a time and it is a community effort and I just want to thank your organization for having us, you know, safety and accessibility are really closely linked and we're all in the same business for a safer province, for people can be more independent and have a better quality of life.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   33:05
Well, thank you very much and I'd like to thank Haley for joining us on today's podcast.
Stay safe folks.
We will see you next week.