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Disabled parking checks urged
Moscoe wants testing program for permit-holders, citing crackdown that weeded out a third of Wheel-Trans users
Paul Moloney
city hall bureau
Councillor Howard Moscoe is calling for a comprehensive testing program to verify holders of disabled parking permits really need them.
Moscoe, chair of Toronto council's licensing and standards committee, wants permit holders to report in person to be evaluated by a panel that might include a physiotherapist and a disabled advocate.
"Everybody knows there's massive fraud," Moscoe said yesterday. "It's endemic to the whole system. It has to be logged out and rebooted, and the way we do that is to evaluate every person."
When a testing program was rolled out at Wheel-Trans, the city-run service that provides bus transit for the disabled, "a third of the registrants didn't bother to re-apply because they knew they wouldn't qualify," he said in an interview.
An investigation by the Toronto Star into the disabled permits found that many drivers didn't meet provincial criteria, were issued permits under a loose interpretation of the rules, or were using someone else's permit.
Of some 500,000 temporary and permanent disabled parking permits in circulation in Ontario, Moscoe thinks about 160,000 are in Toronto.
Currently, to obtain a permit, a health practitioner must certify the patient's condition. A temporary permit is valid for two years, a regular permit for five years.
A testing program won't uncover some of the abuses, such as when permits are borrowed by able-bodied motorists, said Jamie Rilett, a spokesperson for Ontario Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield.
"The biggest problem is people borrowing somebody else's permit, or having the permit for someone in the family but using it when that person isn't in the car," Rilett said. "A testing program wouldn't address those situations."
However, Carol Anne Monet, a member of the city's advisory committee on accessible transportation, said she supports tightening up the program.
"I've seen people with really nice sports cars who have a `disability' sticker in their window," Monet said. "My personal opinion, not necessarily an opinion of ACAT, is perhaps too many people are getting them."
While testing would be intrusive, that may be the price that has to be paid to correct problems, she said.
"I think it would help deal with some of the people who are not quite as honest as one would like."
If the provincial government refuses to conduct testing, the city should act on its own, Moscoe said. The cost could be recovered if, as Moscoe wants, disabled motorists who now park free were required to pay.
Councillor Joe Mihevc, chair of council's disability issues committee, wholeheartedly supported a testing program but said a one-time fee – say $25 – should be charged to pay for it.
"If this program is to be serious, then you need to have third-party verification, and it ensures the people who need the permits, get the permits. That's the key," Mihevc said.
A doctor's note is not sufficient, he added.
"Because of the unique relationship between doctors and their patients, they tend to act as advocates for their patients. They would not be the appropriate person on a system-wide basis to assess whether someone needs or deserves a disabled parking sticker."
Moscoe agreed, saying doctors can be pressured by patients to write notes.
He added he doesn't understand the reluctance to overhaul the system.
"We're dancing around the edges of this thing. Nobody's facing it head on. We should re-evaluate all the permit holders and cut loose all the pretenders, all the people who shouldn't have them."
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it would be nice to weed out the fakers but i can see this hurting the the disabled more than the fakers. the last thing disabled people need is more fees. when you're disabled, every dollar means the difference between freedom or being a prisoner. i didn't even know that as a disabled person, i could get free on street parking. i don't drive, but i get people to drive me around sometimes. the occasion hasn't come up where parking on the street was an issue but i would like to think that if i ever needed to, i could do so without having to pay since my income is soo limited (others even worse).
it's not always about the disabled drivers, it's about disabled passengers too.
a one time user fee of $25, doesnt look like much but when you factor in all the other costs of living
it seems like just a cash grab.
what about all the costs to the system? having thousands and thousands of people going to a doctor & therapist to be assesed and approved? the costs to MTO?
you wanna weed out the fakers? $25000 fine for first offense of misuse, second offense - lifetime driving ban plus 3 months imprisonment. harsh but effective.
i'm in a wheelchair, most of my leg muscles have wasted away, i have a big slice down my back where they inserted titanium to keep my skeletal system from seperating into two parts. what do i have to prove? why do i need another assesment? why do i have to waste and hour dialing wheeltrans in the morning to book a doctors appointment the next day, spend money on a fare both ways get an application form done by the doctor, have the doctor charge ohip for the visit, call wheeltrans another day to take me to a mto office, pay wheeltrans fares again, etc. etc.
>:
i don't know about moscoe. he's the same guy (i'm told) that cut funding to wheeltrans in the past.
Moscoe wants testing program for permit-holders, citing crackdown that weeded out a third of Wheel-Trans users
Paul Moloney
city hall bureau
Councillor Howard Moscoe is calling for a comprehensive testing program to verify holders of disabled parking permits really need them.
Moscoe, chair of Toronto council's licensing and standards committee, wants permit holders to report in person to be evaluated by a panel that might include a physiotherapist and a disabled advocate.
"Everybody knows there's massive fraud," Moscoe said yesterday. "It's endemic to the whole system. It has to be logged out and rebooted, and the way we do that is to evaluate every person."
When a testing program was rolled out at Wheel-Trans, the city-run service that provides bus transit for the disabled, "a third of the registrants didn't bother to re-apply because they knew they wouldn't qualify," he said in an interview.
An investigation by the Toronto Star into the disabled permits found that many drivers didn't meet provincial criteria, were issued permits under a loose interpretation of the rules, or were using someone else's permit.
Of some 500,000 temporary and permanent disabled parking permits in circulation in Ontario, Moscoe thinks about 160,000 are in Toronto.
Currently, to obtain a permit, a health practitioner must certify the patient's condition. A temporary permit is valid for two years, a regular permit for five years.
A testing program won't uncover some of the abuses, such as when permits are borrowed by able-bodied motorists, said Jamie Rilett, a spokesperson for Ontario Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield.
"The biggest problem is people borrowing somebody else's permit, or having the permit for someone in the family but using it when that person isn't in the car," Rilett said. "A testing program wouldn't address those situations."
However, Carol Anne Monet, a member of the city's advisory committee on accessible transportation, said she supports tightening up the program.
"I've seen people with really nice sports cars who have a `disability' sticker in their window," Monet said. "My personal opinion, not necessarily an opinion of ACAT, is perhaps too many people are getting them."
While testing would be intrusive, that may be the price that has to be paid to correct problems, she said.
"I think it would help deal with some of the people who are not quite as honest as one would like."
If the provincial government refuses to conduct testing, the city should act on its own, Moscoe said. The cost could be recovered if, as Moscoe wants, disabled motorists who now park free were required to pay.
Councillor Joe Mihevc, chair of council's disability issues committee, wholeheartedly supported a testing program but said a one-time fee – say $25 – should be charged to pay for it.
"If this program is to be serious, then you need to have third-party verification, and it ensures the people who need the permits, get the permits. That's the key," Mihevc said.
A doctor's note is not sufficient, he added.
"Because of the unique relationship between doctors and their patients, they tend to act as advocates for their patients. They would not be the appropriate person on a system-wide basis to assess whether someone needs or deserves a disabled parking sticker."
Moscoe agreed, saying doctors can be pressured by patients to write notes.
He added he doesn't understand the reluctance to overhaul the system.
"We're dancing around the edges of this thing. Nobody's facing it head on. We should re-evaluate all the permit holders and cut loose all the pretenders, all the people who shouldn't have them."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
it would be nice to weed out the fakers but i can see this hurting the the disabled more than the fakers. the last thing disabled people need is more fees. when you're disabled, every dollar means the difference between freedom or being a prisoner. i didn't even know that as a disabled person, i could get free on street parking. i don't drive, but i get people to drive me around sometimes. the occasion hasn't come up where parking on the street was an issue but i would like to think that if i ever needed to, i could do so without having to pay since my income is soo limited (others even worse).
it's not always about the disabled drivers, it's about disabled passengers too.
a one time user fee of $25, doesnt look like much but when you factor in all the other costs of living
it seems like just a cash grab.
what about all the costs to the system? having thousands and thousands of people going to a doctor & therapist to be assesed and approved? the costs to MTO?
you wanna weed out the fakers? $25000 fine for first offense of misuse, second offense - lifetime driving ban plus 3 months imprisonment. harsh but effective.
i'm in a wheelchair, most of my leg muscles have wasted away, i have a big slice down my back where they inserted titanium to keep my skeletal system from seperating into two parts. what do i have to prove? why do i need another assesment? why do i have to waste and hour dialing wheeltrans in the morning to book a doctors appointment the next day, spend money on a fare both ways get an application form done by the doctor, have the doctor charge ohip for the visit, call wheeltrans another day to take me to a mto office, pay wheeltrans fares again, etc. etc.
>:
i don't know about moscoe. he's the same guy (i'm told) that cut funding to wheeltrans in the past.