Pat Harris visited the 2015 Canada Winter Games offices for the first time Friday.
The sport leader of wheelchair basketball for the Games was unable to tour Canada Games House offices before because they're located on the second floor of the Canada Post building and the only way up was to take the stairs - not possible for Harris, who needs a wheelchair to get around. But on Friday he was finally able to get in.
"It's just an elevator, but it provides access for people who want to be involved with the Canada Winter Games," said Harris, who has used a wheelchair for 30 years. "What's really important is inclusion and without access you don't have inclusion and that's really what's key here.
"Anybody that's involved with Canada Games that has a disability will now be able to participate at the Canada Games house for any of their events, such as meetings or workshops," he added.
When the 2015 Canada Winter Games agreed to set up shop in the building for two-plus years, The Bid Group offered to install an elevator to make access in the building available to everyone. The elevator met Harris' approval with buttons placed at a reasonable height and room for him to maneuver his chair around.
Stu Ballantyne, chief executive officer of the 2015 Canada Winter Games, said the unveiling of the working elevator is the first step towards making the Prince George games the most accessible ever.
"We're working towards fixing a number of things, Pat and Nancy Harris are really going to help us with this along with the accessibility committee from the city," said Ballantyne. "We're talking about not just things that are physical barriers in the summer but what changes when weather changes in the winter, because we're a winter games."
For Ballantyne it's not just being inclusive during the Games but to see that Prince George is accessible to everyone all the time.
"We also want to have people think about this longer term so that we understand that the citizens of Prince George that do have mobility issues are thought of when people are clearing sidewalks early in the day," said Ballantyne.
Heather Lamb, a member of the advisory committee to the city on accessibility since 2009, said the city is pretty good at clearing the sidewalks in school zones but it's always good to encourage them to do better since it'll benefit everyone, including seniors and people with strollers.
In addition to the sidewalks, Lamb said the committee is working on projects to make transportation more accessible for walkers and cyclists.
"The reality is most of these things we work on are also problems for the general public," said Lamb.
The accessibility committee will take a walkabout through downtown Prince George on Tuesday to access the sidewalks and streets that athletes and visitors will be using to get from their hotels to the Canada Games house to the Civic Centre.
"What's important to me is that the Canada Winter Games staff have made a commitment to provide accessible facilities, venues, seating, not only for the athletes but for anybody in the community that want's to attend the Games," said Harris. "They really want to leave a legacy of accessibility and [the elevator] is the first step. Over the next couple of years we'll be looking at all of the venues and we'll be working closely with the City of Prince George's advisory committee on accessibility because the City is a partner in this as well. The end result being, we want to ensure that these Games are the most accessible ever."
