Why is there still no new plan to help Ontarians with disabilities get out of some buildings in an emergency?

The first time the fire alarm went off in Oda Al-anizi's high-rise apartment in Toronto, he called security but found that no one knew what to do to help him leave the building in his wheelchair.

"I just waited for the alarm to stop," Al-anizi said. 

"I felt like my life had less value. Does it mean that my life is expendable? Does it mean that an evacuation for me is less important than everybody else?"

Al-anizi has used a wheelchair since he sustained a complete spinal cord injury in a car accident involving a drunk driver when he was 11. 

The next time the alarm sounded, Al-anizi said he waited 40 minutes trying to reach building security before firefighters helped him evacuate with an evacuation chair — which can smoothly descend a stairway. The experiences inspired one of Al-anizi's disability-related comics that he shares on his Instagram.

"Many people messaged me," he said. "I realized how universal that experience is, as well as the lack of emergency evacuation for people with disabilities."

The most recent review of the Ontario government's progress on implementing the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) considered the current state of emergency procedures for people with disabilities an immediate safety threat.

Rich Donovan, a government-appointed reviewer, issued a "crisis recommendation" to the province in June 2023 to implement clear protocols for all government buildings that include "the immediate, safe evacuation of all individuals within the building" regardless of disability when there is a need to evacuate.

To do that, he urged the province to establish a crisis committee chaired by the premier within a month of tabling his report and to publish the updated government evacuation plans publicly within six months of creating the committee.