Even though her son has an accessible parking permit, Isabel Jordan said when it comes to finding a place to park in Squamish, “It’s not always easy. There are a couple spots where there’s great, well-marked accessible parking — not that that’s always respected.
“There’s a bunch of different issues with accessibility. One is it actually being there. The second is abled people feeling entitled to those spots, and when they use those spots, there not being an avenue of getting them out,” Jordan said.
The mom of a son who often needs a wheelchair, Jordan is also the chair of the Rare Disease Foundation. Her son is one of the 400 people in Squamish who have an accessible parking permit from B.C.’s Social Planning and Research Council (SPARC BC).
In the 2016 census, 12,275 people in the Squamish-Lillooet region identified having a type of activity limitation, including permanent, episodic and temporary conditions. Of that number, 6,050 people lived in the District of Squamish. An additional 1,650 people in Squamish reported having a specific health-related or long-term condition that limited their ability to participate in daily activities.
On Dec. 10, 2018, the province updated the BC Building Code and removed the parking regulations for accessible parking. The responsibility for setting and enforcing accessible parking standards for new developments and government property now falls upon individual municipalities.
“The parking requirement they’ve put onto the municipalities, so the municipalities could govern the need and requirements of their own municipality,” Richard Mathews, the chief building officer for the District of Squamish, said.
In Squamish, accessible parking is covered by the District’s bylaws, which includes the regulations for the size of the spots as well as how many accessible parking spots are required per regular parking spot. However, those bylaws only apply to new developments, as the bylaw cannot be enforced retroactively. If a property or business needs to make an amendment or alteration to its zoning such as a subdivision, then the District would be able to enforce the current parking bylaws.
Under the current District bylaw, signs marking accessible parking must be put up for each spot as well as painted lines and the wheelchair symbol. Mathews said even if the paint wears away, the sign would still be visible — but again this new requirement does not apply to previously existing parking that falls under a former bylaw or provincial building code.
Then there’s the maintenance of the parking spot. Jordan said she can think of a restaurant off the top of her head where the painted wheelchair icon is so faded, a driver can’t see it.
“You would never know they have an accessible spot there,” she said, adding that this is unfair to both the people who require an accessible spot and the able-bodied people who park there unaware.
Mathews said the maintenance of accessible parking spots falls upon the landlords of the business or property, except for District property. Parking at provincial parks, such as Alice Lake or the Stawamus Chief, falls under provincial responsibility.
“It would be up to the actual tenant or the landlord that manages it because the landlord is supposed to do snow removal, landscaping, keeping the parking lots clear, but also to keep them identified,” Mathews said. “The landlord has to do it — that’s just common courtesy to do for a business. I don’t believe it’s a law that you have to have your lines painted every so many years.”
The engineering department recently repainted the lines for the District-owned accessible parking spots, said Christina Moore, a spokesperson for the District. They also added signs with a more active wheelchair icon of the user leaning forward in motion, rather than stationary.
Mathews said the District monitors the paint on its parking for natural wear and tear, and paints over sections that need a touch-up every year.
Then there are the people who — intentionally or not — park in an accessible parking spot without a permit. It’s a problem Jordan said her family faces often. At the Squamish General Hospital, there are only two accessible parking spots. In the last six months, during her son’s visits for x-rays and lab tests, there have only been two occasions where Jordan has been able to use the accessible parking spots.
“There are rules, and people seem very unclear, cavalier and not caring about the fact that disabled people have rights to access public spaces,” Jordan said.
If the parking spot in question is on District-owned property, Mathews said a complaint can be made to bylaw officers, but he said even then bylaw’s staffing is limited.
“Assuming that a citizen would telephone bylaw and make the complaint, the challenge would be that bylaw would need to catch the person in the act,” Moore said.
“A lot of public shaming happens on social media too.”
For accessible parking spaces that don’t fall under District management, Mathews said you could report it to the store by telling customer service.
“If we’re going wherever and there’s no accessible spots — if somebody is parked there who shouldn’t be parked there or if there are not enough spots — what that means is my son’s permission from society to participate has been denied,” Jordan said, adding she’d like a clearer way to report a parking infraction.
“Even before I had a disabled son, there was no way I would ever park in the accessible stall. It never would even occur to me. The people who do, the only way to have them stop is for there to be a consequence,” she said.
Jordan said she would also like to see people with disabilities consulted when it comes to decisions about local infrastructure and planning. At Alice Lake and Shannon Falls, it wasn’t until people with disabilities and the Squamish branch of the Royal Canadian Legion advocated for accessible parking and wheelchair ramps that they were put in by the province. That was in 1987. Jordan also said she has concerns about talk of replacing or relocating parking downtown with public transit. While it would suit the needs of able-bodied people, it isn’t an option for many people who have disabilities, she said.
“The only way to make decisions to reflect the needs of disabled people in town is by having their voices heard through some kind of committee structure,” Jordan said.
In Vancouver and Victoria, the municipal governments have accessibility working groups with people who have disabilities.
“Nothing like that happens in Squamish,” Jordan said. “When decisions are made around parking lots, around building codes, around maintenance, around any of that stuff, without the voices of people who experience disabilities — not just wheelchairs, there’s a whole range of accessibility issues that are not wheelchairs — that just doesn’t happen here. Disabled people are invisible.”
*This story has been updated to clarify how many times Jordan was able to park at the hospital in a six-month period. The story previously said she wasn't able to park in accessible parking two times. She was only able to park there two times.
**An earlier version of this story also reported District staff advising to take a photograph of a license plate if someone is parked in an accessible spot without a permit. The provided information was incorrect. Bylaw cannot use photographs to enact parking bylaws.
