Sylvia Ingham, Accessibility Coordinator, provided an overview of the report on the 2025 Accessibility Awards - Nomination Process, noting that Council approved the relaunch of the Accessibility Awards Program. As part of the process, the establishment of a sub-committee of up to two to five members are required to review nominations received.
Discussion took place and staff responded to comments and questions which included:
- Staff are working with Communications on a media release regarding promotion of the awards program, which may include various social media platforms, the City's website and the Brampton Guardian online
- Awards will be presented to recipients at a Council meeting and will be opened to interested public to attend or to view the livestream online
- Names of previous winners are listed on the website
- Inquiry was made with the Citizen Awards and Protocol staff regarding the inclusion of the Accessibility Awards Program into the Citizen Awards, it was determined that:
- adding the accessibility awards would lead to confusion for recipients
- it would be considered inappropriate as there was no category for accessibility
- the accessibility awards was a totally separate program
In response to further comments, Clerk's Office staff reminded Committee that this matter was discussed at length at the previous meeting and Committee voted on a motion to continue to have the program administered by the accessibility team with the support of the Clerk's office. Staff has also followed up with the inquiry to explore the option of having the program included in the Citizen Awards, as noted in the response above.
Members were asked to volunteer to participate in the sub-committee to review nominations. The following members expressed interest:
- Michelle Buckland
- Sherri Hopkins
- Vanessa Tantalo
- Franco Spadafora
Staff advised that members who volunteered for the sub-committee will receive communication from staff once the minutes were approved by Council.
The following motion was considered: