Williams Lake City Council has said no to the development of a bylaw requiring public access washrooms in all public buildings.
Mayor Walt Cobb explains.
“The biggest challenge, of course, is policing it, to see if people are doing it and the only way you could deal with it is a complaint. The other issue was when you put in a new bylaw is that we can’t make it retroactive. If you put a bylaw in place it’s any new construction, any new buildings.”
Cobb adds that it would that it would not make sense to forward the proposal to the Accessibility Advisory Committee.
“Even if they came back and said yeah it’s a good idea. Council would more than likely make the same decision because of the inability to police it and there’s no sense in having laws in place if you can’t uphold them.”
The bylaw was proposed by 84-year-old Lakecity resident Wilhelmina Pankratz who told the Williams Lake Tribune that she asked a business on Prosperity Way to use their washroom and was told there are none on the premises.
She says she was told to go the adjacent business where she was also subsequently refused.
Cobb calls the incident unfortunate but says he would hope that most businesses would be considerate in such a situation and allow individuals to use their washroom.