Narrows minded

I see in Saltwire (you may need a subscription) that the Narrows Halifax Public House on Gottingen is looking for (or has already got) a permit for a backyard patio.  You can read the staff report to council here.

The backyard isn't on a sidewalk, but HRM has comprehensive standards for sidewalk cafes that include:

5. Sidewalk cafés shall comply with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Accessible Design for the Built Environment, CSA Standard B651, as amended from time to time.

So why not impose that requirement on this patio?

I'll tell you why not.  Because HRM staff is bumbling, because the owners are greedy and Council usually does the wrong thing when accessibility is at issue. 

The Nova Scotia Curated Food and Drink Magazine 2023  includes a symbol for accessibility in its reviews.  

The Narrows is not accessible.  Saltwire says "It opened February 2022, but it took some time before that to restore the building and convert the main floor of the former bed and breakfast into an 80-seat restaurant.  

Baldwin said it was very expensive to convert it to commercial standards and over $1 million went into the project, about $500,000 more than they anticipated."

Sounds like a complete redo.

Just how that escaped the 2018 Human Rights decision ordering that the Province interpret, administer and enforce the words "washroom facilities for the public available in a convenient location" in s.20(1) of the Food Safety Regulations as requiring those washroom facilities to be accessible to members of the public who use wheelchairs is a mystery.  Doubtless the Restorative Injustice kangaroo court dreamt up some exception. 

Good luck to the business geniuses who missed by half a million.

And who approved this pathetic abandoned patio on Queen St?  Unskilled carpentry, splinters, garage door parts. Misses Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Accessible Design for the Built Environment, B651 by a country kilometre. 

npy