On August 31, 2024, SCI BC’s peer Susan Bains used the White Rock pier for the first time in seven years. She didn’t have to worry about looking down, getting stuck in her wheelchair, or anticipating painful spasms from bumpy surfaces. She simply went for a wheel. Accompanied by her daughter, Bains attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of a new accessible mat on the White Rock pier and took the inaugural wheel. The installation of the mat, a five-foot-wide non-slip mat that extends the length of the 470-metre-long wooden pier, was a direct result of Bains’ advocacy and persistence.
“I’ve always been the type of person to say something if it feels like it needs to be said,” she explains. With a background in human resources, entrepreneurship, and fitness instruction, Bains has never been one to sit on the sidelines. Even when an idiosyncratic spinal cord digression in 2016 challenged her mobility and eventually led to leg paralysis in 2021, Bains remained determined to engage with others and adapt to change. “There was a lot happening when I came out of GF Strong,” she says. “I was learning to live life in a wheelchair. I moved into a new house, I was in a new setting, and renovations were happening all the time to make it accessible. My mom also moved in with us and I had a young daughter and husband to navigate through all these changes with. It was a lot going on at once.”
Despite everything, Bains recognized the need to get back to the things she loved and reached out to SCI BC to attend our annual Whistler Adrenaline Weekend. As a first-time participant she tried paddleboarding, rock climbing, and hiking with a TrailRider. “It was going from nothing to, boom, trying everything at once. I was still in a very different mindset at that time, and it was hard for me to talk about my own situation with others. I didn’t want to explain things or have small talk,” she says. “But it was great in the fact that I got to try and was able to do so many more things than I expected. I got to see that it was possible.”
When it came to accessing recreation opportunities closer to home, though, Bains struggled with access to the pier near her home in White Rock. “I was able to walk as much as I could at the beginning of my loss progression, but eventually, I couldn’t do it. When I got into the new house, I had my power chair and tried using the pier but I was so uncomfortable and it triggered spasms,” she says. “The first time I tried to use my manual chair on the pier was actually this year and I fell. I had one hand down on the ground and one of [the people I was with] had to push my shoulders back.”
Knowing that change needed to happen, Bains wrote a letter to White Rock’s municipal engineering department in August 2021. In this letter, she highlighted accessibility issues such as uneven surfaces, gaps in the wooden planking, and slippery conditions. “With my background in human resources, I always tackle things not just by complaining, but also giving solutions,” Bains says. “I took pictures and suggested how things could be improved. I researched mat options and provided examples from other places. I guess you would call it advocacy, but at the time I didn’t even think of it that way. It was just an ask.”
In the year that followed, Bains’ ask circulated among City Council and various departments trying to gain traction. However, the main source of support came from her own community. “I was doing research and came across a news clip of [another SCI BC member] showing how they get their manual wheelchair stuck going sideways on the pier and I was like, ‘Oh wow, I’m not the only person’,” she says. “Through conversations with other people I would get little snippets of information, and I connected with other self-advocates. I started a lot of stuff all on my own, but it was great to have that support and know people would show up.” Backing from the City of White Rock was slower to come.
In July 2023, Bains revisited her discussion with the engineering department and was told the main challenges to moving forward with the purchase and installation of an accessibility mat were tripping hazards, maintenance costs, and installation costs. “When I saw those three points, I had to see if that really was the case. I knew I had to do more.”
Bains contacted Mobi-Mat, a Canadian-owned accessibility mat manufacturing company, and AccessRec, an alternative option, and compared costs, installation time, and maintenance details. Moreover, Bains started a letters of support campaign and connected with organizations who believed in the accessibility mat and the benefit it would provide to everyone using the pier. At the end of year, she attended a tree lighting ceremony at the pier with Equal Access Collective, a group of organized self-advocates. “We are all striving for the same individual goal of equal access and universal spaces, but our approach is to work collaboratively and come up with solutions while educating others about their obligations,” Bains explains. Together, they applied public pressure and were invited to speak to Council and the City’s Accessibility Committee to move forward with a solution.
At the Council meeting in January 2024, Bains emphasized the legal obligation of the City to provide access under the Accessibility Act BC and the BC Human Rights Code. “I learned a lot about the legislation piece and what started out as a personal ask… really blew up over the years and it’s a right, it’s not an ask. It’s a human right,” she says. “That really shifted things for me. Once you bring that forward you can exercise those rights and knowledge is power.” Along with legal knowledge, Bains shared extensive information and research about the proposed AccessMat from AccessRec.
The AccessMat is made of UV stabilized polyester material that had been tested as rot and rust proof. It can be attached to the wooden pier with aluminum matting connecters that adhere smoothly and is available in multiple colours. Overall, the total cost of the mat and installation would be approximately $100,000. “At that point it should have been an acknowledgement that the pier isn’t accessible and proceed with a plan, but it wasn’t.” What followed was six more months of trial and tribulations, including a decision to move the accessibility mat item to a budget issue in 2025.
In response, Bains, the Equal Access Collective, and other supporters hosted an event at the pier to protest the delay. “Because of how all of this happened, they’re forgetting the role that they support people. It was like we had to prove why we needed this over and over,” Bains says. “I didn’t back down because the support I had just kept me pushing. I just knew it was right.” The choice to move the accessibility mat item to the 2025 budget was reversed and in June 2024 the decision to move forward with purchasing and installing an accessibility mat was finalized. The last hurdle to overcome was the City’s insistence that donations be sourced to cover part of the cost, despite a pre-approval in the amount of $18,000 to support the project. In the end, the Self-Advocates of Semiamhoo (an independent organization mainly funded by Semiahmoo House Society and The Semiahmoo Foundation) donated $5,750 and the Soroptimist International of White Rock (a local volunteer organization focused on helping women and girls) donated $2,000. A grant from SPARC BC covered $25,000 of the bill and the City paid the remaining costs. In total, the final the purchase of the mat was $81,796 (excluding GST) and installation by GDM Civil Ltd was $8,280 (excluding GST).
In August 2024, over three years after Bains sent her initial letter to the engineering department, the accessibility mat was installed, and she took the first wheel alongside her daughter. “It’s a great feeling to be supporting so many people, because what started out as a request for me in a wheelchair became something for everybody and that means a lot,” Bains says. “It [was] a constant uphill battle. You have to adapt, adapt, adapt, and when we’re pushing that idea to the City it feels uncomfortable. But that’s life for us too—adapting.”
As important as the end result was for everyone involved, the journey to get there was equally as meaningful to Bains. “My first [news] interview about the pier I was actually shaking, I was so nervous. My husband asked if I was okay, and I didn’t know if I could do it. At that point it felt like ripping a band aid off. Everybody was going to see me, and I felt really exposed,” she says. Going from her initial experience at SCI BC’s Whistler Adrenaline Weekend, where she wasn’t even comfortable talking to other peers, to being put in front of a camera was a big step, and a leap of faith in herself. “Finding your voice and finding connections and having support gave me more and more confidence throughout this whole thing.”
It has encouraged Bains to continue advocating for herself and her community. She has already set her sights on improving access along the portion of the White Rock promenade that crosses train tracks and has been in meetings with TransLink regarding their new Surrey and Langley SkyTrain stations. “I want to be able to make a change and make a difference,” she says. “This has fueled me to do more projects and to speak to these things because I have no problem bringing it forward and being persistent. That’s the key, being persistent.”
This article was originally published in the Fall 2024 issue of The Spin. Read more stories from this issue, including:
- Air travel
- Entrepreneurship
- A peer’s trip to Spain
And more!
Read the full Fall 2024 Issue of The Spin online!
