This is the situation disabled persons and caregivers ran into on Monday January 16 at the Saskatoon airport. Snow clearing personnel had filled the disabled parking spots with snow cleared from other areas of the parking lot. Perhaps they felt free to do this because no one was getting into a wheelchair when the lot was being plowed, they did not say.
The vehicle with the snow piled up against the doors presumably belongs to a disabled person who will be unable to get in their car when they return. Not to mention the fact that new comers will damned well have find some other place to park.
After I raised this with management telling them if they would give me a letter indicating that they would stop piling snow in the disabled parking spots I would not send the pictures I had taken to the newspaper. They declined to give me such a letter. Instead, I was escorted to a corner office with a great view of the runways. I was told they'd "like to help me" but that what I didn't understand or appreciate was that the runways were a priority. I replied that I had trained as pilot and understood that the runways must be cleared but that the issue was;
Why pile your snow in the disabled parking spots? Clearly they had time to scrape the snow up from other places in the parking lot and place it in the disabled spots. It was a conscious decision to make the disabled parking unavailable.
The individual (I believe it was the CEO but I might be mistaken) then gave a myriad of reasons they could not clean it up; we have 5 miles of runways to clear, no one was parked there, we'll do it when we have time. I was told several times that I was being unreasonable.
I advised them I was an advocate on behalf of my daughter and other disabled persons and there was no acceptable excuse for their practice. I further advised the Airport Authority (in the executive offices overlooking the luggage area) I was going to send the pictures to the Star Phoenix and members of their board. To their credit, however reluctant they were, they sent a Bobcat to clean out the snow.
When the members of the snow removal team arrived I decided to take a picture of the cleanup. Actually I was quite impressed with the quick action even though they had to be coerced into taking it. One of the crew protested my taking a picture and told me to stop. I responded this was not the old Soviet Union and last time I checked I was free to take a picture if I wanted. He then said
"yeah, you're the whiner who was bitching about the handicapped parking." I responded that someone needed to keep an eye on assholes who fill disabled parking spots with snow piles and took another picture.
Gentlemen of the Saskatoon Airport Authority...this is me whining.
