LETTER: Make Diana Lake accessible for everybody

To whom it may concern (and this concerns everybody):

It’s a beautiful day and I would love to go to the lake. Too bad! Can’t happen!

I live in Prince Rupert and I use a wheelchair. Even though the website for Diana Lake in my area says that it is wheelchair accessible, it’s not. I know this from experience.

When my partner drives our wheelchair van to Diana Lake, we cannot enter the wheelchair accessible part because the service road that goes there is blocked by a locked gate.

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When I realized this I called people I know who are involved in park maintenance, and they told me to go to Prud’homme Lake, find a worker in the campsite there, and get him to unlock the service gate for us. Seems crazy, but we did that. However, once we were let in through the gate it was locked behind us, and we were told to set a time when the maintenance person would return and unlock the gate.

We did so reluctantly and ended up waiting nervously for 20 minutes at the end of the day, hoping we were not forgotten, until someone showed to unlock the gate.

This is ridiculous! The park is basically inaccessible to anyone in a wheelchair, and there is no reason for this to be the case. The locked service gate does not prevent vandalism of any kind, though it does prevent wheelchair access.

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As the temperature climbs today, and I listen to everyone’s plans for going to the lake, I am increasingly frustrated. Please let me know that you will eliminate this barrier. And don’t say that there are plans afoot to make the lake accessible from the parking lot - I have been hearing that excuse for a long time.

I look forward to you telling me when I will be able to go and experience Diana Lake properly.

Emma Kivisild

Prince Rupert