It doesn’t have a toilet made of the finest porcelain from the Ming Dynasty, and there are no countertops made of marble from the Carrara quarry in Italy, but a reliving station for service animals is almost ready for use near the front doors of the city of Calgary’s municipal building.
Part of the city’s attempt to meet accessibility standards, a relieving station for service animals is being constructed in front of the main west doors at a cost of $36,000.
Councillor Druh Farrell said a couple of years ago city council agreed with her request to ask administration to look at what was needed to meet accessible standards for it’s buildings.
“Certainly the municipal building at city hall should be the most accessible building because they are the public commons and in many areas they weren’t”.
The city says there’s an increasing number of service dogs being used by city staff with vision loss or other health issues.
“We have people come down with service animals and they need a place to go to the bathroom” said Farrell. “This is a little relieving area for service animals, probably mostly dogs.”
The 20-square-meter triangular area is lined with bricks and mulch, and has enough room to allow the dog’s owner to turn in their wheelchair.
Farrell said she doesn’t have any issue with the relieving station location being near the main doors.
“If you look at the ramp outside the municipal building, it actually doesn’t meet code anymore. It’s too steep. And so having it at the top, close to the front doors, makes a lot of sense.”
There is no firm date as to when the area will be open as it’s going through a process to ensure it meets the city’s Access Design Standards. It will be city maintenance staff who will be responsible for the clean up.
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