Shawn Menard is the toilet hero we all need | Opinion

Brigitte Pellerin: It’s time we stopped thinking that publicly accessible and clean bathrooms is a radical idea.

In case you haven’t heard, Councillor Shawn Menard won the prestigious Golden Plunger Award in recognition of his work to provide publicly available bathrooms in all the parks in his ward. I don’t know how he feels about being a toilet hero, but I want to thank him. I love the work done by the indefatigable Bessa Whitmore and the folks of the GottaGo!

Campaign, a community group advocating for “a network of free, safe, clean, and accessible public toilets across Ottawa.” I’ve written about them before, and I do appreciate the concept of the Golden Plunger Award, but I wish they would stop. They shouldn’t have to do any of this because clean, safe and accessible public toilets should be available as a matter of course.

But here in Ottawa, we think it’s a privilege that should only be available to people who dine at restaurants or shop at malls. If you’re out celebrating summer with your kids at the park, good luck when any one of you has to go. And if you’ve ever met a human child, you’ll know this happens with infuriating regularity, usually at the most inconvenient time.

Menard is a deserving toilet hero for his years of advocacy for increased public bathroom access across the city. In fairness to other good folks around the council table, he’s not the only one sharing the opinion that going to the loo should not be a logistical nightmare. But he is the one who, last year, pushed for a budget increase (from $2,400 to $4,500 per ward) to expand hours of operation and/or acquire portable toilets all over Ottawa.

More specifically in his ward, that money was used to install porta-potties at Brantwood Park, Brewer Park, Glebe Memorial Park, Kaladar Park, Springhurst Park, Sylvia Holden Park, and Windsor Park. The new Heron Park Community Building bathrooms will also see their hours expanded. Do you know what the increase from $2,400 to $4,500 per ward per year represents?

A hair over $50,000 — that’s the total for the whole city of one million people. Not exactly excessive. Granted, porta-potties aren’t gold plunger material.

I know; I play ultimate frisbee during the summer and I use them a lot. Those are provided by the ultimate organization, not the city. Community groups and sports leagues of all kinds arrange for similar facilities for their people.

And thank goodness they do, and so should the city for people who aren’t in sports leagues. Menard, who is flushed (sorry) with pride to be accepting GottaGo!’s award, believes governments “should be focusing on human needs and quality of life issues to a much greater extend than occurs now,” and it’s hard to disagree. “There are low-cost ways to improve people’s lives and bring more convenience and we should be pursuing those ideas.”

The bottom line, Menard says, is that “everyone needs bathrooms and there are affordable ways to provide them.” I don’t know how we got to the point where the thought of providing publicly accessible and clean bathrooms to residents and visitors to Ottawa became a radical idea but it’s about time we stopped. If you happened to swing by the Farmer’s Market on Sunday and witnessed the ceremony, I hope you took a minute to thank Bessa and her toilet people, and cheered for Menard and his golden plunger.

Next, please remind your councillor that nobody in this city should even be thinking about whether they’ll have a place to go next time they have to. Brigitte Pellerin (they/them) is an Ottawa writer.