Autism community welcomes increase in funding in provincial budget

Ontario is boosting autism funding by $186 million, but advocates say the $965-million investment misses the mark.

When the province announced its budget Wednesday, new spending items included $186 million in added funding for the Ontario Autism Program.

Alina Cameron, Ontario Autism Coalition president, described the spending increase as “wonderful.”

“Any increase to the budget is very welcome -- and long overdue,” Cameron said.

“There are currently 67,000 children and youth waitlisted for core clinical autism services in Ontario. And they’re waiting 5.2 years to access that, something that is supposed to be early intervention. Most kids aren’t accessing it until seven years old or later.”

Cameron spoke with Michael Parsa, the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, after Thursday’s announcement.

She said Parsa made it clear that he’s not entirely firm on where the funding is going -- something that is concerning to her.

“We had a similar increase last year of $120 million or thereabouts and we did not see a large movement on the waitlist,” Cameron said.

“The number of children accessing that core clinical services funding didn’t go up a lot. And the number of children registering to the program actually outpaced the number of children who were accessing core clinical funding.”

She’s hoping families will contact Parsa to help ensure the new money is focused on reducing the waitlist.

Years long waitlist

Sean Staddon is a father of two children – June,11, and Chaz, 9 -- who are both on the spectrum. He said he got involved in advocacy because his children “had been waiting months and months” to access services.

“We would later find out it would take years for them to start getting funding from the province,” Staddon said.

While also welcoming the new funding, he’s also concerned about how it will be spent.

“We know special education in the Province of Ontario is terribly underfunded,” Staddon said.

“And I would have liked to see a parallel increase to that, as well.”

Sudbury MPP Jamie West said he has concerns when it comes to travel for northern families seeking care. Rather than a set amount, he would like northern families to be compensated for actual costs.

“Especially with the high price of gas right now,” West said.

“If there’s going to be money provided, it has to include the amount of transportation. Because if you need services, for example, if your child speaks primarily French, you have to find French services for them to thrive in.”

CTV News contacted the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services but did not receive a response by our deadline.