A delegation of families from northern Ontario who have autistic children are expressing optimism after meeting with government officials recently at Queen’s Park yesterday about the future of autism services in the programs.
A new program is to be rolled out in the spring.
The group’s spokesperson Alina Cameron says they shared with those officials that northern families can’t wait until April 2020 for new supports.
“I’m not hopeful from the things I hear from politicians because they are trained to say the same thing over and over but I’m happy after speaking with the staff who are working on the development of the government’s program,” says Cameron. “When you actually speak with people who are working on the policy, you can see the realization wash across their face when you are talking to them and that gives me a glimmer of hope.”
The Northern Ontario Autism Families group says government staff who are working on the new program asked the right questions during their meeting earlier this month.
The families claim the Ford government has caused “already insufficient” services to disappear, services that took “decades of hard work to build and the Ford government was able to decimate them in less than a year.”
They are seeking an emergency plan to be put in place for the north since there is a lack of services in this region and insufficient funding given to families to access those services.
The families note that funding is taken up on travel costs, they say can be up to $600 to attend a single 30-minute speech-language session.
