Autism Programming



What happened to the OAP, the Ontario Autism Program during the last few years is complex and troubling. The government’s own FAO, Financial Accountability Office report contradicts itself. It states that the number of children on waitlists grew to 24,900 in 2019-2020 and that the year before the waitlist grew by 47.8%. Then, by using the tired old trickery of cancelling a program and starting a new one in its place and splitting other programs the FAO report says the PCs can pat themselves on the back and say everything is fine if they allow spending to increase from $600 million to $696 million by 2025. The report does state that spending would need to increase to $1.3 billion in order to clear the waitlist but seems, in the conclusion, to be OK with a waitlist.

In the meantime we hear about people like Stacey Kennedy who’s child has been waitlisted for 4 years. Stacey camped out at the Premier's office for several days and got nothing for her child. According to this UNIFOR letter, damage to children with Autism from cuts to programs may be long lasting.

In my career as a regular high school classroom teacher I had scores of children in my classes who were identified as having some level of autism disorder. These children always came with some level of support from extra help during lunch or text to speech readers or an Educational Assistant tasked with giving one on one support. What always impressed me the most is that the children themselves were very much aware of their disability. They could advocate for themselves. They had gained these understandings through programs such as the OAP and it served them well. It scares me to see a government that is OK with identified children going to school without resources, without the knowledge and skill to navigate a condition that makes learning so much more difficult for them.

The Ontario NDP is concerned that Ford’s latest “Needs category” Autism program is not needs based at all and leads to even more program cutbacks for children who deserve better. Autism wasn’t mentioned in the Speech from the Throne this week so you can bet the PCs have nothing in their platform either. Maybe it doesn’t matter to them. As long as they can make themselves look good to most people through spending cuts they don’t care who gets hurt. Please take a minute to sign our petition calling on the Ontario government to fund Autism supports for the 42,000 children on waitlists now.

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