Most kids with autism in Ontario won't get core therapy funding soon, documents reveal

Most of the children in Ontario waiting for publicly funded core autism therapy will not receive it any time soon, the government says in an internal assessment obtained by The Canadian Press.

Most of the children in Ontario waiting for publicly funded core autism therapy will not receive it any time soon, the government says in an internal assessment obtained by The Canadian Press.

Days into his new role this spring as Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, Michael Parsa was given a transition binder with information on the files he now oversees.

The document obtained through a Freedom of Information request provides a much fuller picture of the Ontario Autism Program than the Progressive Conservative government has so far publicly disclosed.

The current program budget is $667 million, but that will only serve about 20,000 children in core clinical therapies, the document says. Meanwhile, there are about 60,000 children seeking services through the program and about 7,000 more are added to the list each year.

“Families can access a range of other OAP services, but most children and youth will not receive core clinical services funding in the short to medium term,” the document says.

“More children and youth register for the program than age out each year, which means that the waitlist for core clinical services will continue to grow without further investment.”

Alina Cameron, the president of the Ontario Autism Coalition, said that kind of information on timing is exactly what families have been begging the government to disclose.