CORNWALL, Ontario – Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry MPP Jim McDonell agrees with his Party Leader Premier Doug Ford that MPP Lisa MacLeod should not resign as Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.
A public outcry emerged against MacLeod after it was revealed she allegedly strong armed a group of behavioural scientists to endorse government changes to the provincial autism program.
MacLeoad allegedly told the behavioural scientists to get on board, or “it will be a long four years”. On Twitter MacLeod apologized for any distress her comments may have caused.
“It’s been an emotional time,” she wrote. “Throughout this process my focus has always been on the 23,000 children who were abandoned under the previous government’s plan. This is an issue I take very personally and I apologize if my comments made anyone feel threatened or uncomfortable.”
While not wanting to speak to MacLeod’s comments directly, McDonell did say that he did not think that MacLeod should step down.
“In general, we need our partners to work with us and if they are going to just pull up the shingle and leave that doesn’t help anyone,” he said in an interview with Seaway News.
“I think she cares about everyone, especially the 75 percent of children that are being left out,” said McDonell referring to the 23,000 children that are on the wait list for autism care programs.
The Ford government recently enacted changes to the autism funding program. Under the government’s newly proposed system, families with a child with autism may receive funding from a Childhood Budget until their child turns 18. The amount distributed through the budget will depend on the length of time the child is in the program up to $140,000. The funding may also be subject to an annual maximum of $20,000 for children under five and $6,000 for children ages six to 18. Critics suggest that intensive therapy can cost parents up to $80,000 per year.
Some parents, like Cathy Varrette fear that there are new problems that the changes will create.
“What’s next? It can’t just end there,” said Varrette. “(The changes) only really helps a small number of people who are paying out of pocket…and it moves the waitlist over to private providers. They can say they cleared the (public) waitlist but there isn’t a lot of private providers…that’s why there is a waitlist in the first place.”
Program availability is another concern for Varrette.
“There’s not enough licensed professionals in the field,” said Varrette, referring to behaviour therapy in our province. “(Families) are waiting for a professional to be available. Giving the families money is great to pay out of pocket but it’s not going to help anyone on the waitlist…we need to incentivize the type of programming needed and get people working with autistic children; we need more providers before anything,” said Varrette.
McDonell counters that if the system leaves out 75 percent of Ontario children it does not work.
“We are trying to get rid of a huge issue that 75 percent are receiving no coverage,” he said. “There is some frustration because our government is making changes, but that is what we were elected to do.”
