'More waiting and more uncertainty': Windsor-Essex reacts to province's delay of new autism program

Members of the autism community in Windsor-Essex say they're disappointed after the Ford government announced another delay in getting kids the services they need.

During a Queen's Park press conference Tuesday morning, Children, Community and Social Services Minister Todd Smith said that a needs-based autism program, which was originally promised to be up and running by April 2020, had been pushed back until sometime in 2021.

Parents in the crowd Tuesday could be observed wiping away tears while holding pictures of their children, saying after the press conference that the interim funding the government is promising isn't enough.

"I think there's some good and there's some not so good," said Sherri Taylor, a Windsor mom who sat on the Ontario Autism Program Advisory Panel. The group was tasked with recommending changes to the province's autism program earlier this year.

On one hand, Taylor is happy that the province will be moving forward with many of the panel's key recommendations in the final program.

"I'm really glad they have included mental health, that they're putting a focus on urgent care and early intervention," she said. "On the flip side, there's more waiting and more uncertainty. That's really hard for all of us."

Coming up with an interim program was outside the mandate of the Ontario Autism Advisory Panel, Taylor said, adding she's unsure if the needs-based program will indeed come into effect in 2021 since there are so many "inner workings behind the scenes."

"It's just the timing. There's no concrete answers of when this will actually take place," said Taylor, who also works as the family care coordinator at Back to Life Rehabilitation and Sensory Integration Facility, "Families are in crisis now. They need help now."

Interim funding will see parents receive either $5,000 or $20,000 to pay for services, depending on their child's age — the maximum annual amounts they were to get under the now-cancelled autism plan that was announced earlier this year.

"The biggest thing that irks me is the one-time funding. It's not equity-based. It's not the same amount for every person that's on that list," said Taylor.

'A big sense of hopelessness'

Megan Rigden, a parent of two children with autism, said it's difficult for anyone to look at the province's autism program delay with "anything but contempt," adding it comes with "no silver lining."

"To say that they're trying to help us now ... there was a perfectly good plan in place that they dismantled. This is all their doing," Rigden said. "There's a big sense of hopelessness today, going into Christmas."

Noah Gascon, a Grade 11 student on the autism spectrum, said the announced delay was a "disappointment" and "completely unacceptable."

"Children have to wait a whole year for services — and a year can be a lifetime for children who need these services," he said. "I was lucky enough years ago to get help. I wouldn't be sitting here today if I didn't get that help. It's so unfortunate that people can't get that help today."

MPP Lisa Gretzky said the province has "thrown families under the bus" through this delay, adding she's already received calls from constituents who say they're devastated.

Gretzky adds she's holding out hope that, with enough pressure, the Conservatives will do the right thing and implement a needs-based program immediately.