LONDON - Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory on Tuesday pledged to
eliminate Ontario’s waiting list for children’s autism treatment, but Premier
Dalton McGuinty urged voters to be wary of the Tories’ spending plans.

The NDP, meanwhile, said it would reinsure physiotherapy, chiropractic care,
and eye exams under OHIP, the province’s health plan.

The Conservative leader is promising to spend an additional $75 million
annually on autism, provide in-school treatments and spend $5 million of that
money on respite programs to provide relief for families.

"Days before the 2003 provincial election, Mr. McGuinty wrote to the parent
of a child with autism and promised help," Tory said after meeting with parents
of autistic children.

"But Mr. McGuinty has not delivered, and those families are still
waiting."

Tory said that when McGuinty became premier, 89 children in Ontario were
waiting for autism treatment, but as of last month, the wait list had grown to
more than 1,000.

Experts have told him it will take a minimum of two years to clear the wait
list, he said.

McGuinty has been widely criticized for promising in a letter to a motion for
a child with autism to extend expensive therapy to children over the age of six,
ending the previous Conservative government’s "unfair and discriminatory"
practice of not granting the treatment to older children. Although McGuinty
penned the letter before the last provincial election, he did not meet that
commitment until 2005.

At a campaign stop in Mississauga, the premier pointed out the Liberals
boosted funding for autistic children from what the previous Conservative
government provided. The party spends $140 million a year on autism, which is
says is triple the amount spent by the previous Tory government.

McGuinty urged Ontarians to be "very careful" when considering Tory’s
commitments when there is a cost involved.

"Now he’s telling us that he can cut our taxes, he can deliver more services,
and he can balance a budget," McGuinty said.

"That’s what the last guy (Premier Mike Harris) said and then he closed our
hospitals, fired our nurses, fired our water inspectors, underfunded our
schools, and stuck all of us with a $5.6-billion deficit."

Also on Tuesday in Elliot lake in northern Ontario, the New Democrats also
zeroed in on health with leader Howard Hampton promising to re-list a number of
medical services under the province’s health-care plan and offer relief from the
McGuinty government’s health tax.

An NDP government would invest $100 million in physiotherapy, chiropractic
care, and eye exams to reverse what Hampton deemed a Liberal "flirtation with
privatization." Uproar ensued in March 2005 when the Ontario government removed
the procedures from coverage for most patients between 20 and 64 years old.

In other developments Tuesday, McGuinty said that if elected, Ontario will
spend $100 million on trains, buses and track in and around Toronto.

At a campaign stop at the Mississauga Transit hub Tuesday afternoon, McGuinty
arrived - a few minutes late - on a municipal bus to tout his government’s
investment.