Mary Vallis, The National PostPublished: Wednesday,
September 26, 2007
LONDON - Progressive Conservative leader John Tory yesterday pledged to
eliminate the waiting list for children’s autism treatment, but Premier Dalton
McGuinty urged voters to be wary of the Tories’ spending plans.
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," Mr. Tory said after meeting parents
of autistic children.
"But Mr. McGuinty has not delivered, and those
families are still waiting."
Mr. Tory said that when Mr. 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.
"If you never set the objective of getting rid of the waiting lists, then you
never will," he said. "It won’t be easy, but it must be done."
Mr. McGuinty has been widely criticized for promising in a letter 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 Mr. 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 that the Liberals
boosted funding for autistic children from what the previous Conservative
government provided. The Liberal government spends $140-million a year on
autism, which is says is triple the amount spent by the previous Tory
government.
Mr. McGuinty urged Ontarians to be "very careful" when considering Mr. 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," Mr. McGuinty said.
"That’s what the last guy 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."
The Liberals say it took two years to lift the age cap on autism treatment
because the province needed to train therapists to meet the growing demand. And
they argue the waiting list ballooned as a direct result of lifting the age
restriction on treatment. Even so, they maintain more children in need are
getting therapy — more than 1,400 this year, up from 530 during the previous
Conservative government.
Mr. Tory met with a group of parents of autistic children yesterday,
including Steve Gensen and Leela Sharma, whose seven-year-old daughter, Madi,
was diagnosed several years ago.
The family waited a year for their daughter to get a diagnosis and another
year for treatment. Before her diagnosis, Madi would spend up to 14 hours a day
humming, her mother said.
"All she wanted to do was rock and stand in a corner … and scream pretty
much all day," Ms. Sharma said.
Even though they’ve been let down by the one government, some are willing to
take Mr. Tory at his word.
David Patchell-Evans, president of Autism Canada, said he trusts Mr. Tory to
keep his word because he is more a businessman than a politician.
"In business, if you don’t do what you say you’re going to do, you know
you’re going to fail," said Mr. Patchell-Evans, who attended Mr. Tory’s
announcement.
"He says he’s going to do this, and I believe him."
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