Day 165: Instead of an Ontario Autism Plan, We’re Getting a Conservative Reputation Rehabilitation Tour
This may be a long one. Here’s the short version: Instead of helping families, the Ontario government is going on a poorly planned, poorly promoted, poorly thought out “listening tour”. While all involved may have noble intentions, this tour is actively harming the community and it needs a re-think.
What happened last week?
First, here’s what didn’t happen:
- We didn’t get an actual Ontario Autism Plan, despite the half-baked original Ford plan having been released nearly six months ago.
- Despite the fact the school year starts in only a few weeks, we didn’t get any kind of plan for kids on the spectrum entering the school system. The government’s own internal report (the Baber report) clearly states that the education system lacks resources and is not equipped for children with ASD. But the government did absolutely nothing last week to address this incredibly time-sensitive issue.
What did we get instead? An “informal meet and greet” at a park in Belleville, with Minister Todd Smith (Progressive Conservative MPP, Bay of Quinte). Also giving speeches at the event were Amy Fee (Progressive Conservative MPP, Kitchener South — Hespeler) and federal Conservative MP Mike Lake (Edmonton — Wetaskiwin).
Giving the polling data showing that Doug Ford’s policies will deter Ontarians for voting for the Federal Conservatives, we shouldn’t be surprised to see the two parties working together to bolster their collective images (and, what luck, Smith just happens to provincially represent a swing federal riding!) Nice day at the park, the Minister gets to show he’s “listening”, and oh look, he brought some of his federal Conservative friends! And, if the meeting was intended to get positive headlines, then mission accomplished:
But if the events are aimed at actually helping families, they’re at best neutral and at worst quite harmful.
Unfortunately, there will be more of these events in the coming weeks, instead of the plan that Ontario families desperately need.
What did families learn at the Belleville event?
We got a little bit of information about the mandate of the advisory panel, though not through Smith’s prepared remarks, in which he said the following:
“We are committed in the ministry to working with our Ontario autism panel. I had the opportunity last week to go in and meet with them for a second time and just share with them how we need to widen the terms of reference so they can consider more options.”
This is a meaningless word salad from the Minister, because:
- Both Minister Smith and previous Minister MacLeod refused to release the old terms of reference.
- Despite using the word “transparency” every other sentence, Minister Smith refuses to release the new terms of reference. We don’t know if it includes reviewing SSAH, whether the Direct Service Option is back on the table, whether the group is considering supports in the classroom. What does it mean for a terms of reference to be “widened” when we don’t know what the original terms of reference was, or what the new one is?
One attendee at the event was able to get this piece of information from the Minister:
Great! This is helpful. But why not post something for all to see, rather than doling out this information at an event few can attend and have that information filtered through parents? This isn’t just bad governance, it’s bad politics — why outsource your messaging to people who, at best, distrust you, and at worst, loathe you?
Why are these events so harmful?
There is a potential scenario where these events could be quite helpful, where:
- Useful information was disseminated by the Minister, to both attendees and the broader community.
- The Minister actually needed feedback from the community in order to help the Ministry make better decisions.
Neither apply here. The first certainly doesn’t — the Minister is going out of his way to say as little as possible (I guess saying the word “transparent” is an adequate substitute for being transparent, in the Minister’s opinion). And what information could he possibly need after 165 days? There were meetings after meetings with MPPs (though admittedly most of those were with opposition MPPs), there’s the expert panel, and there were the Enterprise Canada roundtables.
You guys remember, those, right? The Enterprise Canada telephone roundtables? I’m really curious what those things ended up costing. And what will this “Listening Tour” cost? And who is footing the bill, given it’s mostly a Conservative reputation rehabilitation tour.
Oh yeah, there’s also the Baber Report, written by the government, for the government, which clearly illustrates the problems with Ford’s Ontario Autism Plan. Multiple consultations have taken place and are still taking place, reports have been written, but the government is still in “information collecting mode”, while our kids are being actively being denied healthcare. It’s an abomination.
These events have been criticized on the grounds that few can attend. They’re announced with little notice and held during the daytime when few parents are available and those that are an unrepresentative cross-section of the community as a whole. I understand the sentiment, though I think the parents who can’t attend are the lucky ones.
How many times are parents going to be asked to relive some of the worst moments in their lives? This ongoing requirement for families to constantly focus on the tough days, to constantly be reminded of their struggles is detrimental to our mental health. How many tears from crying parents do you need before you will give our kids the healthcare they deserve?
While the event organizers may have the best of intentions, these events are actively harming the mental health of the community. They are forcing struggling parents to chose between attending, further risking their mental health, or not attending, and risk giving the impression those attending speak for everyone, or that the autism issue is overblown.
How poorly planned and promoted are these events?
See for yourself:
And yet, families are still completely in the dark
At that risk of continually repeating myself, families are finding it impossible to make any plans for their children, simply because the Minister and Ministry refuse to give parents even basic information. Here’s one such example:
“Day in and day out, we are suffering the real world consequences of this government’s actions, and are doing so in the dark.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
