Day 170: What Federal MPs failed to do to help Ontario families with kids on the spectrum.

Before we begin, I need to perfectly clear: The ongoing Ontario Autism Program debacle is 100% the fault of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government. Or as I put it yesterday:

This was a plan drawn up on the back of a napkin, by individuals with little-to-no experience in designing public policy. From day one, the re-designed OAP was riddled with unintended consequences, from the autism tax to paying parents to get divorced. These guys simply had no idea what they were doing, and families are suffering for it.

That said, our federal MPs could have helped provide assistance to a community that desperately needed it, but they did not. I’m not talking about a national autism strategy (that topic requires a much longer post, if not series of posts). Rather I’m talking about the Childhood Budget tax mess.

What the federal government could have done

I spend the bulk of my time in Ottawa, so I get to have a lot of conversations with MPs and staffers on both sides of the aisle. When talking to federal Liberals, we get a great deal of sympathy, but it’s invariably pointed out that the OAP is “provincial jurisdiction”. To which I respond:

1. On other issues of provincial jurisdiction, the Federal government has shown a willingness to speak out against the Ford government.
2. Parts of the issue are absolutely in federal jurisdiction, including the CRA’s determination of the tax treatment of Childhood Budgets.

Let’s start with the first. Just this week, we had federal Justice Minister David Lametti write a letter to the Attorney General of Ontario, regarding Ontario’s legal-aid spending cuts. Particularly noteworthy was this phrase in the letter:

Governments have an obligation to represent and support all people

So it’s not as if the Federal government will not publicly challenge provincial program decisions.

But even if we put that aside, there’s still the issue with the CRA. The Minister of National Revenue could have done one of two things:

1. Issue a statement, either through her office or the CRA, stating that Childhood Budgets are not subject to federal and provincial income tax.
2. If the CRA lacked the information needed to make that determination (which appears to be the case), the Minister could have written a public letter, to Ontario’s Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, stating what needed to be done to ensure these Budgets would not be taxed.

The latter should have happened and it should have happened back in February when the revised OAP was first released. I picture the letter looking something like this:

Where’s Clippy when we need him?

Instead, the federal government did absolutely nothing, and the community only got answers, 169 days into the process, thanks to a reporter.

What the federal opposition parties could have done

One simple thing: Press the federal government for answers on the tax issue, in Question Period or some other forum. Although this is just an issue affecting some families in one province, it’s rather important to us. A reminder:

Failed marriages, second and third mortgages, mounting debt, and suicide attempts both failed and successful — those are some of the symptoms of a broken system of autism support…

The community understands that there are a whole lot of different issues and parties have to choose which of those issues they’ll take on. But political parties should also understand: If we’re not a priority for you, you won’t be a priority for us.