NDP Critic for Children and Youth Services, Andrea Horwath, slammed the McGuinty government’s refusal to officially recognize the first ever United Nations World Autism Awareness Day.

The MPP for Hamilton Centre said she was stunned when Liberals denied her request for a formal observation of the historic day in the Ontario Legislature. Horwath wanted each party to have five minutes to publicly address the issue of autism, but was rebuffed.

In fact, the McGuinty Liberals were the only ones who didn’t dedicate a Member’s Statement acknowledging autism.

“It is important to all families affected by autism, advocates and those working in the field, to see their province is behind them and supports them,” Horwath said. “Anyone close to the autism issue in Ontario would feel stung by the government’s rejection of the UN Day.”

In a Statement in the House, Horwath took aim at the McGuinty government for continuing to fail Ontario’s children. Having the Minister of Children and Youth Services refer to the banner day as an afterthought late in the afternoon was incredibly callous, Horwath said.

“The number of children on waiting lists for IBI therapy was 1,063 as of December 2007, up from 985 in March of that year. Similarly, more children are waiting to be assessed for treatment: 334 children in March. Nine months later? 381,” Horwath said.

Horwath said, according to a parent survey by the Ontario Autism Coalition, “the average waiting time to access publicly funded IBI / ABA is 17 months; some families have waited anywhere from 3-7 years. Eighty-two per cent of respondents noted that there was no ABA in the public school system. Parents have to keep their children home from school to provide them ABA.”

The survey also indicated more than half of the families liquidated assets to fund their child's treatment while on the waiting list, spending an average of $35,000 for minimum hours.