Protesters greet premier in Niagara
Dozens of protesters gathered outside Red Stone Winery in Beamsville to greet Premier Doug Ford and Progressive Conservative party supporters as they attended a $1,000-a-plate fundraising event Thursday evening.
Parents of autistic children also staged a small protest that afternoon, as Ford and Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff visited a Pelham hardware store to announce new funding for transit and road repairs.
Asked about further assistance for families of autistic children, Ford replied: “I have always said, ‘This is passionate for me.’”
“We’re putting over $600 mil
lion (toward it),” he said, adding the previous Liberal government’s contributions for autism treatments were about $156 million.
“We’re making sure that we’re focused on a needs-based program. We have over 20 people on our committee from the autism community to tell us what is the best way to deliver on this file.”
But Welland resident Joe Serianni, who joined Katherine Hunt for the protest outside Beamer’s Hardware and TV, said he has yet to see any provincial funding to provide the care his son Ashton needs.
He said Ashton, 3, was diagnosed with autism in February, and his physicians recommended 10 hours of applied behaviour analysis (ABA) therapy a week.
But while paying $160 an hour for treatment, out of pocket, Serianni said he can only afford to pay for three hours a week to help his non-communicative son.
And after five months on a waiting list for funding, Serianni said he has not received a penny of funding “or even a letter” from
the government regarding his funding application.
Both Serianni and Hunt said they have spoken to Oosterhoff about their concerns, and were “happy and impressed” that he returned their phone calls, and has agreed to meet with them in person.
At the winery, Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 2977 secretary Brittany Nesbitt — representing therapy workers who provide treatments to autistic
children — called ABA “proven clinical therapy that works.” But changes to how funding is being provided to the families of autistic children has left care providers worried about being able to continue doing their jobs.
“It’s affecting the members of CUPE Local 2977 directly, because before the money went to the employer. Now they have changed the amount of that funding quite a few times and they’re giving it directly to the families,” she said.
“The problem is the amount that they’re giving won’t even get a child three or four months of service. … We are seeing the potential for layoffs.”
CUPE Local 2328 president Kim Kane is concerned more cuts could be on the way for Family and Children’s Services Niagara, after the agency has already struggled with reduced funding.
Kane said FACS workers fear the provincial government seems to be shifting the agency’s focus away from prevention to protecting children after abuse has already occurred.
“Prevention is how we develop healthy, strong, resilient children who become functioning members of our society,” said Kane, one of several FACS workers who attended the protest rally.
CUPE Local 4156 president Colleen Thibodeau, representing support workers at District School Board of Niagara, said she joined the pretest because “people need to know what Doug Ford is doing.”
“The PC government is slashing our schools — the autistic children,” she said. “They said there were no cuts — our school board has cuts.”