I thank my honourable colleague for the question. We have been listening to the families from day one, when I became a minister in this portfolio, in this very important file for the government and for the Premier. I reached out to the families, to everyone who’s involved, to listen to them, to get that feedback from families, from service providers, from experts and from those with lived experience. That’s why this government doubled the funding of the Ontario Autism Program moving forward.

At that time when we formed government, there were 8,500 families receiving supports and services. Today, thousands and thousands, tens of thousands, are receiving supports and services through multiple streams. The family foundational service, the urgent response, the entry to school and the caregiver-mediated programs are programs that families can have access to the second they reach and register with AccessOAP. None of these programs were available before. Even core clinical service—

Mr. Speaker, I 100% back the program. Do you know why? Because this program was developed by the autism community. It was members of the autism community, those with lived experience, family members, clinicians and experts who are the ones who put this program—and even the implementation team was made up of those from the autism community.

So, yes, I’m absolutely supportive of the program that we have in place. I will continue to meet with families. And I said this from day one, that we will come to work every day to make sure we improve their lives and go home to do better the next day every time we come to work.

Good morning, colleagues. I’d like to welcome Alina Cameron, Tony Stravato, Kate Dudley-Logue, Bruce McIntosh and the many families from the Ontario Autism Coalition who are here for their advocacy day. Welcome to Queen’s Park and I look forward to meeting with them.

I can tell you it’s world-class, Mr. Speaker, because this program was developed by the autism community for the autism community, and I thank them for the great work they do and the continuous support they’re providing.

The member across and the previous government may have been okay with families languishing on a wait-list where only 8,000 families were being served. It wasn’t good enough for us, Mr. Speaker. It wasn’t good enough, which is why we’ve worked with the communities, clinicians, to put in a program that is designed by the community for the community. Thousands of families are now accessing programs and supports that were provided, again, by the community—even the implementation team that supported us in putting this program together was done by the community.

So, once again, taking lessons from the NDP on a failed program by the previous government where they sat on their hands and did nothing is not something I’m going to do.

Interjection.

I’d like to welcome my good friend Ted Leider. Among other great work that he does, he also co-founded the Shining Through Centre for children with autism. Thank you very much for being here and for the great work you do, and welcome.

I’m very happy to welcome members of the Ontario Autism Coalition to Queen’s Park: Alina, Tony, Bruce, Laura and Michau.

Thank you very much for joining me this morning. It’s great to see all of you. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Very happy to introduce Sarah Klodnicki and Myra Zettel. They’re the parents of children with autism and here from the Balance Support and Self Care Studios, where they support parents and caregivers of disabled and neurodiverse children and youth. I also would like to welcome the Ontario Autism Coalition, many of whom I’ve met before and look forward to seeing again. Welcome to Queen’s Park, everyone.

I thank my honourable colleague for the question. I’d be more than happy to address it. Unfortunately, this member would have to also communicate to her constituents that when their party was in power, they failed the families and people of this province. Under the previous government, 8,500 children and youth were receiving services. Today, 40,000 are receiving services. Why is that? Because while they neglected families, under the leadership of this Premier—he doubled the funding of the Ontario Autism Program. This year, we increased that funding by an additional 10% to make sure more children and youth continue to receive these services. More children and youth are now receiving not just one service, as under the previous government; they have multiple pathways to services.

We will continue to make sure those families are supported so that no one is left behind under the—

I think my colleague would know that since being honoured and appointed to this role, I have met with families, I have met with groups and organizations every single opportunity I have gotten. Why? Because we said from the beginning that we’re not going to leave people behind, which is why we doubled the funding.

The Ontario Autism Program was developed by the community for the community. That’s the program that we’ve implemented. Some 8,500 children were receiving services under the previous government. Now more than 40,000 children are receiving services—and not just one service. Children, as soon as they’re transitioned and they have registered on AccessOAP, have multiple pathways to service immediately, like foundational family services, caregiver-mediated early years support, the entry to school program—

I thank the member for the question, Mr. Speaker. When we formed government in 2018, we saw an Ontario Autism Program that was broken. Families and children and youth were not receiving the service. That was under that government, and it was always supported by the NDP. Only 25% of the children were receiving services.

This may have been okay and acceptable by them and the previous government. It isn’t acceptable under our government, which is why we doubled the Ontario Autism Program, which is why we created a program that was developed by the community for the community. Now, children, youth and families have access to more services than ever before. Before, they had access to one service.

I’m happy to announce that this year we are increasing the support in the program by an additional 10% so that we can get more children, more youth, more families service—no thanks to the NDP.

Thanks to my honourable colleague for the very important question.

Mr. Speaker, youth may be a percentage of our population, but they’re 100% of our future.

That’s why, when it comes to the program that the member is referring to—if you just go back to 2018, when we formed government, out of the 31,500 children and youth who were registered, only 8,500 were actually receiving service. Fast-forward to today: Not only have we doubled the funding of the Ontario Autism Program, but 40,000 are now receiving funding.

The new programs that the families have access to have an expanded set of core services that include applied behavioural analysis, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy and, for the first time, mental health services—not just one service, like they had.

But there’s still more work to do. That’s why the Premier entrusted me with this position, and I will do everything I can to make sure—

Mr. Speaker, once again, as I promised the member and every single family in this province, we’re continuously looking at ways to make sure that every child, every youth, every family is supported and we don’t leave anyone behind.