I rise today on behalf of London West families of children with autism.

After four and a half years on the wait-list, Sarah Farrants felt hopeful when her seven-year-old son Mason was invited to register for the OAP in October, but she has heard absolutely nothing since. While she waits, the one-time funding that paid for Mason’s speech therapy has run out, and so has Sarah’s hope for Mason’s future.

After a 10-month wait for an assessment for his three-year-old son Luke, Sean Menard was told he could wait years for OAP funding. Sean wants a plan from this government to clear the backlog and get Luke the critical early intervention he needs. Sean desperately wants Luke to speak one day. Sean said, “Without help from the government, he may never speak a single word to his mother or me.”

Even for families who have been approved, the autism program is broken. Virginia Ridley’s two teenage sons receive OAP funding, but Virginia struggles to find services geared to youth and faces constant delays getting reimbursed. At the end of February, she was out of pocket $9,000.

With no mention of autism in the 2023 budget, these families feel abandoned by the Ford government.

Where is the plan, where is the urgency to fix the OAP and get Mason and Luke and Virginia’s sons the services they need and deserve?

I want to give a shout-out to the compassionate, skilled and exhausted mental health workers from CMHA Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services, who have been working tirelessly on the front lines of the pandemic in the face of an unprecedented mental health crisis that shows no signs of improving.

Here’s the reality in my community, Speaker: since 2020, a 137% increase in children’s mental health crisis calls and a 72% increase in mental health support calls; since 2021, a 171% increase in crisis response team interactions. Many of the 75,000 people who have used the crisis lines or participated in programs are first-time users of mental health services. Many are also former or current clients whose crises are worsening. Almost all are presenting with more complexity than ever before—serious mental illness, addiction, poverty, trauma, and homelessness.

You can imagine the moral distress and vicarious trauma experienced by staff as they watch their clients suffer and even die, despite their best efforts, as they’re forced year after year to do more with less and provide care in a chronically underfunded system. Who can blame them if they decide to move to a hospital or school, where salaries are as much as 33% higher, or leave the sector altogether?

The Thames Valley CMHA is looking at a $3-million shortfall if all vacant positions were filled. Without an increase to their base budget, as we call for in this motion, they face some tough choices: Do they leave 35 positions vacant and put even more pressure on current staff? Do they ignore staff burnout and put their own staff’s mental health at risk? Do they deny or delay service for those in desperate need of mental health support, forcing them to go to the ER to access services?

Speaker, our community needs the vital programs delivered by CMHA.

I call on this government to support our motion today and invest in the 8% base funding increase. Lives are at stake.