**NDP NEWS RELEASE**

During question period on Wednesday, local NDP MPPs supported families in Timmins and Mushkegowuk-James Bay who are telling Doug Ford that his government’s autism cuts will hurt their children.

About 200 people representing families from throughout the province joined the Official Opposition Wednesday at Queen’s Park to take their stories straight to the Ford government — all families with a child with autism, all devastated by Ford’s cut to autism funding. 

Timmins MPP Gilles Bisson and MPP Guy Bourgouin for Mushkegowuk-James Bay shared stories from Northern families in the legislature, directing their questions to the Conservative minister responsible for the cuts, Lisa MacLeod.

“Parents in Northern Ontario and across the province are extremely upset with the changes your government has made to autism services,” said Bisson. 

“Tyler Stone is a father of three in Timmins. Two of his young children live with severe autism.  Although the Stone family was one of the 23,000 families on the waitlist for IBI therapy, and were left waiting too long under the Liberals, they were at least hopeful that the care their children needed would be coming.

“Tyler left his career to care for his children. Now Tyler and his wife are a one-income family that need to pay for therapy for two children. 

“How does this government expect them be able to come up with $60,000 to $80,000 per year, per child, to pay for intensive IBI therapy?”

MPP Bourgouin said that since the Ford government’s announcement on changes to autism services, his office has been flooded with messages from concerned parents who don’t want this government to cut the services that their children with autism desperately need. He shared one of those stories with the legislature.

“Cedric is a young boy from Kapuskasing.  He requires 20 hours of therapy every week,” Bourgouin said.  “But under this government’s plan, Cedric will be offered a mere two hours a week. That is one tenth of what he’s been prescribed by his specialist. 

“His family will be forced to pay out-of-pocket for costs not covered by this government, as well as the costs of traveling two hours every day to and from Timmins to receive treatment.

“Families and children deserve so much better than to be pushed onto long waitlists or into bankruptcy. We have a moral responsibility toward children and youth in need.

“Do you think that Cedric should be without the education, the support and the care he deserves, yes or no?” Bourgouin asked MacLeod. 

New Democrats have joined families across Ontario in calling for Conservative minister Lisa MacLeod to be removed from cabinet after making a desperate situation for families of children living with autism so much worse . So far, Ford and MacLeod have refused to reverse announced cuts to autism services. They continue to defend their heartless and short-sighted move. 

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