Ontario’s progress in providing government-funded therapy for children with autism has slowed to the point that, in some weeks, enrolment numbers are actually declining, despite a growing waitlist, according to documents obtained by The Canadian Press.
The latest updates on the Ontario Autism Program (OAP) reveal a significant gap between the number of children seeking services—73,031 as of June—and those receiving funding for key therapies like applied behaviour analysis and speech-language pathology, with only 14,113 children enrolled at that time.
While enrolments have been slowing over the past year, data from a freedom-of-information request shows that in some two-week periods, more children are exiting the program than entering. For example, between May 29 and June 12, the number of children with active funding for core services dropped by 70, while 491 new children were added to the waitlist.
“There’s going to be a reckoning,” said Alina Cameron, president of the Ontario Autism Coalition. “The community will clue in, and they’re going to be very upset. What this means is that the estimated wait time of five to seven years just got longer.”
Cameron’s estimate reflects the frustration of families left in the dark about how long they will have to wait for services. Many families are left paying out-of-pocket for therapy without any clear idea of when they might receive government assistance.
A ministry spokesperson explained that decreases in enrolment could be due to children aging out of the program or exiting for other reasons. However, this decline, combined with an increasing number of families waiting for services, is creating a bottleneck.
Jaime Santana, president of the Ontario Association for Behaviour Analysis (ONTABA), expressed concerns about how this slow pace of enrolment affects both families and service providers. “The slower the Ontario Autism Program moves, the harder it is for clinicians to build capacity,” Santana said. “Families may have funding in hand but nowhere to spend it due to limited availability of services.”
The documents suggest that the program’s current structure might be part of the problem. Ministry officials have warned that the program can only serve about 20,000 children in core services, and Cameron believes this funding limitation is driving the bottleneck. The program’s budget for this year is $720 million, more than double the funding under the previous Liberal government, but still insufficient to meet the growing demand.
One potential cause of the bottleneck is the “determination of needs” process, which requires families to undergo annual assessments via lengthy phone calls to determine funding levels. The number of reassessments has surged, with 38% of assessments in June being repeat evaluations, meaning fewer new children are entering the program.
Both the Ontario Autism Coalition and ONTABA are urging the government to streamline the process by using assessments from children’s existing therapists instead of requiring new assessments each year.
While Minister Michael Parsa has not indicated whether changes are forthcoming, a ministry spokesperson pointed to efforts to improve the enrolment process, including implementing digital tools like DocuSign and automating expense reviews.
Still, many families and advocacy groups are left waiting for more substantial reforms to the Ontario Autism Program, as the demand for services continues to outpace the available support.