GUELPH, ON — Green Party of Ontario Leader, Mike Schreiner, issued the following statement after layoffs to 50% of the staff at KidsAbility:
“The fallout continues as children with special needs pay the price for the government’s utter mishandling of the autism file.
My heart goes out to the families no longer receiving essential services and to the passionate service providers whose skills are being lost. KidsAbility does great work in our community, and it’s a bad news day when Ford’s cuts force them to lay off highly trained, professional staff.
What I heard in local consultations is that some families want direct funding, while others want funding through service providers. There must be a choice for parents.
But instead the Conservatives upended the autism plan overnight, cutting off funding to service providers without asking anyone who would be affected.
This leaves families scrambling, while signalling to trained professionals that their services aren’t valued by the Ford government.”