Gélinas glad 41 northern families part of autism program, but wonders why the late invitations

Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas has responded to statements by Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli, who said comments she made at Queen’s Park June 1 regarding the Ontario Autism Program Pilot were “flat-out wrong.”

The NDP health critic said the Northern Ontario Autism Alliance had informed her that no one had “been able to identify a single northern Ontario family who have received an invitation to participate in the pilot program.”

She said if the pilot program were run equitably, there should be more than 30 families north of the French River in the study.

But the Progressive Conservative Fedeli told Sudbury.com sister publication BayToday.ca that the pilot program will have 41 Northern Ontario families participating.

"I'm shocked to see France Gélinas misleading people about the Ontario Autism Program,” Fedeli said.

“She claims proportionately there should be more than 30. I can tell her that if she'd asked she would have learned that there are actually 41 of the 600 are from the north."

We reached out to Gélinas about Fedeli’s comments, and she said she thinks the key words in his statement are “will have 41 families.”

“The pilot project was launched in February, many families had received invitations, but none in Northern Ontario were receiving invites,” she said, in a written statement.

“After I made my statement, one family from Northern Ontario received an email inviting them to participate in the pilot. Why wait until June to invite Northern families?”

Families of children on the autism spectrum have been waiting for a long time, the MPP added. They have organized multiple demonstrations asking for needs-based therapy for their children.

“Northern families know that services for their children will be different given our realities and they want to be represented in the pilot,” Gélinas said.

“So I am glad we will get 41 families, but given the level of anxiety in that sector, the government should at a minimum tell us where Northern Ontario begins for this pilot (north of Barrie or north of the French River) and how many First Nations and Francophone families from Northern Ontario were invited.”