BRAMALEA, Ont. — Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty broke a promise he made during the last campaign to help autistic children and instead treated them with cruelty, Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory charged Friday.
At three campaign stops, Mr. Tory noted the Liberal government spent millions of dollars fighting parents in court to restrict funding for their children.
"They thought they had a champion; what they received was a champion promise-breaker," Mr. Tory said.
"I consider this kind of behaviour not just unaccountable, not just irresponsible, but quite frankly, it's cruel."
Ontario PC Leader John Tory chats with a young supporter at a campaign event in Brampton Friday. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn)
At the heart of the issue was the extension of funding for expensive autism therapy, known as Intensive Behavioural Intervention, for children who suffer from the poorly understood mental and social disorder.
The province and parents ended up at legal loggerheads because funding was cut off at age six.
Senior Liberals, indignant at the accusation of cruelty, quickly shot back that it was the previous Conservative government that initiated the legal action — on a policy issue — and Mr. McGuinty lifted the cap even though the government won the suit.
Campaigning in Markham, Mr. McGuinty acknowledged more could be done to help autistic children, but he wouldn't commit to clearing a waiting list for treatment.
"I think we have made some real progress and, of course, there's still more work to be done," he said.
Advocates say the backlog has grown to close to 1,000 children under the Liberal government.
However, the Liberals say they've nearly tripled spending on autism and more than doubled the number of children getting access to the treatment.
They also say the only reason the wait list has grown is because more children are being assessed and diagnosed with the disorder.
They say the previous Conservative government simply left the children off assessment lists.
Heather LeGrow, the mother of a 10-year-old autistic boy, told Mr. Tory she voted for the Liberals in the last election on the strength of Mr. McGuinty's promise to help autistic children.
Instead, her son found his funding cut off, she said.
"I'm already disgusted at the McGuinty government," Ms. LeGrow said, clutching a letter from the premier she said took a year to arrive and promised help that never came.
"I just don't want to have my heart broken by the Tories."
At a campaign rally in London, Mr. Tory brushed off polls showing his party still badly trailing with just days to go in the election campaign.
"Any time a poll is being taken, there's not an election being held on that day," Mr. Tory said.
During his stump speech to about 200 supporters, many of whom sat stoney-faced, Mr. Tory accused Mr. McGuinty of being out of touch, complacent and arrogant.
He again accused Mr. McGuinty of going from "incompetence to cruelty" on the autism issue.
If elected, Mr. Tory promised to spend another $75 million to get autistic kids the help they need.
He also pledged a further $5 million so parents can get some relief from caring for their autistic children.
"Right now, the parents of more than 1,000 children under the age of six with autism are feeling like they have been abandoned on an island as their kids languish on a growing waiting list," Mr. Tory said.
The NDP is promising public funding for the therapy in classrooms for all autistic children, something the Liberals say is not sustainable.
"I think it's clear how many times Dalton McGuinty has broken his promise to children with autism," said NDP Leader Howard Hampton.
"He continues to let them down. The waiting list has skyrocketed."
Mr. Hampton credited Mr. Tory with recognizing the wait list is a serious problem, but said the Conservative leader hasn't committed enough money to eliminate it entirely.
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