I’m very happy to be able to welcome members of the Ontario Autism Coalition—families, even some young people here today, but especially Kate Dudley-Logue and Tony Stravato, who are both vice-presidents of the Ontario Autism Coalition, and Bruce McIntosh, who is also vice-president and founding president.

I’m also happy to welcome so many members of chambers from across this province and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce for their advocacy day today and especially CEO and president, Rocco Rossi.

Finally, last but not least, I’m very happy to welcome all of those representatives from the OPSEU corrections division who are here today, including OPSEU president, JP Hornick.

I’d like to welcome the Ontario Autism Coalition today and specifically Alina Cameron, Bruce McIntosh, Jannet Da Rocha, Tony Stravato and all of the families who are here today. Welcome and thank you.

I would like to welcome Sara Kitlar-Pothier, who is from Nickel Belt. She is the vice-president of the northern region of the Ontario Autism Coalition. Welcome, Sara.

I would like to welcome Sara Kitlar-Pothier and Alina Cameron, both northern representatives from the Ontario Autism Coalition. Alina lives in Slate River Valley, which is just outside of Thunder Bay, and she’s watching this online this morning. Welcome, both of you.

It is always my pleasure to welcome the autism families who are here from across the province and who are watching at home. Thank you for the press conference this morning and for hosting breakfast. This is your House. Hopefully, they’re listening.

I’m just joining the chorus of massive thanks to all the autism advocates who are in the gallery. I’m not going to name you all, but you’re all beautiful. Thank you for the work you do for our children.

Good morning, Speaker. This question is for the Premier. Today, the public galleries are full of people who have come here to advocate for core services for autistic kids. They have come here to remind the government that right now, there are over 60,000 autistic children on the growing wait-list. They have come to hold the government to its promise to clear the backlog.

Speaker, my question is to the Premier. Will this government finally provide the funding needed to get these kids off the wait-list and into the services they need?

Interjections.

Back to the Premier: You promised to fix the autism program. Will you make good on your promise and clear the wait-list?

You want to know the real story? Here’s the real story: By last August, this government had registered fewer than 900 kids for support. At this rate, it’s going to take 66 years just to clear the existing backlog. None of us are going to be here in 66 years. The families here today have come to Queen’s Park from across the province to tell their stories, to be heard, to demand change after this government’s shocking failure to support autistic children. They deserve real accountability. But only one Conservative MPP has agreed to meet with them. Thank you, Speaker.

My question is to the Premier and to his government. Will you meet with these families?

Under this government’s watch, the mental health crisis facing Ontario has also only gotten worse. We’ve proposed a solution that would make a real difference in people’s lives: reduce the wait-list for children’s mental health care, invest in improved crisis response, expand therapy access and boost community mental health care. We’ve put forward an opposition motion for debate this afternoon for an 8% emergency stabilization investment in community mental health care.

My question is to the Premier: Will he support our motion?

Just the fact that we have doubled the funding, that we have five times more children receiving services than at any time under the previous Liberal government—and let’s be clear, when we came to office, we understood that the old program under the Liberal government had little prospect for delivering services to 75% of the children who were waiting. That’s why we have doubled the funding. That’s why we have created a comprehensive program that is created by the autism community for the autism community. It’s why we’ve expanded beyond the ABA services. It’s why we have added in—and we heard people: They wanted speech-language pathology; they wanted occupational therapy; they wanted mental health services. We have done that. We have launched foundational family services, the Entry to School Program, caregiver-mediated early years programs, and core clinical services as well. That’s why we built AccessOAP to support families through every step of the journey with care coordinators.

We’re already seeing results: Over 40,000 children are receiving supports today, almost five times more—

We listened. People wanted mental health services. They wanted speech therapy. They wanted occupational therapy. We listened, and we put that into the program. We created AccessOAP so that it would be an independent intake organization that would help families navigate with care coordinators. This is a needs-based program based on domains of need. It allows families to have their own unique needs addressed. This is a program that is world-leading, that has never been done before that we understand or researched. It is based on research and clinical evidence, and we’ll continue to implement this important program.