{ "schemaVersion": "1.0.0", "slug": "the-quiet-extraction", "publication": { "title": "Power Doesn’t Attract People With Diminished Empathy. It Produces It.", "canonicalUrl": "https://www.endthewaitontario.com/investigations/the-quiet-extraction", "author": "Spencer Carroll", "publishedDate": "2026-08-21", "modifiedDate": "2026-08-21", "verifiedOn": "2026-08-21" }, "legalNote": "This article makes no allegation of dishonesty, bad faith or unlawful conduct against any person, company or public body. Where a company is named, the naming is drawn from published reporting and the figure attached to it is stated at the scope the source states it. The word “extraction” describes where money goes inside a budget. It is not a claim that anyone took money they were not entitled to. The research on power and perspective-taking is cited as evidence about structures. Nothing here asserts that any identified individual holds any psychological trait, and no validated prevalence rate for such traits among executives or elected officials exists in the literature. Every Ontario Autism Program figure on this page resolves from the site’s single source of truth and carries its freedom-of-information provenance. Corrections are logged and published under this publication’s corrections policy.", "methodologyNote": "Ontario Autism Program figures resolve from this site’s single source of truth and carry their freedom-of-information provenance. Peer-reviewed sources are cited with DOIs and resolve independently. Every consequential statement in the article is labelled as a documented fact, a structural inference or an open question.", "sources": [ { "id": "qx-mccss-foi", "title": "Ontario Autism Program figures as of May 13, 2026 (MCCSS, released under FOI to the Ontario Autism Coalition)", "href": "https://www.endthewaitontario.com/data-hub", "publisher": "MCCSS via Ontario Autism Coalition", "published": "July 2026", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "government-data" }, { "id": "qx-opseu-2026", "title": "Over $1 billion goes to private companies administering Ontario government programs", "href": "https://www.cp24.com/politics/queens-park/2026/06/02/over-1-billion-goes-to-private-companies-administering-ontario-government-programs-opseu-report/", "publisher": "CP24, reporting on the OPSEU/SEFPO report", "published": "June 2, 2026", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": false, "evidenceKind": "secondary-source" }, { "id": "qx-cp24-makework", "title": "Parents slam ‘make-work project’ for private administrator of Ontario’s autism program", "href": "https://www.cp24.com/politics/queens-park/2026/07/10/parents-slam-make-work-project-for-private-administrator-of-ontarios-autism-program/", "publisher": "CP24", "published": "July 10, 2026", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": false, "evidenceKind": "secondary-source" }, { "id": "qx-trillium-cruel", "title": "‘It’s cruel’: Less than a quarter of waitlisted children and youth receiving autism funding", "href": "https://www.thetrillium.ca/news/social-services-and-society/its-cruel-less-than-a-quarter-of-waitlisted-children-and-youth-receiving-autism-funding-12520470", "publisher": "The Trillium (Village Media)", "published": "July 2026", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": false, "evidenceKind": "secondary-source" }, { "id": "qx-trillium-2024", "title": "Less than half of autism program spending goes to core services, documents show", "href": "https://www.thetrillium.ca/", "publisher": "The Trillium (Village Media), from MCCSS records obtained under FOI", "published": "July 4, 2024", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "primary-document" }, { "id": "qx-fao-2020", "title": "Autism Services: A Financial Review", "href": "https://www.fao-on.org/en/Blog/Publications/autism-2020", "publisher": "Financial Accountability Office of Ontario", "published": "2020", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "government-data" }, { "id": "qx-fao-mccss", "title": "MCCSS Spending Plan Review", "href": "https://www.fao-on.org/en/report/fa2305-mccss/", "publisher": "Financial Accountability Office of Ontario", "published": "June 2024", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "government-data" }, { "id": "qx-cochrane-2018", "title": "Early intensive behavioural intervention (EIBI) for young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD)", "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29742275/", "publisher": "Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews", "published": "2018", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "peer-reviewed" }, { "id": "qx-project-aim", "title": "Autism intervention meta-analysis of early childhood studies (Project AIM)", "href": "https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj-2023-076733", "publisher": "The BMJ", "published": "2023", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "peer-reviewed" }, { "id": "qx-dod-2019", "title": "Autism Care Demonstration — Report to Congress", "href": "https://www.health.mil/Military-Health-Topics/Access-Cost-Quality-and-Safety/Access-to-Healthcare/Autism-Care-Demonstration", "publisher": "United States Department of Defense", "published": "October 25, 2019", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "primary-document" }, { "id": "qx-coi-2021", "title": "Pervasive Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest in Applied Behavior Analysis Autism Literature", "href": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00676/full", "publisher": "Frontiers in Psychology", "published": "2021", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "peer-reviewed" }, { "id": "qx-who-cst", "title": "Caregiver Skills Training for families of children with developmental delays or disabilities", "href": "https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use/treatment-care/who-caregivers-skills-training-for-families-of-children-with-developmental-delays-and-disorders", "publisher": "World Health Organization", "published": "Current", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "primary-document" }, { "id": "qx-who-fact", "title": "Autism — fact sheet", "href": "https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/autism-spectrum-disorders", "publisher": "World Health Organization", "published": "2023", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "primary-document" }, { "id": "qx-cepr", "title": "Pocketing Money Meant for Kids: Private Equity in Autism Services", "href": "https://cepr.net/publications/pocketing-money-meant-for-kids-private-equity-in-autism-services/", "publisher": "Batt, Appelbaum & Nguyen — Center for Economic and Policy Research", "published": "2023", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": false, "evidenceKind": "analysis" }, { "id": "qx-jama-peds", "title": "Private Equity in Autism Services", "href": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12771383/", "publisher": "JAMA Pediatrics", "published": "2026", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "peer-reviewed" }, { "id": "qx-jama-pe", "title": "Changes in Hospital Adverse Events and Patient Outcomes Associated With Private Equity Acquisition", "href": "https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2023.23147", "publisher": "JAMA", "published": "2023", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "peer-reviewed" }, { "id": "qx-lexchin-2003", "title": "Pharmaceutical industry sponsorship and research outcome and quality: systematic review", "href": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7400.1167", "publisher": "BMJ", "published": "2003", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "peer-reviewed" }, { "id": "qx-keltner-2003", "title": "Power, approach, and inhibition", "href": "https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.110.2.265", "publisher": "Psychological Review", "published": "2003", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "peer-reviewed" }, { "id": "qx-galinsky-2006", "title": "Power and Perspectives Not Taken", "href": "https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01824.x", "publisher": "Psychological Science", "published": "2006", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "peer-reviewed" }, { "id": "qx-piff-2012", "title": "Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior", "href": "https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118373109", "publisher": "PNAS", "published": "2012", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "peer-reviewed" }, { "id": "qx-chatterjee-2007", "title": "It’s All about Me: Narcissistic Chief Executive Officers and Their Effects on Company Strategy and Performance", "href": "https://doi.org/10.2189/asqu.52.3.351", "publisher": "Administrative Science Quarterly", "published": "2007", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": true, "evidenceKind": "peer-reviewed" }, { "id": "qx-star-placements", "title": "A boy on a futon in an office, teens in budget hotels: How Ontario is failing kids who are ‘too complex’ for care", "href": "https://spon.ca/a-boy-on-a-futon-in-an-office-teens-in-budget-hotels-how-ontario-is-failing-kids-who-are-too-complex-for-care/2024/10/03/", "publisher": "Toronto Star, republished by Social Policy in Ontario", "published": "October 2024", "accessed": "2026-08-25", "primary": false, "evidenceKind": "secondary-source" }, { "id": "qx-oac-survey", "title": "2025 Community Survey Report", "href": "https://www.ontarioautismcoalition.com/", "publisher": "Ontario Autism Coalition", "published": "2025", "accessed": "2026-08-21", "primary": false, "evidenceKind": "secondary-source" } ], "claims": [ { "id": "qx-c01", "kind": "documented-fact", "title": "The scale of the queue", "summary": "91,974 children are registered in the Ontario Autism Program. 20,711 hold an active Core Funding Agreement. 71,263 — 77.5% — do not.", "sourceIds": [ "qx-mccss-foi" ] }, { "id": "qx-c02", "kind": "documented-fact", "title": "Less than half of program spending reached core services", "summary": "MCCSS records obtained under freedom of information show that of the $691.2M spent on the autism program in 2023-24, less than half reached core clinical services. Intake and administration through AccessOAP accounted for $57.9M.", "sourceIds": [ "qx-trillium-2024", "qx-fao-mccss" ] }, { "id": "qx-c03", "kind": "documented-fact", "title": "Payments to Accerta tripled — across all the programs it administers", "summary": "OPSEU reported in June 2026 that Ontario’s payments to Accerta Services Inc. rose from $202.5 million in 2019 to more than $670 million in 2024. Accerta administers Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program as well as the Ontario Autism Program; the figure covers all of them and is not the cost of administering the autism program alone.", "sourceIds": [ "qx-opseu-2026" ] }, { "id": "qx-c04", "kind": "documented-fact", "title": "The administrator missed its enrolment target", "summary": "The administrator of the autism program fell short of its target enrolment by roughly 5,000 children and youth in 2024. Parents publicly described the annual re-interviewing of children already receiving services as a “make-work project”.", "sourceIds": [ "qx-cp24-makework" ] }, { "id": "qx-c05", "kind": "documented-fact", "title": "The funding envelope was set below the FAO’s own clearance estimate", "summary": "The Financial Accountability Office estimated in 2020 that clearing the waitlist would require about $1.35B in the first year. The province has never funded at that level; the 2026-27 allocation is $965M.", "sourceIds": [ "qx-fao-2020", "qx-mccss-foi" ] }, { "id": "qx-c08", "kind": "documented-fact", "title": "The WHO runs a free autism programme that needs no funding agreement", "summary": "The World Health Organization’s Caregiver Skills Training programme is free, group-delivered and deliverable by non-specialists, which means it can begin during a wait for core clinical funding rather than after it. Its 2023 fact sheet states that evidence-based psychosocial interventions can improve communication and social skills, and frames autism support as requiring community and societal action alongside them.", "sourceIds": [ "qx-who-cst", "qx-who-fact" ] }, { "id": "qx-c09", "kind": "documented-fact", "title": "Emergency placements cost multiples of the therapy the same children were denied", "summary": "Reporting on Ontario children deemed “too complex” for placement documented emergency arrangements — hotels, rentals, agency offices — costing upward of $200,000 per child per year and in some cases approaching $1 million, often with no treatment attached. The number of children in unlicensed placements rose from 124 in 2021-22 to 339 in 2023-24.", "sourceIds": [ "qx-star-placements" ] }, { "id": "qx-c10", "kind": "documented-fact", "title": "Incentive architecture changes outcomes, measurably", "summary": "Industry-sponsored medical research is substantially more likely to reach conclusions favourable to its sponsor. Private-equity acquisition of hospitals was associated with a 25.4% increase in hospital-acquired adverse events. Neither study measured a personality.", "sourceIds": [ "qx-lexchin-2003", "qx-jama-pe" ] }, { "id": "qx-c11", "kind": "documented-fact", "title": "Power reduces perspective-taking under random assignment", "summary": "Assigning people at random to a high-power condition produces measurable reductions in their capacity to model another person’s viewpoint. Across seven studies, higher social class predicted more unethical behaviour, mediated by favourable attitudes toward greed. These are causal designs, not correlations.", "sourceIds": [ "qx-keltner-2003", "qx-galinsky-2006", "qx-piff-2012" ] }, { "id": "qx-c12", "kind": "structural-inference", "title": "The administrator’s workload does not fall when the queue does not move", "summary": "Intake, reassessment and verification volumes are driven by the size of the registered population, not by the number of children who receive therapy. Nothing in the published record ties the administrator’s compensation to how fast the queue shrinks. This is a reading of the structure, not an allegation about anyone’s conduct.", "sourceIds": [ "qx-trillium-2024", "qx-cp24-makework" ] }, { "id": "qx-c13", "kind": "structural-inference", "title": "Crisis spending is mandatory; prevention spending is discretionary", "summary": "Once a child enters child-welfare care in crisis, the province must pay, at whatever the placement costs. Core clinical funding is rationed by an envelope. At the documented high end, one emergency residential placement for a year costs about what 75 children would receive at the OAP minimum band. That asymmetry is a budgeting fact; the conclusion drawn from it is ours.", "sourceIds": [ "qx-star-placements", "qx-fao-2020" ] }, { "id": "qx-c14", "kind": "open-question", "title": "What the province has stopped publishing", "summary": "Current waitlist and outcome figures reach the public through freedom-of-information requests rather than routine publication. Whether that is a decision, a lapse, or a resourcing constraint is not on the record. It is an open question, and it is the reason this article’s Ontario figures carry an FOI provenance line.", "sourceIds": [ "qx-mccss-foi", "qx-oac-survey" ] } ], "citations": [ { "n": 1, "body": "End The Wait Ontario, MCCSS data as of May 13, 2026. 91,974 registered; 71,263 waiting; 20,711 with an active Core Funding Agreement. Released under freedom of information to the Ontario Autism Coalition.", "href": "/data-hub" }, { "n": 2, "body": "OPSEU/SEFPO report (June 2026), as reported by CP24; MCCSS spending data. Payments to Accerta Services Inc. rose from $202.5M (2018-19) to more than $670M (2024-25). EDITORIAL NOTE: Accerta administers Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program in addition to the Ontario Autism Program. This figure covers every Ontario program the company administers and is not the cost of administering the autism program, which is the separately documented figure at note 26.", "href": "https://www.cp24.com/politics/queens-park/2026/06/02/over-1-billion-goes-to-private-companies-administering-ontario-government-programs-opseu-report/" }, { "n": 3, "body": "OPSEU/SEFPO, “Over $1 billion goes to private companies administering Ontario government programs,” June 2026.", "href": "https://opseu.org/opseu-sefpo-in-the-news-over-1-billion-goes-to-private-companies-administering-ontario-government-programs/" }, { "n": 4, "body": "CP24, “Parents slam ‘make-work project’ for private administrator of Ontario’s autism program,” July 10, 2026.", "href": "https://www.cp24.com/politics/queens-park/2026/07/10/parents-slam-make-work-project-for-private-administrator-of-ontarios-autism-program/" }, { "n": 5, "body": "Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, “Autism Services: A Financial Review,” 2020. Full waitlist clearance estimated at $1.35B in a first year.", "href": "https://www.fao-on.org/en/Blog/Publications/autism-2020" }, { "n": 6, "body": "Reichow, B. et al., “Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) for young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD),” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2018.", "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29742275/" }, { "n": 7, "body": "Davis et al. (2022), as cited in Reframing Autism, “Position Statement on Therapies and Interventions,” updated July 2022. Original source: The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Social Development, 3rd ed. This chapter has not been independently verified against the original volume; it is reported here at the strength of the secondary citation only." }, { "n": 8, "body": "United States Department of Defense, Autism Care Demonstration Report to Congress, October 25, 2019.", "href": "https://www.health.mil/Military-Health-Topics/Access-Cost-Quality-and-Safety/Access-to-Healthcare/Autism-Care-Demonstration" }, { "n": 9, "body": "WHO Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2030; WHO Intersectoral Global Action Plan on Epilepsy and Other Neurological Disorders.", "href": "https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240031029" }, { "n": 10, "body": "WHO Caregiver Skills Training (CST) Programme. Nine group sessions, three home visits, built on naturalistic developmental behavioural interventions. Deployed in 30+ countries.", "href": "https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use/treatment-care/who-caregivers-skills-training-for-families-of-children-with-developmental-delays-and-disorders" }, { "n": 11, "body": "WHO Fact Sheet: Autism Spectrum Disorders, updated September 17, 2025.", "href": "https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/autism-spectrum-disorders" }, { "n": 12, "body": "L.E.K. Consulting, “Investing in Autism Therapy: Key Trends Shaping the U.S. ABA Therapy Sector,” 2025. Market estimated at $25-35B." }, { "n": 13, "body": "Batt, Appelbaum & Nguyen, “Pocketing Money Meant for Kids: Private Equity in Autism Services,” Center for Economic and Policy Research. Private equity completed about 85% of all mergers and acquisitions in autism services, 2017-2022.", "href": "https://cepr.net/publications/pocketing-money-meant-for-kids-private-equity-in-autism-services/" }, { "n": 14, "body": "Arnold et al., “Private Equity in Autism Services,” JAMA Pediatrics (2026). 574 autism therapy centres acquired by private-equity firms across 42 states.", "href": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12771383/" }, { "n": 15, "body": "Wall Street Journal, “The Autism-Therapy Business Is Booming — and So Is the Billing Abuse” (June 2026), with earlier Medicaid-billing reporting in the same series. Aetna reported that investigations finding likely fraud or abusive billing in its private-plan business rose 300% between 2024 and 2025." }, { "n": 16, "body": "Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD): acquired by Blackstone (2018), 265 locations; 100 centres closed by 2023; bankruptcy filing.", "href": "https://www.blackstone.com/news/press/blackstone-to-acquire-center-for-autism-and-related-disorders-card/" }, { "n": 17, "body": "Public Health Agency of Canada, national autism surveillance. Prevalence has risen substantially over the past two decades on the agency’s own reporting.", "href": "https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/autism-spectrum-disorder-asd.html" }, { "n": 18, "body": "Ontario waitlist trajectory: approximately 23,000 registered at the April 2019 OAP redesign (approximate; the exact figure was not published) → 88,175 registered / 20,666 funded (CBC FOI, January 2026) → 91,974 registered / 20,711 funded (MCCSS, May 13, 2026).", "href": "https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/autism-services-funding-ontario-9.7143531" }, { "n": 19, "body": "Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, MCCSS Spending Plan Review, June 2024. $600M serves roughly 10,142 children; $723M serves roughly 12,629.", "href": "https://www.fao-on.org/en/report/fa2305-mccss/" }, { "n": 20, "body": "Ontario Autism Coalition, 2025 Community Survey Report.", "href": "https://www.ontarioautismcoalition.com/" }, { "n": 21, "body": "Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, MCCSS Spending Plan Review, 2024. Total MCCSS spending estimated at $19.4B in 2023-24.", "href": "https://www.fao-on.org/en/report/fa2305-mccss/" }, { "n": 22, "body": "Social Policy in Ontario, republishing Toronto Star reporting: “A boy on a futon in an office, teens in budget hotels: How Ontario is failing kids who are ‘too complex’ for care,” October 2024. 339 children in unlicensed placements (2023-24), up from 124 (2021-22). Emergency placement costs $200K-$1M per child per year.", "href": "https://spon.ca/a-boy-on-a-futon-in-an-office-teens-in-budget-hotels-how-ontario-is-failing-kids-who-are-too-complex-for-care/2024/10/03/" }, { "n": 23, "body": "Northern Ontario local reporting (2025). An autistic child was placed in a treatment facility hours from home because no local residential service existed; the family described being told that relinquishing custody to a children’s aid society was effectively the only path to funded residential care." }, { "n": 24, "body": "Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, MCCSS 2025 Spending Plan Review. The province’s budget plan is $1.5B below what is needed in 2025-26, growing to a $3.1B gap by 2027-28. MCCSS plans a −0.5% average annual spending change; the FAO says +4.2% is needed.", "href": "https://www.fao-on.org/en/report/fa2305-mccss/" }, { "n": 25, "body": "Patrick Monaghan analysis of MCCSS spending, 2024. Approximately 32% of OAP funding goes to expenditure other than core services. This is an independent analyst’s calculation, not a government or FAO figure." }, { "n": 26, "body": "The Trillium, “Less than half of autism program spending goes to ‘most important piece’ — core services: docs,” from MCCSS records obtained under freedom of information, July 4, 2024. Of $691.2M in 2023-24 OAP spending, less than half reached core clinical services. AccessOAP intake and administration: $57.9M.", "href": "https://www.thetrillium.ca/news/social-services-and-society/less-than-half-of-autism-program-spending-goes-to-most-important-piece-core-services-docs-9170907" }, { "n": 27, "body": "Chatterjee, A. & Hambrick, D. C. (2007). “It’s All about Me: Narcissistic Chief Executive Officers and Their Effects on Company Strategy and Performance.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 52(3), 351-386.", "href": "https://doi.org/10.2189/asqu.52.3.351" }, { "n": 28, "body": "Ham, C., Lang, M., Seybert, N. & Wang, S. (2017). “Narcissism is a bad sign: CEO signature size, investment, and performance.” Review of Accounting Studies, 22.", "href": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s11142-017-9427-x" }, { "n": 29, "body": "Rijsenbilt, A. & Commandeur, H. (2013). “Narcissus Enters the Courtroom: CEO Narcissism and Fraud.” Journal of Business Ethics, 117.", "href": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1528-7" }, { "n": 30, "body": "Judd, J. S., Olsen, K. J. & Stekelberg, J. (2017). “How Do Auditors Respond to CEO Narcissism? Evidence from External Audit Fees.” Accounting Horizons, 31(4).", "href": "https://doi.org/10.2308/acch-51810" }, { "n": 31, "body": "O’Reilly, C. A., Doerr, B., Caldwell, D. F. & Chatman, J. A. (2014). “Narcissistic CEOs and executive compensation.” The Leadership Quarterly, 25(2).", "href": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.08.002" }, { "n": 32, "body": "Keltner, D., Gruenfeld, D. H. & Anderson, C. (2003). “Power, approach, and inhibition.” Psychological Review, 110(2), 265-284.", "href": "https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.110.2.265" }, { "n": 33, "body": "Galinsky, A. D., Magee, J. C., Inesi, M. E. & Gruenfeld, D. H. (2006). “Power and Perspectives Not Taken.” Psychological Science, 17(12).", "href": "https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01824.x" }, { "n": 34, "body": "Piff, P. K. et al. (2012). “Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior.” PNAS, 109(11).", "href": "https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118373109" }, { "n": 35, "body": "Lexchin, J., Bero, L. A., Djulbegovic, B. & Clark, O. (2003). “Pharmaceutical industry sponsorship and research outcome and quality: systematic review.” BMJ, 326(7400), 1167.", "href": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7400.1167" }, { "n": 36, "body": "Kannan, S., Bruch, J. D. & Song, Z. (2023). “Changes in Hospital Adverse Events and Patient Outcomes Associated With Private Equity Acquisition.” JAMA, 330(24).", "href": "https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2023.23147" }, { "n": 37, "body": "The Trillium (July 2026), “‘It’s cruel’: Less than a quarter of waitlisted children and youth receiving autism funding.” Fewer than one in four waitlisted children and youth were receiving core clinical services.", "href": "https://www.thetrillium.ca/news/social-services-and-society/its-cruel-less-than-a-quarter-of-waitlisted-children-and-youth-receiving-autism-funding-12520470" }, { "n": 38, "body": "Ontario Autism Coalition. The government stopped publishing waitlist data “for nearly two years”; current figures reach the public through freedom-of-information requests. (Ontario Autism Coalition home page, section “The OAP Isn’t Improving” — the claim appears on the home page itself.)", "href": "https://www.ontarioautismcoalition.com/" }, { "n": 39, "body": "Retraction Watch (October 2023). The article “Private equity investment: Friend or foe to applied behavior analysis?” was retracted from the International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education after its sole author acknowledged concerns about scientific integrity.", "href": "https://retractionwatch.com/2023/10/19/article-defending-private-equity-involvement-in-autism-services-retracted/" }, { "n": 40, "body": "Bottema-Beutel, K. et al. (2021). “Pervasive Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest in Applied Behavior Analysis Autism Literature.” Frontiers in Psychology. 84% conflict-of-interest rate; 2% disclosure.", "href": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00676/full" }, { "n": 41, "body": "Bottema-Beutel, K. et al. (2026). “A 5-Year Update of Conflicts of Interest in Autism Intervention Research in Applied Behavior Analysis Journals.” Autism. 93% of studies with at least one conflicted author; 93% of “no conflict” statements false." }, { "n": 42, "body": "Bottema-Beutel, K. et al. (2021). “Conflicts of Interest (COIs) in autism early intervention research — a meta-analysis.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry." }, { "n": 43, "body": "Dawson, G. et al. (2010). “Randomized, controlled trial of an intervention for toddlers with autism: the Early Start Denver Model.” Pediatrics. PMID 19948568.", "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19948568/" }, { "n": 44, "body": "Sandbank, M. et al. (2023). “Autism intervention meta-analysis of early childhood studies (Project AIM).” BMJ, 383, e076733.", "href": "https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj-2023-076733" }, { "n": 45, "body": "WHO CST: developed under the mhGAP Intervention Guide. Content based on NDBI principles, JASPER, PRT and positive parenting. Tested in Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Italy, Serbia and rural U.S. communities.", "href": "https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use/treatment-care/who-caregivers-skills-training-for-families-of-children-with-developmental-delays-and-disorders" }, { "n": 46, "body": "CBC News, “Ontario underspending on social services by $3.7B, financial watchdog says,” 2024. The FAO found MCCSS consistently budgets below need." } ] }