CBC Ottawa Morning: Ottawa boy one of 67,500 Ontario kids waiting for core supports

Interview Details

Host: Rebecca Zandbergen, CBC Ottawa Morning. Duration: 9 minutes 50 seconds. Format: Live in-studio interview.

CBC Ottawa Morning is the capital region's flagship morning radio program on CBC Radio One. Being interviewed on this program means the autism waitlist story reached Ottawa's political, policy, and public service audience during their morning commute, the people who work in the ministries, legislative offices, and agencies that control the Ontario Autism Program.

This is the fourth major media appearance for End The Wait Ontario in one week:

Key Moments from the Interview

Spencer described his son's diagnosis at 14 months with level three autism, nonverbal, requiring extensive assistance. The family registered with AccessOAP in September 2021 and has been waiting ever since, receiving zero core clinical funding.

We pay out of pocket for services that we can afford. To date, we've probably approaching about $100,000 in terms of out-of-pocket for professional services.

On why the $186M funding increase isn't enough:

You can throw dollars at a problem. But unless there's an actual defined plan as to how you're going to eliminate that backlog, there's no meaningful way. You're not solving your problem. You're just throwing money at it.

Asked about the government's claim that core clinical services have tripled, Carroll pointed out that the waitlist is also growing, calling the announcements a “participation trophy” when the underlying problem is not being solved. He described a tired community of parents sacrificing everything they can for their children while hearing funding announcements that change nothing on the ground.

When asked what he'd say to Minister Parsa:

We need accountability to see where funding is going. We need performance metrics. There are no metrics or mechanisms that allow the general public to look into the program to say, hey, we're doing well, or we're doing poorly.

CBC said it asked for an interview with Minister Michael Parsa, whose office instead provided a statement saying the province has invested nearly $1 billion in the Ontario Autism Program, a 232 per cent increase since 2018, and that the number of kids in core clinical services has tripled. Carroll called the statement “talking points” that do not match the on-the-ground reality.

About This Summary

This page summarizes the broadcast in End The Wait Ontario's own words, with brief quoted excerpts from Spencer Carroll's answers. The full 9:50 interview, including host Rebecca Zandbergen's questions and the ministry statement read on air, is available from CBC. Listen to the full interview on CBC Listen.