Accountability
Original investigations
Investigations published
Original data journalism on the Ontario Autism Program
Government documents cited
FOI requests & official sources
FAO reports, MCCSS FOI releases, Ontario Budget documents
National media citations
Media outlets that cited our work
CBC News, CBC Radio, Trillium News
About the Founder
Founder & Parent Advocate
Applicant, Carroll v. Ontario
HRTO 2025-62264-I
“My son was diagnosed with severe, non-verbal autism at 14 months old. Like thousands of other parents, I was told early intervention was critical. And like thousands of others, I was placed on a waitlist that effectively has no end.”
We publish detailed information about every aspect of how this site operates.
Who visits this site and how we distinguish real visitors from automated bot traffic.
How this site is funded, who pays for it, and our complete independence from any organization.
Every data source we use, how we verify claims, and our corrections process.
Our policy for correcting errors and updating outdated information.
In March 2026, the Ontario government proposed retroactive changes to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Bill 97, Schedule 7) that would exempt the Premier, cabinet ministers, and parliamentary assistants from FOI requests — backdated to January 1, 1988. The government cited “foreign entities” and “predatory information gathering” as justification.
We believe every public-interest website should be transparent about its operations, especially when governments use opacity as a tool. This section is our commitment to that principle.
One parent, no sponsors, no donors, no government dollars.
End The Wait Ontario is built and maintained by Spencer Carroll, a parent of a child on the Ontario Autism Program waitlist. Hosting (Vercel), domain registration, and the commercial tools that produce the published data analysis are paid for out of pocket. The site does not run display advertising, does not accept donations, and does not solicit sponsorships.
We have not received funding from any political party, provincial riding association, candidate, autism service provider, advocacy organization, or commercial therapy agency. Where this page or any downstream page references a provider, a political figure, or a ministry, that reference is drawn from the public record only — court filings, Hansard, budget documents, published government announcements, or peer-reviewed literature. We will publicly disclose any change to this funding model before publishing further content.
Three-tier source standard. Single source of truth. Liability-reviewed copy.
Every statistical claim on this site resolves to a single data file (lib/data/waitlist-stats.tsin the open-source repository) whose values are pinned against three independent public-record sources: the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, the Ontario Autism Coalition's Freedom of Information releases, and the Ontario Budget. Where those three sources diverge, we cite the most recent and most authoritative public release and document the discrepancy inline.
Sources are classified by tier before they are cited in page copy. Tier 1 sources are government-issued documents: FAO reports, MCCSS releases, Auditor-General reports, Hansard, tabled legislation, and budgetary publications. Tier 2 sources are national news outlets reporting against their own Freedom of Information responses (for example, CBC News and The Trillium). Tier 3 sources are advocacy-aggregated parent reports, which we surface only as “families report” or “OAC has documented” — never as direct factual claims about the government. Claims that cannot reach at least a Tier 2 source are not published.
Page copy touching a named individual or organization is reviewed against a defamation checklist before publication: (1) the claim is directly attributable to a cited Tier 1 or Tier 2 source, (2) the wording matches the cited source rather than going beyond it, (3) the copy attributes actions to roles or structures rather than imputing motive, and (4) where the subject of reporting is a named respondent in an active legal matter, the page carries an explicit “no allegation of wrongdoing” disclaimer.
We do not paraphrase government statements. When we quote a minister, an FAO report, or a court filing, the exact wording is reproduced with a direct link to the primary source. Statistics are never displayed without the date on which they were published and the source from which they were drawn.
Substantive changes since the site launched. Typos and formatting are not logged.
2026-04-21 — Schema cleanup. Removed self-issuedClaimReviewJSON-LD across ten marketing pages. ETWO is not a registered fact-checking organization and Google's ClaimReview guidance reserves the schema for editorially accountable fact-checkers. Underlying facts remain fully cited via EvidenceBlock, NewsArticle, and the linked source chain — no factual content was altered.
2026-04-16 — Liability review. Full re-verification of every statistical claim against lib/data/waitlist-stats.ts. No values updated; sources re-confirmed. Copy touching named respondents reviewed for defamation surface and amended to remove motive-imputing phrasing where present.
2026-04-08 — Data freshness. Primary waitlist counter switched from the December 10, 2025 OAC FOI figure (87,692 registered / 67,399 unfunded — superseded) to the January 7, 2026 CBC News FOI figure (88,175 registered / 67,509 unfunded) after the CBC investigation surfaced newer bi-weekly MCCSS progress reports.
2026-03-27 — Governance disclosure.This transparency section was added, replacing an earlier short “About” paragraph that did not explicitly disclose funding model, editorial standards, or correction handling. The trigger was the Bill 97 FIPPA proposal referenced above.
Corrections to factual claims (as opposed to editorial decisions) are logged under /corrections-policy with date, affected claim, prior wording, and revised wording. If you believe a statement on this site is inaccurate, use /contact to submit a correction — every submission receives a written reply regardless of whether a change is made.
Verified Facts
88,175 — children are registered in the Ontario Autism Program
23.4% — Only 20,666 children have active funding agreements () — less than one in four
WHO recommends accessible, community-based early interventions for children with autism — timely evidence-based psychosocial interventions improve communication and social engagement