Is Lisa MacLeod now on board with a National Autism Strategy?
With consultations for the Ontario Autism Program looming, eyes are constantly on the twitter accounts of the people involved behind the scenes, hoping for any tidbits of information we can get our hands on.
On April 24th, Lisa MacLeod tweeted this:
I don’t think I was alone that day in thinking: “Huh, that’s interesting.”
It’s interesting because during a press conference on April 2nd, Minister MacLeod was asked specifically by QP Briefing reporter Sneh Duggal whether the Ontario Government would support a national strategy, and had this response:
She passed the buck to the federal government to have that conversation.
CASDA (Canadian Autism Spectrum Disorder Alliance), which formed back in 2007 shortly after Senator Munson’s ‘Pay Now or Pay Later: Autism Families in Crisis’ report, retweeted Lisa MacLeod tweet, praising the Ontario government’s support of National Autism Strategy. They later deleted the tweet, providing this explanation:
So 3 weeks after saying she was going to stay out of discussions of a federal strategy Lisa MacLeod is at the meeting of the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers Responsible for Social Services, in Saskatoon.
Media coverage seemed to be pretty sparse, apart from a government news release found below:
The meeting was co-chaired by Jean-Yves Duclos (federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development) and Paul Merriman (Saskatchewan Minister of Social Services). Others present included:
- MP Carla Qualtrough, BC, (Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility)
- MPP Shane Simpson, BC (Minister for Social Development and Poverty Reduction
- MPP Elisapee Sheutiapik, NU (Minister of Family Services, Status of Women, Homelessness, Immigration, Poverty)
- MPP Glen Abernethy, NWT (Minister of Health and Social Services, Seniors, Persons with Disabilities, Public Utilities Board)
- MPP Danielle McCann, QC, (Minister of Health and Social Services)
- MPP Kelly Regan, NS (Minister of Community Services
Some highlights of the meeting:
- Commitment to advancing social services to remove barriers
- Agreement that solutions must be flexible, holistic, and consider the diversity of needs throughout the country while respecting jurisdictional roles and responsibilities.
- Discussion of the importance of data sharing, as well as opportunities to collaborate to advance social innovation and social finance initiatives that can help address community challenges and that build on current federal, provincial and territorial approaches
- The federal government signaled its interest to consult with responsible ministries in the provinces and territories towards the creation of a national school food program
- Discussion on accessibility and disability supports with provinces and territories and how they could further collaborate to support persons with disabilities with a goal of creating a more inclusive, accessible and barrier-free Canada.
The press release doesn’t specifically mention a National Autism Strategy, but Minister MacLeod’s Chief of Staff Tim Porter also mentioned it with this retweet, tagging Autism Ontario:
Margeret Spoelstra, Executive Director of Autism Ontario, has publicly shown support of a National Autism Strategy:
Apart from that sole tweet from Minister MacLeod, it’s unclear what autism strategy details may have been discussed in that meeting with the other provincial ministers.
Will Lisa MacLeod publicly show support for a National Autism Strategy? Unless Andrew Scheer puts it into his federal election platform, I’m going to guess no. It is interesting that she chose to mention it though.
As the federal parties put together their platforms for the upcoming election, I would encourage everyone to follow Margaret’s recommendation and connect with their MP, and find out where they stand on a National Autism Strategy.
My MP is Liberal Chandra Arya, and he sponsored the e-Petition from Ottawa father Mark Chapeskie calling for a National Autism Strategy, which already has over 4500 signatures from across Canada
Individual members of all 4 parties have shown support in some form — Let’s hope they’re working hard behind the scenes to gain more widespread party support.
With all the drama that’s unfolding with the Ontario Autism Program, the Ontario Government could stand to support a National Autism Strategy.
Federal support is needed, and should be welcomed.
