TORONTO – According to data from the Ontario Autism Program (OAP), more than 67,500 children in the province are waiting for funding for essential clinical services. Despite increases in funding in recent years, less than 25% of registered children actually receive the necessary support, as highlighted in a report by CBC.
From June 2024 to January 2026, the number of registered children increased by 21%, reaching 88,175, but only 20,666 have an active funding agreement. Many parents wait up to five years before receiving assistance, missing the critical early intervention window essential for child development. Alina Cameron from Thunder Bay, president of the Ontario Autism Coalition (OAC), told CBC the story of her daughter, who was on the waitlist for five years before receiving services: “It has been an absolute game changer [when she started receiving services]. She started retaining information, and now we’re seeing speech development, and it’s all on her own time, but she’s just like a totally new kid…” she added.
The Ontario government recently announced $186 million in new funding, bringing the annual budget to $965 million, with the aim of allowing more children to access essential services. However, experts and parents worry this is still insufficient and are calling for all new funds to be directed toward core services—those essential, ongoing clinical services that help children with autism develop basic skills and improve their daily functioning.
Spencer Carroll, a father from Ottawa, says he has spent nearly $100,000 out of pocket on necessary services while waiting for government funding. To improve transparency in the program, he created the website “End the Wait Ontario” (www.endthewaitontario.com), which compiles data and resources on autism services. Reports also show that, despite the increase in registrations, in some weeks the number of children with active funding actually decreased, likely because children aged out of the program or because bureaucracy slowed the processing of funding.
Cameron emphasizes: “Less than a quarter of registered children have access to the core program—it’s very concerning.”
A striking example is Deny Soto, a mother from Toronto: her nine-year-old son was diagnosed with autism in 2022 but, four years later, is still on the waitlist for government funding for essential services.
“It’s just sad, because that was a critical part of his development” Soto told CBC. “We lost any support that we could have gotten during that time. So we’ve navigated it on our own, we found alternatives … but I won’t know what we’ve missed…”.
Soto hopes that when her son finally receives funding, he will have more opportunities and a less isolated life: “He does things on his own so often because we don’t have other options. So for me, it’s just opening up a whole new world for him…”. A world that has so far been denied to him and 67,499 other children in Ontario.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
