Niagara Centre NDP MPP Jeff Burch
“Each day that children ,,, are denied much needed therapy, it is another day their full potential for success and growth is thwarted by your government’s inaction on getting funding finalized.” – Niagara Centre NDP MPP Jeff Burch
An ‘Urgent Open Letter’ from Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch to Ford’s Minister of Children, Community and Social Services
Posted October 16th, 2019 on Niagara At Large
Signs like this have become commonplace in Ontario since Doug Ford’s Ontario Conservatives were elected to power in June, 2018.
Dear Minister Todd Smith:
I am sending this urgent letter on behalf of constituent Joe Seranni of Welland who has yet to see any provincial funding to provide much needed therapy for his son Ashton.
Ashton, who was 3 years old when his father applied in March, has been diagnosed with autism and his Physician recommended 10 hours of applied behaviour analysis (ABA) therapy a week.
Joe will tell you almost in tears the advances his son has made with the limited therapy he is now getting weekly that he is paying out of pocket. Otherwise, there would be no therapy at all.
Your Ministry has stated that children on a wait list would transition to Childhood Budgets. For many parents, this promised funding has not materialized. Mr. Serrani has waited eight months. He may get a letter being approved, but only to be told to apply on line and continue waiting.
Mr. Seranni has been told by Ministry representative’s on different phone calls: “Hang on its coming, Hold tight there is a process and It will be phased in.” The most recent comment and somewhat shocking for him was funding for his son will be “the luck of the draw.”
Minister, each day that children like Ashton are denied much needed therapy, it is another day their full potential for success and growth is thwarted by your government’s inaction on getting funding finalized.
Please do the right thing and step up to the plate for these children and their beleaguered families.
Sincerely, Jeff Burch, MPP
A Brief Footnote from Doug Draper, reporter and publisher, Niagara At Large –
Up to a few months before this October federal election, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Andrew Scheer never seemed to be afraid of standing on a stage together and expressing their shared interest in cutting government services, saying yes to tar sands pipelines, and no to putting any price on carbon pollution
Cuts that Ontario’s Ford government has made to vital health care services, like the one referred to in the letter above, not to mention the cutting and gutting Ford’s Conservatives have carried out in areas like education, environmental protection and other public programs, have helped cause Ford’s popularity ratings to tank over the past year.
So much so, that federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer and federal Conservative candidates in Niagara and across Ontario have made efforts to distance themselves from what are normally their Ford Conservative friends and allies during this federal election.
Don’t be fooled though. If you think the cuts the Ford government has already made are hurting people and our environment now, just imagine how bad it is going to get if Scheer’s federal Conservatives win the October 21st election and they are working together with Ford and company to cut and gut more.
I urge you to keep that firmly in mind when you vote this October 21st.
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