MARKHAM, ONT. —
Though “more work needs to be done” on their behalf, Liberal Leader Dalton
McGuinty wouldn’t commit Friday to clearing a long waiting list of children
awaiting an expensive autism treatment, drawing fire from opposition parties
eager to lure support away from the front-running Liberals.
Mr. McGuinty, who pledged to spend more money on
middle-grade students, wouldn’t expand on his comments except to say the
Liberals have done more for autistic children than have previous NDP or
Progressive Conservative governments.
“I can only imagine the nature of the challenge for
parents who are absolutely devoted to their kids and want to make sure they get
all the opportunities that they need,” Mr. McGuinty said at a school in Markham,
north of Toronto.
“I think we have made some real progress and, of course, there’s still more work to be done.”
The Conservatives, whom polls suggest are lagging behind
the incumbent Liberals in the final days before the Oct. 10 vote, pounced on Mr.
McGuinty’s remarks, calling him “cruel” for breaking a promise to help autistic
children.
Opposition parties say the backlog of children waiting
for the costly but effective one-on-one treatment — known as Intensive
Behavioural Intervention, or IBI — has grown to nearly 1,000 kids under the
Liberal government.
The Liberals call that accusation unfair, saying the
wait list has grown because the government agreed to assess more children to
determine if they are eligible for treatment.
Both the NDP and Conservatives have vowed to clear the
wait list if they are elected. Mr. McGuinty wouldn’t go that far, but did say
his government has nearly tripled spending on autism, doubled the number of
children getting access to treatment and provided funding for classroom
therapy.
The province also spent $2.4 million on a seven-year
court battle, started by the former Conservative government, with the parents of
autistic children — many of whom say they’re struggling to cope with medical
bills that can easily exceed a year’s salary.
More recently, the party came under fire from the
Ontario Autistic Coalition, which says the Liberals have failed to adequately
respond to questions about whether they’ll take the children off the waiting
list.
Mr. McGuinty, whose re-election efforts have so far
remained largely free of the controversy that has plagued the Conservatives over
their pledge to extend funding to faith-based schools, has been running a
low-key campaign of late.
And while he hasn’t openly speculated on the outcome,
victory didn’t seem to be far from Mr. McGuinty’s thoughts during a brief
appearance at an Oktoberfest party in Kitchener to announce a proposed new
statutory holiday, called Family Day, that would fall annually on the third
Monday of February, or Feb. 18 in 2008.
“I’ve been looking forward to a toast of some kind,
which I’m about to participate in,” Mr. McGuinty said before chugging beer in
front of dozens of polka-loving revellers.
Earlier in the day, Mr. McGuinty unveiled a new plank in
his education platform, saying a Liberal government would spend up to $150
million a year to reduce class sizes in grades 4 through 8, provide more
individual attention in areas like the arts, and help students make the
transition to high school.
He also touted new statistics indicating Ontario
produced 30,000 new full-time jobs last month. However, the province’s job
growth for the first nine months of this year — 1.2 per cent — was still well
below the national average.
Mr. McGuinty acknowledged that Ontario’s manufacturing
sector, hit hard by the soaring Canadian dollar, continues to be “challenged.”
But the Liberals are the only party that can bring labour and business to the
table, he added.
“We’re in a transitional phase when it comes to
manufacturing,” Mr. McGuinty said. “We’re going to ensure that we create the
kinds of strengths in our manufacturing sector that demand good jobs, and that’s
why we continue to invest in our kids.”