Letter to Lisa MacLeod by Clarice Thornton (parent)

Dear Lisa MacLeod,

I am writing to you about the Independent Facilitation program your government is set to cancel as of Mar 31st. My 27 year old daughter is autistic and receives services using independent Facilitation. It’s the first time we’ve made measurable progress with our daughter. Our worker had found her paid employment and a volunteering position. This has taken almost three years to establish. My daughter has potential but cannot access that potential without help. 

Without help she will become a permanent drain on the system. Once we pass on, the province will have to care for her at a much greater expense than if she were helped and supported in becoming independent. 

There were no public consultations regarding this funding change and it seems you’ve ignored the good results the program shows it has had. 

It frightens me to think of how I will be able to support my daughter once she no longer has a facilitator. Yes I could use her passport support for this but then she would lose the other therapy support she gets. How do I decide what’s more important - her mental health or her development of independent skills? 

I’m glad for you that you haven’t had to raise a developmentally disabled child, but I wish you could summon up the empathy to realize how critically this cut will affect the young adults in this program. You are squandering potential and it’s going to cost government more in the future. Clearly that future is not a concern for you as managing the deficit is obviously more important to you than your constituents. 

I had few delusions about government, but my daughter already went through years of difficulty during the Harris years due to the cutbacks to education which resulted in inadequate services for my daughter when she needed them most. 

Now, as she transitions to independence the Tory government has let her down again. Please tell me how I should best explain to her why she’s losing the support she counts on. Really. Give me a script that explains your rationale in a way that doesn’t cast her into an anxious tail spin 

For the sake of my daughter and the many who have the misfortune of being developmentally challenged in Ontario I strongly encourage you to continue to fund Independent Facilitation. 

I take this issue seriously and hope you will do the same. I would like to hear back from you by February 15th, just in time for Family Day. 

Will you listen?