Ontario parents want help for their developmentally delayed adult-age children

Parents of developmentally disabled children are increasing the pressure on the Ontario government for more help as their kids become adults but still need constant care.

Lengthy waiting lists remain for as many as 14,000 families whose children turn 18 and have to reapply for aid as they are cut off from funding they have enjoyed for years, New Democrat MPP Liza Gretzky told a news conference Wednesday.

“What will happen to our children after we are gone?” said Sharon Gabison, a single mother from Maple, north of Toronto, whose son, Eric, is 20 but functions at the level of a five-year-old and requires constant supervision.

“He has no concept of danger. He’ll walk out into traffic,” she added before a rally in front of the Legislature.

Despite scathing reports in the last three years from the Ontario ombudsman, auditor general and an all-party legislative committee that more assistance is essential, the government has managed only to clear the waiting list from 2014, Gretzky said.

“At this point it seems there is no end in sight . . . some people have had to quit their jobs to pick up the slack.”

The renewed push for aid came a month after the father of a young developmentally disabled woman from Timmins launched a $110-million class action lawsuit against the provincial government for failing to eliminate the lengthy waiting list. The lawsuit has not yet been certified.