My sister has autism, and still lives with my mother near Guelph, Ontario.  My mother is 73 and has physical mobility limitations; until my father died 2 years ago, my parents were able to care for my sister, but now my mother is on her own and cannot give my sister the care and attention that she needs.  Caring for my sister is effectively a full-time job, and so my sister needs a place in a well-supported group home where she can receive the care and attention that she needs, but this does not appear likely to happen any time soon, as group homes are being closed down due to lack of government funding.

This situation is not specific to my family, nor to the Guelph area; it is widespread across the province.  Governments of all political stripes in Ontario have massively underfunded the support system for people with severe disabilities for many years, leading to a situation where staffing at Community Living Ontario has been greatly reduced and programs to support people with disabilities have been slashed.  The base budget at Community Living has increased by less than 7% in nominal terms in the past 3 decades, which corresponds to a reduction of more than 35% in real terms once inflation is taken into account.  So now we get to see what a disaster looks like.  About 12800 people were on the waitlist for group homes in 2014, when the Ontario Select Committee on Developmental Services (which included current Deputy Premier Sylvia Jones) stated that "The elimination of existing waitlists must be the top priority for government."  Now the waitlist has grown to over 28000 people, not to mention long waitlists for many other supportive services for people with disabilities, and people like my mother are effectively being told to care for their disabled dependants until one or the other dies.

We should all be outraged by this situation; it is shameful, disgraceful, and should be a massive scandal.  If a society should be judged on how it treats its most vulnerable citizens, then the government of Ontario deserves nothing but contempt.  Does my sister not deserve a decent place to live?  Don't other people with developmental disabilities who cannot care for themselves deserve that?  And doesn't my mother - who has cared for my sister since she was born 45 years ago - deserve a chance to have her own retirement?  How can the MPPs in this government sleep at night, knowing how their actions are harming the most vulnerable people in their province?

I urgently call on the government of Ontario to increase the funding for Community Living Ontario and all other providers of services for disabled people, to provide decent services to the disabled population and to fulfill their obligation of reducing and eventually eliminating the waitlist.