The Ontario government will continue to fund autism services at $600 million a year to create a needs-based system that parents and advocates have been clamouring for.

But the plan to have the changes in place by next April is far too late, say advocates who were hoping for a much faster turnaround — and they’re already planning protests outside Progressive Conservative MPP offices next week to make that point.

Children, Community and Social Services Minister Todd Smith made the funding announcement Monday in Toronto, saying the Ford government is “certainly sorry for the anxiety this has caused parents across Ontario” given the outcry over its first attempt at fixing the system.

Smith said that since he took over the portfolio, it became “clear to me that we didn’t get the redesign right the first time.

“I’m here to tell you that we will, now.”

Smith has tasked his ministry’s autism advisory panel with overhauling the system while basing it on the needs of individual children, but said it must “serve as many children as possible” with the $600 million available.

While the new plan is being worked out, those receiving therapy under the old system will get a six-month extension on funding, families promised money will receive it, and more children will come off the wait list, Smith said.

In announcing the government’s initial proposed changes last February, then-minister Lisa MacLeod forecast spending about $300 million on autism services. MacLeod doubled that amount in March after hearing from concerned families about controversial proposed changes — including means-testing for funding, and caps determined by age, not by severity of need — and promised a needs-based system.

While the Progressive Conservative government’s goal was to clear a wait-list of about 23,000 children, its plan to spread funding to more families meant some would receive nowhere near the amount they needed for behavioural therapy, which can cost up to $80,000 a year.

Under its original plan, “childhood budgets” were set at $20,000 a year for children under age 6, up to a maximum of $140,000, and $5,000 a year after that up to age 18, to a maximum of $55,000.

Sources close to Premier Doug Ford said many of the problems stemming from the rollout of the autism revamp last February could be traced to the premier's hard-charging former chief of staff, Dean French, who resigned last month amid a cronyism scandal.

Insiders, speaking confidentially in order to discuss internal deliberations, said French was pressuring cabinet to resolve the issue quickly. That led to protests around the province, as well as a mass rally at Queen’s Park.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the government’s latest announcement does nothing to address the many layoffs at autism service providers, which have let staff go amid the uncertainty.

NDP Children and Youth Services Critic Monique Taylor said given all the delays, “children have (had) week after week of critical developmental potential stolen away from them.”

Liberal MPP Michael Coteau, a former cabinet minister who handled the autism file, said “these changes will take months to implement, and the harms already done cannot simply be undone ... hundreds of service providers have already lost their jobs. It will take time to restore the system.”

Laura Kirby-McIntosh, the head of the Ontario Autism Coalition and also a panel member, called Smith’s announcement “a good step forward” that “marks the beginning of the end of the disastrous Ford-MacLeod autism plan. We aren’t done yet.”

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Bruce McIntosh, Laura’s husband and former coalition president, said families are reeling over six months of upheaval and almost two years of no improvement to the system.

As for protests planned for Aug. 6 outside MPPs’ offices, he said “the point is, we are going to be in front of a whole bunch of them and the message is, hurry the hell up.”