Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod — facing calls to resign after a group of behaviour analysts said she warned them of “four long years” after they refused to publicly support changes to the autism system — has issued an apology for her comments.

“It’s been an emotional time,” she said via Twitter around dinnertime Thursday. “Throughout this process, my focus has always been on the 23,000 children who were abandoned under the previous government’s plan. This is an issue I take very personally and I apologize if my comments made anyone feel threatened or uncomfortable.”

Earlier in the day, Premier Doug Ford expressed his full support for MacLeod, saying he had not spoken to her yet, but he had no intention of asking her to step down.

“I would never ask Lisa MacLeod — she’s an absolute all-star,” Ford told reporters Thursday at a news conference in Woodbridge. “I would never, ever — I want to repeat that — ask Lisa to resign. She’s done an incredible job.”

MacLeod was accused by the group of acting in a threatening manner at a January meeting, saying if they didn’t provide public praise in support of the autism overhaul, the next four years would be rocky and that her office would characterize them as looking out for themselves.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, as well as the head of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, accused MacLeod of bullying representatives of the Ontario Association for Behaviour Analysis.

Horwath said MacLeod’s job “is to work with parent and advocate voices to deliver results for them. Instead, she’s threatened them ... in light of (her) actions, Ontarians cannot be expected to have confidence in her as a minister.”

OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas said he was disappointed in MacLeod and urged her to leave.

On social media, #ResignLisaMacLeod was trending on Twitter all Thursday afternoon.

But the Ottawa Citizen reported that MacLeod has no plans to do so, telling a reporter at an event in the capital that she’s “not going to get distracted by partisan games by the NDP.”

“I have a job to do and my job is to protect the children within my ministry. So I’m going to continue to do that, and I’m just pleased that our government and our premier are aligned with me on how best to do that.”

The autism issue has become so heated that MacLeod has received death threats over it in recent days, sources say.

The controversy over changes to the autism system continues as parents stage protests around the province to get the attention of Progressive Conservative MPPs, including one last Friday in the Ottawa area — when MacLeod waded into the crowd to address their concerns — and another planned for Friday in Kitchener at Amy Fee’s constituency office.

(Fee, who has two children diagnosed with autism, is MacLeod’s parliamentary assistant and a long-time autism advocate.)

The Ford government is overhauling the Ontario autism program, promising to clear a massive wait list of 23,000 children in need of therapy, as well as another for children awaiting diagnosis.

Under the changes, children with autism up to age 6 will receive a maximum of $140,000 until age 18, while older children will get $55,000. Funding will be targeted to lower-income families, and those earning more than $250,000 will no longer qualify.

While the changes received public praise from a number of service providers and hospitals, parent support group Autism Ontario said it “neither proposed nor endorsed” the revamp despite government claims it had.

Critics have said the PC plan is flawed because it is based on age, not need, and will leave families — who can spend $80,000 a year alone on therapy for a child with severe needs — without adequate services.

In light of the controversy with the behaviour analysts, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said MacLeod needs to “come forward and clear the air.”

Representatives from ONTABA, the behaviour analysts’ group, met with MacLeod and her staff Jan. 29. In an email this week to members, they say they were asked to “provide a quote of support, without (being provided with) full details on (the revamped) program, and indicated that failure to do so would result in ‘four long years’ for the organization.”

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It went on to say that “the minister also indicated that if a quote of support was not forthcoming, a communication that behaviour analysts are ‘self-interested’ would be released from her office ... In spite of the implied risk, the organization refused.”

The organization has been seeking more oversight for behaviour analysts, but said the government’s plan for an online registry of providers falls far short.

One analyst in attendance told the Star the minister’s conduct was “unbecoming” for an elected official, saying it was “more akin to meeting with a mob boss.”

However, a senior government source with knowledge of several meetings between the government and ONTABA, says the group previously indicated they would publicly support the changes. But at the Jan. 29 meeting, three new representatives arrived and the tone changed, the source said.

In a statement released Wednesday, MacLeod spokesperson Derek Rowland said “despite collaborative dialogues that took place over six months of consultation, ONTABA was unwavering in their desire to self-regulate and unwilling to work with government to open up the sector to provide parents more choice in support services for children with autism.”

Kendra Thomson, the incoming president of ONTABA, said her organization is not a self-interested lobby group, but a non-profit that represents a number of professionals, as well as parents, and promotes evidence-based therapies.

She told the Star ONTABA’s representatives left that final meeting feeling very disappointed, as she and others had at previous meetings.

On Thursday, Ford said he had yet to speak to MacLeod about the controversy, but would.

MacLeod, he added, has “one of the most difficult files anywhere in our government ... it might not be the largest file, but I can deal with the finances, I can deal with the sectors and the ministries, but do you know what my kryptonite is? My kryptonite is when you talk about children, when you talk about children with autism.

“That is a tough, tough file.”

OPSEU’s Thomas noted that in 2014, when Ford was a city councillor, he said an Etobicoke residence for teens with autism had “ruined the community,” and told a father who launched a complaint about his comment to “go to hell.”

During last year’s election, Ford said at a debate he would support families of children with autism “1,000 per cent,” adding “you won’t have to be protesting on the front of Queen’s Park like you did” under the previous Liberal regime.

Meanwhile, parents who feel they are winning the communications war in their battle with the Ford government are now obtaining permits to protest at Queen’s Park as early as the first week of March, said Ontario Autism Coalition president Laura Kirby-McIntosh.

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