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Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod says she can’t recall whether she said it would be a “long four years” for an association of behaviour analysts if it didn’t support the government’s changes to autism programming in the province.

The Ontario Association for Behaviour Analysis has alleged MacLeod told them it would be a long four years if it did not publicly support the revamped autism program, which the group contends will leave many children without adequate levels of therapy.

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In the wake of calls for her resignation, the long-serving Nepean MPP had taken to Twitter on Thursday and said it had been “an emotional time” and, “I apologize if my comments made anyone feel threatened or uncomfortable.”

Asked at a public event in Ottawa on Friday to clarify if she had made the original comments, MacLeod responded: “I can’t recall, which is why I put the apology out.”

“I’ll let my statement from last night stand,” the minister said at media scrum after she had finished singing Lean On Me with a choir during the launch of the annual Kindness Week at the Accora Centre.