TORONTO—Premier Doug Ford says he doesn’t understand why families of kids with autism are protesting his government — as parents say confusion reigns over the new system brought in by his government and more than 100 staff were laid off at a treatment centre.

Ford held a press conference in Coniston, Ont., near Sudbury, on Wednesday, where he defended his government’s work trying to get more services to kids with autism.

“What boggles my mind: we’re pouring, pouring money into autism, and focused on it, listening to the experts, not the bunch of politicians, but listening to the experts. We’re helping them and they’re protesting? I don’t know. I question that,” Ford said.

His comments came after a local reporter referenced an autism protest near the premier’s event.

“I have a passion to helping these families and even though they protest, I’m going to help them no matter how long it takes,” Ford added.

READ MORE: 825 jobs cut, 416 laid-off as Ford government overhauls health care agencies

Over the last year Ford’s government has completely overhauled how Ontario funds autism services. The previous system left thousands of people on a wait-list but directly funded services and there was no cap on how much money a child could get for their treatment, funding was instead based on the needs of the child.

Moving forward the government is planning to give money directly to families, instead of the service providers and the funding will not be based on need. Instead, children under six who have been diagnosed with autism will get $20,000 per year and children between six and 18 will get $5,000 per year.

Families at a press conference on Wednesday, said they have not yet received any money and their children who were receiving care under the old system are having their treatment thrown into chaos as organizations try to transition to the new model before the December deadline.

A spokesperson for Children, Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod told iPolitics on Tuesday that letters were being sent to the first group of families to be taken off the wait-list this week.

City News reported last week that no family has been taken off the wait-list for the last nine months.

Parents who spoke at Queen’s Park on Wednesday described a breakdown in trust with the government and confusion over what they could expect and when.

“It’s like wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,” Amanda Mooyer, the mother of two children with autism told iPolitics Wednesday.

She described a heavily bureaucratic process to try and access public funds, where parents have to register their children to get on a list, only to be sent to another list, and then wait for their funding.

“Child gets a diagnosis, child applies through central intake, child waits for a letter to say they can apply for the OAP wait-list, child gets the letter for the OAP wait-list, child waits for a letter to say that they’re up for their childhood budget, child registers for their childhood budget, child waits for their childhood budget,” Mooyer said.

The government confirmed that the process described by Mooyer is correct.

On Monday, one of Ontario’s largest centres that treats kids with autism said it was laying off 291 full time staff members, and rehiring 178 through contract positions that will end on March 31, 2020 — the date when all government funding to agencies will stop.

ErinoakKids Centre for Treatment and Development said the positions that are being cut are front line, management and senior jobs at sites in Brampton, Mississauga and Oakville.

On Tuesday MacLeod signalled that more layoffs could still be coming.

“As these changes are implemented we anticipate further staffing changes,” she said in a statement. “However, we know these changes will also mean an increased demand for autism-related services as funding is increased and more children come off the wait-list.”

The government says the layoffs reflect a rebalancing in the system as organizations move from direct government funding to funding through families.

But confusion over that funding is causing more concerns for parents.

“It was promised in April 1 to be paid and hasn’t been delivered. So even though all the staff are being let go, there isn’t any money in the system to pay them to even help if you wanted them to,” Jonathan Loewen told reporters at a press conference held by the NDP.

Lowen has three sons on the autism spectrum, two of them receive care through ErinoakKids.

He said he prefers that government funding go to the treatment centres rather than parents because the expertise lies there. However, the government has said other families wanted direct funding and that’s why the changes were made.

The province has struck an expert panel to review how it can change the autism program so that the funding can also be needs based. The government has said it will double funding for the autism program this year to more than $600 million, but the NDP say that money has not yet been allocated.

Despite the uncertainty, Ford told reporters he’s committed to helping families.

“We’re going to get the 23,000 people the support that they never had under the previous government,” Ford said. “If they want to go back to the previous government, leave 23,000 families, that’s their choice, but I’m not doing that. I’m going to protect the 23,000 families that got absolutely zero from the previous government.”

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