TORONTO — Spending estimates suggest the Ford government exaggerated the funding shortfall facing the province’s autism programs.

The province’s 2018-19 spending estimates show the former Liberal government earmarked $65-million more for autism supports than originally claimed by Children, Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod.

Facing intense backlash over the government’s overhaul to autism funding, MacLeod has repeatedly said the system she inherited from the Liberals was “broke and broken.” Her office said the Ford government was forced to provide a $102 million “emergency” funding infusion after the Liberals only pledged $256-million for autism services in 2018-19.

The Tories also pledged an extra $2.8 million for diagnostic hubs to bring its total funding package to $361 million, according to MacLeod’s office.

But a look at the estimates and the province’s 2017-18 public accounts show more than half of that was already budgeted for the program.

In the March 2018 budget, the former Liberal government gave autism services $321 million. That sum was confirmed in the spending estimates originally tabled by the Grits but later re-introduced by the Tories after the election.

[READ MORE: Staffer quits Ford government citing ‘terrible mistake’ in new autism policy]

Many families with children with autism and the major opposition parties have come out against the government’s new funding program, which caps the amount of money provided for treatment. There’s also a limit on how much funding children can receive annually and collectively by the time they turn 18.

Families and care providers say the max annual budget of $20,000 for children age five and under and $5,000 for children age six to 18 falls far short of covering treatment that can cost families up to $80,000 a year.

The new plan makes all funding supports income tested, but not needs based. So, no matter where a child is on the spectrum, their family will get the same level of funding — once adjusted for income.

The government says the changes to the funding formula were needed in order to clear a lengthy wait-list.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the budget mismatch is yet another example of the government’s work on the autism file that “doesn’t pass the smell test.

“For a government that prides itself on its counting skills, their math doesn’t seem to work in this particular case,” he said.

[READ MORE: Ford says he will ‘never ever’ ask MacLeod to resign despite criticism]

MacLeod was not available to speak with reporters at the legislature on Tuesday or Wednesday. But when asked about the budget numbers in the legislature Tuesday, she defended her office’s accounting and said the former Liberal government had “put a $62-million holdback” on their planned $321 million spending for autism.

“They had a wait-list of 23,000 children,” she said of the former Liberal government.

“Since I’ve assumed this position, not only did I get that $102 million, but we cleared another 2,400 children through the system.”

But Liberal MPP Michael Coteau — the former minister for community and social services — said the holdback is standard practice in government, and the money was supposed to roll out over the year.

“Anyone who’s trying to say that $256 million was the final number, just doesn’t understand how government processes work,” Coteau told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s a farce.”

The Tories have also said the Liberal government’s last budget was a political budget that they had no intention of delivering on. However, the $321 million budgeted for autism services in the current fiscal year is in line with the $318 million that was spent on the program in the 2017 fiscal year.

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