Register for Inclusion in Motion Walk & Family Festival, September 26, 2026
Here today… gone tomorrow?
Here’s how we got here—and why the system remains uncertain.
Prior to 2001, there was NO autism funding in BC. Parents paid out of pocket to run science based Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) treatment programs for their children. They even flew consultants in from the US and England because BC had, at that point, only 4 consultants specializing in ABA.
1996 - The autism treatment movement in BC begins with FEAT of BC (Families for Early Autism Treatment of BC) founded by Dr. Sabrina Freeman. FEAT is a worldwide organization that advocates for universal accessibility to autism treatment for everyone who needs it.
1998 - Thirty BC families initiated the landmark Auton (2004 SCC 78) case which sought a court order stating that failure to provide publicly funded, medically necessary autism treatment constitutes discrimination and is a violation of the Charter of Freedoms and Rights section 15 equality provisions.
July 2000 - Through Auton, the BC Supreme Court declared that EIBI or ABA is a “medically necessary” service and must be funded by the government. Both the NDP and later the Liberals appeal the decision.
In 2000, the government created a government sponsored program without any input from families. This program was called the Early Intensive Behaviour Intervention (EIBI) program and provided only 70 children with “ABA programming”, at a cost of 5 million dollars annually.
The program repurposed old government autism service providers and rebranded them as EIBI. NOTE how repetitive this is every time a Hub or Center-based service model is proposed - Little input from parents, gathering of service providers with close MCFD ties, and lack of proper training required.
The EIBI “consultants” were not qualified Board-Certified Behavior Analysts, and most parents chose to turn down the offer of this program and continue to pay out of pocket to keep their quality BCBA consultants and frontline workers (Behavior Interventionists, or BI).
The government's own $2 million study of the EIBI program was inconclusive. The program was shut down in 2010. It is worth noting that the EIBI program provided 20 hours of therapy per week, whereas a home based program could provide significantly more hours of therapy per week for the same cost. Parents will invest their time to manage their own child’s individualized therapy programs for maximum benefit.
While in opposition, Liberals (including Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark) were publicly outraged and called for full funding of autism treatment.
May 2001 – Families for Early Autism Treatment (FEAT of BC) present the Choice in Autism Treatment (CIAT) brief based on the Liberal Government approving partial funding of autism treatment, agreeing to provide up to $20,000 for ABA treatment for each child with autism under the age of 6 and $6,000 for over the age of 6. At that time, this was about half of what was needed to run a quality ABA program. Note that this funding was for treatment, as opposed to supports. Supports, like respite, Supported Child Development (SCD) and the At Home program (AHP) continued to be available to anyone with a disability through various MCFD programs.
May 2001 – Gordon Campbell wins provincial election and becomes Premier of BC. In opposition, Campbell had promised to fully fund treatment for children with autism. Later that year…in power, Gordon Campbell approved partial direct funding of autism treatment, agreeing to provide up to $20,000 for ABA treatment for each child with autism under the age of 6. This funding is not indexed to inflation.
February 2002 – the BC Liberals continued the appeal against the ruling of the BC Supreme Court that the government should fully fund ABA treatment.
2004 - The Supreme Court of Canada hears the Auton appeal. This judgment upheld the findings of fact from the BC Supreme Court that ABA Treatment was medically-necessary!
BUT…the judgment did not order the provinces to pay for this treatment, stating that ”Insurance of non-core services is left to provincial discretion.”
The serious flaw in the Supreme Court of Canada judgment was that this court, the highest court in the land, did not want to dictate to the provinces how to spend their health care dollars.
As noted constitutional lawyer, Mary Eberts said, “This Supreme Court of Canada has effectively given away the store. I think they have torn the guts out of s.15.”
July 2008 - Premier Gordon Campbell and Children's Minister Tom Christensen reversed their stated positions that they would not use IQ of 70 as a measure in assessing eligibility of developmentally disabled persons for receipt of government services.
September 2009 – MCFD Minister Mary Polak announced changes to autism funding which included discontinuing EIBI services to the tune of $5 million per year and the removal of the direct funding option and gave the government complete control of autism funds.
2010 - Autism Funding for under 6 year olds was increased by the Liberal government to $22,000, but only as a re-allocation of the decommissioned (expensive and ineffective) EIBI program. 2011 was the last time parents saw an increase in funding. Wages have substantially increased since that time. But there are no additional dollars or even inflation-adjustment increases put towards autism treatment.
In the years between 2002 and 2021, the autism funding became less and less about treatment as rules were relaxed.
Because “Behavior Consultant” is not a protected term like “Doctor”, many people took advantage of this unregulated field and began to offer a wide variety of “services”, many without any proof of efficacy, professional credentials, or supervision.
Families are put in the extremely difficult position of navigating a new diagnosis, after having spent years on a wait list for publicly funded assessment, with social media algorithms and misinformation bombarding them at their most vulnerable time.
Parents should not have to become experts in clinical evidence and professional regulation simply to determine whether a publicly funded service is legitimate treatment, and taxpayers should not question whether public funds are being spent on unvalidated interventions. We ask that the treatment portion of Individualized funding be moved to Health so it can be better regulated, and not budgetarily capped under a social services Ministry.
In the meantime, the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder continued to climb. In 2002, under the DSM4, Autism Spectrum Disorder birth-year prevalence was estimated at 1 in 150 children; in 2024, under the DSM5, we are now at a birth-year prevalence of 1 in 31.
Because direct autism funding existed as an alternative, many of our medically and behaviorally complex children were not historically seen through the network of Child Development Centres and other government funded centers. While these Centers have worked very hard with other disability populations, they lack the expertise and staffing to provide properly individualized, effective autism treatment. This is especially dangerous to the 1 in 4 that are profoundly affected by autism.
October 2021 - the BC NDP government announced it would entirely phase out the direct, individualized autism funding model. It planned to replace it with a centralized, government-managed network called "Family Connection Centers” or “Hubs". This decision sparked fierce backlash from families, clinicians, and service providers because it was an attempt to claw back the individualized funding for autism treatment, and reallocate those funds exclusively to the centers which would be mandated to “treat anyone who needed it, with or without a diagnosis”.
This was widely criticized as unscientific and discriminatory, without any increase in provincial funding to accommodate the additional children and youth who would be seeking support. MCFD Minister Mitzi Dean repeatedly stated that the funding would reach an additional 8,300 children, which would be an increase of 28% - but the Ministry of Education headcount data showed over 80,000 children with Individualized Education Plans (IEP’s) at this time. Parents correctly noted that centralized Hubs had been tried before in BC in the early 2000’s and failed.
After a year of fierce, parent-led advocacy and repeated protests, BC Premier David Eby announced the funding clawback would be paused pending further consultation and review of the four pilot FCC “Hubs” efficacy. In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars were given in no-bid contracts to select disability groups, PR consultants, and First Nations communities for consultation. This temporary funding change pause effectively ended the increasing public advocacy for autism treatment to be moved under Health at that time.
February 2026 - MCFD Minister Jodie Wickens announced that the Autism Funding Program would sunset March 2027; to be replaced with a multi-stream system: A direct funded benefit, an income-tested supplement, and center based services available to any disabled child in BC. While this is a historic $475 million dollar investment of overall funding to be distributed over three years, the per-child amount has not increased since the minimal redistribution in 2011.
There are also significant concerns about the funding streams moving forward. Not all children with Autism will qualify for the Disability Benefit; the Supplement is not earmarked towards treatment, but can be used to support a family’s household budget; and an estimated 5,000 children already diagnosed with autism, who have the lowest support needs and highest incomes, would lose access to individualized funding altogether, but would be prioritized for services through the center-based programs. Center-based programs have not had a strong foundation of evidence-based autism intervention and ABA treatment, as demonstrated in this document.
Over the past 25+ years, autism funding in BC has:
Autism funding in BC is not protected by law like it is in other countries.
For example, the United States has the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) legislation that ensures evidence-based autism treatment is provided under insurance, education and health departments.
In contrast, our Canadian politicians refer only -and repeatedly- to the Charter of Rights.
Families have fought to build the system that exists today. But without legal protection: Nothing is guaranteed.
What Can You Do? Sustained political pressure has created change in the past.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead
AUTISM SUPPORT NETWORK BC
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