Dear Premier Ghiz

Premier Robert Ghiz
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
premier@gov.pe.ca

Dear Premier Ghiz,

Autism now affects as many as 1 in 91 children, but it’s more than
children. It affects families, friends and our One Island Community as
a whole. Autism impacts more than one government department so a true
Island Autism Strategy would see multiple departments working together
but current supports fail many families when they need help the most.
Families need real results, not another document that government
ignores.

• A true Island Autism Strategy would see the Health Department
  decreasing diagnosis wait times from over a year to less than three
  months.
• A true Island Autism Strategy would see the Social Services
  Department giving all families the same information about the financial
  supports available to them to help their child.
• A true Island Autism Strategy would see the Education Department
  reducing the up to two year wait time for early intervention services
  because a two year wait is not an early intervention at all.
• A true Island Autism Strategy would see the Rural Development
  Department ensuring that families in rural areas have access to
  comparable service levels for their children as families in urban areas.
• A true Island Autism Strategy would see the Innovation Department
  finding ways to make sure that the people delivering one on one therapy
  to these children make at least as much in wages as a liquor store
  clerk.

Think back to the election of 2007. Island families were promised that
services would improve and that we would be put first for a change.
More than two years later that hasn’t happened and that needs to change
now. Island children can’t wait because Autism doesn’t work on a political
schedule.

I ask that your government put these Islanders first for a change
and work with families to create a better system for the children of
today as well as the children of tomorrow.

Yours truly,

Jane Boyd

President, Parents for Choice & Quality Society

President, Work Family & Life Consulting Services Ltd.