Minister of Children and Family Development Mary Polak said the early intensive behaviour intervention (EIBI) autism programs aren’t going away. She said six of the seven program locations (excluding the one in Victoria) will continue to provide the same care to clients, and her ministry is working on solutions for Victoria families in the program.

“We’ll make sure that none of the families are without services when it comes to January 31,” she said.

Polak said it wasn’t possible to continue fully funding the EIBI treatment, though, as the funds were needed elsewhere. They will stay within the department, with annual funding to parents of autistic children under six increasing by $2,000 to $22,000 and $1 million going to improve autism outreach services in rural B.C. Polak said the rural improvements are desperately needed, as many communities have no one to provide autism services.

“If you’re in rural B.C., it’s really challenging sometimes to find someone to deliver services,” she said.

Polak said her department provides funds to about 6,000 families with autistic children, approximately 900 of whom are under six. She said continuing growth in the numbers of autistic children under six forced the department to re-evalaute their spending priorities.

“Rather than have a small program that wasn’t open to the vast majority of folks, we would phase out that program and transfer those kids to the same model as the rest,” she said.

Polak said she realizes that even $22,000 per child isn’t sufficient to pay for all of that child’s treatment, particularly if they’re in the EIBI program. She said it wasn’t fair to fully subsidize treatment for the 70 kids who managed to get into the program while forcing those who didn’t get into the EIBI program to pay for their whole treatment.

“Right now, if you’re a parent with a child with autism, the chances of you being able to purchase all the intervention you need with the $20,000 is not very high,” she said. “The vast majority of those parents are paying for additional services. It is going to be challenging for those families [that were in the EIBI program], but right now you have hundreds of families that were already doing that.”

Polak said the ministry’s autism budget has increased dramatically since the Liberals took power in 2001, but there still isn’t enough to fully pay for complete treatment, thanks to the increasing number of autistic children the government provides funds to.

“We’re now funded at 10 times the level we were when we took government in 2001, and that goes up another $1.6 million this year,” she said.

Polak said she knows this decision will be tough for families in the EIBI program.

“We understand that,” she said. “I have nothing but respect for the kind of challenge it is to face that with a child.”

Polak said her department is open to exploring potential solutions with affected families.

“We’re doing our best to work with them, to plan transitions for each and every one of those kids,” she said.

Polak said she can’t restore full funding to the program, though.

“We’ve got to be able to service every kid.”