Second rally planned Saturday as Kamloops advocates push back against autism funding changes

“The current funding model is only for kids with autism, so I do agree there should be some sort of change for the funding, because I don’t believe only kids with autism should receive funding,” Grocock said. “I do believe it should be a needs-based funding model. However, I don’t think that we should remove all funding from kiddos that may not be as ‘severe.'”

While the province notes that children who lose funding will be able to get supports through a network of established child development centres and similar community-based organizations, Grocock cautioned that those services are not expected to be available until 2028.

“There’s at least a full year where some kids will not be able to access autism funding anymore and not be able to access community services,” Grocock said. “I feel like there are are lots of people that don’t even know that this is happening, and so we’re trying to spread awareness.”

“There’s going to be a lot of kids that lose funding, which is really scary for a lot of families. It’s also scary for small businesses like Social Butterflies. We’re also not sure what the future is going to hold for us.”

A similar rally was held in March outside Kamloops City Hall, about a month after the province announced the changes, which are set to take effect in April 2027. Grocock says there are plans to hold more rallies in the future across the province to keep raising awareness.

“We’re not getting all of our questions answered by the province,” Grocock added. “We keep getting the same information that the province is putting a bunch of money into this program. They’re saying this isn’t going to cause any cuts, but there are lots of kids who will lose funding.”

by Victor Kaisar

Second rally planned Saturday as Kamloops advocates push back against autism funding changes

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