(Queen?s Park) ? Progressive Conservative MPP Peter Shurman (Thornhill) commented on the urgent needs facing special education in his riding of Thornhill and across Ontario.
Speaking in the Legislature last night, Shurman spoke of the Zareinu Educational Centre as an example of how dedicated professionals struggle with financial difficulties to provide much needed programming for special needs children.
?Zareinu and other organizations like it are sitting out there and suffering silently, and the kids and their families are being shortchanged.? said Shurman.
?Only $4.5 million annually is being spent. If you do the math on that, and you take it from 1999, since nobody has changed the line item, these kids are being short-changed, and many like them around Ontario, to the tune of about $10 million a year; eight years, $80 million.?
?The government has to understand that people are not numbers; they are faces. They?re faces, and I?ve seen the faces.?
MPP Shurman commended the professionals at Zareinu for the excellent work they do in providing much needed services to special needs children and their families. ?They believe in a coordinated, co-operative effort to develop and provide therapies and learning strategies that will improve the quality of life for each child and each family. They advocate for acceptance of children with special needs in the community. That?s their philosophy, and a good philosophy it is,? added Shurman.
Shurman stressed that it is the obligation of MPPs, both government and opposition, to live up to promises and not neglect those most in need.
?Our bureaucrats saved us $80 million? Can you imagine what that could have done for Zareinu, for these kids and these families and for countless other facilities like this all over the province??said Shurman.