Manitoba Puts $5 Million Into Kids’ Autism Care, Then Backs Off a Children-Only Strategy

WINNIPEG, MANITOBA – Manitoba is giving St.Amant, a Winnipeg nonprofit that runs an ABA-based early intervention program for preschoolers, C$5 million to expand autism services for children. Within two weeks, the same government amended the bill requiring a province-wide autism strategy to cover only children, then withdrew the change after families objected.

The funding, announced Oct. 14, is part of C$30 million the Department of Families set aside for autism supports in the 2026 provincial budget. The strategy bill passed the legislature unanimously on Oct. 27, with adults back in, and became law on Oct. 29.

What the $5 Million Buys

The province says the money will fund case management, early intervention, and behavioral supports at St.Amant. St.Amant president and CEO Ben Adaman expects it to significantly reduce a case-management wait list of about 1,800 families, according to Global News.

The money also expands St.Amant’s Early Learning Program, where behavior analysts design ABA programs for preschoolers with an autism diagnosis. Children get up to 20 hours a week for one year before they start school. The province says changes to the program will let more preschool-aged children in each year. Neither the province’s Oct. 14 announcement nor a Nov. 4 message from St.Amant’s CEO says how many Early Learning Program spots the money will add.

Manitoba’s Children’s disABILITY Services program now accepts autism diagnoses from community pediatricians for children five and under when deciding who qualifies. The province says that will shorten diagnostic waits, especially in First Nations, rural, and northern communities. A formal diagnosis is required to enter the Early Learning Program.

The province also put an additional C$1.75 million toward a third St.Amant children’s respite home, its second in Winnipeg after existing homes in St. Vital and Brandon, Manitoba’s second-largest city. Global News reported it is expected to open in December. The province says the three homes together will support up to 35 families once fully running.

“This will help families and children with autism. This won’t solve all of the problems, but this is an improvement.” – Wab Kinew, Premier of Manitoba (2026)

The Progressive Conservatives, the official opposition, say rural families still face big gaps. Carrie Hiebert, the party’s member for Morden-Winkler, called the St.Amant funding important but said it won’t help children in rural areas who can’t reach services, CBC News reported. “We’re lacking services outside the city,” she said, adding that families “have to drive hundreds of kilometers” to appointments. St.Amant does offer case management outside Winnipeg and runs its Early Learning Program through partner child care centers in rural Manitoba, but the announcement did not break down new capacity by region. The governing New Democratic Party voted down Hiebert’s motion for equitable access and a funded plan with timelines the same day.

A Strategy That Almost Left Adults Out

Bill 232, the Autism Strategy Act, is a private member’s bill from Cindy Lamoureux, the legislature’s lone Liberal. It passed second reading 46–0 in March. It requires the province to produce an autism strategy within two years of the law taking effect. The strategy must cover screening and diagnosis; early learning and school; jobs and housing for adults; family supports; research; and data collection, with a plan to reach every region of the province. Annual progress reports begin once the strategy is presented to the legislature. Manitoba launched an earlier five-year autism strategy, Thrive!, in 2011.

At an Oct. 16 committee hearing, 82 people registered to speak, the Winnipeg Free Press reported. Parents, autistic adults, advocates, and educators testified for about 13 hours. The committee then adopted amendments, moved by Fontaine, that would have turned it into a strategy for autistic children and dropped its explicit provision for adults. Fontaine said the government wanted child-specific legislation because it was already acting on a separate report on adult services. Lamoureux said she went along only because she believed it was the only way the bill would pass.

Fontaine’s office received more than 70 emails raising concerns about the change, and on Oct. 23 she announced the government would reverse it. “I want families to know that we listened to every word that they said,” she said. The legislature formally rescinded all of the committee amendments by unanimous consent on Oct. 26. Adaman backed the reversal, saying the strategy could now inform “a more complete understanding of how to support people at every stage of life.”

Neurodiversity advocate Jill Enright welcomed the reversal and called for more rural funding and more support options beyond ABA, Winnipeg Today reported.

Royal assent on Oct. 29, 2026, started a two-year clock. The province must finalize the strategy by Oct. 29, 2028.

AT A GLANCE

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