Highway Priorities
The report found the Ford government ignored advice given by experts about highways in the province—deciding to stop work on six highways that had been approved for funding—in favour of building four other highways, including Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, that were ranked lower priority by technical and engineering staff, but were key parts of Doug Ford’s reelection campaign.“The combined proposals exceeded the planned 10-year budget by $245 million,” the report said.
“We found that, at the direction of the minister, the ministry recommended deferring highly-ranked highway expansion projects in favour of lower-ranked projects, without communicating to Treasury Board ... that the ministry’s subject-matter experts did not agree with the direction from the Minister’s office.”
On a positive note, the report said Ontario highways have the lowest rate of fatalities and are the best maintained in the country.
‘Vaccine Shop’
The auditor general said that between February and June, the province wasted 38 percent of vaccine doses by overestimating demand for COVID-19 boosters, and criticized the lack of a centralized booking system, which led to roughly 227,000 no-show shot appointments, just in the provincial booking system. Half of public health units used their own booking system, as did some hospitals, pharmacies, and other companies.“Multiple booking systems also encouraged Ontarians to ‘vaccine shop’ by registering for multiple appointments to try to get either the quickest appointment or a specific vaccine brand,” the report said.
Overall the province wasted 3.4 million doses of COVID shots and $66 million in personal protective equipment (PPE) that was thrown out because it was damaged, expired, or obsolete. Half of the PPE was from the Business Service Ministry and the other half from the Health Ministry, and included masks that required assembly and hand sanitizer.
“Once the supply chain stabilized, some products became more desirable than others by the end users, so certain products were not used prior to expiry,” stated the report.
Another 100 million units of N95 masks, exceeding anticipated demand and worth roughly $81 million, will expire by March 2030.
At one point, as the government changed guidance on who should have a PCR test, the Minister of Education procured contracts based on estimates that 50,000 PCR tests would be required weekly province-wide. It turned out only 1,900 tests were actually required weekly, the auditor found.
The auditor general said doctors had little incentive to give COVID shots to patients in their own practices, getting paid just $13 per COVID shot per patient, while doctors working at a vaccination site connected to a public health unit or hospital made $170 to $220 an hour.
Postal Code Pricing
The auditor also cited a 14 percent increase to $1,642 in average auto insurance premiums paid by drivers between 2017 and 2021, double the rate of inflation. “Ontario has the highest private passenger automobile insurance premiums in Canada,“ stated the report. “The audit found that insurance rates for the same person can range from $1,200 per year if they reside in London, Ontario ... to $3,350 per year if they reside in Brampton, Ontario, and drive exactly the same automobile.”In terms of energy use, the auditor’s report said Ontario Power Generation was only using upwards of 50 percent of installed hydroelectric generating capacity, but in 2021, could have generated enough electricity to power 540,000 more homes.
The report also found that undercover “mystery shoppers” were able to launder money in two out of four casinos tested, playing table games and slots with large amounts of cash. Two of the agents were caught by casino security, but others were able to “launder” money by buying thousands of dollars in chips, playing a few games, then cashing them out for cheques.
