The Office of the Auditor General released its annual report on the Ontario government. It’s scathing. It’s explosive. Here’s eight things you need to know.
Ontario is failing to address the opioid crisis
The government is doing a bad job at implementing a flawed Opioid Strategy.
Over the last decade, opioid-related deaths and emergency department visits increased by almost 300%, with an average of seven people a day dying from opioid related causes.
Access to addiction-treatment and harm reduction services is limited. Few hospitals and primary care providers offer addiction-treatment services and very few emergency departments and family health teams have addiction specialists.
The Ministry is not tracking the effectiveness of its work, or the issue in general. For example, the ministry doesn’t track people who become addicted after being prescribed opioids.
The government provided no evidence to justify the closure of Consumption and Treatment Sites (CTS) that provided harm-reduction services like needle exchange and a room for people to use drugs with a health care worker present in case of an overdose.
There will be no CTS in the entirety of Northern Ontario, even though opioid use in the north is very high.
They’ve provided no evidence-based business case for the new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs, which will see the establishment of 370 beds to provide abstinence treatment for addiction.
The Ontario Place development is flawed and costly
The selection process to choose Austrian spa company Therme to redevelop Ontario Place into a luxury spa was not fair, transparent, or accountable.
The cost of Ontario Place has ballooned to $2.2 billion (an increase of $1.8 billion), with the procurement process deemed “highly irregular” by the Auditor General.
The amount Therme is investing is much lower than publicly reported, being $350M, instead of $750M.
The auditor found that staff in both the Premier’s Office and Minister’s Office met with prospective tenants, namely Therme, despite the government’s own rules saying that wouldn’t be the case.
Therme is broke. Therme doesn’t have enough equity to purchase a nice condo in Toronto, let alone construct a major spa. Massive public investment was necessary to make this project viable.
The government is giving out MZOs like candies
Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZOs) are orders issued by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing that outline what can and cannot be built on a property. MZOs override provincial and municipal planning rules.
There is no protocol and no rationale for the way the government distributes MZO’s – even after the Greenbelt scandal. The Ministry didn’t assess whether the MZO was needed, or even if it was near servicing and infrastructure, like roads.
Ministry staff, even the Premier, is implicated with handing out MZOs to developers who donate to the Conservative party. Typically, if a developer receives an MZO their land value goes up because the MZO gives the developer permission to build housing or buildings.
The Toronto District School Board is not always safe
Violent incidents at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) have increased 67% since 2017-2018 - the highest on record.
Mental health and wellness staffing have not kept pace with demand. Referrals for services have increased 71% since 2017-18, while staffing has only increased 42%.
The TDSB has been unable to provide qualified supply teachers for about 20% of absences.
TDSB school buildings are in the worst shape of any school board in the province. The TDSB has a repair backlog of $4.1 billion.
Public Private Partnerships are over budget and late
Ontario now has two types of public-private partnerships (P3s), one where a company builds and gets permission to charge users once the project is complete, and one where a company finances, designs, builds, and/or operates the project and is paid by the government for its services.
P3s are used to build hospitals, roads, transit, and more.
Increased use of P3s has not resulted in better outcomes. P3 projects are consistently over budget and late.
The Ontario Lands Tribunal is not independent or accessible
The Ontario Lands Tribunal (OLT) is an extraordinarily powerful appeal body that rules on land use decisions, such as condominium, quarries, and municipal official plans.
The OLT is not able to provide evidence to prove its adjudicators are qualified and is not meeting its target of hearing cases in a timely manner.
The average time for a case to make its way through the OLT process, from intake to ruling, has increased from 420 days in 2021/2022 to 553 days in 2023/2024.
The government’s changes to the OLT, restricting environmental groups and residents’ groups from challenging developments, and the high cost of appealing a decision, is limiting the ability of individuals, non-profits and small municipalities from accessing the tribunal.
In 2023-2024, the OLT allowed about 90% of the 116 developments to appeal to it, giving the impression that it sided with developers over municipalities, public interest groups and residents.
Ontario has no effective plan to reduce its debt burden
Ontario’s total debt continues to rapidly increase, estimated at $450B in 2024-2025, rising to $462B in 2026-2027. Ontario’s debt has increased by 47% over the past decade.
The Auditor General concludes the province has not demonstrated how it plans to manage its debt and is not moving ahead with a plan to reduce Ontario’s debt burden.
Government advertising is up
Government advertising spending was the highest ever recorded, totaling $103.5 million this year, tripled from last fiscal year.
About 62% of the funding was for campaigns that would have been considered ‘too partisan’ to qualify for public spending under government advertising rules prior to 2015.
The partisan ads’ primary purpose was to create a favourable impression of the governing party, as opposed to giving specific information, like reminding people to be screened for cervical cancer.
Some of the ads gave an impression of the government’s work to the viewer that was not backed-up by evidence or facts.
For instance, the “funding in schools” ad – which the government spent $3M on – presented Ontario’s schools as heavily funded and well-staffed. Yet, funding in schools per student, when inflation is factored in, has dropped by $776 per student over the past six years.
The government has also spent an additional $12.8M on digital advertising which is exempt from being reviewed by the Auditor General.
Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) is not aligned with need
The Ministry of Labour, Immigration Training and Skills Development does not track outcomes or benefits of the OINP. As of the end of 2023, occupations with the largest vacancies have received little attention through the program.