On December 2nd 2025 the Auditor General released her annual report investigating government departments and provincially- regulated sectors and agencies. Her report was damning. This is what you should know about her report.
Patients are illegally paying for medically necessary care
“Ontarians will always access the health care they need with their OHIP card, never their credit card.” That was Sylvia Jones, our Minister of Health, back in 2024.
The Auditor General’s report reveals a very different truth. The Conservatives are not protecting patients from being charged for services that are covered by OHIP.
Some physicians are urging patients to pay for medically unnecessary add-ons, without informing them of their right to opt for a free OHIP-covered service. This is most prevalent for eye-care, especially cataract surgery.
The family doctor shortage is getting worse
Two million people in Ontario do not have a family doctor or primary care nurse.
While the government is certainly throwing more money at the problem, they have no plan to achieve the goal of ensuring every Ontarian has a primary care provider by 2029.
The government doesn’t know how many providers are practicing in each region of the province. Their system – called Health Connect – of connecting patients with doctors is so bad that the medical community is refusing to use it.
They’re not creating enough medical spots for family docs because they did a crappy job of assessing the need, and underestimated how many people don’t have a doctor.
There’s no effective plan to oversee physician billing.
The Auditor General has found that there are some doctors – a few – who are billing for more than 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
That requires an investigation. The trouble is there’s only eight people responsible for auditing OHIP billing. The issue of overbilling has been a problem for years, and there’s been no meaningful action. The Province’s biggest responsibility is to provide health care.
We need to keep our system public, ensure everyone has access to a doctor or nurse, and set up the systems to make sure our health care money is well spent.
Ontario has no plan to reduce its record-high debt
Ontario’s debt load is still huge, and the Auditor General says the government isn’t showing how it plans to bring it down. Under the Fiscal Sustainability, Transparency and Accountability Act, the province has to publish a debt-burden reduction strategy with clear actions, but the AG found the 2025 Budget didn’t spell out what the government has actually done or will do to hit its targets.
Ontario is failing to uphold environmental protections
The Environmental Bill of Rights, enacted by the NDP government in 1994, guarantees Ontarians the right to be informed and consulted on government decisions that affect the environment.
The Auditor General reports that ministries are increasingly bypassing these required consultations, sometimes passing laws before consultations even close, and repeatedly exempting major projects from public review.
This is the same pattern that Ontarians saw with this government in the Greenbelt: ignore the rules, silence the public, and bulldoze ahead.
Recycling rules are stalled
The Auditor General found the recycling regulator (RPRA) isn’t being properly supported and isn’t enforcing compliance, leaving thousands of potential non-compliant producers unaddressed and delaying standardized disposal and recovery systems until at least 2026.
This means more waste, more costs down the line, and less accountability for companies that should be doing their part.
Ontario spent a record amount on government advertising
The Ford government spent more money than any other government ever recorded on advertising last year, totaling $111.7 million in the lead up to the snap election. This is not a coincidence.
Over half of the advertising budget was spent on partisan ads that served no practical purpose aside from making the government look good. This is not about advertisements promoting vaccination or cancer screening.
The Auditor General has ruled these are examples of blatant partisan advertising that would be banned if Ontario used a more stringent definition of partisan advertising.
Take a look at this ad and make up your own mind.