Thread by @mini_bubbly

Ontario auditor general finds COVID-19 vaccine wastage, unco-ordinated bookings.

The province is running a disorganized booking system and doesn't fully track adult vaccinations.

cbc.ca/news/canada/to…

/2 Family doctors were underutilized in the vaccine rollout, Lysyk found, noting that the compensation structure provided a disincentive for them to administer shots in their own offices.

Physicians were paid between $170 and $220 an hour by the government to work at

/3 vaccination sites operated by a public health unit or a hospital, while doctors were paid just $13 per dose to vaccinate in their own offices. As well, Lysyk found that physicians at clinics were paid much higher rates to administer shots than nurses, who were paid

/4 between $32 and $49 an hour, and pharmacists, who were paid between $30 and $57 per hour.

About $18.7 million was paid to private companies for underutilized mobile COVID-19 testing, the auditor found.

/5 Auditor General Report part #2 on Doug Ford

The Ford government ignored internal expert advice when making key decisions about building or expanding highways in the province, a new report by Ontario’s auditor general has found.

/6 The Auditor General of Ontario’s annual report discovered that the Ford government opted to pause six highways that already had funding — including two in Northern Ontario — in favour of four highways the government had prioritized.

/7 The report also found the province “did not provide a rationale” when it removed tolls from two highways in Durham Region, confirming details previously reported by Global News.

/8 In 2019, the province classified the widening of four provincial highways as priority projects — a decision that came at the expense of six projects that were already approved for construction.

/9 ***That decision, made by the minister of transportation’s office, came despite the fact the 4 govt priorities were ranked lower by internal technical staff, the auditor general found.

“The combined proposals exceeded the planned 10-yr budget by $245M,” the report said.

/10 It also noted the priorities were communicated by the government to ministry officials in meetings rather than in emails or letters while “left an incomplete record of how these decisions were made, by whom, and why,” the auditor general said.

/11 ** The report found that deferring the six highway projects in favour of the other four resulted in $158 million in public money being moved from projects in the north down to southern Ontario.

/12 ** The cost of current government priorities for highways, including Highway 413, is on course to exceed spending through the past decade, which was pegged at around $8.1 billion, the report said.

/13 The Bradford Bypass and Highway 413 have been flashpoints for opposition parties and environmental advocates.

Both Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass were a key plank of the PC Party’s 2022 re-election campaign. In the run-up to June 2022, Doug Ford — with the backing of

/14 several major private sector unions — positioned his party as the only one that would deliver major construction projects.

/15 This is wild-The same report found the province removed tolls earlier than planned from 2 Durham highways had their tolls removed & without the government preparing a reason to speed up the process.

Lysyk said the govt “did not identify all the key risks of removing tolls.”

/16 The Ministry estimated that, over the next 30 years, the lost toll revenue related to these proposals would be $608 million, according to the auditor general.

News article source: globalnews.ca/news/9314304/o…

/17 Auditor General report on Doug Ford part 3

Ontario electricity subsidies fail to reduce root-cause of high prices, AG says

Taxpayer subsidies of electricity rates in Ontario have masked the true cost of power in the province without working to lower it, Ontario’s

/18 auditor general suggests. In her annual report, Bonnie Lysyk found that various tax-based subsidy programs to lower electricity bills in Ontario have proved effective at dropping the prices Ontarians pay without addressing the root cause of the issue.

/19 “These programs do not actually reduce the true cost of electricity, however; they simply shift a portion of the costs from ratepayers to taxpayers,” the auditor general wrote in her annual report.

/20 New article sourced: globalnews.ca/news/9314961/o…

/21 Auditor General report Doug Ford - part 4

Ontario government spent $13M on ‘partisan’ ads, auditor general says

globalnews.ca/news/9315053/o…

/22 Full Auditor General Report 2022 - Doug Ford part 5 - I will be reviewing the full report and will add more to this thread

Link to full report here: auditor.on.ca/en/content/ann…

/23 Funds overspent or wasted under Doug Ford - Ontario in 2022

$18.7 million was paid to private companies for underutilized mobile COVID-19 testing

$158 million in public money being moved from projects in the north down to southern Ontario

/24 Over the next 30 years, the lost toll revenue related to these proposals would be $608 million, according to the auditor general.

Ontario government spent $13M on ‘partisan’ ads, auditor general says

Province reported a surplus of $2.1 billion
for the 2021/22 fiscal year.

/25 It initially anticipated a deficit of $33.1 billion in its 2021 Ontario
Budget and subsequently revised that estimate
to a lower deficit of $13.5 billion as part of the
interim numbers in its 2022 Ontario Budget.
The surplus arose from $26.9 billion higher than-expected

/26 tax revenues (mostly driven by significant
increases in personal income taxes,
sales taxes & corporate taxes); $3.2B
higher-than-expected transfers received from the
Government of Canada; $1.9B higher-than expected income from government business enterprises;

/27 and $3.1B lower-than expected expenditures (including lower interest on debt of $0.5 billion).

Province was holding a significant inventory of PPE at an inventory cost of $1.5 billion, with no rotational use plans with hospitals & other entities in place to reduce

/28 the potential of expired PPE being written off if
not used.

Receivables of $657M ($140M in 2020/21) due to the Crown from individuals and non-government organizations were written off during the year.

/29 Province reported CIT revenue of $25.2 billion—an increase of $7.4 billion (or about 42%) compared to
the prior year.

In its first two quarters of operations, from April 4 to
September 30, 2022, iGaming Ontario reported a total gross gaming revenue of $386 million

/30 (unaudited—includes total gaming revenue of $429 million less eligible deductions of about $43 million); of this amount, iGaming Ontario will pay about 80%, or $309 million, to operators

/31 (click show replies after this tweet to see more of the thread)

As at March 31, 2022, the DIRF (Deposit Insurance Reserve Fund) reported an audited fund surplus (i.e., net assets) of approximately $372.9 million

/32 Ontario Health provided a total of $29.6 billion in funding to health service providers - 2021/22

Overall, we found that there continues to be an
unclear delineation of roles and responsibilities
between the Ministries of Health and Long-Term
Care and Ontario Health,

/33 with respect to funding for health-service providers. This in turn increases the risk
of material financial reporting errors on the recording
of and accountability for government transfers and
the use of those funds.

/34 Ontario’s Debt Burden
We have consistently commented in previous Annual
Reports on Ontario’s growing debt burden, attributable to Ontario’s large annual deficits and its spending on capital assets such as infrastructure. As part of the commitments made by the Province

/35 to combat COVID19, the Province continued to incur additional debt in 2021/22.

Based on the 2022 Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review, the Province projects it will have annual deficits over the next 3 years.

2022/23 - $407.2B
2023/24 - $424.8B
2024/25 - $436.2B

/36 In the last 10 years, Ontario's net debt has increased by 57.3%.

2012-13 net debt was $241.9B - 2013 under Liberal govt
2020-21 net debt was $380.4B - under PC govt (increase of $140.5B)
Estimated increase of $55.8 billion over the next 3 years.

/37 To put this in perspective:

Net debt per person 2012/13 - $18.342.00
Net debt per person by 2024/25 - $27,961.00
Current net deb per person 2022 - $25,688.00

/38 Due to the increased debt in Ontario - debt servicing costs will cut into funding for other programs/services. To put this in perspective, interest expense on the debt is the 4th largest expenditure behind, health, education, children and social services.

/39 Ontario has been keeping interest rates relatively steady, however, if interest rates continue to rise, the Ontario government will have considerably less flexibility to provide public services because it will have to allocate more money to interest payments.

/40 Ontario’s credit ratings for the last five years. In 2018, Moody's downgraded its rating for Ontario's debt from Aa2 to Aa3 and Fitch revised its rating outlook from stable to negative--both assessments indicate the Province's increased credit risk.

/41 Contingency Funds - $4.6B Auditor General noted that previous contingency funds were much lower - under $1B and this new contingency fund under Ford in the past few years was overly cautious.

Full Auditor General's report here: auditor.on.ca/en/content/ann…

/42 Video from @Mikeggibbs ruling of 1% wage cap #Ontario struck down

https://twitter.com/Mikeggibbs/status/1598112408718823424?s=20&t=l14Cp2Cgd3z2nJSxrSkBpw