Liberal government handling of Hydro One has cost taxpayers billions, Lysyk wrote, and will cost them billions more in the years to come.
“From 2006 to 2014, the electricity portion of the hydro bills of residential and small-business consumers increased by 70 per cent,” the report said. “In particular, the Global Adjustment fees, covering the excess payments to generators over the market price, cost consumers $37 billion during that period, and are projected to cost another $133 billion from 2015 to 2032.”
The government had a process in the Electricity Act and regulations for drafting and approving a long-term technical plan for Ontario’s electricity system, but didn’t follow the process, Lysyk said.
“The process called for the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to draw up a 20-year technical plan, with updates every three years, and for the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) to review and approve the plan,” Lysyk said in the news release.
“The process could have offered protection to consumers because the OEB would have been able to review and approve any technical plans over the last decade for cost-effectiveness. Instead of following the legislated process, the Ministry of Energy itself effectively assumed responsibility for electricity planning.”
Sudbury Liberal MPP Glenn Thibeault was not available Wednesday to comment on the report, his office said.
In an interview Wednesday, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the “shameful” findings in Lysyk's report are yet another sign of a Liberal government gone off the rails.
"They've made an absolute mess of the hydro file," Horwath said. "And things are just going to get worse with the private sector selloff."
One aspect of Hydro One's IPO that may have gone unnoticed, she said, is the fact the auditor general will no longer have authority to audit the utility.
"The government removed the auditor's ability to look into Hydro One when they passed the legislation to privatize," Horwath said. “So this is literally the very last time that the auditor general will do a review of Hydro One.
"No more salary disclosure, freedom of information — nothing at all. It's quite worrisome."
She said the report's revelations about the lack of action to help the mining industry grow is a particular slap in the face to northerners.
"There's a complete lack of any plan whatsoever — notwithstanding how many announcements and ribbon-cuttings that have happened on the Ring of Fire. There's not a stick of infrastructure being built there," she said.
"So it's utter, utter failure of this government in the mining sector. And now, of course, globally, mining is taking a downturn and we've lost huge opportunities in Northern Ontario. It's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace."
And in a news release, Tory Leader Patrick Brown described the AG's report as “a devastating indictment of 12 years of Liberal waste and mismanagement.
“The Auditor General’s report confirms what the Progressive Conservative caucus has been saying all along – the Wynne Liberals have no real plan to either balance the budget or reduce the province’s growing debt burden,” Brown said. “The auditor general highlights that by 2018, the net debt owed by every Ontario resident will be approximately $23,000 per person.”
The report also found the province's growing debt burden continues to take money away from the funding of key government programs, such as desperately needed health and social services, Brown said in the release.
The report also revealed Ontario’s economic development funds provided 80 per cent of its funding to handpicked companies, the Tory release said, which in numerous instances did not provide proof why taxpayer money was necessary. Some companies had even signed off on projects before being picked for funding.
“The Auditor General’s report shows that the complete lack of targets, evaluation and oversight by the Liberal Government continues to hurt job creation in the province,” Brown said.
Other findings from the AG's report:
- A new computer system used in the administration of social assistance — SAMS — was launched prematurely with serious defects at a cost of more than $200 million, which was about $40 million over budget, with additional costs to fix the defects that are expected to bring the total cost to about $290 million;
- The Ministry of Health and Long-term Care fell behind on its critical-incident and complaint inspections at the province’s 630 long-term-care homes;
- The province has yet to correct many of the problems in the Home Care Program of Ontario’s 14 Community Care Access Centres that were identified in an audit our Office completed five years ago;
- Children’s Aid Societies are not always meeting provincial protection standards, may be closing cases too soon, and are taking too long to complete investigations of possible abuse;
- The Ministry of Children and Youth Services lacks sufficient information about the quality of care provided by Ontario’s 47 Children’s Aid Societies to oversee them effectively;
- Ontario’s 14 Local Health Integration Networks have a mandate to plan, fund and integrate local health systems, but the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care has not clearly outlined what the end result should look like and when it should be achieved;
- Ontario does not have a co-ordinated plan or funding strategy in place for cleaning up contaminated sites;
- The Ministry of Northern Development and Mines has not been effectively encouraging timely mining development in the province, even though Ontario has a significantly lower tax rate on mining than the national average. There is also a need for a long-term plan for inspecting and rehabilitating abandoned mine sites;
- In recent years, Hydro One’s transmission and distribution systems have become less reliable, yet their costs are increasing;
- Given that Ontario plans to spend more than $120 billion on infrastructure over the coming decade, it needs to better identify and prioritize where the spending should be directed;
- Eighty per cent of the new funding the Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure approved in the last five years to support businesses went to select companies that were invited to apply for it;
- Although school buses are generally safe modes of transportation, government oversight should be strengthened to ensure that even more could be done to lower the risk to students;
- The Ministry of Research and Innovation does not track the total funding ministries and agencies invest in research and does not evaluate the impact of funded research. This results in difficulty determining whether value for money is being achieved; and,
- The annual reports of some of Ontario’s largest agencies are not being made public in a timely manner—or not at all in some cases. The Ontario Legislature is therefore not up to date on all agencies’ financial and other activities for the past year.
To view the full report, go to Auditor.on.ca.
