auditor general – mackaycartoons

Friday April 27, 2018

April 26, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 27, 2018

Auditor’s deficit allegations could be bad news for all parties

History, like politics, has a way of repeating itself. Especially at election time.

February 18, 2017

In opposition 15 years ago, Ontario’s Liberal Party smelled a rat. They accused the Tory government of the day of cooking the books.

Playing the reformist card in the 2003 campaign, Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals proposed that all future pre-election budgets be reviewed by the auditor. Upon winning power, McGuinty ordered a special audit that uncovered a deficit of more than $5 billion “hidden” by the previous Progressive Conservative government.

Fast forward to 2018. Now, the PC opposition is accusing the governing Liberals of playing with numbers — and this time, the auditor general of the day, Bonnie Lysyk, is on their side.

December 11, 2014

Lysyk held a news conference Wednesday to declare the Liberals are understating the true deficit by $5 billion.

The law of unintended consequences has a way of catching up to you. All that Liberal reformist zeal from 2003 is now fresh ammunition for the PCs as they accuse McGuinty’s successor as of fudging the numbers.

There is nothing new in the auditor’s latest report. But in auditing as in politicking, timing is everything. Which makes the Liberals electorally unlucky.

Few paid the auditor much heed two years ago when Lysyk suddenly declared she was reversing the accounting rules established by previous auditors: Accumulated surpluses in major public sector pension plans could no longer be counted as budgetary assets, as they had been since Tory times.

The effect of her ruling was to produce a gaping multibillion-dollar hole in the government’s accounting framework at the very moment they were striving to meet a 2017-18 target for deficit elimination. The government convened an outside panel of accounting and pension experts, who declared that Lysyk couldn’t have it both ways: Just as pension shortfalls count as a liability on the balance sheet, a pension surplus should count for something — not nothing, as the auditor insisted.

Lysyk still wouldn’t budge. But Bay Street didn’t bite, ignoring the auditor’s alarm bells. Credit rating agencies also looked at the books but didn’t buy into her alarmist assessments. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)

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Saturday February 18, 2017

February 17, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 18, 2017

Ontario’s auditor general is not satisfied after an expert panel sided with the Liberal government in a $10.7-billion accounting dispute.

The auditor and the government disagree over whether a $10.7-billion surplus in two jointly sponsored pension plans should appear as an asset on the government’s books.

December 11, 2014

Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk says that because the government doesn’t have the right to unilaterally access that surplus, it shouldn’t count as an asset.

But an expert panel this week said that it is an asset because it has a future economic benefit, since the government could reduce contributions and would therefore have additional funds to spend elsewhere.

But Lysyk says in order for her to issue a clean audit opinion, she wants to see a letter from the unions representing workers covered by the plans saying the province can use that money.

The government says joint pension agreements already spell out how surpluses are to be handled and no additional letter is needed. (Hamilton Spectator)

Tuesday June 9, 2015

June 8, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 9, 2015

Senate to forward expense files of nine Senators to the RCMP

The Senate handed the expense records of nine of its own to the Mounties on Friday as part of the fallout from the two-year examination of its books by auditor general Michael Ferguson.

“We’ve committed to not question any element of the report,” Senate Speaker Leo Housakos told the Star in an interview, adding that he would have preferred that Ferguson be the one to refer his own findings to the RCMP.

The Canadian Press reported retired Liberal senator Rod Zimmer, one of the nine whose expenses were referred to the police, led the pack when it came to the amounts Ferguson said should be repaid. He had disputed expense claims totalling $176,014 in travel expenses for non-parliamentary business and a housing allowance he should not have claimed.

The Star has confirmed the audit to be formally released June 9 identifies a total of $976,627 in inappropriately claimed expenses, and that more than half that amount — about $546,000 — is linked to just five senators.

That is the amount Ferguson found issues with following arduous, line-by-line reviews of 80,000 transactions worth about $180 million involving 117 senators from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2013. (Source: Toronto Star)

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Published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, The Brandon Sun, and the Gull Lake Advance

Friday December 12, 2014

December 11, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

Group wants probe into LCBO-Beer Store deal

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 12, 2014

A national restaurant group has asked the Competition Bureau to investigate a non-compete agreement between the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and the Beer Store, claiming the deal restricts competition and inflates the price of beer in restaurants, bars and pubs.

Restaurants Canada also called Wednesday on the Ontario government — owner of the LCBO — to immediately cancel the agreement, which was first reported by the Toronto Star.

The Star reported on Tuesday that it obtained a 10-page document — signed by the LCBO and the Beer Store in June 2000 — in which the LCBO agreed not to sell beer in packages of more than six containers. It also agreed not to sell to restaurants and bars any of the major brands not carried in its regular stores.

James Rilett of Restaurants Canada said the group has known of the existence of an agreement for years, but it “did not know the depth of the complicity.” He said a neutral party now needs to look into what he called a “sweetheart deal.”

The Competition Bureau confirmed Wednesday that it had received a complaint from the group and that it will review it.

Restaurants Canada, which represents 30,000 food-service businesses, said that in the past, the bureau had not been willing to wade into the issue, but the group believes the deal must be investigated now that it has been made public.

“The agreement can be terminated at any point, simply by giving six months’ notice. If the government were to cancel it today, Ontario consumers would be able to have better service and cheaper prices by the summer,” the group said.

The brewers’ association hit back, saying the allegations were false and inaccurate.

“Restaurants Canada’s claims that the Beer Store sets beer prices and that the LCBO/Beer Store framework agreement controls beer prices are both categorically false and misleading,” said Jeff Newton, president of Canada’s National Brewers. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Thursday December 11, 2014

December 10, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Hamilton Spectator – Thursday December 11, 2014

Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk unleashed her microscope on Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government Tuesday. Here is what she found in her annual report.

Financing 74 infrastructure projects through private-public partnerships has cost taxpayers at least $8 billion more in borrowing and other expenses than if they had been publicly funded.

Infrastructure Ontario, the government’s P3 agency (as in public-private partnerships), made a risky $224 million loan to the MaRS Discovery District to bail out the new phase two tower.

Ontario’s ballooning debt, which was at $267 billion as of March 31, will be at about $325 billion before the Liberals plan to stop running budget deficits in 2017-18.

The government is not meeting its objectives on the $1.9 billion smart meter program designed to encourage consumers to conserve energy.

There is inadequate oversight of licensed daycare with only 50 per cent of new operators having on file criminal background checks for staff.

Ontario’s $250 million annual immunization program is not as efficient as it could be with 21,000 instances last year where the Ministry of Health paid physicians and pharmacists for administering the flu shot to the same person. A new vaccination registry, Panorama, is costing $160 million, which means it is $85 million over budget. Still, the government does not know what happens to 20 per cent of the flu vaccine doses it purchases each year.

There are huge waiting lists for residential services for people with developmental disabilities. As of March 31, there were 14,300 adults on the waiting list — compared with 17,400 actually receiving services.

Fourteen years after the Walkerton tragedy that killed seven people and left 2,300 ill, some key recommendations from the judicial inquiry into the tainted-water disaster have not been acted upon. (Source: Toronto Star)