Auditor General Fall Report 2016: Michael Ferguson Says It's 'Deja Vu All Over Again'

OTTAWA — Tax disputes are taking too long to resolve, there's no way to evaluate efforts to streamline cross-border traffic and trade and Canada is "squandering" the potential of its Aboriginal Peoples, the federal auditor general says in his annual fall report.

Michael Ferguson is marking the midpoint of his 10-year mandate by acknowledging some recurring themes, lamenting the fact that despite five years of pointing out flaws in the bureaucracy, many still show up in his reports year after year.

Auditor General Blasts 'Major Gaps' in BC's Mining Oversight

To avoid more disasters like the 2014 failure of the tailings pond dam at Mount Polley mine, responsibility for regulating mining in British Columbia should be taken away from the ministry that also promotes the industry, concludes a new report from the province's auditor general.

"[The Ministry of Energy and Mines'] role to promote mining development is diametrically opposed to compliance and enforcement," wrote Carol Bellinger in the 109-page report "An Audit of Compliance and Enforcement of the Mining Sector."

9 key problems uncovered in auditor general’s report

OTTAWA—Highlights from auditor general Michael Ferguson’s fall 2014 report, released Tuesday:

1. Some veterans are forced to wait as long as eight months to find out if they can receive benefits. The disability benefits program application is complex and time-consuming.

2. Many veterans must endure long delays in obtaining medical and service records from National Defence and long wait times for mental health assessments.

Oilsands Cleanup May Not Be Adequately Funded: Alberta Auditor General

EDMONTON - Alberta's auditor general says the province may not be requiring oilsands companies to save enough money to ensure their gigantic mines are cleaned up at the end of their life.

"If there isn't an adequate program in place to ensure that financial security is provided by mine operators ... mine sites may either not be reclaimed as intended or Albertans could be forced to pay the reclamation costs," says a report released Monday by Merwan Saher.

Senate Expense Audit: Tory Senators Wish They Knew Auditor Had Fingered Their Own Leader

OTTAWA — Several Conservative senators say they wish they had known their Senate leadership had been fingered by the auditor general when they drafted a new arbitration process for those with questionable expenses.

The three most powerful people in the upper chamber — Senate Speaker Leo Housakos, government leader Claude Carignan, and the Liberal Senate leader Jim Cowan — are all in disputes with the AG’s office over questionable expenses, several sources reported Thursday. They are among 21 senators with disputed expenses but not among the nine whose files may be referred to the RCMP.

Ontario Auditor General Worries Changes Could See Public Pay For Partisan Ads

TORONTO - Ontarians could end up paying for partisan political advertising under changes the Liberal government is proposing, the province's auditor general warned Wednesday.

The government signalled in the budget last week that it would amend legislation to require the government to submit preliminary ads for the auditor general to review, define "partisan" in relation to its advertising and restrict government ads during elections.

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk said the proposed changes would "gut" the 10-year-old act.

Auditor General Report: Feds Not Tracking Tax Credits Impact On Treasury

OTTAWA - The auditor general says the Finance Department is failing to properly manage a signature move of the Harper government, the targeted tax credit, which the federal watchdog describes as program spending by another name.

Popular, and heavily promoted, tax expenditures such as the children's fitness tax credit and the first-time home buyers' tax credit don't get the kind of routine evaluation and public oversight required "to determine if these tax measures are relevant and performing as intended.'

Auditor General: Ontarians Paying Billions Extra For Electricity

TORONTO - People in Ontario are paying billions of dollars extra for electricity thanks to a flawed smart meter program and the above-market rates the province pays most power generators, Ontario's auditor general reported Tuesday.

Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli disputed the auditor's conclusions, suggesting her numbers were inaccurate because she didn't understand the "complex" electricity system.

Ratepayers will pay $50 billion between 2006 and 2015 because of an extra charge on their electricity bills that covers the gap between guaranteed prices paid to contracted power generators and the market price, auditor general Bonnie Lysyk wrote in her annual report.

Auditor General Fall Report Points To Shortcomings At Library and Archives Canada

OTTAWA - Future generations may not be able to enjoy Canada's recorded heritage — including photos, maps and important documents — because Library and Archives Canada is not collecting all of the material it should from federal agencies, the auditor general says.

In a report tabled Tuesday, Michael Ferguson says Library and Archives doesn't even know what it already has due to a backlog of 98,000 boxes of records — almost one-quarter of them military files, some dating to 1890.

Auditor General Fall Report: Veterans With PTSD Face 8-Month Waits, Dizzying Paperwork

OTTAWA - Many of Canada's battle-scarred veterans wait up to eight months to find out if they are eligible for long-term, mental-health disability benefits and the department responsible for their care has no idea if its treatment programs are effective, the auditor general said Tuesday.

For a handful of those ex-soldiers, the cumbersome application process is only the beginning of a battle for care that can rage for years.

Auditor general's fall 2014 report: Highlights

Highlights from auditor general Michael Ferguson's fall 2014 report, released Tuesday:

• Veterans Affairs is not providing veterans with timely access to mental health services; the disability benefits program has a complex and time-consuming application process and some vets are forced to wait as long as eight months to find out if they can receive benefits.
• Many veterans must endure long delays in obtaining medical and service records from National Defence and long wait times for mental health assessments.
• The Nutrition North program, which subsidizes the high cost of healthy food in northern communities, does not properly distribute subsidies or ensure savings are properly passed on to consumers.
• Nutrition North, which was intended to foster healthy eating, also subsidizes foods of dubious health value, such as ice cream, bacon and processed cheese spread.
• It's impossible to fully assess the effectiveness of $13.9 billion in loans Canada and Ontario provided to Chrysler and GM's Canadian subsidiaries in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis due to a lack of comprehensive reporting to Parliament.
• Library and Archives Canada doesn't know which departmental records should either be disposed of or archived, and has a backlog of 98,000 boxes of material waiting to be archived — some of it dating back to 1890 — with no plan for how to deal with it.
• Canada's national sex offender registry may not include some Canadians convicted of crimes abroad because the RCMP doesn't have access to Foreign Affairs information on convicts released from prisons in other countries.
• Canada's reverse-osmosis water purifiers, long a marquee element of the Canadian military's disaster relief efforts,produced only 65 per cent of projected output in the wake of last year's Typhoon Haiyan disaster in the Philippines, and only 73 per cent of that was ever distributed.
• The military's Integrated Relocation Program, which compensates members when their work requires them to move, requires better oversight and review.

Original Article
Source: CBC
Author: cbc

Auditor General's Report: Public Pension Plans At Risk Over Longer Life Spans

OTTAWA - The auditor general says Canada's public pension plans could pose a significant threat to the government's financial footing because little attention is being paid to looming costs, such as the longer life spans of retirees.

In his spring report to Parliament, Michael Ferguson also warned that prolonged rock-bottom interest rates and lower-than-expected returns on assets could cost taxpayers billions down the road.

Auditor General's Report: Overcrowded Prisons Loom Due To Shortsighted Planning

OTTAWA - The auditor general sees more overcrowded Canadian prisons on the horizon, despite the Conservative government's much-touted revamp of federal penitentiaries.

The federal prison service opted for a quick fix — overlooking long-term needs — when expanding penitentiaries to house a growing offender population, spending watchdog Michael Ferguson says in a report Tuesday.

As a result, the Correctional Service expects the number of prisoners could again outstrip capacity within a few years of completing construction.

Auditor Slams Underfunding of First Nations Disaster Relief

The federal government is failing to prevent and mitigate emergencies like floods on First Nations reserves, the auditor general found, and has been stuck in a reactive cycle that often leaves communities in tatters before getting necessary aid.

The findings, released Tuesday as part of a larger audit, show that Aboriginal Affairs can't meet the needs of communities in emergency situations because of a lack of funding, a focus on recovery instead of prevention, incomplete and out-of-date programs and a confusion about the responsibilities of relevant partners.

Government’s $38-billion shipbuilding plan doesn’t have enough money, auditor general to report

OTTAWA — Canada’s auditor general has found that the billions of dollars set aside for the federal government’s shipbuilding plan won’t be enough to get the navy the vessels it was promised, or needs.

Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s report on the national shipbuilding procurement strategy won’t be released until Nov. 26, but several sources who have seen versions of the report have told Postmedia News that it shows the current plan is untenable.

Win! Alberta Auditor General announces pipeline review

A network of more than 50 organizations from across the political spectrum in Alberta scored a major victory last week with the announcement from Alberta Auditor General Merwan Saher that his office would "as soon as reasonably possible" begin an audit of the safety of Alberta's 400,000 km of pipeline infrastructure. In a letter sent to the NDP Opposition confirming the audit, Saher wrote, "we will be auditing the government's monitoring systems to ensure compliance with Alberta's pipeline regulations. Our audit would also include inspection and enforcement processes."

The announcement of the Auditor General's investigation into pipeline safety is a major victory for the network of groups in the province, including the Council of Canadians, that has been pushing for an independent review of pipeline safety since a series of spills last summer, including a Plains Midstream spill of 475,000 litres of light sour crude into the Red Deer River system, brought the issue of pipeline safety to public attention.

AG plans to audit all senators

OTTAWA – Canada’s auditor general plans to review every senator’s expenses amid a firestorm over improper claims.

“We’re still going through our planning phase, but certainly our intention is to look at all the senators,” Michael Ferguson said in an interview Thursday.

Members of the Senate’s internal economy committee voted in June to invite Ferguson’s office to audit senators’ expenses. The call came as the Senate was awash in controversy, after Senators Mac Harb, Patrick Brazeau and Mike Duffy had their living and housing allowances subject to an independent audit.

Auditor general set to probe Senate expenses

OTTAWA — Canada’s auditor general is readying his office for a Senate expense audit that will examine the spending practices of every member of the troubled upper chamber.

Michael Ferguson’s audit could take at least a year to complete, said a source familiar with the plan the auditor laid out earlier this week for the Senate’s internal economy committee.

Why stop at the Senate? Liberals want auditor general to investigate prime minister’s office too

OTTAWA – Opposition Liberals in the Senate threw more oil onto the blaze of controversy over government transparency Thursday by announcing they want the auditor general to do a “comprehensive audit” of the Prime Minister’s Office, including any payments made to parliamentarians.

A Liberal notice of motion to this effect came the same day the Senate voted to call in the auditor general to examine its own spending, and less than 24 hours after former Conservative backbencher Brent Rathgeber resigned from the Tory caucus over what he argued was a lack of transparency within the Stephen Harper government.

Senate Scandal: Auditor General May Soon Inspect Expenses

OTTAWA - The Harper government is hoping to restore public confidence in the Senate by putting the scandal-plagued chamber's books under the auditor general's microscope.

Sen. Marjory LeBreton, the government leader in the Senate, introduced a motion Tuesday asking auditor general Michael Ferguson to conduct a comprehensive audit of Senate expenses, including the expense claims filed by individual senators.