Doug Ford faces new corruption accusations following scathing spending reports from Auditor General

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government is facing new accusations of corruption after the Auditor General released a series of reports on government spending.

Auditor General Shelley Spence released four reports on four different areas of government spending. They cover job training, child care, home construction and climate change.

In her reports, she raises concerns about problematic spending, and in her own words says there’s “room for improvement.” In at least one of her critiques, she goes even further, saying “it is troubling.”

Meanwhile, the opposition at Queens Park says this looks like government corruption.

“Once you get those political fingers involved in those decisions, it is a recipe for corruption and that is what this looks like,” Ontario NDP Marit Stiles said.

All four of the Auditor General’s reports criticized the Ford government’s spending.

On job training, she says the government’s skills development process was “not fair, transparent, or accountable” in choosing projects to receive funds.

She says 549 applications — more than half — were rated “low” or “medium” but were approved by the labour minister’s office anyway, receiving $742 million in funding while 670 “high ranked” applications were turned down. 

The Auditor General expressed concern about possible preferential treatment, and the role of lobbyists and consultants.

“The fact that we don’t know if a consultant has supported an organization… we really want to understand who they are and whether or not there’s any conflicts happening there,” she says.

On home building, she says the Home Construction Regulatory Authority that regulates builders was “not consistently effective in protecting consumers when purchasing a new home.” On the environment, she says “Ontario is not on track to meet its 2030 climate commitments.”

Finally, on $10-per-day childcare, she says Ontario created only 36,000 spaces up to the end of last year, far short of its goal of 86,000.

The opposition says the government has messed things up, particularly on job training.

“What the government did is they set this up to allow them to favour their friends, the lobbyists, who had been their donors,” says Stiles.

“All roads lead to the Premier’s office,” John Fraser added.

“There are too many connections and we’re just getting started. If you’re wealthy and well-connected, you’re going to be OK.”

Premier Ford spoke early in the day before the release of the reports, defending the skills development program.

“It’s one of the greatest programs we’ve ever created,” he said.

“There’s over 700 thousand jobs that have been created.”

After the reports release, a string of cabinet ministers went in front of the cameras.

“Where we failed, I’ll make sure we do better,” said education minister Paul Calandra.

Labour minister David Piccini was quick to defend the decision to approve spending for low-rated job training programs. He insists there’s no preferential treatment.

“I’m responsible for the program, and we reserve the right to make decisions,” he said.

READ MORE: Ontario to miss emissions reduction goal by an even wider gap than it admits: auditor