Request investigation of government mismanagement, or ask your MPP to

Auditor General conducts audits on programs and services funded by provincial spending, reviewing issues of financial waste, program inefficiencies or mismanagement.

They consider information received from both the public and MPPs when deciding what programs to audit next.

Example request

Ontario NDP request Auditor General investigate Ford government’s decision to remove land from the Greenbelt

On January 11, 2023 the all three Ontario Opposition Party leaders sent a joint letter to the Auditor General of Ontario requesting a value-for-money audit and an assessment of the financial and environmental impacts of the government’s decision to remove lands from the Greenbelt.

The former Auditor General of Ontario’s Special Report on Changes to the Greenbelt revealed evidence that certain favoured developers received preferential treatment with respect to the selection of lands to be removed from the Greenbelt.

Submit a request or whistle-blower complaint

You can submit a request, providing information about an audit in progress, or suggesting audit topics by completing the following form (it can be anonymous):

Submit an anonymous public request

Example audits

• Value for Money Audit: Homelessness (2021)
• Addictions Treatment Programs: Follow-Up Report (2021)
• Ontario Works: Follow-Up Report
• Ontario Disability Support Program
• Social and Affordable Housing (2017)
• 2023 Annual Follow-Up on Value-for-Money Audits
• What Gets Measured Gets Managed: Ministries’ Performance Measurement, Program Evaluation and Annual Reporting
• The State of the Environment in Ontario
• Review of the Pre-Election 2022 Multi-Year Fiscal Plan

Organizations and programs audited

Audits of accounts and financial transactions of:

• Provincial Crown agencies such as the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, TVOntario, the Ontario Securities Commission and Metrolinx
• Attest Audits of Government Agencies
• Selected ministry or agency programs and activities every 5-7 years Performance audits of which assess whether money was spent with due regard for economy and efficiency, and whether appropriate procedures were in place to measure and report on the effectiveness of government programs.
• Public sector organizations or programs that are funded 50% or more by provincial grants such as hospitals, colleges and universities, school boards, children’s aid societies and Crown-controlled corporations, such as the new hydro companies that began operating in 1999 after the restructuring of Ontario Hydro
• Ontario Ministries’ compliance with the Environmental Bill of Rights, 1993
• Follow-up reviews of all the performance audits from the Annual Report published two years previously are in the Annual Report
• Government advertising review as per the Government Advertising Act, 2004 is in the Annual Report

Auditor General is responsible for performance audits of selected Ontario government activities and programs

• Examining the province’s Public Accounts and the accounts and financial transactions of a number of Crown agencies
• Carrying out performance audits of selected government activities and programs, and of broader public-sector organizations that receive government grants
• Assessing compliance with relevant legislation and government directives, including the Environmental Bill of Rights, 1993.

The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (also known as the Public Accounts Committee, or “PAC”) examines, assesses and reports to the Legislature on a number of issues, based on the Auditor General’s reports.

Both the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and FAO are independent officers of the Ontario government and provide financial analysis to Members, but the FAO tends to focus more on forward-looking analysis, while the Auditor General is primarily interested in the analysis of past events and transactions.