'Uncoordinated,' wasteful—and questionable? Audit slams Ontario government for handling of COVID crisis and for vaccine contract to political donor

Ontario’s auditor general criticized Doug Ford’s government recently for its handling of the COVID-19 crisis, citing a provincial vaccine booking system that was “unco-ordinated” and calling out a number of companies that had received vaccine clinic contracts for wasting shots or administering just a fraction of the doses they had been expected to deliver. One of these companies had contributed $54,000 to Ford’s Progressive Conservative party, according to a Globe and Mail report. In her annual report released on November 30, Bonnie Lysyk said Ontario’s confusing vaccine booking system contributed to 227,000 no-show appointments last year. While Lysik did say most COVID vaccine contracts were handled appropriately, her audit found that that some of these deals led to a waste of public money and resources. Lysik also observed that the province’s doctors received much higher compensation—between $170 to $220 an hour—for vaccinating patients than other healthcare professionals. For example, nurses got paid between $32 to $49. The audit noted that the companies awarded the contract were sole-sourced, without competition. One particular company, FH Health—which was sourced by Ontario Minister of health Sylvia Jones, who at the time led the Ministry of the Attorney General’s office—was contracted to operate clinics at nine Toronto-area locations, including the Toronto Zoo. Read: Advocates call for more nurse practitioner led clinics in Ontario These clinics saw very little traffic, with only 6% of daily available appointments booked between January and March 2022. The Opposition NDP has asked for an investigation into these contracts after it came to light that at least 18 people related to FH Health—including board members, employees and individuals with the same last names as these board members and employees—had donated thousands of dollars to the Conservatives in September 2021, before the vaccine contract was awarded. Lysik’s reported also called out Switch Health—which got $17.3 million from Ontario to run two vaccination clinic—for wasting 58,859 doses or close to 60% of the vaccines it received. Lysyk recommends that government ministries be required to “document what safeguards they must use to prevent bias and perceived and actual conflicts of interest” in awarding sole-sourced contracts. “We very strategically made sure that as we saw communities that needed additional assistance, we put the financial resources in to get that job done,” Jones said, arguing that while some vaccines were wasted, the contracts ensured vaccination clinics could be set up quickly and target those who needed them most. Read: NDP asks for Queen's Park unanimous consent in bid to improve trans healthcare Lysik said the province also could have done better in its testing programs. Ford’s government did not do enough to ensure businesses and other groups actually used the hundreds of thousands of rapid test kits handed out to them. At the same time, better coordination of testing clinics set up by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health could have saved the province more than $18 million. Instead, the province paid private firms $32 million to operate the clinics, which tested a mere 2% to 7% of their capacity on average while being guaranteed minimum payments of up to $8,255 a day. On more than 100 occasions, these clinics were paid for doing no tests. The report also said $66-million of personal protective equipment, such as masks, expired or was damaged in 2021-22. Read: Ontario docs advise masks, vaccine catch up ahead of anticipated tough viral season

'Uncoordinated,' wasteful—and questionable? Audit slams Ontario government for handling of COVID crisis and for vaccine contract to political donor

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