NPCA turns down auditor general’s offer
Ontario’s auditor general is open to getting involved with a forensic audit of Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority — if the timing is right.
Bonnie Lysyk held a conference call with officials from the conservation authority to discuss the audit and what role she could play.
“We contacted them to set up a meeting or a conference call because we had received correspondence from the different municipalities,” Lysyk said.
The auditor general provides independent audits of provincial government operations to ensure taxpayers receive value for their tax dollars.
The office also audits publicsector organizations such as hospitals and long-term care homes and school boards that receive provincial funding.
“Typically, our teams are in the field doing their audits, but I had one team available, and I would have been able to provide some assistance right away if (NPCA) wanted us,” Lysyk said. “It looks to me like they are defining their scope and objectives, and I could only wait until a certain point. I won’t have anybody free until the fall now.
“If the conservation authority is still interested, and the timing works for them, we could help then. Whatever they want to do, it is their decision, and I respect that.”
Want of an audit of NPCA has been growing since a group of activists led by Ed Smith began calling for a review of the agency’s practices in wake of a Chinese developer’s plan to build a $100-million condo complex in an area of Niagara Falls that contains provincially protect wetlands.
In December, the conservation authority and its former CAO, Carmen D’Angelo, now CAO of Niagara Region, filed a defamation lawsuit against Smith. Both the NPCA and D’Angelo are seeking $100,000 from Smith, who distributed a report titled A Call for Accountability at the NPCA. The report questions the agency’s practices and details possible conflicts of interest.
NPCA’s board bowed to public pressure and voted in January on a motion by NPCA board member and Lincoln regional Coun. Bill Hodgson to proceed with the audit. It will have the scope to investigate many of the allegations in the report, if an independent auditor deems its necessary.
Eight Niagara municipal councils — St. Catharines, Pelham, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Port Colborne, Thorold, Welland, Wainfleet and Niagara Falls — passed motions calling for the audit to be done, as well as Hamilton. All four Niagara members of provincial parliament — New Democrats Cindy Forster and Wayne Gates, Liberal Jim Bradley and Progressive Conservative Sam Oosterhoff — have also called for an audit.
Sandy Annunziata, NPCA chairman and a regional councillor from Fort Erie, said the authority hasn’t closed any doors on the auditor general’s offer.
“I can’t make a unilateral decision, and we really wanted to respect the motion from Bill Hodgson as well as the direction of the board,” Annunziata said. “Right now it is about timing. Bonnie and I made the commitment, that if we can collaborate in the future, we will certainly pursue that.”
Cost is an issue. For instance, the audits ordered by the region into the construction of the Burgoyne Bridge replacement project in St. Catharines are approaching $500,000.
Lysyk said her office would pay for her end of the NPCA audit.
“It would viewed by us as a pilot,” she said. “We are independent, but we report to the Ontario legislature.
“This would involve us reporting to the conservation authority. It would be, for us, an opportunity to demonstrate what we can do at a municipal or community level with people who haven’t had a direct relationship with an auditor general’s office.
“We don’t get involved in the politics. We just do the work. Our offer is still open. They may take a different course, and that’s OK as well.”
Tony Quirk, NPCA audit chairman and a regional councillor from Grimsby, said the authority is moving ahead with the process.
A request for proposal to conduct the audit prepared by NPCA’s acting CAO, Peter Graham, and representatives from regional staff in Niagara and Hamilton is ready to go, though board members want to see it before it is distributed. A special meeting of the board may be called to deal with that one item. The next scheduled meeting of the full board is March 29.
“In my mind, we have done a compromise,” Quirk said. “We are spending some money to get an independent auditor with the skill set we need to take a look at an organizational review and the performance assessment. We were going to do that anyway as part of our five-year strategic plan.
“The review and assessment will help identify areas of deeper concern. If the timing is good, we could provide that information to the auditor general, and move forward on a deeper dive.
“We have seen how much these forensic audits cost at the Region level with the Burgoyne Bridge. I don’t want to get into that kind of situation if I can avoid it,” he said.
It looks to me like they are defining their scope and objectives, and I could only wait until a certain point. I won’t have anybody free until the fall now.” Provincial Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk