Millions diverted from Ontario's sex-offender registry, AG reports

Jordana Huber, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, December 11 2007

TORONTO - Ontario diverted millions of dollars from its sex offender registry and failed to keep track of hazardous waste shipments, according to the auditor general's annual report released Tuesday.

Auditor General Jim McCarter said he found hundreds of examples of convicted sex offenders who should have been registered with the provincial sex offender registry but weren't.

McCarter also said since the registry was started in 2001, $9 million had been siphoned from its budget into other police priorities at a time Ontario Provincial Police lacked the cash to complete system upgrades to enable officers to better track offenders and to access information quickly in an investigation.

In his report, McCarter found the province failed to keep track of 1,000 convicted sex offenders released from federal custody while the registry had incomplete information including photos, current addresses or detailed case information on some of the 7,400 registered offenders.

McCarter said the registry lacked any mechanism to track sex offenders who moved from other provinces to Ontario. And the OPP had no way of confirming the whereabouts of at least 400 offenders who said they had moved out of the province.

For the first time, the auditor general looked into the Archives of Ontario and found thousands of photos and documents dating back to the 17th century were missing or stolen.

McCarter also took aim at the province's prescription drug programs finding, in one instance, a pharmacy had overcharged $270,000 in dispensing fees, while the ministry only identified $1 million in overcharges from all investigations during a one-year period.

He said the province was not using the data in its information system to identify and inspect pharmacies that may be overcharging.

"The data is there to do this type of analysis," said McCarter. "To be honest, this is not rocket science."

Hazardous waste management also continues to be a problem, said McCarter, because the Ministry of the Environment's computer system is not adequate to ensure compliance with legislation and regulations.

The audit found unexplained instances of missing hazardous waste including 26,000 shipments where the quantity of waste received was at least 10 per cent less than what was shipped.

Also known as Christopher's Law, the sex offender registry requires a convicted sex offender to register with the OPP within 15 days of release and again annually. Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Rick Bartolucci said the province was working on making the registry complete.

He said the province has signed a memorandum of understanding with the federal government in order to get more information on convicted sex offenders released from federal custody.

On Tuesday, he also introduced amendments to Christopher's Law that he said, if passed, would require more offenders to register, including those released on bail pending an appeal as well as those serving intermittent sentences in the community.

Conservative Opposition Leader Bob Runciman took the government to task over the incomplete registry, calling for an inquiry into how many crimes had been committed by convicted sex offenders who should have been registered with the OPP.

McCarter's 494 page report included 14 value-for-money audits noting the overarching theme was a lack of information made for poor decision making.

"On every value-for-money audit we conducted this year, we found instances where either decision-makers didn't have good information or where good information was available but wasn't used effectively."

For example, McCarter said The Ministry of Transportation did not use its driver database to find out why new drivers who have a driver education certification were more likely to be involved in a car crash.

According to the audit, in 2005, a beginner driver who went to a provincially sanctioned driving school was 62 per cent more likely to have an accident than someone who did not go through a driving course.

The report also noted 6.4 per cent of the province's 5,500 driving instructors had accumulated demerit points as opposed to 1.4 per cent of the general population.

When it comes to pandemic outbreaks, McCarter said the province has done a lot since the 2003 SARS outbreak but is still not prepared for a pandemic outbreak such as influenza.

He found some local health authorities still do not have pandemic outbreak plans while the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care lacked information on what health units across the province still need to do in order to be prepared.

McCarter said Toronto's GO Transit needed to better utilize information on ridership in order to address significant overcrowding and delays.

The 2007 report also found:

. 40 per cent of hospital operating rooms were not in use during a nine-week period in the summer of 2006. At the same time the province does not have adequate information on the number of patients waiting for specific types of surgery. The auditor general also found lower-priority cancer surgeries in some regions in Ontario were being done before higher-priority cancer surgeries in other regions.

. The Ministry of Finance has not collected more than $967 million in retail sales tax up from $587 million in 1999.

. 75 species of fish, plants and wildlife are facing imminent extinction or may no longer be found in Ontario yet the Ministry of Natural Resources does not have adequate information on habitats where it needs to focus its resources.

. Universities don't have enough information on how they are using their facilities, which makes it difficult to identify potential cost savings.