Auditor General Denise Hanrahan has released her report on the province’s 2025 financial statement audits.

The report looks at several “focus areas,” the first of which is the $398-million tobacco settlement the province is set to receive.

According to the report, the 2025 provincial budget “understated the deficit by including the entire settlement” in its calculations.

The PC government has since removed that money, which has not been received, from the books. As of the fiscal update in December, the deficit is just shy of $1-billion.

On the topic of fraud reporting, the AG’s report says there were 490 incidents of fraud reported over the last year – 64 per cent of those are related to attempted cheque fraud by recipients and the other 26 per cent is related to people who received income support payments under false pretenses.

The report says more work is needed to ensure “clear and consistent action” is taken when fraud is identified.

The report also looks at health sector bonuses, noting that efforts to recruit more physicians have cost $57-million since 2023, and efforts to recruit nurses have cost $20-million since 2022. The use of agency nurses, according to the report, has been reduced to 208 as of last September, noting that government previously had a goal of having just 60 contracts by this April.

75 recommendations made

The AG’s report makes 75 new recommendations to government, and there are 57 recommendations left outstanding from last year.

The document looks at what was done by the formal Liberal administration and with the PCs now at the helm, Denise Hanrahan has some advice for the new government.

She calls the report an opportunity for the PC government to get a “lay of the land,” noting there is lots of information in the report that can help them implement the recommendations.