Auditor Finds Huge Problems With Ontario’s Sex Offender Registry And Driver’s Ed.

Millions spent on “other priorities” while sex offenders walk free.

More crashes from young drivers who’ve taken government approved courses than those who haven’t.

Driver education certificates being sold illegally.

And the government is trying to figure out how to reduce wait times, but doesn’t know how many operating rooms there are.

Those are just a few of the problems that demand answers highlighted in Ontario’s latest Auditor-General’s Report. James McCarter is especially perturbed by the fact “hundreds” of sex offenders aren’t registering with police as scheduled because the OPP has diverted as much $9 million to other policing priorities.

In fact, McCarter found that Ontario didn’t even bother to get a list of the more than 1,000 sex offenders in federal custody in Ontario when the registry was created in 2001. Another 365 predators who should have had their names recorded didn’t and there’s no way for underage sex offenders who were tried as adults to actually put their names on the list even if they wanted to.

“There were no photographs on file for 140 offenders,” McCarter complained. “More than 1,200 offender records had no detailed case information, (and) the police have never verified the residential addresses of nearly 650 offenders.” There’s also no way to tell how many dangerous people may be coming into the province from elsewhere, even though they’re required to register with authorities within two weeks of arriving. 

“They didn’t have a good mechanism, no electronic interface, to make sure that when someone was being released from a federal institution, that the local police force is being contacted,” he adds.

The government issued a pre-emptive strike just before the report emerged, insisting it was introducing changes to the law that would require more offenders to register faster and sooner and give police more tools to track them.

“There are improvements that we are making,” vows Rick Bartolucci, Ministry of Community Safety.

But McCarter is sure that won’t help because there’s no current way to measure the program’s effectiveness. There are about 7,400 names on the list and taxpayers spend $4 million a year trying to keep it updated. But some $9 million earmarked for the policy went to other policing needs, which the opposition charges couldn’t have happened without the government’s approval.

“It’s very alarming…that we’ve apparently had hundreds of sex offenders wandering through our neighbourhoods,” remarks Tory MPP Bob Runciman.

Another troubling find is on the roads. McCarter discovered that young drivers who take a government approved course have a 62 per cent greater chance of getting into an accident than those who don’t. And many unscrupulous driving schools are selling certificates saying students have completed the course when they really haven’t.

Also on the list of oversights: a lack of Health Ministry monitoring of pharmacists to catch overcharging. (In one case, a druggist charged the province $2,400 for drugs that cost less than $20.) McCarter finds that at the current review rate, it could take 30 years to inspect all the pharmacists in the province.

The Liberals make noises about wait times, but have no idea have many operating rooms are actually in Ontario; large cities like Toronto still aren’t adequately prepared for another SARS emergency; the Finance Ministry did a poor job of tracking unpaid sales taxes; and GO Transit is inadequately prepared to meet the needs of the expanding population of the GTA, leading to endless delays and rider complaints.

Read the entire report here.

Auditor Report Highlights

*Novice drivers who took a provincially approved course crash more often than drivers who haven’t taken the course; province has not investigated or examined its accredited driving schools.

*Ministry of Natural Resources lacks the cash to properly track the province’s fish and wildlife or keep a close watch on endangered species.

*The Centre for Forensic Sciences must speed up its scientific analysis to meet police needs and improve public safety.

*The Ministry of Health does not closely monitor pharmacists to identify potential overpayments; inspecting all would take 30 years at the current rate of inspection.

*Nearly five years after SARS, Ontario still not adequately prepared for large-scale outbreak like an influenza pandemic.

*Ontario owed $967 million in retail sales taxes, up from $587 million in 1999.

*Hundreds of sex offenders are not on a provincial sex-offender registry; no proof the registry works.

*GO Transit needs a better capital plan to accommodate anticipated future increase in commuters.

*Despite government focus on surgical wait times, Ontario has no idea how many operating rooms the province has or adequate information about how many patients are waiting for specific surgeries.

*Ministry of the Environment is not properly monitoring or inspecting the dumping of hazardous waste.