School board employees are taking more sick days, hydro ratepayers are getting zapped and the government’s books may not really be balanced, according to auditor general Bonnie Lysyk.

In her annual report to the legislature — the last one before the June 7 provincial election — Lysyk expressed alarm at the rising absenteeism among education workers. An end to the practice of banking sick days to be cashed out at retirement appears to be prompting teachers to take more leave.

“I would think, as a taxpayer, that in order to book a sick leave I need to be sick, right?” she told reporters at Queen’s Park on Wednesday.

“With the increase that we’re seeing, we’re just saying: ‘School boards, you need to monitor this to make sure that a sick leave program is in place, that is followed, that would withstand our scrutiny.’ ”

The auditor found the average number of sick days taken by employees at four Ontario boards of education randomly audited — the Toronto Catholic, Hamilton-Wentworth, Halton Catholic, and Hastings and Prince Edward — jumped to 13 in 2015-16 from 8.4 in 2011-12. That includes teachers and support staff, such as custodians and administrative employees.

At the four boards audited, nearly 25 per cent of special-needs students wait longer than a year to get psychological assessments and some had been on the waiting list for more than two years. In the Toronto Catholic board, half of the $46.5 million earmarked for at-risk students was used to cover shortfalls on teachers’ salaries and special education.

Lysyk slammed boards for being “ineffective” in dealing with the rise in absences, citing concerns that sick leave plans are too generous.

Under changes from provincial bargaining in 2012, workers are allowed up to 131 days off with pay from a 194-day school year with the first 11 days off at full salary and 120 days at 90 per cent.

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Highlights from the Ontario auditor general’s 2017 annual report

However, Education Minister Mitzie Hunter said there have been “certain savings to the system” as a result of that change in 2012.

“Well-being is a priority for students as well as for staff. We want the whole school environment to be that place of well-being,” said Hunter.

“School boards have the responsibility to oversee attendance management . . . At the same time, I want to make sure that we recognize the value and the role that teachers are playing in this province.”

The Ontario Public School Boards Association fired back at Lysyk, saying boards face growing financial pressures.

“Contrary to the auditor general’s findings, school boards need more flexibility, not less,” said president Laurie French.

Lysyk also took aim at Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals for lax oversight of electricity companies, which has cost consumers $300 million in higher bills.

That includes power plants billing for coveralls and parkas along with “staff car washes, carpet cleaning, road repairs, landscaping and raccoon traps, which have nothing to do with running power equipment on standby.”

Read more: Highlights from the Ontario auditor general’s 2017 annual report

Among those cited was the Goreway gas plant in Brampton that was recently fined $10 million for billing ineligible expenses.

The auditor castigated the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator for paying owners of natural gas-fired power plants about $30 million more than necessary for being on standby to produce electricity.

She also found nine power-generation companies, using natural gas and coal, billed the province as much as $260 million between 2006 and 2015 in “ineligible costs,” of which only $168 million has been recovered.

One company charged $175,000 for parkas and coveralls during that time.

Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault said “abuses within the system are completely unacceptable.

“That’s why they have been investigated, and where wrongdoing was present, costs have been recovered and returned to ratepayers,” he said.

Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton) said Lysyk exposed “a disgusting display of Liberal entitlement and waste.”

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NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said “there needs to be a crackdown” on private electricity suppliers fleecing the system.

Lysyk highlighted a litany of other problems, including Ontario paying more than other jurisdictions for generic prescription drugs while failing to cover the full cost of some cancer medications.

She noted there is a critical need for social housing with 185,000 households — this represents 481,000 people — on the waiting list while 170,805 households are now served.

Over two volumes and 1,119 pages, Lysyk outlines her concerns about spending on 812 vacant government buildings, 600 of them unoccupied for an average of eight years, which costs $19 million a year for operations and maintenance.

While many are up for sale, including the old Ontario Provincial Police detachments and jails, she urged the government to expedite the sell-off.

Even though a government-appointed expert panel of accountants concluded she is wrong about excluding the publicly owned assets of two joint-sponsored pension plans on the government’s bottom line, Lysyk continues to claim she is in the right on the actuarial tiff.

“This is, by far, the most serious value-for-money issue this year,” she said, disputing that government has “a pension asset worth $11.5 billion” and criticizing how the Liberals’ delivered a 25-per-cent rebate on hydro bills.

“We continue to disagree with the government’s proposed accounting for its 2017 electricity rate reduction that will keep billions of dollars in real costs of its policy decision from impacting the province’s deficit and net debt figures,” said Lysyk, who estimated there is a $4.5-billion hole in the budget.

“The government uses these incorrect accounting treatments to claim it has balanced the province’s books, but, in reality, legislators, the financial community and all Ontarians, will be misled as to the true condition of the province’s finances.”

Notwithstanding her assertions, the Conservatives, who lead in public opinion polls, are using the Liberal government’s numbers for their fiscal forecasts should Tory Leader Patrick Brown topple Wynne next spring. That suggests the accounting kerfuffle will likely continue past the election.

Another recurring complaint from the auditor is the fact the Liberals amended the Government Advertising Act in 2015 limiting her office’s authority to veto commercials they deemed to be “partisan.”

She noted last year government advertising reached its highest level in a decade — at $58 million — with 30 per cent spent on ads that “appeared intended” to make Wynne’s administration look good. But overall ad spending is far lower than it was in 2006-07.

That included a $330,000-radio ad blitz to promote Finance Minister Charles Sousa’s spring budget. The campaign referred to Owen Sound, Parry Sound, Petawawa, and Wawa, all of which are in ridings not represented by Liberal MPPs. No other communities were mentioned in the province-wide radio spots. But the names appear to have been chosen for rhyming reasons, not political considerations.

“As they came barely a year before the provincial election scheduled for June 2018, these ads could give the impression that these communities were specifically targeted for government-friendly advertising,” the report said.

Treasury Board President Liz Sandals said she “respectfully disagreed” with that, pointing out the ads were designed to tell Ontarians about new policies.

This year’s report also found homeowners are becoming increasingly frustrated in efforts to challenge their property-tax assessments.

A backlog in appeals had 16,600 households waiting for decisions as of last March, with more than 1,800 appeals outstanding for more than four years.

The Ontario Municipal Board, which adjudicates disputes about land-use issues by homeowners, developers and municipalities, takes heat from Lysyk for taking up to a year to issue decisions on about one-fifth of cases. However, 80 per cent of decisions are issued within 60 days.

New legislation will pass within days to transform the OMB into the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal to make it more transparent and accessible.

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